Cambodia is a really small country and I suspect that it is not a well-known country, especially for some European haha. Also, as you know, it’s a developing country, and if compared to the region of ASEAN, it’s probably ranked ninth out of ten, in terms of social welfare. Despite receiving tremendous helps from countries like US, China or Japan, Cambodian still face an economic slowdown mainly because of the corruptive system as well as poor governance. You know, according to Transparency International, Cambodia ranked the 161th out of 180 countries which mean it is the country that is lack of transparency and accountability. Oh, I have been talking about lots of bad things, and let me talk about more about the good points haha.
Despite facing economic slowdown for years, Cambodia experienced economic growth lately which is driven heavily by the export of textile goods and tariff-free from some European countries. Because of the cheap labor and raw materials, foreign investments especially from China and Japan are coming and employ many Cambodian citizens which raised the GDP up.
Talking about culture, Cambodia also possess its national identity through its tradition,
language, costume and cuisine. Perhaps one of the most recognizable symbol of Cambodia is Angkor Wat which is one of the 7 wonder of the world, known as the largest religious
monument in the world. It was built in the 12 th century by one of the greatest king in the old
khmer civilization, and takes 32 years to finish. It has beautiful architecture and well-graved
sculptures as well as has many secrets that archeologists are still exploring. Besides Angkor
Wat, there are other thousands of temples that exist for centuries without much damage and
there are even underground temples that has just been discovered haha. If you're here, you will feel that you're lost in the adventures of ancient civilization. Beside the temples, our people are very nice, friendly and honest. Not only that, there are many traditional cuisines that blows our mind away, especially me who is a food-lover.
There is a long list of popular cuisine here in Cambodia which varies from main dishes to
snacks. Our food mostly contains fish because Cambodia has the largest freshwater lake in
Southeast Asia known as "Tonle Sap" lake and the amount of fish in there is infinity haha.
Natural freshwater fish are very good, so I like grilled fish and eat it with mango salad which
gives an unforgettable taste. Also, Khmer sour soup is also ridiculously good and of course it
contains fish, Khmer morning-glory as the main vegetable and other tasty ingredients like the "fermented fish". If you want more Khmer food recommendation, you can go to Google because it takes me forever to express my favorite food 😊.
All in all, Cambodia is maybe not the most developed countries in the world, however, we
inherit beautiful cultures from the old civilization with countless temples and the wonderful
stories behind its construction as well as countless mysteries. We are always welcome your
visit 😊
