It’s day 3 in Siem Reap, Cambodia and we decide to go to Chong khneas, a lake clustered with floating homes, a few restaurants, and just two schools. It’s where different cultures – Vietnamese, Malays and Cambodians (or so we were told) live in harmony to form an authentic and unique floating village. One of the few places we actually planned in advance to go see during our trip to Siem Reap. Well, that and Angkor Wat of course.
As we arrived on our Tuk Tuk, we were escorted to the ticket counter. Paid what seemed like an exorbitant ticket price of US $20 per person and then headed on to our boat. There were several boats waiting along the dock but we were quickly directed to one of the boats on the side. We stepped in, keeping our balance as the boat swayed violently side to side.
Several locals were in our boat playing tour guide, so we made conversation with one of them who began spilling stories about his life’s and the community as we “cruised” down the murky-brown and extremely shallow river. The journey was adventurous in a mild sense. Every time a boat from the opposite end came our way, it would send waves crashing against our sides, sometimes even spilling over to us.
All the while, Jan, our self-proclaimed tour guide kept spilling the beans of his life. It went something like this:
I have 5 brothers and 4 sisters. I’m the eldest and you know I have to take care of everyone because my parents passed in a typhoon a few years ago. A lot of children in this community also lost their parents and live in an orphanage/school. There are many others who cannot attend school. We live a very poor life and the government doesn’t help us. They take the money from your boat ride and they put it in their pocket.
Our hearts wept for him. We were deeply saddened and started thinking of ways we can help him and his community. Thinking back, I bet he was counting on it.
The first location he took us to was a local market selling rice in two different sizes; 50 kg and 30 kg at US $1 per kilo. It seemed a bit high but we wanted to help, especially after what Jan told us about the community’s situation. Problem was, we didn’t have enough money. We had no idea about this. We thought it wouldn’t cost us much because it was meant to be a local experience.
We explained that we don’t have enough money. They insisted that we could borrow money from them and we can pay back.
How we asked.
The man suggested that Jan could come back with us to our hotel and take the money from us after. At this point, alarms should have gone off in our heads. But they didn’t. We were thinking about the kids too much. We also felt too pressured to say otherwise. It just felt wrong in every sense.
So we (forcibly) bought two 30 kg bags and made our way to the orphanage. Children played about and smiled at us. It was a great feeling. They high-fived us and we took pictures. We totally forgot about how wrong this all felt and how much it had cost us. I mean just look at the cute little ones!
We handed over the rice and made our way to the next stop – the crocodile and fish farm. Walking around the rather small “farm”, a little kid jumped out at us with a baby Python around her neck asking for $1. It startled us, not just because there was a snake around her neck but because we started thinking “what kind of parent makes their kid walk around with a snake and ask for money?”
Another red flag about this place.
Back on the boat again, this time, finally making our way back to the dock. We were confused, to say the least of what just happened. Were we part of a scam? Is Jan really going to go with us to our hotel? He will know where we stay? We kept this at the back of our head but gave him the benefit of the doubt.
Soon after we hopped on to our Tuk Tuk with Jan sitting across us as he continued to tell more sad stories.
“I want to be a tour guide in the city but I don’t have money to get license. I cannot read or write English either. I want to help my community and give children education”.
It just melted our already melted hearts. We really wanted to help this guy out but weren’t sure if it was a scam still. The thought oscillated within our minds but our hearts trumped over our minds.
Luckily our Tuk Tuk driver decided to stop at an ATM rather than taking us to our hotel. We withdrew some cash and paid for the rice and even ended up giving him a ‘forced’ tip.
Lies. Everything was nothing but lies. Our Tuk Tuk driver quickly informed us that our tour guide has told us more lies than the truth.
Sure, life at Chong Khneas for the locals is hard, to say the least. Every day is a battle but it’s also home to one of the biggest scams as we came to know. We were the ideal target today and we totally fell for it. We even asked our hostel manager about it and she said, yes it is indeed a scam. In fact, get this, the rice gets taken back to be sold. It never goes to the kids! W-T-F!
* If you want to know more about the truth about Chong Khneas and what really goes on there (and other scams in Siem Reap or even Cambodia), it’s worth another post, to be honest. So do ask us or do the research, something we should have done before we went there.
Hey, great article. Those orphanages are complete scams. UNICEF found that over 75% of the kids in Cambodian orphanages have at least one living parent. They are run as business to make money from tourists and the kids are kept in bad conditions so they get even more in donations. Thanks for raising more awareness about this issue.
That is horrible and the stats are staggering. It was like we opened a can of worms. After our experience, we started researching and found out so many issues and truths. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way to really start changing the way you see things.
It is indeed a dilemma many a time as to what to believe and what not to. It is this fact that these scamsters take advantage of in many tourist places across the world.
Right? I guess we learn the hard way. So hopefully we won’t get fooled again.
Ugh I am so sorry you had to go through this. I will sharing this in hopes of minimizing the chances of more people being taken advantage of 🙁 Thanks for sharing your story.
Thank you Natasha! 🙂 Yes, it bummed us for quite a while but we know better now.
Shayan I have been to Siem Reap and more often than not, I could “Sense” a scam a mile away. There were even people in my hostel (westerners) claiming to work for charity and being “overly enthusiastic” about it and how they wanted us to visit and donate – Red flags all around – and let’s not even mention all the snatching going on. Its important to be careful. Surely, I will share to spread awareness about this situation – everyone needs to be well informed and make factual decisions.
You’re so right! We definitely weren’t about our wits at all and let our emotions get the better of us. Very trusting also. This has clearly taught us a lesson. Thanks for sharing and the support!
Wow this is crazy! Scambodia is known for scamming people but this is so obnoxious.
Using kids to manipulate tourist then telling you sad stories to feed into your emotions!
Finally going out of the way to get to your hotel- disgusting! Good you guys are bringing awareness to this issue!
Oh man… that’s not good. This is why I enjoy traveling in trusted tours that don’t go to such areas. using children to scam travelers is despicable. I’m glad you posted this. I’m going to Cambodia next year myself so this is good awareness.
Problem was that we thought we were doing it on our own. We didn’t want to go through any tours but sometimes it’s so important to use tours. People sometimes think tours are all bad but they are not. If you go to Siam Reap, you should stay with Mad Monkey/Naga Angkor hostel and go on visit one of their social responsible projects.
Such an interesting post. It’s one of the things I try to be cautious about (scams) when I am traveling, When you are in the moment and aren’t a 100% sure it’s hard to just flat out say or ask, “Are you scamming me?” That photo of the girl with a baby Python around her neck was crazy.
Exactly, right? We felt a bit weird being there and part of was telling us something is wrong here but we were so in the moment and thinking of the kids, we ignored our gut feeling. And yea the girl with the python, that was crazy…she was almost chasing us around.