Cambodia’s Ambient Industries

Visitors to Cambodia should be aware of the country’s ambient industries: those services that are enacted without the recipient being aware of it. If for example a man suddenly appears from behind a rock and starts running ahead of you and pointing the way down a perfectly well-signposted path, occasionally gesturing towards a non-obscured statue while smiling and saying “Statue,” you will know that you’ve just hired yourself a guide. Likewise, if a woman leaps from behind that statue, shoves two jos-sticks into your hands, and then points to a money tray, you will know that you’ve just received a traditional blessing. Outside the ancient temples of Angkor Wat your every step will be shadowed by women and children hawking cold drinks, coconuts, books, scarves, flutes, trinkets, and other strange goods. At one temple a man tried to sell us a weird instrument I didn’t recognise, until he put it between his teeth and it became one of those “twongy” things you play if you’re in an Alabama jug band. Frankly, he alarmed us, and even when we said “no thanks” and moved on, he started to follow us up the road, grinning and playing a jaunty tune; he danced alongside us all the way up to the gates, his Appalachian jingle drifting over the thousand-year-old temples, and the people coming out of the gates looked at us like we were crazy. They must have wondered what travel agency we had to go through to hire ourselves a hillbilly guide. In conclusion, my memory of the thousand-year-old temple of Banteay Srei will forever be accompanied by a down-home country jig.