Another bum bites the dust

[BritManToo]

4 minutes ago, gearbox said:

But the coupling of the police with the prostitutes and the drug dealers is much stronger there, and there were quite a few set up and extortion cases.

Again,

I've met plenty of prostitutes and drug dealers in Cambodia, but never any police.

Happy Pizza in PP were openly selling cannabis as a pizza topping.

Red Fox bar in PP were openly selling ready rolled joints to smoke in the bar (the place reeked of weed).

How long ago were you there?

[Jip99]

3 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Again,

I've met plenty of prostitutes and drug dealers in Cambodia, but never any police.

How long ago were you there?

 

 

Drive around Sihaoukville on a motorbike and I guarantee you will find one within 10 minutes....????

[gearbox]

5 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Again,

I've met plenty of prostitutes and drug dealers in Cambodia, but never any police.

Happy Pizza in PP were openly selling cannabis as a pizza topping.

Red Fox bar in PP were openly selling ready rolled joints to smoke in the bar (the place reeked of weed).

How long ago were you there?

3 years ago.. mostly in the south, Snooky, Kampot, Kep.

 

 

[gearbox]

4 minutes ago, Jip99 said:

 

 

Drive around Sihaoukville on a motorbike and I guarantee you will find one within 10 minutes....????

The first thing they ask you is how much you gave to the police 1km up the road.. cause they seem to position themselves at a kilometre distance.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 minutes ago, SteveK said:

almost all of your living costs will be less

 

Electricity to run air con and everything else is going to be one notable exception to that.

 

That, and, for any serious medical needs, most prudent folks would probably choose to decamp to Thailand if they had that option rather than undergo anything significant there in Cambodia.

 

[SteveK]

1 minute ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Electricity to run air con and everything else is going to be one notable exception to that.

 

That, and, for any serious medical needs, most prudent folks would probably choose to decamp to Thailand if they had that option rather than undergo anything significant there in Cambodia.

 

Obviously if you have serious medical needs, then this is not the best part of the world to be living in....

 

I assumed that most people reading this would know that already.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

14 minutes ago, SteveK said:

Obviously if you have serious medical needs, then this is not the best part of the world to be living in....

 

The problem with that is, sometimes, serious medical needs arise suddenly and unexpectedly (heart attack, stroke, road accident, etc.), and don't always leave a previously healthy person in good shape for traveling.

 

[elliss]

7 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

When your options run out in Thailand then yes maybe Cambodia next

 

When the darling runs out ,  Cambodia next ....

[DaRoadrunner]

2 hours ago, Lacessit said:

Oh no, what am I going to do without my regular horrified fascination with the Nyezhov train wrecks? Will you still regale us with your florid tales of derring-do? I am going to feel so deprived, unless you post from Siem Reap.

Our OP is one of the more entertaining posters here. I hope he will continue to post his adventures in Cambodia.... should be an informative entertaining train wreck.

 

Siem Reap? Roadrunner is taking bets. I give it 3 months before he goes stir crazy.

 

[metisdead]

A post discussing some of the specifics of prostitution has been removed. 

[Jip99]

48 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Electricity to run air con and everything else is going to be one notable exception to that.

 

That, and, for any serious medical needs, most prudent folks would probably choose to decamp to Thailand if they had that option rather than undergo anything significant there in Cambodia.

 

 

 

..... as indeed the Cambodians do.. Hoards of them can usually be seen passing through Osmach en route to Ruampett hospital in Surin.  For major needs I understand that Bangkopk or HCMC are the likely option...... Sheryl would have more info on that.

[URMySunshine]

Sounds like along with Geoff Carter you are running out of visa options. 

[Jip99]

1 hour ago, DaRoadrunner said:

Our OP is one of the more entertaining posters here. I hope he will continue to post his adventures in Cambodia.... should be an informative entertaining train wreck.

 

Siem Reap? Roadrunner is taking bets. I give it 3 months before he goes stir crazy.

 

 

 

Obviously you have never spent any length of time in Siem Reap ? 

 

 

Mind you, after Bangkok, he will certainly find it different  -  IMO, better.

