Appreciating Poipet by Matthew Z

MZW-9 SOUTHEAST ASIA Matthew Wheeler, most recently a RAND Corporation security and terrorism researcher, is studying relations ICWA among and between nations along the Mekong River. LETTERS Appreciating Poipet By Matthew Z. Wheeler Since 1925 the Institute of SEPTEMBER, 2003 Current World Affairs (the Crane- POIPET, Cambodia—An ICWA Trustee told me that there ought to be times in the Rogers Foundation) has provided course of a Fellowship when a Fellow asks, “What am I doing here?” I asked long-term fellowships to enable myself that question about an hour after I arrived in Poipet for the first time. outstanding young professionals to live outside the United States I stood alone on a broad street that forms the spine of a sliver of no-man’s and write about international land tucked against Cambodia’s border with Thailand. Seven casinos have been areas and issues. An exempt built in this little stretch of land since 1999. To the west a small ravine marks the border. To the east, beyond the gated casino enclave, stand the slums of Poipet. operating foundation endowed by Less than a mile long north to south, perhaps a quarter of a mile wide, this strip of the late Charles R. Crane, the casinos seems to belong neither to Thailand nor Cambodia alone, but perhaps to Institute is also supported by both at once. contributions from like-minded individuals and foundations. It was dark and drizzling. Streetlights hummed and the neon signs of the casinos pulsed and steamed in the rain, on this, my last night in Cambodia. I was making my way from Phnom Penh back to Bangkok; my visa would expire the next day. I had been in Cambodia for a month and I was exhausted. In those TRUSTEES four weeks I’d tried to absorb the recent history of auto-genocide as well as the Bryn Barnard stupendous splendor of Angkor Wat, the contrasting yet equally indigestible mo- Joseph Battat tifs of the Cambodian narrative. I had glimpsed the lurching progress of represen- Steven Butler tative politics in Phnom Penh, and had cycled for hours among the flooded Sharon F. Doorasamy fields of Battambang, pausing to enact wordless commerce with farmers William F. Foote dumbstruck by my unaccountable presence. Now in Poipet, known as much Peter Geithner for its poverty, drugs, prostitution, Kitty Hempstone human trafficking and HIV/AIDS Katherine Roth Kono as for its casinos, I discovered a Cheng Li flock of ostriches. Peter Bird Martin Ann Mische I counted fourteen of the giant Dasa Obereigner birds crowded together on a little Chandler Rosenberger causeway running through a bog Edmund Sutton from which rose half-finished pil- Dirk J. Vandewalle ings and tall weeds. “What are they doing here?” I thought. I HONORARY TRUSTEES imagined they belonged to an ec- David Elliot centric casino owner with plans for David Hapgood a ranch or a zoo. I recalled hearing Pat M. Holt that ostrich meat was delicious. I Edwin S. Munger realized how hungry I was, and Richard H. Nolte how tired. Then I thought, “What Albert Ravenholt I am doing here?” Phillips Talbot An answer came to me imme- Institute of Current World Affairs diately in the form of a line from The Crane-Rogers Foundation David Lean’s 1962 film Lawrence of Four West Wheelock Street Arabia. I suppose it was the casi- Hanover, New Hampshire 03755 U.S.A. nos that prompted me to recall the words of a song that Peter O’Toole’s Lawrence sang as he Early morning traffic on Route 5 in Poipet, heading for the Thai border. rode his camel to Prince Faisal’s camp for the first time pockets. Cholera breaks out there. Don’t get stuck there (“I’m the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo!”). Soon overnight. Don’t go at all if you can help it. after singing these words, Lawrence is queried by a su- perior officer, the incumbent British liaison with the Arab In Phnom Penh I came across an article in the Cambo- army, who asks about Lawrence’s mission. Lawrence re- dia Daily titled, “As Bad as it Gets: Poipet: The Embodi- plies, “Well, sir, it’s rather vague. I’m to ‘appreciate the ment of All of Cambodia’s Social Ills?” Even my out-of- situation.’” date guidebook states flatly, “There is absolutely no reason to spend any time here.” * * * Mention of my desire to visit Poipet had elicited tooth Still, I was attracted to Poipet as a site of interchange sucking and head shaking from people in Phnom Penh, between Thailand and Cambodia. From a distance, Poipet always a prelude to their admonitions. It’s dirty and dan- seemed certain to encapsulate the relationship between gerous, I was told. It’s populated by prostitutes and pick- Thailand and Cambodia. The problems in this relationship