This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 88%. (I'm a bot)

> After years of farming rice, Houn Chenda finally fulfilled her ambition of opening a shop at Angkor Wat last year, renting wedding outfits and costumes to tourists who pose for photos at the ancient temple complex.

> Unesco's world heritage committee expressed concerns about "Uncontrolled" development in the park in a 2008 report, but it has not listed Angkor as "In danger" of having its status removed since 2004, and in 2014 it commended Cambodia for progress on its management of illegal structures.

> She doesn't know where her four children - ranging from 10 to 15 years old - will attend school when the family moves to Run Ta Ek, nor how she will support them after losing her income selling snacks from her Angkor stall.

Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: Angkor^#1 year^#2 Cambodia^#3 live^#4 here^#5

For those that did not read the article, these people are not getting evicted from their homes. Their vending stalls are being evicted.

If you have ever been to Chichén-Itzá in Mexico and experienced all the irritating vendors selling crappy cheap trinkets, these are the same type of vendors.

Personally I think it's great because when I go to a site of antiquity, I want to see the site, not shitloads of people selling stuff.

I don't remember there being that many of them in Angkor Wat. There were many more in the big Mexican sites, and they were a lot more aggressive, crowded and problematic.

Same. It’s true that it’s been about 5 years since I’ve been there and things might’ve changed since then, but I’ve never found them to be pushy and annoying - barely even noticed them and they were mostly selling water and stuff like that.

Honestly the vendors at Angkor wat (I was there earlier this year) are mostly on the roads leading to the site and are absent from the actual temples themselves.

I would normally agree that these are annoying but in the case of Angkor wat it actually made it feel more authentic because I imagine that vendors were everywhere back when the site was actually occupied as well.

Very solid point. If you were there during antiquity it would have been even 10x more hectic with merchants

Heck they always walk you around the market area of the ruins and say "now imagine this area full of vendors and merchants"..

OH you mean like on the path here?

So ya I'd agree it's borderline MORE authentic

This is completely false. I have close friends who have been evicted just this last month. Not from the vendor shops surrounding Angkor, but from the residential area further away from it. They had government representatives show up at their home 3-4 times last month (groups of 10 people) to intimidate them to leave. They offered them half an acre of undeveloped land 12 KM away to relocate to. This is detrimental to people’s livelihoods that they have spent years to cultivate. My friends built a bed and breakfast with sprawling gardens that housed tourists year round and that’s all being taken away without proper compensation. Shame on UNESCO for letting this happen.

What actions would you like UNESCO to take?

Maybe not to push for forced displacement for ‘aesthetics’?

Did you read the article?

Did you?

Have you ever been to Ankor Wat? Do you have any actual idea of what’s going on there, as the OG comment said?

Yes

not as bad as missioners, at least the souvenirs in mexico, cambodia and similar are of some value for money and provide income to the people instead of to a few friends of the local authorities. The problem everywhere is the selling of goods using children that should be at schools or the monopolizing of a marketplace destroying it along with the small industries.