TheSiemReaper

Turnaround time on a one year visa is currently 5-7 days in Siem Reap.

I used to pay $1,000 per year for a Chinese visa (via an agent who managed to save me flying to Singapore to get it done). I'd pay the same for Cambodia if it meant no hassle living...

Sheryl's agent requires more paperwork than mine. I pay $285 for a one year visa. I hand over my passport and my money and I'm done.

It is true that Thais have a bad mental image of Cambodia before they come; it's worth noting that my Thai partner loved living here after she had arrived though.

Visas for all nationalities except a hardcore of about 8 (mainly African states) countries are easy in Cambodia today. It's reasonably well understood that this may and probably will change in the future - how far into the future is anyone's guess.

In all honesty cars aren't all that common here in SR. It's a tuk-tuk city. I can recommend some excellent English speaking tuk-tuk drivers/guides but I can't think of a single car driver that would do the job. By and large taxi companies are really only used to get to the border or to Phnom Penh for everything else it's tuk-tuk. It's worth noting that tuk-tuks in SR are not shit like the ones in Thailand and that the drivers are generally (not 100% but very close to it) not thieving gits like the ones in Thailand either.

I've never spent more than an hour crossing the border at Poipet. Get there early morning or late evening and avoid the huge numbers of coach parties crossing. I normally leave SR at 5 a.m. and am in a hotel in Bangkok by 11.00 a.m at the latest. The best result I ever had was leaving my hotel in Bangkok at 6 a.m. and stepping over my front door way in Siem Reap at 11 a.m. exactly. The one time I did arrive in the mid-afternoon; I paid a nice Thai tour guide $10 for VIP service and promptly skipped the 3-4 hour queue in the boiling heat...

$100 a month is pushing it but not impossible for a crappy Khmer style apartment with Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi and indeed Internet is generally better than Thailand (it's hard to see how it could be worse). Visas are simply an annual cost of approx. $285 per person (unless you are from one of the 8 nations that are required to do more paperwork - this applies to places like Burundi). Bikes (motorized and non-motorized) are cheap and cheerful (could spend as little as $200/$20 but could spend as much more as you want too). Cambodia is, in most respects, much easier to deal with than Thailand. It's also much cheaper (apart from electricity bills).

Really? Because this is the WHO's latest map of malaria in Cambodia and it is pretty clear that the majority of the country is a malarial zone.

http://www.who.int/malaria/publications/country-profiles/profile_khm_en.pdf?ua=1

And... still the work permit malarkey goes on despite enforcement remaining at nearly zero on the ground. It's amazing the effect that a couple of scare stories in the press can have on people.

Internet service here in Cambodia can be excellent but the service when things go wrong is abysmal in most instances; two of the country's largest providers left me cut off for the best part of a month each - with no refunds or apologies. I now use a small reseller and pay a big premium but their service rocks and I'm never without net access any more. I do keep a 3G backup (which as no-one here really uses that much mobile data is pretty good) just in case though...

The whole country is not a malaria zone. Malaria transmission is limited to specific parts of the country, mostly along the borders and densely forested. There is no transmission within cities or towns of any size. The National Malaria program maintains a list of villages where transmission occurs, it is a comparatively small list and getting smaller every year, thanks to deforestation.

Dengue on the other hand is indeed endemic country-wide, as is also the case in Thailand.

There is no malaria transmission within Kep nor within Kampot town. There are some endemic villages within Kampot province, though, especially in the mountains.

The NHS, CDC and WHO disagree. "Malaria risk is present throughout the year in all forested, rural areas including coastal areas except Phnom Penh and close to Tonle Sap. The risk in Angkor Wat is negligible."

http://www.fitfortravel.nhs.uk/destinations/asia-%28east%29/cambodia.aspx

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/traveler/none/cambodia

I'm gobsmacked. For the first time in history - Keith Vaz said something useful. I'm off to lay down in shock...

Siem Reap is the hottest place I've lived outside of the Middle East; my Chinese wife thinks it's hell on earth and she likes the heat better than I do... but it's liveable most of the year and I know a lot of people who manage without A/C (I'm not one of them - I run two A/Cs 24 hours a day most of the year round). Phnom Penh is a little cooler but not dramatically so - it's worth noting that Saigon is officially the hottest capital city in Indochina but I didn't find it as hard to bear in Saigon as in Cambodia. One thing people forget to take into account when choosing somewhere to live is that apart from SR and PP - the whole country is a malaria zone and drug-resistant malaria cases are on the rise here (which makes treatment and/or preventative measures expensive). In towns with rivers running through them... mosquitoes are extremely popular indeed. I've had malaria and it's no fun whatsoever; it's why Kampot and Kep (though both are quite lovely) are not places I'd want to stay in permanently.

