Thanks dude, will do so!

- - -

Just finished preparing everything and try to catch a few hours of sleep before heading to the bus station at 4am for my way to Amsterdam. Gonna spend 16 hours at the Schiphol airport before the flight goes and got 4 ebooks and around 30 hours of music to let the time pass by a bit more. They have free and unlimited wifi since a while now so shouldn't be too bad overall.

Why not head into the dam and get a cheap hostel to leave your bags off at and sleep? It is an awesome city that you could make the time pass a lot faster at.

Im doing a visa run to Phnom Penh soon, half a chance i might head down to snooky for a bit if you are up for some beers

Sitting around the airport for 16hrs waiting for your 16hr flight. Sounds like fun.

Been to Amsterdam so many times before and actually have to say: Never really got that much into the city. Sure, it's nice and stuff, for the first few times. But tbh I much rather have one of the great sleeping chairs at Schiphol, be able to do some work for a few hours and then being tired enough to sleep while the flight.

Sure, if you're heading down to Snooky beers would be cool! Write me a PM, gonna give you my Skype.
Waited for longer at worse places, the time at Schiphol is nothing that really bothers me right now.

Alright guys, soon on my way to the bus station. Gonna keep you posted

Great journey so far. Like not.

Bus ride got a delay of 4 hours due to a border control which turned out that we have an illegal immigrant on the bus. Sleeping at Schiphol wasn't actually that bad, but then - it was time for a Malaysia Airlines classic again:

Just boarded the plane due in time, waited 10 minutes. 20 Minutes. Captain: Our machine seems to be leaking. Okay, got back to the gate. Waited for 1 hour. No comment from the crew. Another hour: "We can start in about 30 minutes, please get ready."

45 minutes later someone found out that on the airport page it said the flight was already cancelled. We asked the crew. "Sorry, we can't tell you anything before the captain doesn't confirm." 2 (!!!) hours later the flight was finally cancelled and we were allowed to leave the gate.

Flight was moved to tomorrow, so I already loose my connection flight. Will now have to fly to Bangkok and luckily got a rather cheap ($80) to Phnom Penh on the same day as there wasn't a flight from Kuala Lumpur.

That sucks, i was so sleepy but couldnt fall asleep on the plane because every time i dosed off it felt like i was falling and woke up in panic.

Brutal bongo

at least you are getting rid of all your run bad before you get to cambo, you luckbox you

At least I hope the all the bad luck for some time now
Also the connection flight from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok is hopefully on time, as I only have about 1 1/2 - 2 hours to get on the plane to Phnom Penh.

Last night wasn't that bad actually. We were booked into a 4-star hotel close to the airport, had a nice dinner (voucher from Malaysia Airlines) and a got completely drunk with some guys I talked to at the gate. So having a bit of a hangover now but it definitively was better than spending another night at the airport.

... And it wasn't over yet.

This morning in the airport we we're told by someone from Air Malaysia that everything is fine and we can depart as planned at 2pm. We should go to the airport now. Checked in (took about 1 hour because of the long cue), dropped baggage of, got through the passport controll, arrived at the gate, saw this:



Turned out the flight wasn't even moved to 5pm today, it was 5pm TOMORROW. Had to claim my baggage back, went to the Air Malaysia booking desk and was told they are not going to refund me because of the 2 (!!!) connection flights I won't be able to catch due to their absolute unability to actually get this ****ing plane in the air. The unfriendly **** at the desk also wasn't able to get me on another flight, so I waited another hour for her supervisor to arrive.

After a few more harsh words they funally booked me for a direct flight to Bangkok today at 5.30 with enough time for the layover at Bangkok airport. Hopefully it works out this time.



Malaysia Airlines had three points where you could collect your meal/beverages voucher. So I now have vouchers for a total of 45€ and I'm just about to spend it all. At least their stupidity is good for something.

Youd think Malaysian Airlines would step up their customer service in light of recent history.

