TheSiemReaper

Buy a Smart SIM in Phnom Penh - $1. Calls to Thailand? 5 cents a minute. (About 1.2 Baht). Calls to other Smart phones? Free. Calls to other local numbers - about 1 cent a minute...

Can you buy land in Cambodia?

Only if "you" is a Cambodian.

You can buy Cambodian citizenship for around US$265,000 by making a donation to the government. A tad expensive perhaps, but that's one way.

Actually it's only $75,000... still not much of a bargain but better than that.

Better to take a taxi to be fair... but train to Aran is nice but incredibly slow. Then pick up a bus or a taxi on the other side. I think it's about 50 Baht for the train, and then $25 for a taxi or about $5-$15 for a bus (depending on which bus you take and how much they cheat you for it on the other side).

I can see a happy moment in the near future when all the Russians in Sihanoukville are escorted from the country by the high ups in Phnom Penh. The local government has already overstepped the mark by climbing into bed with the Russians and moves are afoot to resolve this once and for all...

You need to go to a travel agent to extend your visa. It will save you neither time nor money to do so at immigration. If you're only going to stay for a short period - consider over-staying your visa and pay a $5 a day fine at the border... that stops being financially ideal after about 9 days...

at an extra $10/evisa ($40 using cc) over regular visa ( $30) its not a savings at all

US passport 52 pages $110

Pay an extra few $$ to sit up front on the air asia flight/ fill out the application before u arrive

ur thru in less than 10 minutes ( i did it in dec)

Which people might care about if they were American. My Passport has 40 useful pages in it. It cost 300 pounds when you include the all the postage, collection, etc. That's about $15 a page. We can't extend our passports like Americans - they must be replaced when they get full... saving a page in the passport is always good economy for me.

Yes, poor Mikey's it's awful but it is thankfully constrained to a single location which doesn't bleed out too much into the rest of the town. I like SR precisely because it keeps sexpats to a minimum (you would have to be insane to spend money on girls in Mikey's and to be fair the one time I went in the door - it appeared that their "girl renting" clientele are indeed all batshit). Having said that, it does improve someone's chances of getting into a normal relationship with a local because there's an incentive to not rent love by the hour.

Of course, there's always a bit of bleed into the local late late nightlife but thankfully, I am long past late late nightlife and so couldn't care less about that.

I've got to be honest, Sharkeys isn't great but I don't associate them with food poisoning either. I find Thailand's much harder on the stomach than Cambodia in general. Though nothing beats China for that particular accolade...

Only travel to Phnom Penh if you want to be in Phnom Penh for visas. You can arrange pretty much any ASEAN visa (and a few non-ASEAN too) from Siem Reap and while there are going to be some complaints from the PP crowd; Siem Reap is nicer than PP by a factor of about 50. Part of the reason for this is that we only have a single girly bar in town...

Hey, I'm OK with that.

I am visiting next week for the first time in 10 years. In reading many forums, it seems SR has come a long way as a place to live. Do you live there, SiemReaper? FYI: I'm an ex Phnom Penh resident, forced to live in Thailand due to medical situation, which is almost resolved. Am thinking of moving to SR.

I do I've lived in PP before for about 6 months and SR now for about 3 years. Didn't much like PP - too dirty, too crappy and too full of lunatics. Love SR and have no intentions of making my home anywhere else in the world unless I absolutely have to.

I cross at Poipet regularly; it's no big deal as long as you ignore the endless queue of aggressive touts on the Thai side... after that, it's just another tedious border just like anywhere else. The free bus to the bus terminal is a scam. You can get a ticket to SR from one of the four bus companies on the road up from the roundabout for about $4-$5. The bus terminal is much more expensive. Not that I'd ever get a bus when you can hire a taxi for $25 (as many occupants and bags as you want to put in it) and skip the endless break stops (which are completely unnecessary in a two hour drive). And if you buy a bus ticket in SR - you can get back to Bangkok for $9.... so even $20 from Bangkok to here is twice as much as the trip actually costs.

The free bus is not a scam any more. Its the best option now.

No, it's not. It has never been and will never be the best option.

Only travel to Phnom Penh if you want to be in Phnom Penh for visas. You can arrange pretty much any ASEAN visa (and a few non-ASEAN too) from Siem Reap and while there are going to be some complaints from the PP crowd; Siem Reap is nicer than PP by a factor of about 50. Part of the reason for this is that we only have a single girly bar in town...

Yes, agreed. You can't get a non-immigrant O visa for Thailand in Siem Reap.

I cross at Poipet regularly; it's no big deal as long as you ignore the endless queue of aggressive touts on the Thai side... after that, it's just another tedious border just like anywhere else. The free bus to the bus terminal is a scam. You can get a ticket to SR from one of the four bus companies on the road up from the roundabout for about $4-$5. The bus terminal is much more expensive. Not that I'd ever get a bus when you can hire a taxi for $25 (as many occupants and bags as you want to put in it) and skip the endless break stops (which are completely unnecessary in a two hour drive). And if you buy a bus ticket in SR - you can get back to Bangkok for $9.... so even $20 from Bangkok to here is twice as much as the trip actually costs.