[Nyezhov]

1 hour ago, URMySunshine said:

Sounds like along with Geoff Carter you are running out of visa options. 

well I honestly don't know who that dude is, but I have all the options in the world. But I cant understand why all you guys project what you would like or not like about a certain place I select. That's sort of insulting to a great extent, because it's like saying a dude you're stupid you should do this or that or the other thing.

 

or I can set forth every argument that I could possibly make for and against my decision, then let you guys to play for 200 pages about that. Why ?Some of you would go here because you know what you're talkin about others if you would not go here because you know what you're talkin about......but let's not speculate about what I want or how it's going to be in the summertime when I'm not even here and all sorts of other blather.

it's silly to make this whole thread into a Cambodia Thailand war. I'm going to be posting here from both places if they don't kick me off the board. I bet I spend more time in Thailand even while living in Cambodia then some of the denizens of this forim do.

 

[Social Media]

The OP is well travelled and has a very unique and in my opinion enviable approach to things and life in general. He does it his way, he rarely judges others and does his own thing and tells it like it is. Whether he is hopping a train to check out a backwater village or ducking behind a dumpster for fun ! His tales and exploits are quite well read here. 

Bottom line is one man's treasure is another man's poison.His choices may not be yours but that doesn't make him wrong, far from it because wherever he seems to go he meets interesting people and has a lot of fun along the way. Long may that continue.

[impulse]

To each his own. 

 

But if I return to live in SEA, it will be because of the friends I made in the 7 years I worked in BKK- most of them locals.  Otherwise, I'll retire 40 hours (round trip) closer to family, in Mexico or Belize or...

 

The thought that I could pick up sticks and not miss the network of people I've built around me says a lot about my ability to build relationships.  Not good.  Not bad.  But something to consider.  To me, it's incredibly sad when a German guy passes away in Pattaya and nobody knows it for a week.

 

[Nyezhov]

27 minutes ago, Black Ops said:

The OP is well travelled and has a very unique and in my opinion enviable approach to things and life in general. He does it his way, he rarely judges others and does his own thing and tells it like it is. Whether he is hopping a train to check out a backwater village or ducking behind a dumpster for fun ! His tales and exploits are quite well read here. 

Bottom line is one man's treasure is another man's poison.His choices may not be yours but that doesn't make him wrong, far from it because wherever he seems to go he meets interesting people and has a lot of fun along the way. Long may that continue.

Hey thanks dude that's very nice of you and complementary, too bad because of the rules, I cant post some of my adventures in about 5 days here already. I've met 

some pretty cool people cuz it's not like you can avoid them, that being said, that if you are a Westerner expat or longertermer, you're going to be hanging out in a certain Street and that's it, and in certain bars depending on whether you are one who consumes beverages or one who consumes beverages plus that which grows in the ground. So far I have met a British pro photographer,  a chezk pro photographer, a Belgian dive instructor, a real old-style Stoner Alaska hippie, a bartender from Jersey City, two Portuguese dreadlockers, dude from Manchester driving across Asia, 3 mine clearers, a gaggle of Mormon missionaries and a doc from Kansas on a break from Doctors without borders. And yes Happy Pizza still exists.

 

so regardless, I'm not the most sociable guy in the world but I can always go find and meet someone cool. Everybody sort of stix together a little bit as long as they're not dreadlocked and bum begging types.

 

 

[Nyezhov]

3 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

The problem with that is, sometimes, serious medical needs arise suddenly and unexpectedly (heart attack, stroke, road accident, etc.), and don't always leave a previously healthy person in good shape for traveling.

 

yeah dude I had a chest clutch or last year, so probably the next one will kill me. Like dead is dead if I keel over in the street and the cambodians are too stupid to revive me, or if I keel over back in the States and some dedicated EMT brings me back to life after 5 minutes of oxygen starvation of my brain. So let my poor kid decide to pull my plug? I've been there and done that, better I should drop face down in the dust.

