the other day...

...me and my other barang friend were having a coffee after lunch by the river and suddenly a group of old Cambodians that were walking around spotted us. They were from the provinces, all dressed in their traditional clothes (photo). They had never seen a white person so near, I guess. They stared at us, laughing at our clothing and haircuts, touching our arms and faces, took pictures of us, all this with a big smile and between laughter and astonishment from both parts.

I don't think it's easy to escape from the global world nowadays, so this situation is pretty uncommon. The white men have arrived everywhere. Probably these people had seen a white person before, maybe some NGO worker in their province that visited their village for any purpose, or at least other people in the capital during that day of tourism in the city. But their faces actually transmitted everything, all feelings of novelty and surprise. This time it wasn't me who was taking the pictures, it was them who now have our faces recorded in their cameras. Changing roles and stereotypes is always interesting :)

I talk a lot with my landlady's family, they live downstairs, so I see them everyday. Well, talking a lot is maybe not the best way to describe it cause in fact they don't speak any English, and i hardly can say some Khmer words...but we manage to communicate (or i just sit with them cause they invite me, and we smile to ourselves during half an hour and share some food, while we feel the warmth beyond language barriers). The other day they were telling me that they had been to Preah Vihear, the last temple and piece of land that Thailand and Cambodia are still fighting for in the northern border (still surrounded with armed troops from both sides and canons ready to shoot). I asked and they told me they had also been to Angkor Wat temples. In fact, they are lucky, this is not very common among Khmer people. Most of them can't even go and visit the magnanimity of their own past, that hoards of tourist come to see every year. This family can afford the trip cause they own a house that they rent to expats, and we pay them a high rent for Khmer living standards, but most of Cambodia's citizens have never been there. It's a real shame out of globalization's inequality, and when they as me if i have been there, and in only three months in the country my answer is "yes, it's a marvelous treasure that transports you back to another period in time", i feel a little bit ...hmm...uncomfortable to say the least...and...guilty? this being just a personal and sincere feeling.