Friendlier for foreign investors

She added that the amended law should make the environment friendlier for foreign investors and streamline business regulations. Moreover, Thailand should be able to compete under the coming regional integration, which will allow other Asean countries to hold up to 70 per cent of some service businesses.

For non-Asean foreigners it is better then to open a company with 100% share in Malaysia, Philippines or Cambodia and then become active as Asean LTD in Thailand.

I believe Cambodia still doesn't allow 100% ownership in a company. They only in 2010 started to allow foreigners to own condo and apartments but not the 1st floor.

Cambodia has always allowed 100% foreign ownership of limited companies. It also has very easily circumventable laws on land ownership; ask the Koreans and Chinese who are buying up the country for more details...

I had a great experience with our embassy in Hong Kong, a middling experience in Dubai and a lousy experience in Cambodia (where they can't even supply the phone number of the passport collection place in Phnom Penh). This passports from the UK lark is stupid; it puts people at risk of breaking the law (expired visas, etc.) and of being stuck somewhere if civil war etc. should break out. But expats don't and often can't vote. So they don't care.

They do (and can) vote in UK elections if they've moved away within the last 15 years. For example I've just re-registered to vote in the constituency where I lived prior to moving out to LOS 6 years ago in protest at the generally shabby treatment we Brit expats here receive at the hands of the UK government. Fortunately I still have a trusted mate of mine living in that constituency who will act as my proxy (which is the only practical way of casting one's vote from Thailand).

Not that my vote will, in practice, count for anything in next year's General Election, but I will hopefully feel a whole lot better for having been able to cast it.

It's 10 years not 15. And in general they don't vote even if they can. I have a friend who spends a lot of time with the ambassador to a country in Indochina; when he asked why the passport fiasco was disproportionately affecting expats he was told; "Because they don't vote." Doesn't get much clearer than that does it?

I've nothing to vote FOR in the UK and voting AGAINST doesn't thrill me in the slightest. I want a party that takes a common sense, scientific approach to issues where possible and seeks fairness in income distribution and societal benefits. None of the parties stand for anything like this. I don't want to vote for racists (BNP, EDL, UKIP, etc.), I don't want to vote for the wealthy (Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dems), I want to vote for something that might just make the UK a better place to be. There are no options for this and no, I don't have the several million pounds required to start a party and cough up the deposit on 600+ seats around the nation either.

I had a great experience with our embassy in Hong Kong, a middling experience in Dubai and a lousy experience in Cambodia (where they can't even supply the phone number of the passport collection place in Phnom Penh). This passports from the UK lark is stupid; it puts people at risk of breaking the law (expired visas, etc.) and of being stuck somewhere if civil war etc. should break out. But expats don't and often can't vote. So they don't care.

The best embassy experience I have ever had was the Chinese embassy in London; if our embassies were half as good we could be proud of them again. Embassies only exist to serve the interests of big business now; the little guy can get ****ed.

SR;

when was the last time u were in PP an Wat Phnom

they got rid of all the monkeys more than a year ago used to see them on the wires outside the PO as well.

i stayed at the picked parrot ( top floor) on street 104 a few times and they would sneak into your room if u did not close the windows :-)

What i love about PP is just walking around

also if ur lucky catch the cops trying to stop motorcycles to ticket them on Monivong /Norodom road

Check out the local attractions at the walkabout

I remember the day they got rid of the monkeys; they came walking past my window. Sadly, they're back though not in the same numbers as before. You can't keep a good monkey down.

Walkabout is the worst place in the entirety of Phnom Penh. If you like gap-toothed, over-the-hill, speed freak hookers - awesome. Otherwise avoid like the plague.

Pol Pot eradicated iq as a whole in Cambodia - the place never recovered! Can't compare it to Thailand, even though Thai teachers are teaching their pupils that LOS never was occupied, ever!