You'd think so but that's definitively not the case. Worst customer service ever - even RyanAir is better than that. Just spent over an hour in the line of the Malaysia Airlines costumer service because I wanted to clear my refund for the cancelled flight - turns out I'll get 600€ for the cancelled flight and €25 for every hour it was officially "delayed" before it finally got cancelled. Means at least €800 - nice liveroll boost.

So arrived last night in Sihanoukville after managing to find a cheap taxi down there from PP. Just trying to settle in a bit now, slept for almost 15 hours and currently trying to learn the street map.

Room I'm staying in is just big **** - toilet not working, it actually has a broken window facing the construction side 10m away and I have a Khmer family with little toddler twins in the very next room who are crying all the time. Guess that's what you get for $6 a night and I won't complain because that matches my budget right now. Gonna search for a nicer place for around the same to max $10 a night tho. Can't really work here as the wifi is also pretty ****ty. Gotta find a solution for that.

Gonna go and check some places at the beach tonight, probably finding a girl to lay down. There have been a **** load of female backpackers (mostly singles) on my flight from Bangkok to PP yesterday, got the numbers of a few of them and they headed down to Snooky today as well.

I think that it is really tough, what you are doing. I mean PP after Europe is exotic and cheap, but some amenities of civilization + completely different culture can make the whole experience unpleasant. Do they speak some english, where you are?

No quick number yesterday, but gonna meet up with one of the backpacker girls today. Also gonna be at Queenco casino for the opening party, gonna take a shot at the freeroll and maybe have some drinks with the broke bros.

@ lapka: The owners of the guesthouse I'm currently staying at are actually young guys from Finland with perfect English, so that's quite a good thing.

Sure it's a completely different culture, but I'm not too bad in adapting to such things as far as it's necessary and/or useful, so that's not a big problem for me at all. Of course I'm kinda annoyed my toilet doesn't flush and some kind of that stuff, but that's no priority.

Gonna go and get some things, take a look at the beach and post a longer update here tomorrow.

Good luck man, hope you and the brothers go some sort of 1, 2, 3

good luck.

Living a basic style: So I found a guesthouse which is actually owned by brothers from Finland in a not too back location close to downtown SHV. Costs $140 a month and although the toilet doesn't flush and it's really, really basic I kinda like it here - also because of the owners who are really nice guys. It's not a bad place to start this new point in my live, tho the bar is always open and beers around everywhere.

Working in the heat: I find it rather hard to stay concentrated over a few hours with the online work, because it's just boiling even with the fan. Will get adapted sooner or later I guess. Online work is doing kinda okay, but there's currently not that many good paying jobs around so I cut back on that a bit and focused on the next point.

Checking out some business opportunites in Cambodia: There's this one business idea I came to Cambo with after doing some online research and talking to some officials over the phone to get some things confirmed. Turned out that I would be the very fest one offering this service here in SHV and even in Cambo in general. Already had meetings with some owners and/or general managers of the more expensive resorts around town, got great feedback so far and received various offers from some of them - 99% Westerners and/or big hotel and resort chains. Doesn't look too bad so far and I'm just about to research (crowd) funding methods that could work out for me as - you all know that - I personally don't have sufficient funds for that. Would be at least $50k-75k to get it started.

Getting to know the local players: Talked to some (local) gov officials over then phone when I was still back in Germany, met most of them already since I'm here. Tonight I'm going to meet a former local military boss again who's going to introduce me to some other guys. Should know whom to bribe afterwards. As what I think of most of these guys so far, it's logically and understably about money as the reason why they are comforting you so ****ing friendly. No problem at all, that's just how it works here.

Doing the sports again: Found a pretty decent health club/gym just around the corner and been there 2 times so far. Friendly Western owner and the offer quite a few different classes. Just subscribed to the Krav Maga class, been there two times and got a offer to work for them as KM instructor - payment is a joke, so probably would just do it for fun 2 times a week when time allows it.