 

That being said, I have and will continue to have evacuation insurance which means I go right to the Bangkok. Yes, I know you got to pay the 30 or 40 thousand bucks up front, so I'll pay the 30 or 40 thousand up front and put the claim in. Easy peasy right. I ain't going to ride a motorcycle. And idon't scuba dive or hang glide. I try to eat a well-balanced diet and I hydrate. I rarely drink. I do not frequent bars that are loaded with testosterone ridden drunks, so unless I get run down by a tuk-tuk, or fall in a hole iwill probably survive 10 months with the substandard medical care of Cambodia. Ymmv

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

25 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

I do not frequent bars that are loaded with testosterone ridden drunks, so unless I get run down by a tuk-tuk, or fall in a hole iwill probably survive 10 months with the substandard medical care of Cambodia. Ymmv

 

I wasn't trying to knock Cambodia in relation to Thailand...

 

Just trying to provide a bit of real world issues balance, in a discussion that otherwise has mostly focused on 50 cent beers and your condo.

 

 

[GinBoy2]

For @Nyezhov good luck, hope you continue to post here, always liked your contributions.

 

As for Siem Reap, I've always liked the place. Never lived there, which until you do, you can never really judge the place.

 

Before we moved back to the US, we had discussed whether or not to just move to a neighboring country, and SR was certainly on the list.

 

Ultimately it was simply down to my wife's desire to restart her career which would have been impossible there

[Nyezhov]

5 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

I wasn't trying to knock Cambodia in relation to Thailand...

 

Just trying to provide a bit of real world issues balance, in a discussion that otherwise has mostly focused on 50 cent beers and your condo.

 

 

I kowtrust me, I'm not being critical, if I had been in Cambodia last year when the grim reaper was just pumping me, I wouldn't be here today. Nor would I have gone earlier last year when I returned to Asia.

 

but I will tell you one thing about the tourists I'm seeing, these dumbasses walk around with flip-flops all the time and end up with septic wounds everywhere. The bottom line of travel in Asia is that if you are walking anywhere other than to the pool or around your garden, you have those tootsies covered. Especially if you are an Asian girl in there like hooves with tentacles.

 

Everything in life is a series of a plus and minuses that have different things.

 

Let's look at it in terms of practicalities in my reality.

 

Cost:

 

I'm an American. I have the best. So on a basic level, I compare everything to America. Let's look at what we like to refer to as our "nut". Start with housing. If I was to drink a glass of orange juice and then drag my tenants out of a new-build condo and live there myself, with fees and taxes that it would be about 2x that of what I pay in bkk. Play about two-thirds of what I pay in Bangkok, and a place in actuality that I would have no chance buying and either living in or renting in the USA if I saw it. Electricity and all that. Looks like the electricity rates are very close between here and the United States., Which I am estimating is about twice that of badcock. on the other hand, because I have a new-build place, it is designed expressly for ventilation, and Terry will keep my air conditioning down. I'm also lucky enough to have two air conditioners in what I guess is 125 square meters, so I only really need to run it at night well I am using my beauty sleep. And how much you guys want to hear about how good-looking I am, and so I would know that the water costs are some of the tween Thailand and Cambodia. You can't drink the water here but you can drink it in Bangkok. So go find a hose in nakhon pathom and take a few deep draughts, and let's not start talking about stuff like the water being bad. 

 

cell phone costs seem to be a little bit higher here because I haven't figured out if I can get a six month or 4-year plan pay upfront like I do in Thailand. It's still going to be cheaper than an American cell phone by far, and since I normally do 90% of my business with data, it's even cheaper than that. In the states, I think one of our average internet bills in one of the places with cable and a landline ( because that's how they rape you) it's like 90 bucks. I think I pay10 bucks a month for high-speed internet in Bangkok, I don't have cable. Here, for free, I get internet and English cable, primarily Fox, it's great to be me.

 

Food

 

