On one of our last days in Cambodia, I mentioned to my son that it would be hard for me to get used to “life after mangosâ€. The comment came as I was scarfing down fresh fruit (including mangos) and fresh-squeezed mango juice for breakfast. We agreed it would make a great book title – for now it’ll just have to be the title of a post…
Vacationing in southern Cambodia puts you up close and personal with poverty and tragedy. The country has been racked by civil war, genocide, and bombing for my entire adult life. (And that’s a LOT!) The countryside is still riddled with land mines put down by many countries throughout that period. Every day, men, women and children in the countryside risk (and often lose) a game of hoping they aren’t maimed by a hidden mine.
Their government is far better than it’s been in the past, but is still a totalitarian regime. They have elections, but all the people know it’s just a sham. The best people can hope for is enough freedom and mercy from the government to allow them to live a life and make a living.
One of the wonderful things about travel to places like this is the reminder of just how easy and wonderful my life is in America. Sure we have a Congress that’s bought and paid for by big corporate donors, and our economy is on the brink of bankruptcy. But compared to much of the rest of the world – places like Cambodia – the least of us live a life of unfathomable luxury. Being there reminds me of that on a daily basis.
But there are some amazing bright lights in the darkness of a place like Cambodia.
Like mangos for breakfast every day. And lunch. And dinner. We had some mediocre fare, but we also had some amazing good food. More fascinating to me is the ingenuity of the human mind and spirit. Their life and economy runs on stuff that we’d throw away in our economy. Representing this wonderful spirit most clearly is the amazing motorbike.
In our country, a small motorcycle is seen as a plaything for young children. An adult male in American requires a Harley, with a big look and a big sound. A vespa is seen in some circles as a symbol of whimpism.
Not in Cambodia. A Vespa type motorbike is a family vehicle – literally. Look at any street at any time, and every 5th or 6th bike has a family of 4 riding on it. Really. Mom, Dad, and 2 kids on a Vespa. Here in America, a refrigerator requires a big pickup truck, but in Cambodia, it goes on the back of a motorbike. Really – I saw small refrigerators on the back of bikes more than once. And pigs on their way to market. The list goes on and on.
But the really cool thing is the use of the motorcycle as the tractor part of a tractor trailer rig. These aren’t Vespa-type bikes, but they’re still small by American standards. 125cc or 250cc bikes have their seats removed, and a makeshift 5th wheel arrangement welded onto the frame.
In most cases, some form of a seat pad sits in front of this 5th wheel. Attached to the 5th wheel can be any form of trailer, but there was a common trailer configuration that seemed to be used often. Just looking at the rigs, I’d guess the trailers weigh in at something around 500# – 1000#, and I saw some loads on those trailers that I’d guess to be well over 5000# gross. All pulled by a little motorbike.
Brakes you ask? I saw no electric connections that would indicate any braking arrangements on these trailers. But then, in Cambodia, you live life lots closer to the edge…
In many ways, the ingenuity of these people, and their ability to make pretty darned good lemonade out of lemons blew my mind. While I felt grateful for all I have in America, I also sometimes felt shamed that we might have lost some of that spirit of innovation. I wonder how we can recapture some of that? Not that we’ve lost it all – just seeing it so strong and prominent in a place driven by such need seemed to highlight some complacence in my culture.
As for the lemonade, it was pretty darned good – as was the mango juice! Maybe mango juice is one of the keys to creativity and ingenuity?
