GETTING IT WRONG - Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism - page 73

for foreigners. Remarkably, with peace and stability for the first time in its modern history,
there has been a 75 percent increase in children taken to orphanages since 2005.
“Sometimes I think people leave their brains at home when they go on vacation,” said
Daniela Ruby Papi, the American founder of PEPY, a nonprofit organization in Siem
Reap that casts a questioning eye on westerners who are conned into thinking they can
change lives in a few days or weeks. As anyone in the development world knows, that re-
quires years of commitment.
Tourists who rarely volunteer at home are easy prey. Scams have been uncovered where
tourists helped pay, and even build, schools that will never have teachers or students. They
have paid for wells that were already drilled.
Papi has a check-off list for tourists who want to volunteer, but she believes the most you
can do on vacation is to learn about Cambodia, to understand the joys and difficulties of
the people. She gives tours on bicycles so foreigners can go into the countryside and meet
her Cambodian partners who are working on education, health and the environment. The
goal is getting the tourists out of their bubble and into the real world. “That's the one thing
they can do,” she said.
If you want to make a monetary contribution to the poor, she said, you should tip gen-
erously.
• • •
Dozens of shaven-head monks dressed in gray, orange and scarlet robes quietly filed into
the modern Sofitel Angkor resort dining room. Chimes punctuated the silence as the
monks filled their plates at the buffet. They had traveled to Siem Reap to celebrate Vesak
Bochea, one of Buddhism's holiest days, at Angkor. Cambodia had won the honor of hold-
ing the world convocation and had organized the ritual prayers at the Angkor temples as
well as multicolor light shows at night. Banquets were part of the celebration.
Thong Khon, the Cambodian minister of tourism, flew to Siem Reap to greet the
monks as they arrived from other Asian nations, and that is where I caught up with him.
Charles-Henri Chevet, the French general manager of the hotel, showed us to our table
and thanked the minister for all he was doing for tourism. The minister watched the pro-
cession of monks at the steam tables and was elated. “We can sell Cambodia to the world,
Cambodia—Kingdom of Wonder,” he said, “Buddhist Cambodia.”
A medical doctor, Thong lost most of his family, including his blind father, during the
murderous reign of the Khmer Rouge. After their overthrow he stayed in the country, re-
fusing to emigrate to the West. He worked first in public health, then as mayor of Phnom
Penh. When he was named deputy minister of tourism, Thong said he knew nothing about
business or tourism. By 2007 he was the minister. Like other top government officials,