cambtek

Looks like a good project to me if he can finance it. And so many middle class cambodians just across the border.

This euro thing of reserving loungers is crap. If you arent there someone should just take the chair. But the beaches are covered with the bloody things, its awful.

Move along, nothing to see here.

Poor elephant, sugar cane as a diet would make any animal angry.Like kids ata party hopped up on sweets and soft drinks.

The mess would have been easier to solve if dialogue had been entered into years ago .How long ago was it that the army murdered all those alleged insurgents by cramming them into trucks?

Cambodians-are you joking?

As someone said it is very difficult to exit these vans with only one sliding door for the rear passengers.

Cambodian media always call the Thai units Rangers.Cambodian loggers are rarely armed,most are poor peasants who couldnt afford an assault rifle.Thais also shoot Cambodians who cross the border looking for work,easy to label these victims as loggers as well.

Just give it back, you stole it not so long ag.Just like a big chunk of cambodia was stolen, including siem riep.The allies forced them to give it back as war reparations after ww2 for siding with the japanese.

He is not a look kreung or even a look keung! I just keep thinking that if these events did not keep happening what the hell would you pundits do with all your free time?

I have had a vodafone sim in cambodia for years, only used for the occasional text from my bank when transferring money.A few months ago the phone would not receive texts from two australian banks, yet texts fromf friends came through.

Neither vodafone or the banks had an explanation.

Can people go and buy the one dollar tape and actually measure the height of the balustrade, correct terminology for railing.

I would love to know what height they are, sometimes the nanny state makes rules for a good reason.Seat belts and helmets come to mind, oh and speed limits and drink driving rules.

I am shocked at the blatant disregard that sneaky foreigners have for Thai laws.Of course the Thai have the right to protect their businesses from competition, its called a closed shop I think.

Of course the Thai can go to other countries and set up whatever business they want,seems very fair.However isnt 2015 the year that ASEAN opens up to free and fair business practices?

I cant wait to see the Cambodian tuk tuk mafia arrive in Phuket, these guys are hard nuts and make the Thai look like pussies.

Filipino gangs in HCM and Phnom Penh have been persuading tourists to play cards for the last couple of years.In PP they commonly get thousands from a victim, the largest amount reported scammed was over 20k,

Trafficking of women is a much sexier topic than the trafficking of manual workers, mention of women and girls brings in the donor dollars.Meantime Burmese and Cambodians, mostly men are trafficked in order to work in factories, on building sites, in orchards and worst of all on fishing boats.The Thai fishing industry ruthlessly exploits Cambodians,at sea without pay for months or years, often starved and beaten and often thrown over the side when they complain too much or are no longer productive.

Its a horror show and I should have included the Rohingas with the victims.

I would like to a programme about the barang customers ruthlessly exploited by Thai bar girls, often in cahoots with the family.Men who are stripped of their wealth amd their dignity and either kill themselves or are killed by the Thai family member.

Crime in Thailand is disorganised like everything else.

Dear oh dear, so many people here who want to live in the third world but expect first world behaviour.

Get a grip chaps, the driving is far worse in neigbouring Cambodia but we adapt to survive.I have driven tens of thousands of ks here on motos and in cars and have only hit one cow and run over one moto driver.

We learn to drive ultra defensively but we also drive much like khmers much of the time, when in rome and all that.I drink drive nearly every night, go the wrong way down one way streets, often dont bother to stop at red lights, do the thirty degree turn, ride with the wife and two kids on the moto with no helmets etc etc.Most barangs drive exactly as I do, no point in the holier than thou attitude in asia.

Our roads are terrible, there are slow moving contraptions and cows,dogs,pedestrians wandering everywhere but there is one golden rule- never drive at night outside the city.

I have driven a lot in thailand as well and the roads are fantastic compared to cambodia and the drivers much better, yes its true!

We live in cambodia because it is still edgy and dangerous and undeveloped, the road manners of khmers are a constant source of entertainment.There is probably one main difference when it all goes wrong though, it is not always our fault, witnesses are honest and the police pretty even handed.

