Outside every temple and every sight of note and on any street that a tourist or backpacker travels in Cambodia, you’ll be bombarded by touts and hagglers and salespersons of all ages. The beggars are always out in great numbers as well. Sometimes it is a pain. Other times, it’s heartbreaking. Sometimes, it’s fun. You’ll get a guy or gal who puts a new twist on things.
Then you have Spider Girl. She was absolutely adorable. I wanted to adopt her and send her home to live with my mother or sister. She was sweet and not overly pushy and cute as a button. She smiled shyly at you and almost pleaded for you to buy “some cold drink” from her. After all, you are “very hot, Mister.” Spider Girl stations herself right outside Angkor Wat from sun up to sun down selling water, Coke, Sprite or a cold beer. Anything to quench your thirst after a few hours spent wandering among the ruins of Angkor in the 90 to 100 degree heat and sun of an average Siem Reap morning or afternoon.
I rode up to Angkor Wat in my Tuk Tuk with my driver and my camera at the ready. Jumped out of my ride and swiftly headed for the great Temple built by the Jayavarman VII–the buddhist Prince who transformed Cambodia into a single empire by defeating the Chams and uniting the Khmer under the Ankgorean banner. But before I could get across the street Spider Girl was on me. “Mister! Mister! Buy cold drink from me! Buy cold drink from me!” My answer is always maybe. Maybe. Often when coming upon the temples of Ankgor, you are surrounded by 10 or more young kids trying to sell you everything and anything. Post Cards. Water. Beer. Bracelets. Guidebooks. Cokes. Fans. Statues of Buddha of all shapes and sizes. Paintings of Angkor and Apsara. They tout and sell everything.
The salesmanship and savvy of some of these kids amazes me each time I visit. They’ll ask you what country or state you are from and name the capitals and any manner of interesting trivia about your home. They’ll tell you how “handsome ” or “pretty” you are. They talk to you about anything that might keep you around long enough to make a sale. The really small ones will hold your hand and look into your eyes and make you fall instantly in love with them. They speak pieces of several languages. I watched one little gal who could not have been more than 8 or 9 years of age talk to tourists from Sweden, Japan, Germany and America and communicate with them in their own languages. Not fluent to be sure. But enough to communicate and make a sell. Unbelievable. There exists a devilish combination in some of them. Adorable. Angelic looking. Intelligent. Savvy. Street smart. And manipulative as Bill Clinton on his way to the Whitehouse. lol
You have to look on these scenes and grudgingly admire the survival instincts and entrepreneurship of these children of Cambodia. You can’t help but fall in love with them.
Near the end of the video, one of the boys in the crowd asks me about my Buddha tattoo. The whole time that I was in Asia, people were fascinated by that tattoo. Complete strangers would reach out and touch my shoulder. People would wai (a short bow of respect) to it. Endless questions as to where I had it done. Why I had it done. Unlike Muslims, no Buddhist was offended by my tattoo. They were genuinely thrilled and fascinated by it. It was quite strange the first time a hand reached out from a crowd. Not to hurt or steal or even sell me something. Merely to touch the Buddha on my shoulder. Whenever I would rest, children would come up to me and rub my shoulder and stare at it. My tattoo is modeled after a painting (below) that I purchased in Vietnam. That painting in turn is very similar to the Buddha/Jayavarman VII hybrid that is ubiquitous in Cambodia. So the Khmer people of Cambodia have a special affinity for that image and especially admired the tattoo. As for me, it enriched my Asian experience and made my visit all the more enjoyable.
