PP vs Siem Reap
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PP vs Siem Reap
What are the pros and cons of each? I may not end up staying long term in either but I would like to learn more about older expat life in each. I won't be looking for the best bar girls or massages with happy endings, but I do like open bar karaoke, and decent pool tables. I also like open air parks for relaxing and running. I also like fishing, but not like a lot of the places in Thailand where it was all catch and release in pay lakes and ponds.
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Purely from a running perspective SR is better. I do run a little and like the fact that in Temple Town I am out in the fields in no time. PP is more of a challenge and, when there, I head out real early before the traffic kicks in. Fishing is possible, lots of locals fish for Snakehead. Not sure what open bar Karaoke is so cannot help there.
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When I was first transferred to SR, I disliked it intensely. Now, after a few years here in SR, I regard it as my 'home'.
I regard PP as a 'concrete-paved metropolis'. Now. For me, Siem Reap encapsulates the je ne sais quoi that PP used to when I first arrived there in 2001. I am not entirely sure why, but it is, as the OP suggests, connected with wider open spaces and a more relaxed lifestyle.
I might add that I used to love Bangkok, but I now despise it for similar reasons.
I regard PP as a 'concrete-paved metropolis'. Now. For me, Siem Reap encapsulates the je ne sais quoi that PP used to when I first arrived there in 2001. I am not entirely sure why, but it is, as the OP suggests, connected with wider open spaces and a more relaxed lifestyle.
I might add that I used to love Bangkok, but I now despise it for similar reasons.
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Siem Reap has a pleasant enough central part with a stream running through it. Pretty much everything about the city revolves around the tourist industry. There are plenty of crap looking parts too, National Route 6 for example is just an endless line of 5-star hotels, construction sites and derelict hotels. Many of the side roads are just muddy tracks. Siem Reap province is one of the poorest in the country so the surrounding countryside is in abject poverty. The city's population is mainly made up by transients and tourists.
Phnom Penh by contrast is a whole lot bigger and more built up, but it has a pleasant enough central part with some large rivers. As the capital it is the seat of government but it's also the most important place for trade, commerce and industry in the country. There are some areas where you will see plenty of tourists and foreigners, but even in those areas locals still make up the main population and most people are not reliant on the passing tourist business. It's not always the most pretty place but it's a real, living city rather than just a hub for tourists to visit temples from.
Phnom Penh by contrast is a whole lot bigger and more built up, but it has a pleasant enough central part with some large rivers. As the capital it is the seat of government but it's also the most important place for trade, commerce and industry in the country. There are some areas where you will see plenty of tourists and foreigners, but even in those areas locals still make up the main population and most people are not reliant on the passing tourist business. It's not always the most pretty place but it's a real, living city rather than just a hub for tourists to visit temples from.
Romantic Cambodia is dead and gone. It's with McKinley in the grave.
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Thank you all. I have lived in LA, Detroit, and Miami, and loved parts of being in the big cities; but most of all I have loved living in the country, not far from a small to medium sized city where I could find some of the things I enjoyed in a city and still be not too far from country life. In the Philippines I lived about 40 minutes from Mati and 90 min. from Davao City. IN Thailand I lived in Chiang Mai, then about 5 min from Udon Thani on a farm. I liked Udon Thani but was called home to USA to help my brother. Are there any rural areas close to PP or Siem Reap where houses can be rented fr a reasonable fee? I see lots of 1 bedroom apts/flats there for under $400 that are very nice, the same in Siem Reap, but I like a rural house better.
Open bar karaoke is a bar where anyone can sing, not just a room where you sing to just your friends, or a girlie bar where you just go to get laid. I ran a karaoke like that in an American owned bar in Chiang Mai for a while and really got to like it.
Open bar karaoke is a bar where anyone can sing, not just a room where you sing to just your friends, or a girlie bar where you just go to get laid. I ran a karaoke like that in an American owned bar in Chiang Mai for a while and really got to like it.