Thai forums are stacked with people who would really seem to be much happier at home and who cant accept that these are alien people with alien ways, most barangs say vive la difference and just get on with it.

Great thread this,really informative.Now my two cents worth, having travelled all over asia.I lived in bangkok for years in the late seventies, early eighties and I have spent over five years in phnom penh/sihanoukville.

Sri lanka- beautiful island, shit government and people.

Bali-beautiful island, off tne beaten track lovely people and attractive for aussie retirees especially.

Malaysia- shit.

Vietnam- nice, cheap but severe government and getting worse.

Cambodia- one can now own apartments above the ground floor in dedicated buildings but not cheap or well built.No rule of law but we can work and own businesses with nil restrictions and only a few people have problems with corruption.Usually corruption is our friend, minimal taxes, can drive drunk, can use drugs,can do anything.Rent and food not really cheap but ciggies and alcohol incredibly cheap.Serious crime against us very rare,the people are all smiles and usually genuine.Only two good hospitals but self medication is very cheap.Phnom Penh has many marvellous restaurants and coffee shops and great bread and baguettes.Internet fast and very cheap, 2 giv of fast wifi only $5 a month!

No paperwork for visas or driving licences, just go to the moto shop or travel agent.

Kampot is a lovely cheap colonial town nearby kep has great seafood but both deathly quiet places.Sihanoukville is not far away on a shocking road, beaches OK, bars are tacky as are many expat residents, the islands are just opening up and are spectacular.But it rains for two or three months a year and it is dreary.

The place I enjoy everytime I visit and my sons birthplace-Thailand.Has to be the best place overall, doesnt it?

Closest beach to HCM is by hydrofoil to vung tau, a peninsular with ocean beaches on the eastern side.About two hours from HCM and the boys play beach cricket on thursdays!

Plenty of choice of delta trips, go to agents on phum no lou or whatever the tourist area is called.

Ah yes,thailand in the seventies.

I remember the blue fox and the malaysia and the atlanta hotel.

I remember the thermae and the grace hotel coffee shop and the sugar shack and mississippi queen in patpong.

The traffic and flooding was far worse.

The girls were 200 baht as i remember.

Soi 3 had a klong as did soi ekamai and there were other klongs everywhere.

Soi 3 had wooden houses,one with a sun bear tied up in the backyard.

Patong beach had one hotel,nai harn had johns bungalows in the centre of the beach.

Cha weng on koh samui had one set of newly built bungalows,built by two swedish seamen.

All one could hear all day was the sawing of wood and the banging of hammers as they built more bungalows.

Pattaya had the marine bar and some other bars and the water was clean and the beach nice.

And there were lots more smiles,just like cambodia today.

Just found this site,very good.

I live in cambodia and i have just bought a block fronting the bassac river about 30 ks from phnom penh.Block faces east and it is 14 by 75 metres,typical narrow khmer block.

We have already done a rough set out and the family have cut down several coconut trees and assorted other stuff.We still have several coconut trees,two mango,pineapple,bananas and jackfruit.

Next week we will construct perimeter fencing but i am still unsure of what sort of house to build.I have drawn up plans for a nine by six metre pool near the river with a house behind ten metres wide by seventeen deep with two big bedrooms with ensuites and one small bedroom and another bathroom.

the khmers are good at building cheaply with reinfroced concrete and masonry using the crappy khmer brick.I am going to have columns with a suspended slab but as to the masonry and roof I am not sure.there is an asutralian company here now making a 190mm thick hollow core block and a 90 mm thick block for internal walls.

The big blocks are great thermally and i would like to use them but the khmers do not know how to lay them.I want a steel colorbond roof instead of tiles with lots of insulation under the steel and on top of the ceiling.

I expect the pool to cost 20k and the house 30k,it is very cheap to build here.

Anyone here who has built with blocks in thialnd who can advise me?