Food is one of the closest things to my heart and is a very difficult subject that usually entails pages of arguing over the prices of milk. Suffice it to say, in an overall level, in the USA, food is cheaper and better quality and any place else in the known universe. I'm talking about the stuff you buy in a supermarket, and you GMO folks can now have fun with whatever you want. Food though, in the US, is variable, just like it is in Thailand. A watermelon in Montana in the middle of winter is five bucks a pound, a watermelon and South Carolina at the end of the summer is 30 cents a pound. Just like in Thailand, sometimes they're forty baht, sometimes they are 35 depending on where you are. If you're a Taurust and  spent all of your time in sukhumvit area you are paying 800% markup for food anyway. I haven't done a full market evaluation yet, but the vegetables are yummy looking and priced basically the same as in Thailand in the big markets. I haven't really dug into the local markets yet. Import food is easily accessible, cuz that's all they got. There are a lot of American brands, and you're basically paying what you're going to pay in the states or a little bit more. Restaurants however, are exceptionally cheap. I got ripped off last night by eating a chicken bagueete sandwich and a coke for five bucks. I'm not going to be eating T-Bones, the chickens are scrawny, according to one dude, the <deleted> Chinese killed all the pork so the price of pork is high but you can get US imported steaks as well as the stuff they call steak from Australia. Baguettes are incredibly cheap as our careers and soup and since I like that stuff, and they're easy to cook, it's great to be me. I will be using cooking gas, 20 bucks a leader, bring it up the stairs.

 

Weather and Air

Hey the weather sucks in April, May, June and July. The weather in those months sucks in Thailand. The weather sucks in those months in Cambodia. I won't be in either place. In winter, the weather sucks in the northern United States, and even in part of the southern United States except for disgusting Arizona, overly expensive key West and the people's republic of California. So I'll go to Cambodia and Thailand. That's easy. So it might get Dusty in Cambodia? Waaaaaah. Where's my mommy? Waaah I got dirty. Cut a road with a D5 in Georgia and get back to me. I have a brand new rain shower and one of those really good little hoses, it's the long one which sprays vertically and get fabulous butt coverage. oh and it's a little bit Smoky here, but it's not like the schools are closed.

 

Environment. 

Here's one that should get the discussion going. It's going to be great watching people's arguing some of y'all haven't even been here. But I'm telling you, the tourist areas of xem reap rrr cleaner than the tourist areas of Bangkok or Pattaya as I remember it. In point of fact, I think that the tourist area of schemrich is almost as clean as the main tourist area in a place like coach Allen, which was exceptionally well done. The only places I have found out in Southeast Asia that I can say are not disgusting  litter buckets in at least the main areas is siem reap and buriram.

 

Facilities: 

Thailand's got it all beat in Asia. Of course it's not like America. The airport here is pretty nice, and there are dirt roads. Hey that's like America, when I first moved to Alaska, had the lowest percentage of flush toilets in the USA..

 

Misc. 

I don't think we need to say anything about visas d0 we? Is that something you guys really going to argue about? Do I need to say again I walk over I give three hundred bucks and then it's see you next year. hey dude you want to work and hustle up some money, go for it get the right Visa have a nice day.

 

I don't worry about things I cops taking $2 bribes.

 

Parts of the expat areas are very Americanized if you have ever been to places like Colorado. 

 

I find the women to be very attractive, and the fact that they speak English is a plus. I don't think that the Cambodian people are as dumb as everybody makes out, since because it's as an international City, you're going to find a higher level of intellect. I've been here for four days, and I know I am a marriage Target. But I'm one of those guys that really doesn't come to Southeast Asia because I can't get it nowhere else

 

Bang away guys, it'll give me something to read at the pool

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, Nyezhov said:

Bang away guys, it'll give me something to read at the pool

 

You did a good, thoughtful post... For my part, I'll just say I've stayed in PP some and enjoyed my time there as a refreshing change from modern day Thailand. I've never yet been to SR.

 

But I think the overall point remains -- for most expats, Thailand would remain their No. 1 or Plan A choice if the government and Immigration would stop trying to kill those plans.  Cambodia usually surfaces as a Plan B or C for folks who can't make Thailand viable any longer for whatever reason.

 

I've lived here for years now, so I made my original choice years ago in a different time and different world. But if I were to be faced with making the same relocation choice anew today and with the big caveat of IF I COULD live in Thailand in some reasonable way, I'm pretty sure I would choose Thailand, and most others would as well.

 

Cambodia and the Phils... still Plans B or C when Thailand becomes un-viable.

 

 

[Kaoboi Bebobp]

Rock on, Nyezhov!

 

An open mind is a healthy mind.

 

Best of luck in Siem Reap (yes, part-time) and do report from time to time because, for selfish reasons, I'd like to hear from someone with his head on straight (well, a bit like Pisa maybe but in a good way) and currently on the ground. Been thinking about moving there. 

