Kbal Chhay

That is not a typo. It's the name of a waterfall near Sihanoukville, Cambodia. I wanted to see it, but it's about about a 30-minute moto or tuk-tuk ride. (As it turns out it's a long 30 minutes.) A couple kids who work on the beach offered to be my "tour guides" for the day. Which meant they wanted a day away from the beach and they wanted me to pay for it.

I said no at first. I have had kids show me around other places I've traveled, but there are additional concerns in Cambodia that aren't necessarily a factor in those other places.

To put it bluntly, Cambodia is where the really sick sex tourists go. A lot of very bad people go to Cambodia for very bad reasons. The first time I was in Sihanoukville I found out that a tourist had drugged and murdered two kids the week before I arrived -- in the guest house where I was staying!

The country is held together by the thinnest veneer of law, so virtually anything is possible if you're willing to pay. If a tuk-tuk driver offers to take you to a "chicken ranch" he's offering to take you to a place where you can have sex with children.

Looking at this picture of my "tour guides" it should be clear why I was reluctant to take them up on their offer.


I was concerned at how it would look, a western tourist with two pretty young Khmer girls. Phoan (right) is 14 and Da (left) is 16. I've spent hours talking to them on the beach, so I knew and they knew my intentions were honorable. I just wanted some company for the day (and someone to show me how to find the place). They wanted an all-expenses paid trip to the waterfall. I'm glad I took them up on the offer.

The waterfall was nice, but what I enjoyed was seeing how Cambodian people spend their free time. I went there twice and both times it was packed. Both times I was one of a handful of tourists.

In the parking lot I saw this tuk-tuk. Apparently it was "take your child to work day" in Sihanoukville.


I love the advertisement on the back, because when I think of Cambodia, the first thing that comes to mind is Mexican food! You can see the waterfall from the parking lot.

The view is better once you pay the outlandish admission price -- 1000 riel, or 25 cents -- and cross the bridge to the other side.


Walk a little further and you get a glimpse of the crowd gathered at the bottom.


At the bottom it's so crowded it's difficult to walk in places.

Above the waterfall a line of pavilions runs alongside the stream. Families sit on blankets or in hammocks, eat, talk and play cards. The day Da and Phoan took me there it wasn't too crowded. But there were party crashers.

We ordered a whole chicken with rice for lunch.

Here is Da offering me her favorite part of the chicken, the liver.

(Note: This is not my favorite part of the chicken.)

Just in front of our hut was a bend in the stream which served as a natural gathering place.

As I've mentioned before, in Southeast Asia most people swim fully clothed. When Da and Phoan were ready to go swimming they went to the toilet to change from shorts and tshirts ... into different shorts and tshirts.

As is usual in Cambodia there were far too many children there working, selling fruit and snacks and whatnot. I didn't want any snacks but I bought some from these two.

One of the joys of traveling is interacting with kids. No matter where you go, no matter what the local ethnicity or language or religion is, kids are all the same. I'm especially fond of Khmer children, because so many of them are so poor, so many of them don't go to school, so many of them work so hard, and yet all of them are still ... kids.

These little girls walked around all day with baskets of junk food on their heads, and yet here they are giggling and teasing each other.

While we were sitting there I was reminded why I had misgivings about the venture in the first place. Da was swimming, Phoan was sitting in the hammock and I was sitting on the blanket people-watching. Twice we were approached by women selling fruit. Both of them asked Phoan (in Khmer) if I was her husband! Phoan is tiny even by local standards. She might weigh 70 pounds. How many places in the world exist in a moral alternate universe where someone would think for even a moment that this tiny little girl might be my wife?!

A few days later I played tour guide and took my friend Hieng to the waterfall. She's a 23-year-old Khmer girl who had just moved to Sihanoukville from Koh Kong, on the border with Thailand. I enjoyed being in the unusual position of being a tourist playing tour guide for a Cambodian! Here she is at the top of the waterfall.

Here is the view looking down the stream at the waterfall, with the pavilions alongside.

I loved the irony that in Cambodia it's common to see a family of five on a motorbike with no helmets but here they make sure the kids wear life preservers in shallow water!