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Asia -
Cambodia
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Written by eric. c. mack
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Page 1 of 2
Britney's Cambodian counterparts want to give you a massage. Sex, lust and money...keeping the world spinning in Cambodia
In the middle of downtown Siem Reap, I’m bombarded by an onslaught of pitches and come-ons from nearly a dozen Cambodian girls wearing matching T-shirts outside a massage parlor.
By the time they realize that the red-headed woman following closely behind me is probably already responsible for the majority of my sensual massages, they’ve already fired off two dozen glances, winks and other tired, mechanical facial contortions promising boundless submission. Many of the expressions seem to be odd Eastern impersonations of the same winks and nods I’ve come to expect from Christina, Britney or even the newer models from the Disney pop culture factory, a la Hillary Duff. The feeling is a bit like being cast in an erotic Japanese anime.
Still I think to myself – who are these girls? I have to wonder. I think back to a story we heard from a friend living in Phnom Penh two nights ago. She’s been working with NGOs in Cambodia for the past four years. When I asked her about the dating scene for an expat girl from California, a forlorn look of hopeless desolation came over her face; I recognized it immediately from my own unfulfilled adolescent years and felt a little disoriented seeing such a face worn by a thirty-year old woman that looked significantly younger and would certainly be considered attractive by most reasonable and shallow individuals.
“All the good ones are either taken or preoccupied by prostitutes.”
I had to earnestly question her criteria for placing a man in the ‘good one’ category at this point, but she maintained that it was the status quo throughout the Cambodian and expatriate communities. The tradition had been established in previous decades thanks to a strong foreign military presence in the region and now there is a new generation with more liberal sensibilities and even greater consequences. In a country where ten dollars buys three women in 2004, it is no wonder that Cambodia has the highest rate of HIV infection in Asia.
With this harrowing preface already in mind, our friend segued from her own dating drought to an anecdote involving the brutal nature of the Cambodian prostitution machine that left her bed so cold and empty.
“There was a story I heard about one of the girls who was popular with the ex-pat guys.”
I could already see a strong moral ending around the corner, but statistically speaking, stories involving prostitution are far more likely to have interesting details worth paying attention to.
“She had come to the city to pay off the debt from her family’s new home back in the village. She was one of the clean ones just trying to make a living, never got caught up in drugs or any of the super self-destructive stuff. She was popular with all the other girls, too.”
She paused to take a sip of tea, preparing for the inevitable descent into a brutally sad ending.
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Miami Characters
"You'll know me by the
number I throw down: 305.
Bros before hoes!"
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