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Not really true anymore, I actually miss those dirt roads. Thanks to the Chinese, who do not want their tourists to get bounced around, pretty much everything has been paved now.Many of the side roads are just muddy tracks.
Agree with the
but this is true for PP, too; just head along the railway lines for a couple of hundred meters.so the surrounding countryside is in abject poverty
Never seen an open bar Karaoke in Temple Town but then, admittedly, I never looked.
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Yeah I'm not sure why or where this "Siem Riep is so poor" spiel started from. I'm sure it might have been statistically true in 2000 or whatever, but the place hasn't been visibly poorer than other parts of rural Cambodia for a long time. I always got the feeling it was one of those half-truths that NGOs touted to tourists to help with fundraising, along with the usual "30% of women in Cambodia have been sold into sex slavery" and so on.
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Agreed. There is poverty no doubt, especially among the ethnic Vietnamese, but I never felt it was hugely more prevalent than in other areas.LexusSchmexus wrote:Yeah I'm not sure why or where this "Siem Riep is so poor" spiel started from. I'm sure it might have been statistically true in 2000 or whatever, but the place hasn't been visibly poorer than other parts of rural Cambodia for a long time. I always got the feeling it was one of those half-truths that NGOs touted to tourists to help with fundraising, along with the usual "30% of women in Cambodia have been sold into sex slavery" and so on.
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Charles Lindbergh
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Poverty has been very easy to find in almost every part of Asia I have visited so far, the only exception being Hong Kong, but I was only there for a week and stayed only in the nicer neighborhoods. I am sure there were areas there not so nice too.
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Let us remember that there is a large difference between Siem Reap Municipality and Siem Reap Province.
People who quote that 'Siem Reap is one of the poorest areas in Cambodia' should actually be saying that 'Siem Reap Province is one of the poorest areas'
There are nearly 1,000 villages in Siem Reap, most of which consist of substance level farmers and fishermen.
People who quote that 'Siem Reap is one of the poorest areas in Cambodia' should actually be saying that 'Siem Reap Province is one of the poorest areas'
There are nearly 1,000 villages in Siem Reap, most of which consist of substance level farmers and fishermen.
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Indeed, but the-oft quoted "Siem Reap Province" is the poorest province in Cambodia all seems to be based on old data. Obviously, a lot of the money being made in the city makes its way into the surrounding Province. When I worked in SR, few of the staff came from Siem Reap town proper and on some of the visits to their villages I would be shown the land they purchased/house they built/vegetable farm they had established.Playboy wrote:Let us remember that there is a large difference between Siem Reap Municipality and Siem Reap Province.
People who quote that 'Siem Reap is one of the poorest areas in Cambodia' should actually be saying that 'Siem Reap Province is one of the poorest areas'
There are nearly 1,000 villages in Siem Reap, most of which consist of substance level farmers and fishermen.
"I realized that If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes."
Charles Lindbergh
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I am definitely leaning toward Siem Reap for the more relaxed lifestyle. Are there any decent month to month apt.? That would give me time to look around for a house to rent that is not in the city proper. Does anyone have any idea how far out you can get decent internet?
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That is exactly what I was trying to say:Playboy wrote:Let us remember that there is a large difference between Siem Reap Municipality and Siem Reap Province.
People who quote that 'Siem Reap is one of the poorest areas in Cambodia' should actually be saying that 'Siem Reap Province is one of the poorest areas'
There are nearly 1,000 villages in Siem Reap, most of which consist of substance level farmers and fishermen.
Maybe it's not true anymore but last time I was there I went to a few crappy rural parts and they didn't look too affluent.Lucky Lucan wrote: Siem Reap province is one of the poorest in the country so the surrounding countryside (of the city)is in abject poverty.
I was there last year and there were plenty of messed-up roads just off NR6.Hanno wrote:Not really true anymore, I actually miss those dirt roads.
Romantic Cambodia is dead and gone. It's with McKinley in the grave.
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