Take a look at my panorama from Tromso, Norway for a juxtaposition between cityscape and landscape.
Skyline
In Ruins
Angkor Wat
The Many Faces of Bayon
The many faces of Bayon is one of the most popular temples in Angkor and you can really see why. It beautiful and complex. The stone face of a nameless person tower over the temple from every angle. Where ever you look there are hundreds of them.
Rootless
The Ta Prohm temple area is covered in trees but interestingly these trees grow from above. Seeds land in the upper branches of a tree and then grow down to the ground. As they grow they wrap themselves around the host trees trunk, slowly engulfing and encasing the trunk until the host tree dies. Sometimes the tree finds it difficult to find its way to the ground and creates something hauntingly beautiful, like over this doorway.
Shadows
Angkor
I think I have covered enough of the darker sides to visiting Cambodia. It is an amazing country and shouldn’t be missed when travelling through south-east Asia. One of the biggest motivators for people to travel to the country is also worth a mention. In this case pictures speak louder than words has never been more true.
Outside of Siem Reap is the temple complex of Angkor, a UNESCO heritage site with beauty that exceeds your imagination. Each temple different to the last, the momentous task of construction and the smallest details that you would think were beyond the abilities of any human being. From Ta Prohm where the trees have taken over, to the smiling faces of Bayon, to the iconic towers of Angkor Wat, each temple a symbol to those who constructed them those many years ago.
Related reading:
Orphanage Tourism
The term orphanage tourism seems unbelievable when you first hear it. To benefit from the unfortunate is against most peoples human nature but when there is money to be made others are willing to prey on the unsuspecting. Some of us are more fortunate than others and like to give their time and sometimes money to help those who could benefit from it.
Orphanage tourism is becoming a large concern in less developed countries, especially in Cambodia. Due to the increase in tourism in the area the amount of orphanages has increased 75% in the last five years. It is believed that 77% of children aren’t even orphans. Parents will put their children into care with the hope they will receive a better education, some children are bought or even rented by the institution.
This is exceptionally bad for the children, the people offering to help have no background checks and make an attachment with the children before leaving. This can leave the children with life long attachment issues and affect their development. Children are kept in conditions worse than the minimum standards set by the government in order to receive larger donations from visitors. These donations often don’t see their way to the children.
Tour operators have even jumped on the band wagon and began operating tours that include volunteering in orphanages. Google will find over 500,000 sites for volunteering in orphanages and there are 30 tour operators sending volunteers to orphanages abroad in the UK alone. We have to realise as travellers that what we see isn’t always presented truthfully and giving money to those who look like they need it can sometimes do more harm than good.
Read more about the Darker Side of Tourism.
The Darker Side of Tourism
It has only been in recent years that dark tourism has been collectively referred to. It can vary from travel to places that have association with death, disaster and destruction. Since the increase in tourism so has the demand for dark tourism grown in both scale and scope. Most noticeable in one of the world’s largest segments, war tourism. Numerous tours can be found to battlefield sites and attractions throughout the world, also available are detailed guidebooks offering information on the subject.
Dark tourism can range from a visit to graveyards, holocaust tourism, atrocity tourism, prison tourism or slavery tourism. The diversity in these areas are huge, take death related tourism as an example, they can be fictional destination such as the ‘Dracula Experience’ or sites of famous deaths like Elvis Presley, to major disasters which Ground Zero is a prime example.
One of the segments I would like to looked at more closely and have shown an example of in previous posts is ‘Genocide Tourism’. It is an unlikely pairing of words but when we look at case examples such as Auschwitz, that in 1990’s had over half a million visit a year. The research into ‘genocide tourism’ is fairly new and has only recently been differentiated from a heritage context. This lack of research and information is surprising considering how tourism has grown in areas such as Auschwitz.
It is also relevant to consider if the victims of these atrocities are being exploited for financial gain. The addition of personnel procession to an exhibit or museum can increase the authenticity and poignancy of the visitor’s experience. Even the use and display of human remains of genocide victims raises a number of ethical questions.
Cambodia has become a popular destination when considering dark tourism and especially genocide tourism. It is a relatively new destination in this segment of tourism since the atrocities only happened in the mid-1970s. Since then Cambodia has become a popular place to visit in Asia and can be seen in the large amount of visitors. In 2000, 466,000 visited Cambodia and that number quadrupled to over two million by 2007.
Many people are visiting Cambodia to visit the temple complex at Angkor. With this and the increase in packages around Asia that include Cambodia it has become a very popular destination in recent years. Now the site of The killing Fields has been transferred to a Cambodian-Japanese company on a 30 year lease, this suggests that the area will be increasingly exploited for tourist dollars.
We have to ask ourselves if ‘genocide tourism’ is an acceptable term to describe this form of visit? It is more likely that people chose to visit these destinations for education rather than the horror of the events commemorated. Tourism could cause problems in areas that are there for grieving and sensitivity is required in the management of these areas out of respect for the victims and their relatives.
Continue reading with Orphanage Tourism
S21
Take a look at another Bloggers experience at S21 and The Killing Fields.
Our Shadows Will Remain 