Cambodia appears to be more expensive than Thailand on a lot of index lists online. However in my experience this wasn't the case either

Yes eating was expensive, also I didn't got lucky with accommodations or my standard might be too high idk, but were I stayed was kinda expensive.

But yeh mostly food and $USD

yeah just compared to chiang mai quality of food and accommodation for same price is way better in thailand then in cambodia

if i lived in each city optimally (for me) i would spend about 1200 in manila and about 1k in pp i think

I break down my expenses into what I would call my base costs and also my social costs. My base costs are as follows living in Sihanoukville:

Guesthouse - $835
Apartment - $735

The above reflects what I've spent living in both an apartment and a guesthouse. I did not cook enough living in an apartment to make that difference greater. I like the comfort of living in a guesthouse and also not having to commit for a long period of time. So I deemed the extra $100 to be negligible and currently live in a guesthouse.

My social costs break down as follows:

Basic - $160
Fun - $380

If I am playing a lot and do not have a lot of friends visiting from abroad, then my numbers will skew close to the first total. But if friends come or I'm hitting the Square twice a week or paying for sex here and there, then the second number is more likely. I admit that it has been the latter more often than not.

Based off of K2D's article from his blog, if I remember right, he thought $600, was optimal. Granted, that was a couple years ago. I was hoping to make it there off of $800 a month. That amount covering base and social. Is $800 even a realistic amount for a monthly budget if someone lived in a 1-bedroom apartment in Sihanoukville?

yes

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no no no, $600 was bare minimum to exist in a comfortable way, definitely not optimal

i dont understand poker triads post, i hope you are saying that those are your total spending numbers, not how much you are paying for your guesthouse and apartment lol


here is what i would consider a reasonable sample budget for snooky, everything is rough, and rent will fluctuate depending on season

guesthouse by the beach with aircon = $300ish

food = $250ish

visa plus random small crap = $50

so there is the $600 base, you could easily shave money off the guesthouse by going fan room only, or by getting an apartment instead, if you shave money off food then you are going to need to be cooking your own meals or eating too much cheap local food for my tastes, i can do those things once or twice a week, but not daily

then since in cambo the optimal line is whoring you need to factor in entertainment, heard the girl prices have gone up in snooky too but if you have some patience im sure you can still get 20ish a pop, get a girl every other day and its 300ish a month, so you are at 900 and that is with no drinking or any other type of entertainment

negotiate hard to get 15 a pop, or only have a girl 1 in 3 days and you can do for less, if the hottest girls really will only go for 30 then.......

It can be done if you live in a Khmer style 1 bedroom apartment for $100, cut out A/C and shop more to cook at home and eat out less. And if you already own a moto or plan on walking a lot or riding a bike you should be able to save even more with transportation. Taking all of that into account a monthly budget of $800-$900 is possible even with social costs.

Total spending numbers. I haven't spent that much for accommodations since I first arrived as a green tourist two years ago.

I know you can live in Kaohsiung and Saigon with rent a/c internet and food with $500
After a discussion at the lion city poker table we went to the conclusion that you can't live in Snooky for $500

So yeah Cambodia seems expensive compared to other SEA countries. Of course visa is more convenient in Cambodia, so that factor if you plan to stay more than 3 months

if you rent an apartment instead of do month to month at a guesthouse you definitely could do $500..... it would suck but you could do it

apartment for 200 food for 200 visa and random crap for 100... its certainly possible

My first apartment here in Sihanoukville was $150 per month and my electric/water bill was about $110 per month. And since my internet was free that leaves $240 per month on food and I do believe it can be done, but with some effort. When we had that initial conversation I probably was spending too much on food and had not yet discovered the plethora of cheap eating options. You can get a very good and large meal at any Indonesian restaurant for $2.50 to $3.00. There are also many of what I call Khmer diners that serve Western food anywhere from $1.75 to $3.00 per plate. And if you really find Khmer food that repulsive, as I do, the local BBQ options are actually quite good and affordable. It takes some research and getting to know the lay of the land, but the expenses you mention can be done for $500 without having to live like a beggar. A lot of it also comes down to how much you are willing to adapt to what is available locally and how much you can control certain social costs. I am not saying that Cambodia presents a better option than the other countries mentioned, but just rather that life here can be done in the aforementioned parameters.