[Nyezhov]

2 hours ago, Kaoboi Bebobp said:

Rock on, Nyezhov!

 

An open mind is a healthy mind.

 

Best of luck in Siem Reap (yes, part-time) and do report from time to time because, for selfish reasons, I'd like to hear from someone with his head on straight (well, a bit like Pisa maybe but in a good way) and currently on the ground. Been thinking about moving there. 

Dude one of the funnest things is that people. I just got lectured by a backpacker from California who had the exact 100% costume of The backpacker: he had the filthy dirty Tibetan striped rough cotton pants that stop at his ankles, with a torn to shreds sandal, his feet hadn't seen soap and water for possibly the past decade, shirtless, tweaker skinny, half Little Beard patches on his face cuz he wasn't man enough to grow a real one repulsively filthy dreadlocks which and the key, and ankle bracelet with seashells and some leather bracelets.anyway to make a long story short, he was in Thailand last year but he didn't feel that Khao San road was real enough, so he went to full moon party and he said that while the drugs were great, he just wasn't feeling it. He told me, from his vast experience, that Thailand just wasn't spiritual enough. I love when people educate me, I am the stupidest thing on the face of the Earth. And here I thought the full moon party was in fact Thailand.

 

 

[Lacessit]

8 hours ago, Nyezhov said:

 I got ripped off last night by eating a chicken bagueete sandwich and a coke for five bucks. I'm not going to be eating T-Bones, the chickens are scrawny, according to one dude, the <deleted> Chinese killed all the pork so the price of pork is high but you can get US imported steaks as well as the stuff they call steak from Australia. Baguettes are incredibly cheap as our careers and soup and since I like that stuff, and they're easy to cook, it's great to be me. I will be using cooking gas, 20 bucks a leader, bring it up the stairs.

 

 

 

Not biting, dude.

[Nyezhov]

44 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Not biting, dude.

Lost your teeth then? Look under the bed !

[Lacessit]

2 hours ago, Nyezhov said:

Lost your teeth then? Look under the bed !

Just keep on posting from Cambodia with interesting stuff. And enjoy. Look on me as a guy who wishes you well, but likes to poke the bear occasionally to keep you on your toes.

[Nyezhov]

19 hours ago, Lacessit said:

Just keep on posting from Cambodia with interesting stuff. And enjoy. Look on me as a guy who wishes you well, but likes to poke the bear occasionally to keep you on your toes.

Well I'm on my way back, and there's a good chance I just might start rolling over there now for a month and a half or so that had back to the states. And still plotting and scheming.especially when I watch the air, and it still sucks in Bangkok. And I watch the air and it still sucks in Chiang Mai. And my rent is paid for the month in Bangkok so what do I care?

 

Nothing is more fun for crazy stories than living in two crazy places. 

[Andrew Dwyer]

6 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

Well I'm on my way back, and there's a good chance I just might start rolling over there now for a month and a half or so that had back to the states. And still plotting and scheming.especially when I watch the air, and it still sucks in Bangkok. And I watch the air and it still sucks in Chiang Mai. And my rent is paid for the month in Bangkok so what do I care?

 

Nothing is more fun for crazy stories than living in two crazy places. 

Apparently the air is good in BKK today !!, but who knows what tomorrow will bring.

 

You are in a very fortunate position, sounds like you have no real ties anywhere so the world is literally your oyster ( be careful with those Asian oysters though, gave me hepatitis !! ).

 

Go for it !!

 

I’ve never been to SR but had a couple of trips to PP and enjoyed myself immensely.

 

A few months in the US and the rest split between BKK and SR, what’s not to like !! 

[Lacessit]

44 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

Well I'm on my way back, and there's a good chance I just might start rolling over there now for a month and a half or so that had back to the states. And still plotting and scheming.especially when I watch the air, and it still sucks in Bangkok. And I watch the air and it still sucks in Chiang Mai. And my rent is paid for the month in Bangkok so what do I care?

 

Nothing is more fun for crazy stories than living in two crazy places. 

I think CM has reached the stage where the air will suck year round, which is one of the reasons I'm on the move.