"When in Rome" isn't just a neat idea

Andy Hill

When sojourning in someone else’s country, try to adopt some of the local norms. It will make whatever you do infinitely easier.

Speaking purely from the subjective perspective of a 30-s something western traveler of Southeast Asia, there are several areas I’ve noticed in which we may enact the axiom “when in Rome, do as the Romans do” with far more aplomb.

Interactions and communication

Humans communicate in many different ways: with our bodies, words, facial expressions, mannerisms, reactions, and in far more subtle ways. And, people in different parts of the world have their own ways of communication.

If you’re in Java, for example, observe how people of all ages act towards one another, their body language, the way they direct their bodies towards one another when talking, and how they stand.

Then, try and be like that.

In some cultures, it is perfectly normal for two people to have a loud, excited, heated exchange in public; in others, this would be intensely frowned upon.

The backpacker clothes

I do not want to sound preachy here, but after five years running around in Southeast Asia, I still cannot believe the clothes that some people wear when traveling.

Westerners can look like the most oafish, unkempt, unwashed, completely uncaring people while travelling.

For instance if you go to parts of Vietnam and Cambodia, it is often the local custom for men to wear long-sleeved, button down shirts, often with the sleeves all the way down. This goes for everyone, even motorbike drivers. And shorts are un-heard of.

So when I got to Hanoi, I looked at my cut off military cargoes and tank top, and all the guys around me wearing long pants and long-sleeved shirts, and decided it was time for a change.

Why?

Respect, I think. When you are in someone else’s country for a sojourn longer than a fortnight, it behooves you to attempt something akin to the local attire.

So, I felt cheesy as hell buying some pair of brown pants and a short sleeved, button down shirt, but started to look more the part. And it felt good. And I quickly took to them.

Girls backpacking in Southeast Asia need to take this on board, as well: try dressing a little like the women around you, when possible. In deeply conservative Laos, for example, where women rarely show their shoulders, you should opt for something more modest than a pair of daisy-dukes and a huge, long-pitted Fool Moon Party tank top which clearly shows your florescent body-painted tits underneath.

Meta House: a bastion of cinema and art in Phnom Penh

Andy Hill

The cinema and gallery Meta House is facilitating and evolving Cambodia’s exciting and budding young art scene

My experience travelling in places usually involves exposing myself to a great many examples of local cultural interests. When I arrive in a new place, one of my favorite things to do is to go to the important museums, a library (of the public as well as the often NGO-sponsored type), art galleries, and events such as Pecha Kucha nights and lectures.

Meta House: cinema, art gallery, bar, and community space

The Meta House of Phnom Penh has been promoting international, but primarily Cambodian and German, art and film since 2007.

Founded by Nicolaus Mesterhern as a makeshift film appreciation society at a house in the city which had a rooftop well-positioned for showing films, it has grown into a major purveyor of new art in this inspiring and fascinating city.

At a typical night, one might find a documentary from Khmer film students about the aftermath of the Pol Pot regime, or any array of documentaries from other young filmmakers from Southeast Asia

Meta House is now in a modern, stylish location on Sothearos Blvd. in the center of the city. The lower level is a gallery featuring work by artists from all around the world.

The upper level has a small theatre in an open-air space that overlooks the city, and a slick but refreshingly comfortable bar at the back provides all the booze and nosh needed for a night out to see a feature documentary or just to grab a light lunch or dinner.

The main purpose of Meta House is to showcase up-and-coming Cambodian artists and filmmakers, as well as those from around the world.

Manager Johannes Kast has been involved with Meta House since 2009, and has watched it flourish through the years, which have been anything but unproductive for the local art scene and Meta House itself.

He expressed that the work Meta House was doing was “more serious, more professional, with expanded horizons.” He said that the ideal situation would be for Cambodians to be operating completely the gallery, cinema and bar/restaurant in the next year.

When asked about contemporary trends he sees in Khmer art at present, he describes a kind of realism, an ‘everyday life’ element to what many up and coming Khmer artists are creating.

As for Meta House’s mission, Kast said “there is always a social and educational element to what we do.”

For more information on Meta House and the work they are doing in Cambodia, please visit their website here: www.meta-house.com

People are cool everywhere

Andy Hill

From my travelling, I have found that people are far more likely to show kindness and help you out of a jam than we are blitzed with in TV and movies.

One thing I’ve noticed about traveling, in all the places I’ve been, is that people are basically nice everywhere. People want to give you a hand or a lift or help out of a jam in most parts of the  globe.

This is a fundamentally human trait. Peter Kropotkin, in his incredible Mutual Aid: a Factor in Evolution, showed that it was cooperation, not competition that seemed to order nature.

Basic anarchistic philosophy, which has flourished from the 19^th century to the present, has this as perhaps its core tenet. The basic idea that humans are basically good, and in the event of catastrophe will look out for one another.

This isn’t usually the view of humans that we get from popular television and movies, where people are constantly conniving, cheating, and murdering their way through each episode.

The average westerner is pumped full of so much violence every night via his TV than would ever happen in a million years on the streets of Phnom Penh.