$110 on electric/water why so much? Did you have air con on 24/7 or something? My apartment was $250 p/m and electric/water was around $16-20 but I never used my air con just two big fans.

If u are living in SEA and using Air Con in daily basis better go back to europe

Typo. I got mixed up with the numbers from when I lived in the Russian Market area in Phnom Penh. During that time I did have the A/C on pretty much all the time and my bill typically came out to $110 to $125. In my first apartment in Sihanoukville, I did manage to get it down by using it when I slept but not during other times. I don't think I could ever do just the fan thing.

You mean 'not using' right

I actually don't think he meant that. Discussions of this nature in SEA always fascinate me as proving who has become more "local" has become the defacto dick measuring contest around here. It is of course helpful to point out how much a tuk tuk ride should be, what one should pay for a girl and whether or not we should tip. But the tone in which these sorts of proclamations are made denotes a conceit that is prevalent in the whole "you're doing it wrong" mindset of our culture.

I thought it was gonna be the other end of the dick measuring contest, i.e. if you can't afford air con / sit around sweating to save $50 then go home and get a job.

(Not that I agree with that some people get sick with air con / really don't need it cos low bodyfat.)

I just don't understand the other end. Even many Thais want the air con on 100% of the time while they're at home.

I appreciate all of the info posted here. For people who are debating about moving to Cambodia or are in the process of preparing, having info about costs of tuk tuks, apartment/utility costs, and cheap but decent places to eat is great information to have. Don't get me wrong, where the live games are and how to get set up on PS is equally important, but I think it all goes hand in hand. I think this thread provides a lot of everything.

Are you supposed to tip in Cambodia? At live poker games or restaurants?

im not exactly sure which dick measuring contest we are in right now...... but i think its fair to say if your goal is to live on $500 a month you dont need to spend $110 on aircon

500 is about what I spend without trying to budget at all. 210-270 guesthouse in a good location no ac (just as comfortable with just a fan), 180-240 food eating out every meal, 30 visa, 20 drinking, 25 misc. Could probably live on 350 living in an apartment downtown and cooking rice for every meal. So dante's $600/month number is still good for with ac.

Hey, i have been in Thailand for some year trying to make poker work, looking to try Cambodia after Xmas, are you still playing and living there and how are you getting on?

I generally tip less than $1 when eating by myself and $1-$2 in large groups and depending on who I am with. Having said that, I have plenty of friends who tip nothing and consider my practices too extravagant. Considering that I'm American it's amazing that I've been able to cut it as much as I have. I'm actually much tighter about tipping at the poker tables as I do not tip by hand. If I have a winning session I might tip $0.50 to $1, but usually will not tip at all on losing sessions. Keep in mind that in most poker rooms the tips are shared and each dealer does not get to keep their own. This practice usually deters me from tipping as I like to reward those that I am giving the tip to directly. In the current poker scene in both Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, I believe the River King is the only room where players tip similar to America and the dealers keep their own tips.

There is not a tipping culture here yet and no one is going to give you bad service because you don't tip; the service would have been bad anyway. I do not like the idea of shared tips as it does not motivate the workers nor give them incentive to perform better. And to be completely honest, I have very little faith that what I tip actually ends up in the hands of the server. I always have this suspicion that the owners are pocketing what customers tip and I bet I am correct in many cases.

As a Canadian, I occasionally tip in SEA, depending on the service (I use to work in the industry as a chef, so the tipping culture is deeply engrained in me ). This said, I do recommend tipping in 2 specific scenarios : when coming out of the casino at say 5am with significant pocketed winnings, I would not be too keen on negotiating down the price of a tuktuk and thus pay the extra 1$ (or 2$) to get back without incident to the hotel. Likewise, when I would move to a new hotel and get a housekeeper to clean my room, I would tip 1$, thus increasing the odds of not having my electronics/valuables suddenly vanishing... (and the happiness that that single $ tip provides, can lead to some priceless elated receptions ).