They may last for a few hours, but any decent hotel will have a generator that they turn on as soon as the power goes out. Where I'm staying it usually comes back on within a minute, but the wifi router takes some time to reset so I go to my 3g backup as soon as it goes out.

Thx a lot for the info Yank can u tell me what is a good monthly budget to live in sihanoukville?(not to fancy not too dirty)

I've only been here for a few weeks so I'm no expert, but I think $1000 a month would be fine for a lot of people. Like a lot of places in SEA that number can change a lot depending on how much you go out, but even then the beers are pretty cheap here.

Personally, I wouldn't want to stay here for more than a couple of months. It's just too small and I like Phnom Penh better.

I am planning to go to Cambodia for short time, is there some poker player for a meetup?

Live in Phnom Penh and use Sihanoukville as your weekender destination imo

Hello. I'm hoping to share my situation and get some general opinions...

I am a 30 year old American male, married, with a 1 year old baby boy. My wife and I are interested in moving to either Camodia or Thailand. We are simple people, not requiring a lot. All we require is a clean apartment (2 rooms total), internet connection, and somewhat fresh food to cook ourselves.

My goal is to live on about 500-750 USD/month. We do NOT need to be near a city and actually prefer more of a "village" feel. Night life is of no consequence for us as we are boring people

Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks y'all!

PM me if you're in Sihanoukville.
Beer + poker talk =

Kampot, Cambodia fits exactly what you're looking for.

Here's the blog of an English guy who lives there with wive and children:
Tales from an Expat

Good luck!

hi guys moving to asia in like a week, cambodia is on the list for potential places to settle in

i read the first 10 pages of this thread tonight (total waste of time just pointless bitching) and plan to read the rest tomorrow, but i have a question that is pretty time sensitive, i have my money in a citibank account right now because they have branches in both the philippines (the place i hope to end up) and thailand (a backup plan)

cambodia has just been added as a potential place to end up but when i looked on citibank.com i found out that there are no branches in the country, o knows what to do!!!

so what banks are over there? HSBC? any other banks that also have branches in the US that i could deposit my money in so i can access it over there?

thanks

I know there is no HSBC there.

any recommended diving spots?

wtf? why do you need the same bank? I get the feeling you havent done any traveling before..

Do what any normal person would do and just use a credit card/whatever eftpos card that works in any country, or take a pocketfull of USD over, or both. You can probably open an account there at the local banks and wire money over if you are there long enough to make it worthwile.

Its always a good idea to have multiple ways to access funds incase you get robbed or loose or damage your card.

I've been living in cambodia for about 4 months now, its a great place. In general its a bit behind but they are actually really good people i've lived in three different cambodia places it depends on what you prefer. I've been to phnom penh (i personally didn't like it to much i didn't stay there too long but maybe i didn't give it enough time barely started adjusting to cambodia), siem riep(this is more mainly for tourists plenty of english speakers and EVERYTHING you visit such as angkor wat they will charge you 20$, unless your cambodian) which shouldnt really matter just putting it out there. and there is battamancheay its a really small place in cambodia and it seems like you don't care too much about going out and like simple things, which is very similiar to me as i live a simple and boring lifestyle over here. I WOULD for sure pick this place out of the three if I were you. You can get internet for about 26$ if you buy in bulks it disconnects from time to time, but you can also get a 3G as a back up i only spend about 2$ on it a month. The renting/food part i can't really help you with thats on you and your preferences but i think if u do the math right even if you go out and eat it would reach the 500-750 us/month but probably more towards the higher side of it.

It depends on what part of cambodia you're in, I use anz royal bank but had to have a job in cambodia for me to open it. But im not entirely sure so DON'T take my word for it exactly but i KIND of remember there was another option but i think it was like super overpriced n just ripping you off I think it was like 25$ to open an account for silver 55$ to open it in emerald and $80 to open it in gold or something. And in each one you were allowed to put in a certain amount of money as you upgrade you can put in more money and they take less percentages as you upgrade. Something along those lines by the way this was also in phnom penh. There are TONS of banks in cambodia just majority are new and may not have good reputation. But there is western union abc bank i dont really remember anymore but i remember seeing a bunch in phnom penh.

I dont NEED the same bank, but it would be nice to do it like that instead of carrying my net worth over with me, and all i have is a capital one card and im pretty sure they will rape me with overseas fees

dont have a lot of money, those fees will add up

There are only a few different banks in Cambodia and none of the major US banks are here. You'd probably need to open a local account.

When I applied for my bank account all I needed was a letter from my employer, which for me was no problem. If you don't have a job, I don't know whether or not you could legally get an account. I'd guess that an envelope with some cash in it to the right person is what it would take.

My bank here and Moneybookers have given me a few headaches since I've been here. Things like verifying addresses can be a real hassle in a country that doesn't appear to have a postal system. Is there a reason why you'd rather go to Cambodia instead of PI?