To the contrary, from my own, subjective experience in Southeast Asia, humans, in their natural environment, are far more often than not to be hospitable, helpful, and generally down to help out everywhere.

Of course in any unit of people there are assholes, but from my experience being here for three years, the ratio of asshole-to-sweet person is the same everywhere. And that ratio is usually extremely low on the asshole side.

I have experienced so many instances of the most genuine hospitality in my travels throughout Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Indonesia that it would take me a week in a cabin with a trash bag full of Ritalin to remember them all.

And people are basically the same everywhere, as well. They all want the same things. To play with their kids, to see them grow up happy and healthy, to have a family that is provided for, to make a living, and enjoy the lives of their families and neighborhoods.  

Civility and politeness are the rules of the game, and I think all humans, regardless of whether they choose to enact it, have a deep and integral understanding of this.

This is all my opinion, which is subjective, my ‘reality tunnel’ as Robert Anton Wilson called it, but it has been my experience that people are basically good, everywhere. 

The 'foreigner price'phenomenon: reasons and solutions

Andy Hill

Many travelers complain of the ‘foreigner price’ they are allegedly extorted when paying for things in foreign places. Here’s why it happens, and how to make it go away

One of the things you hear from travelers about is this ‘foreigner price’ phenomenon; where the woman selling papayas from the back of a truck assumedly, allegedly, ripped you off- because you’re a foreigner.

Why it Happens

In the streets of anywhere in the developing world, a western foreigner can’t expect to be given the same price for things that natives are. It doesn’t need to inspire any kind of xenophobic bias or pattern in your mind about ‘these’ or ‘that’ people. It’s just happens. All over the world. Just because it’s the first time you’ve obviously paid more for something for being a foreigner, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen all the time, all over the planet.

Plus, if you’re in a developing country, where people might live for $2 a day, don’t make yourself look like you make $500 in a day. That $900 camera hanging around your neck is proof enough that you should pay fifty cents more for a bag of oranges than the local guy in front of you.

How to make yourself (mostly) immune to it  

Learn how to say the numbers 1-100 in the local language. This is far easier than it sounds. Learn also how to say ‘hundred’, ‘thousand’, ‘million’ - whatever you need based on the currency of the place you’re in. Write them down in a special notebook that you always have with you. Pace around in a room, reading them and practicing them. When I was in Bali, I would count my steps in Bahasa Indonesian, and, although at first it was extremely frustrating, I learned the counting system very quickly. And I am lousy with foreign languages.

When you haggle at a market or for a ride somewhere or anything else, it makes a very marked difference if you are comfortable speaking numbers and prices in the local language. Price decreases nearly always occur. So, learn the basic numbers and you’ll fairly quickly be given a price that much more resembles the local one.

The process of haggling varies much from country to country, but the rule of the game (as always) is to always be polite. If you don’t want their price, just thank them (in their language), smile, and walk away.

They’ll probably immediately begin to shout to you at least your price, if not a few pennies more that you can easily overlook.

It's fantastic to be back in Cambodia

Andy Hill

My unexpected jaunt to the kingdom of wonder has been fantastic, as I enjoy fewer places more than the charming metropolis of Phnom Penh

Because of several randomly-timed events in my girlfriend’s life, as well as the need to leave Indonesia because of my visa, and also because it’s perhaps my favorite place in the world, I’ve returned to Cambodia for a short sojourn.

The reasons why I wanted to come back are ephemeral. I like walking around in the Central Market. I like walking down the riverside. I like the simplicity of the currency. I like being able to hop on the back of anyone’s bike and get where I need to in five minutes, for less than a dollar. I like how friendly it is, how gentle it feels. I miss seeing films at the Meta House, and eating insanely good Mexican food at the Alley Cat.

I found a ridiculously cheap flight from Bali which included a night spent convalescing on recliners in front of CNN at the Singapore airport.  

I’ve been at the guesthouse I normally stay at on the heavily-backpackered Street 178 for several days and am pleased to say that the city has lost none of its charm, and everything still costs the same amount at all the usual places.

A plate of fat, handmade noodles fried with beef, chili sauce, greens and an egg still costs seventy five cents, and you can still get your tooth extracted for $30 (including the consultation).

I’ll make my way down to the coast soon to see what Otres Beach looks like, and stomp around up at some of my favorite bars in Siem Reap as well. I also intend to see the Phare Ponleu Selpak Circus in Battambang.

On Monday September 2 the bi-monthly “Nerd Night” is happening in Phnom Penh, where people make presentations about things they are passionate or nerdy about. The format comes from the Pecha Kucha system, where presenters have 20 Powerpoint slides to use for twenty seconds each. I will be doing a presentation called “Evoking the Creator Within: What I Learned About the Creative Process by Writing a Book.”

I will also drop in on some old friends, as well as try to do some major promotional work for my book, Mystic Fool (like stumbling around the streets, passing out flyers, and saying ‘hey man- buy this!’)

Ok, I’m off to get a ride down to Toul Tom Poung, a notorious market in the south end of town, just to see what kind of bizarre shit is for sale.