It’s pretty easy to spook Cambodians. Of course that’s no wonder after all they’ve been through in the past 3 decades but it does make for some interesting stories to tell.
My first work trip involved going to the border town of Poipet to gather some stories from schools around the area. After being in Poipet for no more than 24 hours, fighting broke out between Thai and Cambodian troops over a disputed piece of land further north of us. (See the linked stories to get a fuller understanding of the situation).
Even though the fighting was hundreds of kilometres away, Poipet being Poipet (a rather wild and dusty frontier town, full of trafficking and gambling, sex tourism, and constant tension between Cambodia and Thailand because the two countries have been mad at each other for centuries