SIEM REAP, Cambodia (AP) -- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton played tourist Tuesday morning with a visit to Cambodia's Angkor temple complex, as he neared the end of a whirlwind Asian tour of programs to help victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the scourge of AIDS.
Dressed casually in khaki trousers and a green shirt, Clinton was accompanied by U.S. Secret Service agents as he toured the archaeological site 230 kilometers (143 miles) northwest of the capital Phnom Penh.
Tourists from Asia, Europe and America expressed surprise at seeing Clinton, and took snapshots of the former president. About 700,000 foreign visitors last year toured the temples, Cambodia's biggest tourist draw.
Onlookers cheered as Clinton climbed steep steps leading to the central tower of Angkor Wat. From ground level, some French tourists clapped and clicked their waiting cameras when they spotted Clinton, who waved at them from one of the windows at the top section of the monument.
"Here we are on the other side of the world -- we've bumped into the ex-president," said Douglas Rubin, a 45-year-old American who works for a security company in San Diego, California who was visiting Angkor Wat for the first time.
Rubin said that, after arriving in the provincial town Siem Reap on Monday, he had heard the former president was also in town but that he did not expect to find him mingling with ordinary tourists like himself.
"He came over and shook my hand. Then he came around and asked me where I was from. I said I'm from San Diego, California, and he shook my hand again," Rubin said. "It's great!"
The Angkor complex was the capital of the ethnic Cambodian or Khmer empire from the ninth to the 15th centuries. It served as the administrative center and place of worship for a prosperous kingdom that stretched from Vietnam to China and the Bay of Bengal.
Although security was generally relaxed during Clinton's tour of Angkor Wat, the Secret Service agents, with help from Cambodian security personnel, did their best to keep reporters and photographers as far as possible from the former president.
Most tourists expressed delight at seeing him.
Sao Suon, a peasant from southern Cambodia, said he had seen pictures of Clinton many times before but that seeing him in real life was his rare luck.
"When I go back home, I will tell my wife that I went to Angkor Wat, where Clinton also came to visit, and I saw him with own eyes," said the 54-year-old man. "But unluckily, I have no camera to take his picture."
Clinton was in Cambodia to tour AIDS-related projects and local organizations supported by the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative.
His visit came at the end of a tour of Asian countries devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. His trip has included stops in India, Thailand, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, and it is supposed to wind up Wednesday in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.
Clinton on Monday visited Phnom Penh, where he praised Cambodia's efforts in fighting HIV/AIDS and pledged to work with the government to expand treatment for children living with the disease. He signed a memorandum of understanding for his foundation to continue support and expand pediatric treatment of HIV/AIDS in Cambodia.
The Clinton Foundation established its presence in Cambodia in June 2005. Through the foundation's assistance, the number of Cambodian children receiving treatment for HIV or AIDS has increased from 400 to more than 1,200 in the last year, according to the organization's official Web site.
Dressed casually in khaki trousers and a green shirt, Clinton was accompanied by U.S. Secret Service agents as he toured the archaeological site 230 kilometers (143 miles) northwest of the capital Phnom Penh.
Tourists from Asia, Europe and America expressed surprise at seeing Clinton, and took snapshots of the former president. About 700,000 foreign visitors last year toured the temples, Cambodia's biggest tourist draw.
Onlookers cheered as Clinton climbed steep steps leading to the central tower of Angkor Wat. From ground level, some French tourists clapped and clicked their waiting cameras when they spotted Clinton, who waved at them from one of the windows at the top section of the monument.
"Here we are on the other side of the world -- we've bumped into the ex-president," said Douglas Rubin, a 45-year-old American who works for a security company in San Diego, California who was visiting Angkor Wat for the first time.
Rubin said that, after arriving in the provincial town Siem Reap on Monday, he had heard the former president was also in town but that he did not expect to find him mingling with ordinary tourists like himself.
"He came over and shook my hand. Then he came around and asked me where I was from. I said I'm from San Diego, California, and he shook my hand again," Rubin said. "It's great!"
The Angkor complex was the capital of the ethnic Cambodian or Khmer empire from the ninth to the 15th centuries. It served as the administrative center and place of worship for a prosperous kingdom that stretched from Vietnam to China and the Bay of Bengal.
Although security was generally relaxed during Clinton's tour of Angkor Wat, the Secret Service agents, with help from Cambodian security personnel, did their best to keep reporters and photographers as far as possible from the former president.
Most tourists expressed delight at seeing him.
Sao Suon, a peasant from southern Cambodia, said he had seen pictures of Clinton many times before but that seeing him in real life was his rare luck.
"When I go back home, I will tell my wife that I went to Angkor Wat, where Clinton also came to visit, and I saw him with own eyes," said the 54-year-old man. "But unluckily, I have no camera to take his picture."
Clinton was in Cambodia to tour AIDS-related projects and local organizations supported by the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative.
His visit came at the end of a tour of Asian countries devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. His trip has included stops in India, Thailand, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, and it is supposed to wind up Wednesday in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.
Clinton on Monday visited Phnom Penh, where he praised Cambodia's efforts in fighting HIV/AIDS and pledged to work with the government to expand treatment for children living with the disease. He signed a memorandum of understanding for his foundation to continue support and expand pediatric treatment of HIV/AIDS in Cambodia.
The Clinton Foundation established its presence in Cambodia in June 2005. Through the foundation's assistance, the number of Cambodian children receiving treatment for HIV or AIDS has increased from 400 to more than 1,200 in the last year, according to the organization's official Web site.
5 comments:
How many American President would come and visit our prescious Angkor Wat?
Mr. Clinton is perhaps the second most famous visitor from America to visit our monument of God King since KR's era.
Ms. Angelina Jolie was the first and most famous of all. We note:
Angkor was also showing off in her famous film " The Tomb Raider".
Thank you for visiting us Ms. Jolie and Mr. President! Please come back again!
Ordianry Khmers
I would like to say thank you so much for your visiting the Angkor Wat and also much more appreciation what you have been helping the HIV people.
May you and your family be happy and well.
Many blessings,
Khmer Krom Buddhist Monks
The most famous one and proabably still is would be Jackie Kennedy visiting Cambodian and Angkor around the mid 1960. She was on the cover of Time Magazine for her visit at that time. She also change the whole outlook for Khmer women as well.
President Clinton is very humble. He came from a middle to lower middle class family. He parents never had any money. He worked his way to college earning the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.
Clinton never forget where he came from. Cambodia needs more "humble" leader like the president.
The only leader that at the very least connect to the common folks in Cambodia is Sam Rainsy. However, too many poor people are easily bribed by the richer, more corrupt CPP.
The presence of former Bill Clinton in Cambodia is a wake up call to all Cambodian leadership to feel shame for their illegal activities to plander their country into a very most poor country of the world. They must lean how a wise man can do not only to their country but to other country as well. Come on Hun Sen, you have met the most powerfull people in world, but what he has done to Cambodia? Steal Cambodian monies or helping Cambodia? You must learn from him if you want Cambodian people to talk nice words about you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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