That may be the stupidest thing I've read all week. Do you think the Khmer Rouge asked people to fill in IQ tests and then shot them for passing? It's a myth that the intelligensia came off any worse than the rest of Cambodia. Mainly because a.) there wasn't much of an intelligensia (see my post above as to why - no schools) and b.) because many of the smartest people fled the country prior to the KR take over. Milton Osborne (perhaps the most respected figure in South East Asian analysis) concludes that there was no difference in the overall damage to the intelligensia (as a percentage of people affected) than the population at large.

Wrong, Siamrepeater! If you read first hand accounts of survivors and if you would make the effort to visit Cambodia's capitol, you'd be surprised! It's your choice if you believe so-called specialists and analysts... I trust in what I see with my own eyes. You could begin with the book "First they killed my father" by Loung Ung for starters... Would say more, but have mercy on you since you seem to at least have a good sense of dark humor (the iq test knock was hilarious) what is something I like and value.

I live in Cambodia; I've lived in Phnom Penh. You'd be amazed at how little your observations reflect my day-to-day reality. I've read "First they Killed My Father" and nearly every other text on Cambodia there is commonly available too. Education is a wonderful thing, you might try getting a well-rounded one rather than basing your understanding on a single personal account of an event.

Pol Pot eradicated iq as a whole in Cambodia - the place never recovered! Can't compare it to Thailand, even though Thai teachers are teaching their pupils that LOS never was occupied, ever!

That may be the stupidest thing I've read all week. Do you think the Khmer Rouge asked people to fill in IQ tests and then shot them for passing? It's a myth that the intelligensia came off any worse than the rest of Cambodia. Mainly because a.) there wasn't much of an intelligensia (see my post above as to why - no schools) and b.) because many of the smartest people fled the country prior to the KR take over. Milton Osborne (perhaps the most respected figure in South East Asian analysis) concludes that there was no difference in the overall damage to the intelligensia (as a percentage of people affected) than the population at large.

You''d be hard pushed to spend $2k a month outside of Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. My friend here has a 3 bedroom luxury apartment in a 5 star hotel; and it's only $1,300 a month plus electricity (that's in Siem Reap). Apart from Raffles, Le Meridien, Intercontinental and Sofitel (and any other international 5 star brands I've forgotten) on a long term deal you're looking at $1-1.5K a month max for a top of the range establishment. If you want "by the beach" you've got to look at Sihanoukville. A Booking.Com search reveals about 10 hotels in that price bracket and up based on a single months' rent. If you're staying for longer - you can get that down considerably.

I don't think it's possible for any education system to be worse than Cambodia's. During the period of French occupation there was one school. Before that there had been none. Sihanouk opened schools beginning in 1953 but the Pol Pot era put an end to that. Cambodian education is essentially the blind leading the blind in most cases. Teaching staff are paid less than nothing and are nearly all uniquely unqualified to teach anything of value. Throw in the past 3 decades of "buy your certificates" and it's a total disaster. It's good to see steps being taken to weed out the cheating, though you have to suspect that this is Hun Sen sending a warning to teachers that they need to stop voting for the opposition rather than a serious attempt to make changes, but it's not enough. It will take decades before Cambodia is even close to Thailand in education terms.

siemreaper- try to define 0.25% of 4000... then you get my point. 100 riel would be 2.5% while the 60-70 in PP make it to 1.5% and above. So nothing even close to the 0.25% as claimed in your previous post. Was it you who used the word nonsense? Get a tissue and wipe off that egg on your face

It is no new that USD can be used everywhere and that money changers popposite the market in PP offer better rates than banks do.

What matters is a seizable deduction in overall expenses if you stick to riel or - at times - to USD depending on the exchange rate.

The fact remains that paying with riel brings savings with a margin that people discuss at lengths when it comes to interest rates for deposits. So I think it is worthwhile bringing it up here as this is even more important since we talk expenses.

You're no smarter than last time around Mike; my calculation gives you the number after the money changer has had their cut - the real number. Yours, well is fantasy like much of the rest of your post. Does anyone think that an interest rate of 1.5% is significant on a savings account? Does anyone who isn't an idiot keep their money in a bank earning three-tenths of nothing at all?

No-one here changes their USD to Riel to save $10 a month and I know some of the cheapest people on the face of the planet.

Though I will concede it is possible that you live in the back end of beyond surviving on $300 a month and in that case it might make a sizeable difference to the household budget.

Wat Onalom; the oldest working temple/pagoda complex in the country.

Wat Phnom; I'll admit both the monkeys and the locals makes this trip less pleasant than it should be but you should still go.