had been thrown into relief by the January riot in Phnom Penh during which the Thai Embassy was looted and burned and many Thai-owned businesses attacked. That casinos had sprung up in Poipet, across from the Thai town of Aranyaprathet, was certainly a symbol of the changes that had come to the region since the end of the Cold War. During the 1980s Aranyaprathet be- came a boomtown, built with money of international-aid organizations caring for hundreds of thousands of Cambodian refu- gees. The border had been the scene of spo- radic fighting for 20 years, ending finally in 1998. Aranyaprathet, once again a mod- est border town, was now a waypoint for gamblers headed across the border to Poipet, the new boomtown. One wonders if the late Thai Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan, who called in 1988 for Indochina’s battlefields to become market- places, could have imagined those market- places spawning casinos for Thai gamblers. The morning after my encounter with the ostriches I made for the border, trudg- 2 MZW-9 ing from the guesthouse to the casino enclave. It rained Kingdom for gambling purposes may not be safe for per- again. The road was covered by a film of grey mud. It sonal life and property. Thai authority cannot be respon- was crowded with wooden carts, pulled by shoeless chil- sibility.” I joined a long queue of Thais waiting to risk dren and hung with scraps of sodden rags and sagging their lives and property to live a little and maybe win plastic bags. Most of the carts were piled with bundles of some money in Cambodia. The officials at passport con- old clothes; some carried traders huddled beneath um- trol sat in glass cubicles decorated with photocopied pic- brellas. The carts merged with monstrous tractor trailers tures of wanted men, including Riduan Isamuddin, alias and children, some of them very small, carrying their Hambali, the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist who had been weight in old clothes slung over their shoulders. A triple captured in central Thailand in August. amputee in tattered fatigues rolled past, rocking back and forth as he worked the crank of his tricycle with his arm. Once through Departure, I walked across the bridge This motley traffic surged toward the bottleneck of the linking Thailand to Cambodia. This bridge had once been Immigration checkpoint. The scene was medieval. The the only link between Cambodia and the “free world.” casinos loomed beyond the checkpoint, dreary in day- Now it was crowded with child beggars, soliciting dol- light and drizzle. Beyond the casinos lay Thailand and lars with a monotone murmuring that made their pleas sound the market called Rong Kleua, where the trucks, cart pull- like a quiet, mournful song. After securing my visa I boarded ers, beggars, traders and I were heading. an open-sided bus with metal seats that dropped me at the Star Vegas International Resort and Casino. Later that day, on the bus to Bangkok, a young Cambodian trader struck up a conversation with me. I spent the day with three women from Nakorn He said, “You’ve been to Poipet.” Ratchasima (commonly called “Khorat”). Boom, Lek and Noi had rescued me as I stood hungry and confused in “How did you know?” front of an electronic turnstile leading to the Star Vegas buffet. I hadn’t bought any chips and so hadn’t been is- He pointed to the mud on my boots. sued the yellow coupon I needed to get to the food. The Khorat trio had coupons to spare. * * * A few weeks later I returned to better appreciate They had driven two and a half hours from Khorat Poipet. After a night in Aranyaprathet I took a short mo- to Aranyaprathet. It was their second visit to Poipet but torcycle ride to Rong Kleua market. The market is huge, the first time they’d be staying overnight. Poipet was with some 2,000 stalls, mostly selling second-hand clothes closer than the beach resort of Pattaya, and relatively in- and shoes, furniture, food and cheap consumer goods. I expensive. Of the three women, only Noi was really in- arrived in time to see the first horde of Poipet-bound cart terested in gambling. For Boom and Lek, Poipet was a pullers from Rong Kleua released by a Thai official. It change of scene. They were middle-aged, independent was like the start of a race, with the cart pullers on their and out for some laughs. marks, the young ones in front grinning and waiting for the green flag. They strained to pull their loads up a slight I rode with the Khorat trio in the free taxis that car- incline and past the black-clad Thai Rangers before making a left where the main road leads across the border.

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