I remember when I got my first job at the tender age of 16, I worked hard and put all the money away in my savings account. During my stay here in Southeast Asia, I’ve come across little children working as salespeople. At first glance, I thought it was somewhat cute to see little children trying to hustle and squeeze money out of me. Be wary though, I learned from several sources that these children are most likely pulled out of school to make their families money. It’s a sad situation to see because on one side, these families need money since they’re poor; on the other side, these children need to go to school in order to make a better life for themselves. As cute as these children are, and as tempting as it may be to give them money for lottery [...]

Cambodian salespeople are relentless and never take no for an answer. Here is what a typical conversation looked like between a Cambodian salesperson and myself (insert foreign accent for full effect). Salesperson: Would you like to buy my scarf? Me: No, thanks (with friendly smile). Salesperson: Whyyyyyyyyy? Me: I don’t need it. Salesperson: You don’t like scarf?

During my stay in Cambodia, specifically Phnom Penh, I painfully witnessed the prostitution of minors. When we first arrived to this city, Nick (my housemate) and I went to what we thought was a cheap guesthouse. The gentleman sitting outside, who sounded very American, was surrounded by a few Cambodian women and had told us the room was $8 USD for the night. For some of you, you might think, “Well the room was $8 for the night, doesn’t that sound sketchy?” The fact of the matter is, we’ve stayed at other hotels and guesthouses that were equally affordable, so we didn’t have any red flags go up just yet. We figured it was only for one night and we could really save some money. After we dropped our stuff off in the room to walk around the city, the same [...]