ot mien kampf wrote:

TheGrinchSR wrote:

ot mien kampf wrote:

TheGrinchSR wrote:Or you know you could join the 21st Century and enable mobile ticketing (no need for waste at all), ticketing from outlets not at the park (just like Disneyland do - not sure why Angkor is being compared to Disneyland? Will there be an "apsara mouse" and a rollercoaster at Bayon - Face Mountain, perhaps?), online booking and printing your own tickets?

You might also consider managing the park with some of that money... you know like Disney does, providing shade, merchandising, first aid facilities, decent refreshment stands, freedom to walk for 2 minutes without being harassed by 100 children clutching postcards for "only $1", that sort of thing.

I agree Angkor is priced too low. If Cambodia wants it to be around in 100 years time or so... they should be hiking prices severely and reducing visitor numbers while promoting alternatives like Sambor Prei Kuk, Koh Ker, Banteay Chhmar, Preah Vihear, etc.

Fuck that. You don't need them park shit or it becomes a sick sideshow. It's meant to feel alive. That's what makes it interesting. The kids selling shit, the interaction with actual Khmer people doing relatively normal things, the fact the outer temples are set in farmlands and over streams where boys still catch fish, the refreshment stands being like old time produce stands.

If you want that bullshit, fuck off to a theme park.

No, that's what makes Angkor Wat tedious to most of its visitors. It's not what makes it interesting at all. Angkor Wat is the largest religious building in the world and the heart of a now dead empire - that's what makes it interesting. If Cambodia wants tourists; it's time it learned to cater to them - rather than trying to annoy as many as possible of them.

You can interact with Khmer, on your own terms, anywhere in the country. Interacting with endless beggars does not add colour, it diminishes what should be one of life's great experiences. If the government wants Disney money (and it should) - it needs to provide a five star experience to go along with it. Tickets to the park should come with well-educated multi-lingual guides who actually give a fuck about the history and culture. There should be rubbish bins (lots of them) to keep the site clean. There should be people around who can help when someone is injured rather than looking scared and hoping someone else will do something. And so on...

Cambodians don't want to live in poverty forever. Angkor is the number one possibility in the country of ensuring better paid, more highly skilled work and at the moment it fails to provide that.

No, that's what makes is a place worth visiting. Once you remove the Khmer from it, it just becomes some pretty rocks. The reason why it's visited is because its is in the center of a Khmer culture that is still alive. The current guides are all fine and most speak better English than people I've seen pass for English teachers here.

Monetizing the place will end up like Bokor, a landmak that has been utterly destroyed by the "5 star" experience of a casino and soon to be housing development. They even cleaned all the moss off the hill station to please the poor wittle tourists who might fall over. It's been completely gutted, leaving only the rocks.

Angkor is the perfect tourist destination and is the only historical site to actually exceed my expectations upon visiting. The pyramids sucked and they are just as you described; over regulated and dead. Your "5 star" experience is trying to remove the link between contemporary Cambodia and the Angkor site. Might as well have all the temples shipped to Monaco and put up in a casino if you want to treat it as though they're rocks from a dead culture that only exists to enrich people catering to entertain the cosmopolitan classes.

SinnSisamouth wrote:im pretty sure he was not implying they will change it into disneyland

it was just a foolish example of where and who charge more money for attractions. maybe he should have quoted pyramids or stone henge

TheGrinchSR wrote:

SinnSisamouth wrote:im pretty sure he was not implying they will change it into disneyland

it was just a foolish example of where and who charge more money for attractions. maybe he should have quoted pyramids or stone henge

Honestly, people have no vision. If they did go full Disney; one of the perks is that Disney has its characters wandering the grounds. In Angkor's case that means hundreds of topless Apsara girls... don't tell me people wouldn't pay a premium for that? I know I would. In fact, I might never leave Angkor during daylight hours ever again...

phuketrichard wrote:i dont get it, why wouldn't arrivals to Angkor increase? Especially amongst the nearby Asians ( Japanese, Chinese and Koreans)
Its something unique to Cambodia and for sure a must see

Price is right but what i would like to see, and many others, is a discount for Barangs living in SR/

Question;
how many of ya know where the ONLY smiling Aspara dancer is located at Angkor Wat?