Thru Other Eyes

Siem Reap, Angkor Wat and one great tuk tuk driver

Dear Thru Other Eyes Reader:

I want to introduce you to Mr. Pit Savuth. Savuth was my tuk tuk (motorbike pulled carriage) driver for six days when I visited Angkor Wat, Cambodia, in October of 2007.

He recently asked if I could help him get a web presence going to see if he could generate more business and I was more than happy to help. Not only because he was a great driver - honest, friendly, knowledgeable and open - but particularly because during that week Savuth and his family became friends.

We have put together a few things

Will Cambodia be the next Nigeria or Malaysia?

(Reprinted from Angkor News Blog - part of my new website helping to promote a friend's business in Cambodia.)

Will Cambodia's approaching oil and natural gas boom end up being a blessing or a curse for the Cambodian people? That is the subject of a recent article in Australia's The Age. Initial exploration, primarily by Chevron so far, has shown that there are substantial off-shore deposits of oil and natural gas.

Although the exact size of the deposits are still not known, previous World Bank estimates placed them at 2 billion barrels of oil. If that were true, the United Nations Development Program had said it could see a doubling of Cambodia's GDP.

That's a major amount of money and a major amount of temptation. That money could be used to create a significant transformation in the lives of the Cambodian people allowing for massive investment in infrastructure, health care and education. On the other hand, it could also lead to a new silver lining for the pockets of corrupt government and business officials.

A very good example of the former phenomenon is Malaysia who used it's oil and gas discoveries to transform the country over a 20 year period from a third world agricultural economy into a modern developing nation with massive investments in industry, education, infrastructure and health care systems.

Voluntourism

(Reprinted from Angkor News Blog - part of my new website helping to promote a friend's business in Cambodia.)

I have been to poor countries as have many of my friends but I have never seen or heard of one from my friends' experiences that evokes as much desire to give something back as Cambodia (see my previous article - "Give and You Shall Receive"). I think it has something to do with the unbelievably friendly and indomitable spirit of the Cambodian people especially in light of the unimaginable horrors of the Pol Pot period.

In a recent article I came across, a couple from Philadelphia,

Give and You Shall Receive

When I first decided to visit Cambodia it was to fulfill a long-standing wish to experience the Khmer ruins of Angkor Wat. I imagined the wonder and bewonderment of seeing such ancient and exotic temples. I imagined the magic of the jungle setting, especially of those temples that are still half overgrown by majestic trees. I imagined a near-spiritual experience and not just a run-of-the-mill week of travel to a new destination. What I didn’t know is I hadn’t imagined the half of it.

As I was searching the internet for accommodations I came across the Shinta Mani hotel. Although I would end up not staying there, this hotel was going to give my visit to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat quite an unexpected focus. The hotel appeared to be a very nice boutique hotel with spa but as I continued to read I discovered that Shinta Mani was quite a bit more than that.

Shinta Mani is Sanscript for