Contrast between Cambodia and Thailand

I spoke in a previous post about the contrast between Thailand and Cambodia.

It is indeed really striking to cross a border and arrive in a different world. I already mentioned corruption, bad internet access (and disfunctioning computers).

I should add, among the things which strike me:
- Quasi-absence of paved roads in Cambodia (I can't find the word in English, I mean the contrary of dirt road, "route goudronnée" in French) whereas in Thailand the rule is multi-lane roads with a separation between the two sides (at least from Bangkok to Aranyaprathet)
- Electrical infrastructure: in Thailand electric poles carrying high-voltage are everywhere along the roads whereas in Cambodia, it always seems a miracle when there is electricity (each place has a little generator if they have electricity at all, the wiring has always had some amateur fixing, etc).
- Poipet seemed particularily poor, even though it must get a lot of money from the cross-border traffic, and the visit of wealthy people to the Casino. I guess that this money vanishes like often.
- In Bangkok the use of air-conditioning is systematic in buildings, restaurants, apartments, whereas in Cambodia it is much less so.
- On the road in Thailand, a lot of cars (and no cars filled with 10 people when they normally seat 5), a lot of public transportation, and no one traveling unprotected at the back of pickups (except the youth during the New Year celebrations to pour water on one another and on the innocent by-stander).
- The state of preservation of historical and religions buildings: in Bang Pa In, the palaces and gardens are in perfect state, whereas in Cambodia even the Royal Palace and the National Museum need repairs badly.

Of course not everything is clean and modern in Thailand. The train I took on the way back from Ayuthaya was in pretty bad shape, you see people searching the garbage for plastic bottles and aluminium cans in Bangkok, slums are numerous in the city, etc.

I'm not tackling here the reasons, but let me mention that in the Wat Pho pagoda which I visited in Bangkok, I saw middle-aged monks in apparent good health and good spirits, in addition to the younger ones, whereas in Cambodia often the chief monk is only 30 years old: the missing generation and the trauma of the survivors in Cambodia are really

I couldn't stop thinking on the way from Poipet to Siem Reap: is it possible to have here a good road and good hospitals and schools without having elsewhere in the country a multi-million inhabitant polluted capital city and without taking a huge toll on the environment with the garbage, electricity and gas consumption, exploitation of natural resources etc. ?

An article in Cambodia Daily on the week-end before I left quoted a Chinese official as saying: "in the current state of Cambodia, you must take initiatives to develop the country without caring about the environment"; if you think too much about the envrionment, you don't do anything. Maybe he's right.

Anyway, sorry for this boring monologue, congratulations to anyone who read that far and more soon with the visit of the Angkor temples!