"Please, lady, buy this for only one dollar..."

In Phnom Penh there are a lot of children selling (copied, not original) books or drinks to tourists in the street. Tourists should, however, not buy anything to prevent the misuse of children on the longterm as they do not profit from their sells. An advice which is hard to follow. Some, like this boy, like to train their English and they often speak better than other children. Besides they are very interested in learning about the different countries. Hopefully this will help them in the future.

In Siem Reap, which is more touristic, it is almost impossible to enter the little shops on the markets as everybody tries so hard to sell you postcards, clothes or pineapples (usually they all sell the same).

This girl tries to sell drinks to boat passengers. She was brought by a little boat, but had to swim back, without having sold anything.






Some people seem to cry almost, having difficulties to walk but start insulting those who do not give anything the next moment, walking away normally. Some kids point at your bag or follow you for several minutes repeating "dollar, dollar". We preferred to give food or drinks in some cases, luckily many people do this instead of giving money.

Anyway: hard, hard, hard.

How poor Cambodians really are?

According to the GDP records, Cambodia ranks in the lowest positions of annual income per capita (133rd) . At the first sight, that seems to be the case. Very poor houses, barefoot children running on the streets, no infrastructures etc...

But how much does this affect the life of the people and how difficult is it to live with $1-$2 per day?

It seems that the GDP is not analogical to the quality of life of the people. Living in the rural Cambodia, you realize that people look happy and enjoy their lives peacefully despite their poorness.

But how poor Cambodians really are? The GDP takes into consideration only the official income of the people and not all the informal activities of the people. Rural Cambodians, aside to their jobs grow multiple, small crops of mangos, bananas and other fruits, of which the overplus is for sale out of the door of their houses. Furthermore, most of the houses feed some chickens. If you consider that the price of the chicken in Phnom Pehn is 20.000Riehls per kilo ($5 dollars/Kg), then this means that the people have some dollars running and clucking on the street. Moreover, the strong bonds between the members of a Cambodian family, play also a significant role. More affluent family members take care of the less affluent, and provide them systematically with food and all the necessities. The same seems to happen, to some extent, also in the society. Neighbors and friends exchange or gift food to the poor ones.



Concluding, in a few words we could say that although GDP can be an indication of the wealth of a country, it is not that accurate and should not somebody heavily rely on it...In the end quality of life can not be quantified into some indexes...