each to their own I guess

cambodia is pretty cool imo, and if someone wants to live there, then more power to them. Im too drunk for these kinds of threads atm anyhoo :O

yep where i living is way more remote then OP his beachresort.....it was ones a backbackerplace yep that was the good times i am talking about but those are over thats what i did try to say.....

still a perfect holliday spot for some days or weeks but believe me it do have a reason so little normal foreign people still living there except from some NGO workers and teachers i only did meet people with problems(drugaddicts alcoholics and gangsters on the run) For those who Know Pattaya well this place is called the Pattaya of Cambodia only the standard of living is better in Pattaya(food etc.)

over and out

i 100% agree with that knowing both pattaya and sihanoukville pretty well...

Awesome OP, great move. I spent a few months travelling around SE Asia in 2009 and winded up our trip in Cambodia where I stayed the last 2 weeks on my own in Phnom Phen. I didn't go to Sihanoukville which I really regret as I heard its lovely. I actually preferred Cambodia to Thailand as it is far less spoiled and much cheaper. I felt it was more of an experience and even just being there for 2 weeks on my own made me a bit wiser I think. The people are amazing also.

I couldn't get over how cheap it was to live also and while I was there I considered what it would be like to play poker there for lowish stakes online and live a good lifestyle. Personally though if I was to go back and live there for a while, I would probably try and get working in a bar as I just like the socializing aspect of it more. Also teaching or volunteering is something I would really like to do here. Anyway I definitely want to go back at some point, this is definitely the one place that really changed my perspective of money and quality of life, best of luck!!

sigh. Clearly you've never been to Cambodia. Please, go, discover what real inequity and poverty is (but yes, you will find Coca Cola there).

That said, I absolutely can understand the appeal of "getting away from it all" and a simpler life... and being able to live well on what we consider very little money.

There's a reason why you can live so cheaply there; the standard of living is much lower. Of course you can have a hell of a time vacationing in a country where the poverty line is defined as people making less than 45¢ per day. And 35% of the population lives on that.

My only point has been that I don't think OP has been in-country long enough to truly understand what life in Cambodia is like, beyond the warm platitudes of a postcard sent home.

Crime is absolutely a major problem in Cambodia, as is corruption and gangsterism. Of course, if you live in the gilded castle of a vacation resort while there, you won't run into it quite as much (but you will also be an obvious target).

I've met and known so many people like OP who just gush and gush about various third world countries they've vacationed to, when they've barely scratched the surface. Vacationing is not living; reality is not a postcard.

Living in a hotel at a beachfront resort in a town that caters to sex tourism and tourism in general is naturally going to lead to a distorted view of the country.

You can be quite sure that the average Cambodian would happily trade their "simple life" for your horrible, dreary Western existence. By in large, they are not living simply because they want to, they are doing so because they have to. I just think it's supremely patronizing to glamorize and glorify this, and all from a few weeks vacation.

Try living it. I know a number of people personally who have.

Thanks for the report OP, really interesting read.

Moki, alternative opinions are absolutely welcome but you've managed to add pretty much 0 to the conversation whilst simply insulting the OP. 3 times you've claimed "classic case of "noble savage bias'"' (once mispelling it nobel which was rather humorous) yet the term is meaningless (a search for this term brings this thread as the top result).

You even linked to the Wikipedia article that mentions nothing about bias. And oddly if you actually read the definition you linked to it mostly discusses freedom from indoctrination of western religion and civilisation, not capitalism. And there's little to criticise it as a concept other than it being idealised.

If you have personal negative experiences to the thread are very useful; hand-waving with "you don't understand the real cambodia" is valueless.

Well I'm glad this thread is starting to go somewhere near to where I expected. Rather everone assuming I'm having some mid-life crisis. i refer to my original post Im taking a couple of years out waiting for the economy to pick up!

I enjoy playing poker and so explained that the 3 hours of enjoyment i spend each morning virtually pay for it, I'm no grinder and would make considerably more in the UK working. It's a life style choice which I was hoping to share with others possible here already. I'm not suggesting anyone sell all their belongs and move here but someone may be in circumstances to come for 6 months a year or longer. I thought they may want to know if the internet was stable etc.

Zigi if you come and we meet then this is exactly what I was trying to achieve.

It's a nice place! you can avoid the sleaze if you want to (not everyone wants to). Yes you have to find the volunteers, NGO's and other people making lifestyle choices or working in bars etc here but they are here

[QUOTE=moki;25805914]OP never claimed that he understood the whole country or that he was going to discuss the economic problems the country face.

Obviously it's cheap to live due to it being a developing country; I don't think anyone doubts that.

