Voodoo Economics

Everything costs a dollar here. The bottle of water that costs 10 baht (25 cents) in Thailand is a dollar in the Cambodia for tourists. The trinkets that street children hawk at the temples all cost a dollar, or two – for origami animals, or bamboo bracelets, or postcards to write home. The cab ride from the airport costs five dollars, a driver twenty-five – small sums by American or European standards but large sums in a country where most people make a few hundred dollars a year. Our hotel room, in a guest house not yet consumed by the new economy, costs only twenty dollars a night. Yet, down the street, in one of the dozens of new hotels that have been built in the last two years, a different trend is emerging – as rooms can now be found for over $500 dollars/night.

It is a disorienting experience being in another country – particularly one where the poverty is so great – where the preferred currency is the American dollar. In Siem Reap, the town on the outskirts of Angkor Wat, everyone wants to be paid in dollars, but will give you change in riel (which are now trading at 4000 to the dollar) if you do not ask otherwise. Because American coins are not used, the baseline starts at a dollar and goes up from there. This creates a distorted kind of inflation – with many things costing more in Cambodia than they do in its much wealthier neighbor, Thailand. I’ve grown unaccustomed to paying $5.00 for a cab ride, where even a fare to the airport won’t cost you that from my neighborhood in Bangkok. I find myself constantly comparing Thai and Cambodian prices, and feeling somehow that the fact that things are being priced in dollars has created a system with no rationale and consistency. It’s hard not to feel taken, even when the amounts are small.

It helps to get some distance and perspective, particularly with the animated entreaties from the street children. They are smart and engaging -- offering to tell you the capital of the state where you live if you promise to buy from them. They count the bracelets around their arms in English to show you that they can. They ask your name, tell you theirs, and promise to remember you when you return from visiting the temple (and they do!) Yes, the bracelets they are selling aren’t worth a dollar in Cambodia, or probably even in the US. But isn't it worth it to give a child a dollar anyway, if it will pay for school uniform and materials fees for nearly ten days? The answer to this question seems simpler, and not filled with issues of worth. I am not buying bracelets, after all.