Cambodia: Poor, But Has a Beautiful "High Honor" Culture

The people and their culture here continues to affect me deeply. I find myself nearly overwhelmed with love and goodwill here

In my post All Rule and Government Are Evil to the Core when 'Natural Law' is Abandoned or Subverted, I talk about “High Honor” cultures such as Japan as an amazing example of peace and harmony:

I said in that post:

"Honor" or (“high integrity”) is an entire basis of culture/civilization.  If your behavior and thoughts are based on an honor code: respect, honesty, giving others their due, doing what's right---then that is the basis of society.  We have our 10 commandments, the Japanese have their honor/respect "code" and both countries have deep 1000+ year histories—ours dates back to the Magna Carta, Anglo and Northern European culture and their accumulated intelligence. All this came to America.

When you have a homogenous, intelligent population and culture, like in early America or in Japan (and Cambodia!), that is steeped in a deep and successful history, then you really need very few laws and regulations. That's because people behave according to their internalized “code” or “Natural Law” and self-regulate. That was true for much of America’s early history.

The laws of nature, natural laws, do not need to be written down, or commanded by the State, as simply understanding that one cannot do any harm to another, or infringe on another's life, property, and freedom, is a sufficient understanding of right and wrong.

Now, I’m finding out that Cambodia’s culture has a high honor culture (like Japan), but is found in a very poor country that has suffered a murderous genocide by Pol Pot ending in the late 1970s. I think it’s still recovering. Even now, Cambodia only has 17 million persons where Thailand has 60 or 70 million people. Some say about 8 million Cambodians were executed for nothing by the Khmer Rouge. Today, it’s actually one of the poorest countries that I’ve ever visited. I took a long ride in the countryside and could see that the soil is very poor and nearly all sand. Not much grows in sand.

And I feel the desperation of locals here in Siem Reap who are struggling to make ends meet during the “low season” or summer months.

But, despite all of that, the beauty of their culture shines though brightly and has already affected me deeply. So much for the idea that being poor means high criminality. It’s not necessarily true.

High Honor Countries Will Never Be a Police State like the USSA

Thius place is a very safe Buddhist country. There is hardly any local government and I haven't seen a police officer here either—maybe a security guard? 

One of the things about high honor cultures is that there is no need for a zillion and rigid laws and regulations. It’s the beauty of “Natural Law” that I discussed in detail at All Rule and Government Are Evil to the Core when 'Natural Law' is Abandoned or Subverted.

"Natural Law" rules here due to this region's deep culture and history. Hell, they don't even have very many traffic lights here as traffic just "self regulates." There are some on the bigger streets obviously. I've seen 12 or 14 year olds on motor bikes and I don't see a problem with that given the modest traffic.  It's a beautiful thing even though this is a poor country.  It's what I getting at that recent post on natural law. In the local streets, most locals just ignore stop signs and just slow down as necessary. They don’t need for anyone to “keep them safe.” THEY are responsible.

I was walking down the street and it had rained just enough to wet the pavement. I heard something and noticed that someone had just had a motorcycle accident and was still laying in the street. It didn’t look good. It turns out it was a teenage girl and she was banged up and she had a scrape and some blood on her face even though she had a helmut. She was pretty shocked, banged up and was still under the motorbike.

What I noticed was, that the scene was immediately taken over by vigilant Cambodian MEN. They appeared out of nowhere, checked to see the extent of her injuries and then MEN helped her up and recovered her motorbike. The girl was immediately was aided and protected by Cambodian MEN.

Imagine that, men being men! It’s men that are naturally protectors and providers and they know who they are and what they are. There are no bullshit gender confusion here. Everyone is super nice, but when a need arises, they leap into action! More beauty!

Cambodia’s High Honor Culture is Deeply Affecting Me and Others

Here in Cambodia,  my heart is touched daily by beautiful, kind people.

For example, I was wandering around after having a great ham, egg and cheese bagel sandwich here in Siem Reap (and an outstanding slice of carrot cake!!) at the “NY Bagel Shop.” I had the absolute best conversation with this black American guy, named Gary Barker; my age (same birth year and same birth month —Aug 1957!),  I think he’s ex-military and he’s fallen in love and married a beautiful Cambodian woman. It's all happened for him in a matter of months of coming here. We shared our Whatsapp contact information.

