My heart is really sad. It was only three days, but I didn't want to leave Cambodia. As I'm sitting in the airport writing this, I wish I could do more. I'm excited for the rest of my itinerary, but everything that I've learned, people that I've met, and experiences I've had has become precious memories already. I will cherish them until I return. Three days was definitely not enough as there was also other things I wanted to do, but didn't get to.

Initially I thought Cambodia would bring forth certain saftey issues, but I felt so much more relaxed than in Kuala Lumpur. As I became more enriched and educated in the history and culture of the Khmers, I became aware that they may even be more afraid of foreigners then the other way around. I felt like these past three days has been a history class as I've heard of the Khmer Rouge, but never knew the details of this massive massacre, neither did I really know how corrupted the government is here or how poor this country is. Maybe these are the reasons that leaves Siem Reap lingering in my heart,; I've become emotionally attached with a desire to want to do more. I can also see why Cambodia has so many startup NGOS and organizations that give back to the community. What they've had way back in the glory days has now all been lost. The country is so young-literally (60% of the population are under 25) and all the intelligent Khmers have been killed off from the Khmer Rouge. Even the most popular tourist income, Angkor Wat and temples are operated by the Vietnam government.


I had the opportunity to talk to an entrepreneur investing in Cambodia and through observation, I would say 1/4 of the businesses in the tourist area are probably owned by foreigners, thus the money goes back to them rather than to the locals. Of course with foreign businesses they do hire local Khmer and it helps, but most of the profits are obviously pocketed by whoever started the business. It also seems easy to startup a business as the Cambodian government will allow anything that will bring income to the area, though also very unfortunate as the government has made many wrong decisions in letting countries come and just take hold of what they initially own for years to come. The future is definitely in this young generation of Khmers and I pray and hope they can be educated, because in the words of Ron Carter from New Hope,

"Education is the only way to bring upon change."

God Bless Cambodia.