Everything is changing in Cambodia. The Buddhists say everything is changing all the time, that's just reality. But compared to home, say, Cambodia is in a definitively transitional state. To travel here now is to witness 'development' first hand. This is a fairly recent phenomenon. Ten or fifteen years ago, travellers would have found something more like a lost kingdom. At the end of the civil war era in the early 90s, a tenuous new government was formed from a fractious mix of ex-military and friends of the UN. Following years of hardship, for most of the population subsistence remained the rule no matter who was in charge. Visitors were few in the 90's, those who travelled here were called intrepid. Cities saw handfuls of westerners and a beach paradise could be had for a couple dollars a day. People talk about being young travellers then, eyes misty with nostalgia, and I have felt on occasion as if we missed the proverbial boat and, from the traveller's perspective, came too late to see this place. Development is of course necessary to improve people's lives, but droves of tourists tend to detract from the romantic ideal. But as the Buddhists say, probably, now is always the best time. Construction is booming, investment from Cambodia and abroad proclaimed from signs and hoardings on almost every street; hammers and saws sounding almost optimistic. At our guest house in Phnom Penh, the neighbouring building was reduced from ruin to empty lot, and then filled with the foundation of another hotel (?) within the three weeks of our stay, a microcosm of the trend around town. Many new businesses, catering to tourists of course, are charities or NGOs, selling crafts or good eats to help improve lives where the government can't or won't - for the deaf, for street youths, or for the victims of landmines or sex slavery. There's almost a surfeit of compassionate business enterprise, an ironic legacy of the hateful Khmer Rouge regime. Unfortunately, corruption remains a national institution. Though hidden from most travellers' experience, encountered only in extraordinary circumstances, like filing a police report for a stolen passport, say, Cambodians navigating the bureaucracy must pay their way to get things done. But newspapers report the slow crackdown on the worst offenders, little by little, year by year. But as investments are made, income is limited to those in a position to take advantage. Poverty is still widely evident: in the city streets where children hawk bracelets for a dollar and well-to-do tourists ask if they attend school; and in the country where traditional houses remind us of neighbouring Thailand, but meaner, and the fields are drier, trees long ago cut down in illegal logging, or simply for cooking fires. For many, so much depends on the timing of the monsoon, or the ebb and flow of tourist season; lives lived in anxious anticipation. Bag snatching is on the rise, apparently; the increase in tourism proves too tempting for people who struggle to find legitimate jobs that pay the USD$110 per month minimum wage. (Ah, but for a day, a minute, a few seconds sooner or later and we may have avoided that.. unpleasantness.) Transportation is improving, one area we the oft-travelled very much appreciate. Roads are still mostly terrible. Excepting the highway from Angkor Wat to Bangkok, there's little money, resources or labour to build roads which, damaged by war, were then fully neglected for more than a generation. But recently Giant Ibis Co. started running comfortable full-size coaches to all major destinations, gliding over long gravel patches on the national highway, with aircon, wifi (sometimes) and complimentary chocolate croissants! And they donate to a charity that protects the eponymous national bird, endangered from rampant deforestation, so that's nice. As the small luxuries of the present became apparent, we wondered what the future holds. In a few years, the restoration of the railway will be complete, restoring freight service from the deep-water port in Sihanoukville to the other cities, to be followed, eventually, by passenger service for the first time in half a century, and then a link with Thai and Viet rail lines, and the larger Asian network the Chinese are building. Worth a return visit in a decade or so. The textile industry is growing, and having come late to a game played across Asia, the government is trying to position Cambodia as a 'responsible' manufacturing centre, with decent wages and ecologically responsible practices. A hopeful gamble in a notoriously exploitive industry. At present about half of the population is under 24 yrs. Young people flock to the cities like anywhere, if they're able, because they want better lives. The youth bubble is already disrupting what remains of traditional life, and putting pressure on the nascent democracy to keep up with their impatience and ambition. Internet usage has spiked with the proliferation of mobile phones, leapfrogging the telecom deficit straight to Khmer Facebook. The rate of change is accelerating. We've met a few ex-pats who've chosen to set up shop here, drawn by the tragic beauty of the place, and the potential. If you can shift to a slower tempo, and see a farther horizon, it's a great time to be in Cambodia. After the 'incident', we naturally questioned our motives for being here now, and eventually decided they were sound. So what if we put our 'careers' on hold for the winter? From the sounds of it, we picked a good winter to skip. Does it really matter that we'll return with a few dollars in our account and worn-out sandals? Jobs are waiting for us, money is for spending. When asked why we travel, we say because we can, because we wanted to go to the other side of the world and see what it was all about, because there are a million amazing places to see and now is a great time to go and see them.