Later, after visiting the nearby Buddhist temple and monastery (see the pics here), I walked back to the Bagel shop and decided to take a Tuk Tuk back to my apartment. So, the young-ish Tuk Tuk driver came over and touched my arm, and lightly guided me across the side-street to his vehicle in such a respectful way. He was taking care of me! I felt it. As he mounted his motorbike, I forget what I said to him, but he said "I always say a prayer for my riders before I start the trip." 

I was kind of speechless to be honest as this dude could not have been more caring and considerate. Maybe he considered me quite elderly? Even driving me to my apartment,  he was very careful about his driving (even though on Saturday,  there’s light traffic). I think that's his style: CARE-ful.  IT’S ALSO HIS CULTURE.

It was only a 5 to 10 minute drive at slow speed. I got out and I paid him the $1 dollar fare, but I gave him an extra small amount of money specifically for his prayer for my well-being. He was grateful for even my small gesture and we were both smiling at each other. I didn’t need to speak Cambodian at that moment. Lol. I’m often “glowing” here at what I see and feel.

In my post Pictures From Siem Reap Cambodia, I show some pictures that I took at Kulen Mountain national park. I had arranged a tuk tuk trip there and back with Phan. The road there was really rough in spots (and my back has been sore since then).

Speaking of integrity, everything that my driver, Phan, told me was true. He suggested that he buy my $20 ticket to the park. I asked, “do you get a commission?” and he said “yes, $1.” It was entirely true. Now for the embarassing and shocking part: he had told me the night before that the cost of the day trip was “50” for his transport service. I thought that he meant 50,000 riels, not $50 USD (which IS common parlance). He meant $50 USD all along. He was shocked when I handed him 4 times LESS than he needed!

He showed me the cost of the round trip on the Grab app and it was what he said or about $50 USD (roundtrip). I realized that I needed to pay him the $50 USD and I gave him a $12.50 tip. This guy was HONEST about everything. He was counting on this fare to keep his family fed and to pay the loan on his Tuk Tuk. He was entirely honest and upfront. So far, I’ve only met honest people! No trickery.

Like I said, it’s a high honor or high integrity culture.

Time after time, I find my heart full of love for the people here. It's changing my life so much.  My beautiful interaction with the (very happy) American guy Gary, and some very nice Whatsapp msgs, followed by the extreme kindness and respectful Cambodia tuk tuk driver kind of lifted me to cloud 9. But wait, there’s more!

Later, I took an hour long Tuk Tuk tour of some other areas of Siem Reap starting at about 5:30 pm from a driver named Ratha. I had bought 6 cans of beer and some ice as he had a cooler under the seat, so off we went to go to look around in the open "wagon" pulled by a motorcycle ( which is a Tuk Tuk in local terminology). I had a couple of beers and when we finished, we shared the remaining beers sitting in his parked vehicle, not far from my apartment.

At about 8:45pm, I walked a couple hundred feet to a little restaurant for a bite to eat. I had been to this modest little restaurant one other time. The same lady did some laundry for me in her adjacent little shop.

So I said a few words to this 19 yo Italian guy sitting alone at the restaurant. I exchanged a few pleasantries and he came closer and sat down for conversation. This young man was some amazing person, traveling on his own. He had been in Thailand, but was in Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat. What a great, great guy!  Holy crap!  What an amazing and pleasant interaction! He was so courageous and intelligent. I was so impressed.  It made my night. The food was great too and only $2 or $3.

Good things are happening all the time here.

My One Year Retirement Visa for Cambodia

A few days ago, I went into a travel agency to discuss arranging a 1 year retirement visa and booked an appointment for later that day.

I went back with a bunch of documents in my phone including my monthly benefit letter from the Social Security admin (generated from the SSA website and saved on my phone), a passport photo (jpeg), a picture of my passport. They needed the address of my accomodation which I had as well. We exchanged phone numbers and Whatsapp info.

To make a long story short, they submitted my details to their office in Phnom Penh while in their office, I paid the fee and they'll have my passport back to me in ~7 days with the visa. I have a receipt from the company showing my money paid. It's legit, of that I have no doubt. It’s a high honor, high integrity country!!

So, now I have the option to get an apartment and stay, or come and go as I wish. At the barest minimum, I consider Cambodia to be my “bug out” location to avoid possible calamity in The West. You know that I believe it’s coming.