The social life: As they owners of my guesthouse are young guys from Finland who like to party and have quite a few beers, I ended up doing the same a few times now - with some exeptions still being able to get out of bed early on next morning. Good to meet some interesting people and having conversations about everything again. Enjoy it very much but won't allow myself to loose focus on my projects because of that.

= = = = = = = = =

Cambodia - a late night story - Part I:

So I went out last night, had a couple of beers in different bars and ended up in this one bar where a deaf-mute girl was talking to some foreigners. Turned out she wasn't a hooker but married to some Swedish guy who's currently back to Sweden. She was just looking for a good time with some drinks and as I know some sign language myself I was translating.
Later on another girl arrived but she didn't understand any single word of English - because she was also deaf-mute. Funny thing about that: This one (I would say body 8/10, face 4/10) only knew Khmer sign language which is absolutely not to compare to "western" sign language. France, Germany, Scandinavia, UK, US - there's a **** load of basic signs in common. Not so in Khmer.

The first girl was now translating Khmer sign language into Western sign language for me and it turned out girl 2 would like to go to a different place with me. I asked "how much?" because had already enough beers to go with a ~ 6/10 at this point but was told there's no money included, she just wants to have a good time. I was like "yeah okay, even if you end up paying $10 it might be worth it" and gave it a shot. This whole process took about 4h to get it settled because of all the translation but it was definitively worth it. The girl - obviously - wasn't talking a single word while we were in the room and when she left later at sun rise she actually refused to take the $10 I offered her telling me something for a couple of minutes in Khmer sign language I didn't understand. Sex was surprisingly good tho, not just a catfish in bed. Will look out for her I'm in the area the next time and hope the other girl is around to translate.

whats with the preponderance of deaf mutes??

they find work as street stall sellers in tourist areas. same in bangkok. hold a calculator up to show prices

I actually now know her father and why she didn't want money: Her family back in PP has a **** load more than I do as I got it confirmed by a trustworthy person.

hello Bongolock.

Your story is pretty interesting, specially for me. I am making plans on moving to Southeastern Asia. I make ~$800 a month playing online poker. Maybe you can help me with some of my doubts.

1) I hate asian food in general (spicy stuff or sweet sauces). Is it possible to buy "Western food" in Cambodia ? Like beef, pork, good fish, brown wheat, cheese, etc? If yes, how expensive is it?

2) How is the internet connection?

3) I wonder if it is easy to send money from my Brazil account (or Neteller) into some local bank acount that I'll create.
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I understand you just got there and my questions might remain unanswered for some time, but please tell us more as soon as you can !
I also have great interest in Germany, but can't visit right now cause I lack the green thing$.
Ich bin ein Pokerspieler. Ich bin langsam Deustch lernen. Ich mäg asiatische Fraüen.

Congratulations on your new life. What you are doing takes balls!

i may have tried to chat 1 of those 2 up on facebook not knowing she was deaf, i gave up because her written english was awful. I bumped into her and that was a awkward experience

raul are you gonna spam every SE Asia thread with the same dumb questions? Dont come if you hate the food (although lumping 'oriental food' in one category means you may have some things yet to try) dont come.

what is up with all the deaf people in SE Asia? lots of people tell stories about deaf girls.

I am sorry for 'spamming', but you don't have to be such a crybaby about it.
My experience with 'oriental food' is limited indeed. Maybe I can find things that I like when I go to Cambodia. But no problem if I don't, either. I don't mind cooking.

As has been said elsewhere, if you're going to be mainly eating Western foods you're going to pay a premium. Here, going to Burger King/MacDonalds costs about 3x what you'd pay going to a local restaurant (and the food is usually better in the local places). Grocery stores are the same. You're paying first world prices (or even a bit higher). So cooking western foods at home may be more expensive than eating out if you can get used to the cuisine. On an $800 budget eating a lot of Western food is going to take a high % of that.

This is based on my experiences, but I believe they're similar in many places in E/SE Asia.