love the french place on the way down to the beach there. was in cambodia 10 months ago.

Thanks for the condescending reply, I didn't really expect a pissing competition from an Asian vet when I posted. I just thought I'd open this up to the poker forum (maybe you should have instead)

taking your highlights in turn.

I've spent the previous 2 years in Thailand and Vietnam and guess what moto drivers offered me drugs there as well, I just say no.

I don't go to prostitutes or live in a guest house so I don't have the associated crime problems that yes do exist (but what no one has ever been robbed in Thailand). And yes you have to be carefully with your motorbike but this is easy advice (lock it or leave it) and rent from a westerner. I'm not a tourist I live here.

Im sorry to hear about your friend these random acts of violence occur everywhere in the world, they are just highlighted in developing countries.

Did a rainy season in Vietnam which I'm sure you know counts, but hey that’s what, poker, internet, movies and aeroplanes are for. Don't suppose you have done a British winter?

Maybe we should look at per capita figures rather than, my experience is greater than yours when we are both individuals and are only giving opinions not hard facts

Not sure why post has be met with such contempt. Never said it was paradise, said I was taking some time out from my own country and I happy to be enjoying it. And I'm not white either actually.

If anyone else actually wants to anything best PM me as it seems people here have way to much time on there hands.

don't worry about the douchebags OP, they always find something to hate about.

I knew a Cambodian guy who told me his uncle used to frequent Cambodia a lot. His uncle tells him, though he's a Cambodian himself,the locals can easily identify out of country folks and he's always looking out for pickpockets and robbers alike.

I know you feel as though you found an oasis for yourself but you should always be on the lookout. There are desperate and starving people out there and a white guy is a prime target.

Thank you I was starting to wonder why I bothered

I'm not a hater. I wished OP good luck in his life there.

However, I think he's still viewing things from the rose colored glasses of a tourist vacationing in country, and it does not reflect the true reality of living there day in and day out.

I know SE Asia relatively well, have traveled there on a number of occasions, my wife is from Malaysia... so I'm not just slinging bias around.

Cambodia is one of the more corrupt, crime-ridden countries in SE Asia, in part due to poverty, but also in part due to the entirely self-serving government, colonial oppression, war hangovers, etc.

He's exhibiting the classic symptoms of the "noble savage" bias, likely due to still being on what amounts to an extended vacation, and basking in the glow of his wife to be.

Given the option, I'm fairly certain his wife would prefer to move to England (preferably with family) rather than having him and his family permanently move to Cambodia. There's a reason why so many people are trying to get out of Cambodia, and so few people are trying to get in.

OP, you're in an exotic place, you met an exotic girl... enjoy it! But be realistic.

Ah the beautiful Cambodia where capitalism hasn't reached in yet but there are lots of 5 year old children for sale for your pedo pleasure and you can shoot a native there for 1000$ and won't even be charged with anything.

It's a beautiful country but what I just said is very true and while it may seem like a beautiful place could turn into a nightmare pretty soon. I wish you the best and i'm a bit jealous that your 900$/month are literally baller stuff

LOL I'm forty years old, have a degree in business and ran and owned a business with a £6 million turnover. Im not some delusional teenager, i think i know my own mind. But thanks for not being a hater.

OP, as you have lived in Thailand and Vietnam as well, could you give a more detailed comparison concerning people, lifestyle, cost of living etc.?

Yeah, you're right. No man has ever done anything slightly delusional, especially in their middling years, and especially not when guided by their penis.

There really should be a term for this. Hrm...

Like I said, enjoy yourself. Just also be realistic with yourself.

Yeah you know me so well because owning my own night club meant I never got any LOL!

erm... I think we both know that it doesn't matter how much you've gotten before. There's always more to be had

I don't see how owning a nightclub or what the turnover was is relevant to the discussion.

But yeah, I think I have a decent idea where you're coming from with that, and "• The people are lovely, not yet obliterated by western values or capitalism."

Good luck with that. I'm done, sorry for derailing your thread.

just to point out the obvious seems you started it!

kind of silly to start **** yourself then blame others...

I personally have never been to Cambodia ! But what from what I hear about the place people where giving you accurate descritpions of what it is really like . You seem to have an idealistic view of the situation there and other posters where just pointing that out with some sense of reality!

I have to wonder why you bothered in the first place, is everything alright at home? Marriage problems or something else deep down that YOu want to share

I am not pissed nor jealous i was just trying to open you tourist eyes and give you some first hand advice that you should take from somebody who spend all together way more time there then your few months or living...i chilled there months in a row for many years so take the advice or not thats totaly up to you but it seems its just all to new for you Gl for you and your Khmer wife as well.

I PM you in 2 weeks when i am in YOUR city maybe we can have a chat live...i hate newyear in Thailand so i always head that direction this time of the year.

Yeah, no westerner can live in Cambodia and have a good experience.

Pffff, check yourself OP.

Top way to go OP. I was going to start a thread asking why do the pros want to live in Vegas where the cost of living is so high when u can live in places like Cambodia, India etc and live like kings for a quarter of what it costs to live in Vegas.

There is a lot of british ex pats living the high life in India whilst being on a British pension. They have sevants, a driver waiting a the door waiting to drive them anywhere and live like kings.

Why not make ur money go further whilst living the luxury life.

lol... yeah, the projection is strong with this one.

Yes, you can live high on the hog in Cambodia... and you should enjoy your adventure there. You can also do that in Nicaragua or Guatemala or Honduras. All of which are reasonable comparable to Cambodia in many ways (crime, infrastructure, climate, corruption, and so on and so forth).

But there is a reason why more people are trying to leave these countries than enter them.

I just don't think you're being realistic, or even have the necessary time and experience in Cambodia to form an accurate opinion of what life is really like there.

Whatever, ignore what I wrote, I don't care. Good luck to ya.

Ummm, you mean to tell me that people didn't understand what he meant when he mentioned capitalism and western culture?

There so much inequality in the USA(among other countries) and these guys can't understand the beauty of a small country not yet totally overtaken by starbucks, coca cola and mcdonalds?

I actually can't believe this is coming out of POKER PLAYERS mouths as well!

These people clearly don't travel very often to remote places. If they do, they most likely did an all inclusive package. Try backpacking people.

we play because we hate being told what to do,
we play because we want the freedom to make our own decisions,
we play because we want our hard work and determination to better ourselves and families and not the owner of some ****ty corporation who most likely is on a yacht somewhere.
we play at Full Tilt Poker.com....come play for free

Either way OP I have a ton of respect for what you are doing, anyone who is strong enough to up and go to a more remote place and live a simpler life than we can here has all of my support.

I'd seriously consider joining, or at least doing like 6 months.

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.