S-21; is a must. It's more depressing than Auschwitz-Birkenau though.

The Royal Palace; is lovely and should be combined with a trip to the National Museum which is brilliant. You could also take a stroll down riverside at this point.

Central Market and Russian Market are both options though I prefer the cleaner, more touristy night market (only open on weekends though).

There are lots of other modern Wat complexes which are really nice and nobody ever visits.

The currency of Cambodia is the US Dollar and it's accepted everywhere in the nation. Changing money into Riel is a waste of time (though if you get the best exchange rates when the Riel goes out to 4,100 to the USD - you can make a 1/4 of a % on most transactions by changing dollars into riel and spending them - the accepted rate nearly everywhere whatever the official rate is is 4,000 Riel to the dollar). I throw all the Riel I get into the equivalent of a "coin jar" now and when it adds up to a reasonable amount; I give it to my friends' children to spend. It takes up too much space in my wallet and has so little value (the 100 Riel note is a pain in the backside in particular and you won't see smaller than that in a city though 50 Riel notes are stil in circulation). I get paid in dollars, I bank in dollars and I spend in dollars. Anyway why would you care about spending Riel rather than dollars? You can even spend greenbacks in Vietnam easily and they actually have a currency of common usage.

Actually greenbacks can no longer be easily spent in Vietnam these days. Only tourist related businesses will take them off you as a convenience, but any local supermarket, smaller hotels (particularly in the provinces), most restaurants outside of the tourist areas won't take them. Believe me I've tried. One time I was with my friend at a Big C supermarket, and I had some US$ left over from Cambodia (normally I don't carry US$ or exchange them unless I'm heading to/coming from Cambodia, or to pay the VOA fees in Laos or Vietnam) as most local currencies or other hard currencies such as Euros and AUD are just as good for exchange in this part of the world. Anyway the clerk at the supermarket looked at me funny and my friend had to pay in Dong, after which I paid him back. No way they would accept US$. Similarly, US$ can't be used at McDonald's, Burger King, Highlands Coffee or any other chain restaurant, local or foreign. We also tried to pay for fuel in US$, but that didn't go well at all. The guy manning the petrol station hadn't seen a US$ note in years and didn't know it's value. We struggled and ended up having to give him a US$10 note for a US$5 equivalent fuel bill. We ran out of Dong and our vehicle had very little fuel in it so no other choice. Also, petrol stations in Vietnam do not accept credit cards, none of them.

US$ are fine for everywhere in Cambodia but not Vietnam. However, it's still very easy to exchange your dollars into Dong anywhere in Vietnam. I stopped spending US$ in Vietnam directly years ago when a government directive came out prohibiting businesses from quoting or accepting US$ and in any case, spending US$ in Vietnam, if accepted by the retailer is a lazy practice that may inconvenience both yourself and the merchant because they may have to spend time to find a place to exchange them into Dong and you won't get as good an exchange rate as exchanging them yourself. As mentioned, tourist related businesses can still get away with the practice, but all other types of businesses can't as accounting is done in Dong. It's even become very difficult to buy US$ from banks, including foreign ones such as ANZ and the Commonwealth Bank. Basically you can only get them (or any other currency for that matter) if you have an air ticket and visa (if required) for the country of destination that uses that currency. That's why nearly everyone uses moneychangers which are able to bypass these rules.

It's odd that you mention Highlands Coffee who categorically do take USD (or at least they did in January last time I was in Saigon). I'd run out of dong and asked if they took USD and they pushed a little button on the till and hey presto! they did.

I agree that Big C don't take USD in Vietnam though.

Yes there will be ( at this time) only 2 visas

Ordinary visa return to being called the business visa

Tourist visa.

I am NOT CLAIMING anything

only what i think (expect) will happen

ie an ordinary visa will be brought in for those not interested in working.yet looking for a 1 year extension.

as to the long term

current ordinary visa is $25 which allows you to extend for up to 1 year for another ( apx ) $285

you seriously think that they will raise this visa to $35 yet leave the 1 year extension at $285

Reaper; get real!!! you never have an idea or opinion?

I'm of the opinion that if they actually start enforcing the work permit - they won't need to touch long-term visa fees. I do think they'll change the visa system at some point in the future but this being Cambodia that could be a long way off. Otherwise; there's nothing on the cards for fee increases at all - don't you think they'd have announced all the rises together if they were going to do so?