Beggars, Mines and More Bloody Temples

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Temples. Temples. Temples
IT gets a little tiring looking round so many temples. During the day most are washed out by the harsh light. For those coming to see Ankor I would recommend a 3 day pass ($40) and a motorbike driver ($7/day). Go to the temples early in the morning and late in the day, and do something else during the middle. They are much more atmospheric at these times.

The Landmine Museum
In the afternoon I went to see the Landmine museum. IT was located out of town down a very unmade road, and if you didn't know it was there you would never find it. It was a strange place, no real structure to it, just a collection of ordnance, newspaper clippings and various other articles. The museum is the brainchild of Cambodian de-miner Aki Ra who uses nothing more than a sharp stick to hunt for mines - apparantly metal detectors are for sissies! Actually he believes that the sharp stick is more effective with a trained deminer - and he should know - in certain areas he has demined scores of mines in a day. What is really remarkable about this place is how Aki, who gets no support from the government*, has actually taken care of a number of child victims of landmines. He has bought them to live at the museum (which is really only a couple of sheds) where they act as guides and helpers. In a country where the disabled have very little means of self support this is a great opportunity. You can see the whole museum in 30 minutes, but I would thoroughly recommend it.

*Quite the opposite in fact. They shut him down on a number of occasions claiming the museum was unsafe as it contained live munitions. Whether this is true or not I don't know, but they did confiscate a lot of his exhibits... and then an army general opened his own war museum in town using the weapons confiscated!

Moral Dilemmas
Cambodia is poverty stricken, and it breaks you heart. Every corner you turn someone is begging you for money. A man with no arms, a mother and baby, even young boys carrying their baby sisters and an empty bottle. Some are blatant and ask for money, others are more subtle and engage you in conversation first. Most people only ask for 50 cents or $1, small money to us but enough to feed them for a day or two. With no welfare state these people often have no option, but still you have to say no a lot of the time. There are literally so many beggars that you would be broke in a day if you gave each of them just 25c. So do you give to some? Do you give to none? How do you choose? How do you evaluate who is needier? Who is really on the verge of starvation, and who is just a cynical con artist? I don't know, but I think this is a matter I will have a lot of time to ponder over. I bought a young boy some milk to give to his baby sister, and I felt better. 10 metres up the road someone else asked me for money, and I declined, and I was right back to where I had been before. Surely giving money, food etc to beggars only increases their dependance. Thats easy to say when your not looking them in the face.

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