He's stayed a when in Cambodia and gave his opinions. They are valid. Despite you obviously understanding much more deeply Cambodia, it has still taken you have a dozen posts and actually write anything of value.

I've met and known so many people like you who 'understand' the real country and belittle others who are only just discovering it and so will naturally have less knowledge than you. People can have different experiences. OP never wrote about how it was economically prosperous country and how cost of living was high, did he?

Distorted from your view of what you consider 'the real cambodia'.

Quite obviously OP is not living 'an average Cambodian life' is he? He talked about living in western-style apartments, 24-hour security, and earning 5x more than he needs to live. Do you really think that gave the impression that he was trying to live the simple life like the locals?

obviously when people do this and 'live like kings' in developing nations they are to some extent taking advantage of the economic situations of the host country. OP never suggested otherwise. What he did was take his time to write a trip report on how it's gone so far, and you've just come in and insulted him for not truely understanding what the country is like.

[QUOTE=moki;25805914]sigh.
There's a reason why you can live so cheaply there; the standard of living is much lower. Of course you can have a hell of a time vacationing in a country where the poverty line is defined as people making less than 45¢ per day. And 35% of the population lives on that.

I Don't see why you have a problem with foregin people living in Cambodia when the locals don't. They are economically savvy enough to understand we are a benefit.

Yes i have more money than 90% of the people here but I did in the UK, the only difference now is my "tourist dollar" is helping them and their economy (I'm not saying I'm noble I'm just stating the fact)

Thailand moved to be a developed country on the back of all those delusional tourist looking for "The Beach", who knows if you stop slaggin Cambodia off maybe it can too. Your comments are not +$EV for the cambodian people

Apologies for my obvious typo in one spot -- BTW, you misspelled "mispelling" lol

The term "noble savage" has been around for centuries. I'm sure a proper Google search will find you plenty of information on the subject.

"Noble savage" conceptually refers to the rather patronizing view that a simpler life, in harmony with the land, is pure and ideal. The canard is that it simply has never existed; people living in mud huts live a hard life.

For centuries, there are some of have raised up on an altar this concept of modern life being awful, and living a simpler life closer to nature being the ideal and pure. What OP has espoused is just another variant of this.

The problem is that many people espousing this viewpoint are literal and metaphorical tourists. It's another thing entirely to actually live that life.

The concept of the "noble savage", because it is somewhat unrealistic, condescending, and frequently based on (or the basis of) certain stereotypes, is frequently considered a form of racism, even when it replaces the old savage blood-thirsty stereotype of the Indian.

The myth of the "noble savage" may have served, in part, as an attempt to re-establish the value of indigenous lifestyles and delegitimatize imperial excesses - establishing exotic humans as morally superior in order to counter-balance the perceived political and economic inferiorities.

As noted above, the idea of the "noble savage" stemmed from a highly romanticized concept, not well founded in fact.

not to mention he basically assumed OP is white (oops), never been out of his home country (op stated he spent the last 2 years in Thailand, Vietnam), and generally all his responses were as if OP was a kid who doesn't know any better (OP owned a business and is in his 40's/2 years living in the area).

wrong on all counts (i think he started to realize this when he gave the good ol' "this will be my last post in this thread", but "always have to be right on the internet" prevailed), but give him props for being persistent.

[QUOTE=Iao;25806036]I don't have a problem with it at all -- I have told you to enjoy your adventure there on numerous occasions. And I still wish you good luck with it.

All I've stated was that I think you were painting an inaccurately rosy picture of what life is like in Cambodia. It's all well and good to talk about how "...the people are lovely, not yet obliterated by western values or capitalism" from your beach side villa that only a tiny percentage of the population of Cambodia could afford to even spend a weekend in.

I'm sure if given the option, many of the people would be absolutely thrilled to be "obliterated by the capitalism" that afforded you that luxury.

Moki is right imo, im sure OP does live a nice life in Cambodia and other poker players could too but this is because you can earn 10x what the locals can earn by working half as much as them.

The country in general is corrupt and poor as ****.

...except that I never stated any of the above things. I did not call him white, I said "White Man's" referring to the attitude. I never stated he had never left his country. I never stated that he was a kid who didn't know any better.

Ah well, so much for reading comprehension.

Also, by all means, please ignore that fact that someone who actually has lived in Cambodia for years (as opposed to the few weeks vacation that OP has done) essentially agreed with everything I've said.

Well I enjoyed reading the OP. Sounds like he is living a dream and making the most of his life. Respect for him - I probably would not have the balls to move so far from home to such a different culture.

I sense much jealousy in this thread...