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As we were running short on time, we flew directly from Saigon to Siem Reap in Cambodia. Siem Reap is the town near Angkor where we were going to spend our last week in Indochina.

Angkor, Cambodia

Odv
2006-04-15 18:32:02

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As we were running short on time, we flew directly from Saigon to Siem Reap in Cambodia. Siem Reap is the town near Angkor where we were going to spend our last week in Indochina.

Although Angkor is now being overrun by tourists, there is so much to see, that it is still possible to avoid some of the crowds. The ruins are truly impressive and we were also lucky to have a very friendly tuk-tuk driver during the six days that we visited the ruins.

Spending such a long time visiting the ruins requires the purchase of a week pass which costs 60 US Dollars (at least for foreigners). This is steep by South East Asian standards, but at least, you may think, the money helps to preserve this amazing archaeological site. Dream on...

Ticketing in Angkor is done by a subsidiary of Sokimex, an oil and gas company, with close connections to the Cambodian Communist party. Our guide said it was a Vietnamese company, a fact that I cannot confirm as it seems to be a Cambodian registered company, which may or may not have Vietnamese investors. Our guide explained that the Cambodian government is still very much under the influence of Vietnam, amongst the general population there is little trust in the government and widespread suspicions of corruption.

Anyway, a concession apparently given to Sokimex by the Cambodian government in 1999 required it to pay just 1 million US Dollars per year to the Cambodian government, in exchange for being allowed to pocket all the entrance fees.

Unfortunately this means that the money we are paying to visit Angkor, is not used for the preservation and restoration of the sites. Preservation and restoration of the sites falls under the responsibility of the Apsara Authority and has mostly been done with foreign financial and technical aid.

Fortunately the ticketing deal seems to have been changed a few times since 1999, so that a greater percentage of ticket earnings now goes to the Apsara ...