Cambodia
Guilt-Free Tripping
You don't have to wear a hair shirt to do good. Brook Wilkinson goes luxe in Southeast Asia and figures out how to give back, too

You took a helicopter ride around the temples of Angkor Wat? How much does that cost?" the monk asked, his eyes showing an incomprehension that his shaved eyebrows could not. Appearing daily in his saffron robe, he was a standout student in the advanced English class that I was helping to teach. "Two hundred and fifty dollars," I replied, staring ashamedly at the wooden desk in front of me. Over the course of my thirty-minute joyride, I realized, I'd doled out more than many Cambodians earn in a year.

I had come to Cambodia on a luxury volunteer vacation arranged through Journeys Within, a tour operator run by an American couple based in Siem Reap. I'd be spending about half of my time—as most visitors to Cambodia do—exploring Phnom Penh and the cultural relics of Angkor Wat, staying at high-end hotels and touring with private guides. On the other days, I'd be volunteering with the tour operator's nonprofit Journeys Within Our Community (JWOC). At best, I hoped to alleviate some of the guilt that comes with being a moneyed traveler in the developing world.

Almost every tourist I met in Cambodia expressed a desire to help the country's people, who suffered so much in the 1970s and 1980s: U.S. bombing runs, a coup d'état, the Khmer Rouge genocide, and Vietnamese occupation. Tourism is now big business in the stabilized country, and improving the quality of life is at least a declared goal for many tourist enterprises. But when I spent $10 at a restaurant that employs street kids but $250 on a helicopter ride piloted by an Austrian expat, I wondered where most of my money was going.

When it came time to volunteer, the benefits were clear. JWOC has awarded scholarships to thirty Cambodian university students who, in return, work five to ten hours a week on one of JWOC's other initiatives—providing micro-loans to small businesses, building wells, and teaching free English classes. This division of labor is one of the most compelling aspects of JWOC: For the most part, the Cambodians are in charge. As Managing Director Jesse Wolfe told me, "Ultimately we hope to run ourselves out of business."

I had been skeptical about teaching English; critics argue that short-term volunteers often do more to disrupt a class than to benefit it. JWOC's courses are all taught by English-speaking students, with volunteers assisting whenever possible. Iarrived with no teaching experience. In the beginner class, I stumbled over grammar rules and failed to engage the kids. But in the more advanced classes, the students seemed to benefit from conversing with a native speaker. The teacher guided me through one lesson on past-tense verbs. As he wrote rules on the board, I spoke them: "Play-d. Talk-t. Need-ed." If I could help these kids enunciate the final syllables, they would be better equipped to get a job in business or tourism.