Absolutely, same as last year.

Just renewed my annual visa for the 4th time... no request for a work permit, zero hassle which is exactly as expected.

I don't think it's anywhere near as dramatic. A lot of LoS emigrants aren't coming to Cambodia at all... they're going elsewhere. That's probably because Cambodia isn't Thailand and life here is not really all that comparable to life in Thailand. Here in Siem Reap there are a few more ex-Thai expats kicking around but not a flood of them. I suspect PP and SHV are getting a few more (because let's be honest - the beer's cheaper, drugs are easier to find and there are more whores in those locations) but not so many that rents are suddenly rising through the roof or that bars are running out of beer to sell either.

And I'm 100% certain that most Khmer have very little idea where most expats were in their last location; probably because they're not really all that interested in white barang that don't have a huge influence on their day-to-day lives.

So, yes groupthink is probably the result of the comments more than any real life issues.

Wow - there's some proper hate in the comments on that article. I think there are many better hotels in PP than mentioned in that article but that's a matter of taste I guess.

No, the Cambodians are too busy hating on the Vietnamese to be hating on Westerners. It's been interesting to watch the Russian Mafia get a slap from Cambodia this week over the festival down in Snookie.

Khmer people in over-touristed destinations are actually much, much nicer than Thais are (in general) because it took about 30+ years of mass market idiocy for the Thais to start resenting the farang fool. Khmers are still pleased we're here spending money and I think they may just be naturally more tolerant of minor stuff (if you look on Facebook they circulate the nude pics themselves, for example, and just laugh about it) than the Thais because after you've dealt with genocide in your lifetime or your parent's life time... you don't sweat the small stuff very much any more.

Poipet's a dump of epic proportion; I have no idea why anyone would spend more than a minute in that town than they have to. It is a place of petty crime, filth and the worst casinos on earth and that's it. Arrive and get straight on a bus to somewhere nice in Cambodia instead.

How many days before my 1 month business visa expires do I need to get the 1 year visa?

Can I get a work permit for less than one year?

No, all work permits are issued for one year. This is true even if you are working for only 2 weeks. You need to put your passport in for a business visa renewal about 5 days before it expires but you can put it in up to a month ahead - you DO NOT lose the unused portion of the visa - the dates are added to together to ensure that you get every single day from both visas.

Lol. Do you want cheap or do you want airport transfers? There are hotels in Phnom Penh starting at $5 a night but your ass better make its on way from the airport. As for phone numbers Google them. There is no real center to Phnom Pneh but Street 172 may be about what you're looking for. Silver River is not great but decently priced, well located and there's an agent on the other side of the road to do your visa with.

Tuk-tuk from the airport - $7 and unless you have a shit ton of luggage there's no need for a taxi at all.

Despite the belief that Siem Reap is scam-ridden; this is <deleted> - just don't buy milk powder for babies or use the local supermarket next to the X-Bar and opposite the street with Molly Malone's on it. I've been here 3 years and never, ever been scammed.

Don't be the <deleted> haggling with tuk-tuk drivers over 2,000 Riel. Those people want slapping. Most tuk-tuk drivers barely clear $100 a month after expenses - taking food out of their children's mouths is unforgiveable. This isn't Pattaya or even Phnom Penh most tuk-tuk drivers are honest and hard working and they speak some English too.

There is almost no bag snatching here. There is some minor pick-pocketing and petty theft but keep an eye on things in a crowd and you will have no problems.

Hotels in Siem Reap are really cheap and you should be able to land a 4 star including breakfast for less than $25. Check Agoda or Booking.com for rates. Most will throw in a free pick up at the airport if you book a day's journey round the temples at the same time.

Do go the museum before the temples. Do try and visit the landmine museum and the war museum too. Try the Tara Boat cruise on the Tonle Sap which is great value and very enjoyable. Don't miss one of the town's modern wats either.

Check out the Triangle Bar during the day for the cheapest booze in town at 35 cents for a beer from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It's good beer too which they sell at $1,50 a beer at night...

Siemreaper. that's interesting information. Do you have more on these analyses? I have bank in a Cambo and therefore I am pretty much interested in learning more about it. Any input is very much appreciated. THANKS!

I had a great report from one of the big accounting firms a few weeks back... but can't find it at the moment. In essence their advice was that outside of the Big 4 banks here have no idea how to manage loans or investments are massively underperforming and have no grounds for future success. Failure rates would be high (I think there are 20+ banks here) and some might be marginally attractive for consolidation but only marginally.

I'm on the road at the moment (in Thailand) but if I can dig up the original report when I get back... I'll let you know where to find a copy.