Big Changes on the Stan Front

After six years in Phnom Penh I’m beginning to feel brow-beaten by the noise, traffic and intensity of the capital. Of course, it’s not just me that has changed. Not only has the urbanized area grown dramatically, there are easily twice as many vehicles in the city. It’s practically axiomatic that the more vehicles there are the faster people drive, the more they blow their horns in frustration and, of particular pertinence to myself, the closer they come to you when you are walking in the street because there’s no sidewalk available for pedestrian use.

My apartment, my personal space, sits on a dead end alley and thus is an oasis of peace. There are many construction projects happening close by so it’s noisy at times, but that still doesn’t materially detract from my comfort level. If I could just hole up until nighttime when the city turns peaceful and the sidewalks are cleared for my use, I wouldn’t feel the same pressure or need to move on. In fact, I time my daily errands to low traffic times – 10 till 3 – and don’t venture out of my little oasis at peak hours unless I can’t avoid it.

There are many things I like about Phnom Penh. It’s really a very livable city by many standards, especially for Asia, but the one attribute it totally lacks, which strongly affects my livability, is access to natural spaces. It has sufficient and very nice formal parks – especially in my neighborhood – which is fine, but I crave places that are relatively untampered with by humans. Such natural areas simply don’t exist in the city, or anywhere within reasonable distance. So, with the aid of some newly found financial independence, I took to pondering possibilities for a change of venue.

On that score I could think of no better provincial area than Kampot to hang my hat. It’s about 150 kilometers from PP, and easy to get to by taxi or bus. Even better, before too long the train will be refurbished and running again. It has a great ambiance with lots of historic buildings, quiet streets and a laid back lifestyle. It sits on a large tidal river with some pretty decent little mountains nearby as a backdrop and Kep and the sea are only 24 kilometers away.

Ride no more than 10 minutes by bicycle in any direction and you’re in the country. The only time I’d ride a bike in Phnom Penh is early Sunday morning – say 6 to 10am – when traffic is sparse and drivers most likely sober. In contrast, in Kampot I feel totally relaxed: there I sometimes ride more slowly than I typically walk in the capital (only slight exaggeration there). And though it’s only a petty annoyance, being on bicycle there relieves me of being solicited by motorcycle taxi drivers, “moto, sir?”, three or four times for every minute of walking, as is the case in Phnom Penh.

All told, I feel I must get some respite from the intensity of the big city so I’m in process of buying land about 4 k’s outside of Kampot. Last summer in the states I was inspired by visiting some very beautiful gardens, so, assuming all goes according to plan, I expect to fill that .75 acre – .3 hectare – with plants and spend a good part of my sunset years doting over them.

Unfortunately, I can’t just move there because living in Kampot has a couple of serious drawbacks. For one, I have a lot of friends in the capitol. Equally important, I’m addicted to Phnom Penh’s nightlife. As a result, I’m beginning a very slow transition, renting places in both cities and doing some long distance commuting every week or so. In any case it’ll take several months to build a house and make it livable. Hopefully, in the meantime, Kampot will develop some nightlife. Alternatively, I’ll bring friends with me.

Rent in Phnom Penh is so little – $140 month – I may wind up keeping the apartment even after the house is finished (assuming I have any money left in a few years). I’ll probably always want to spend time in the city. Meanwhile, I’ve got lots of thoroughly boring, when not unpleasant, bus or taxi riding to do going back and forth. It’s almost tempting to buy an old Corolla or compact pickup truck. However, considering how much I don’t like driving in Portland, where it is a thousand times saner than here in Cambodia, it’d be kind of a stretch to do much of it here… but life is always full of changes and challenges so time will tell.

I’m getting a pretty good deal on the land considering prices in the area have been rising spectacularly in the last couple of years. It’s a nice little piece with quite a few decent trees on it; some as old as 40 or 50 years. Here a very basic – but entirely sufficient for my needs – 600 sq. ft. house – equivalent to a small 2 bedroom apartment – can be built for seven or eight grand.

There’s no permit process that I know of and certainly no building codes so that part is simple. Not so easy is getting workmen to do quality work, or even follow directions, especially with some serious language disconnects.

I’ll expect to pay a bunch more to equip it with solar; looks like it might cost between four and five thousand dollars. Utility lines are nearby so I really wouldn’t have to go solar, but I should try to abide by my own principles. Electricity in Kampot is up around 30 cents a kilowatt hour, three or four times what it costs in Portland, Oregon but my use is so minimal it still would run me only about $20 month… at current rates a very long payback for the solar.

However, considering the likely cost of fossil fuels in the near future and that 90% of Cambodia’s juice comes from that source, prices could go through the roof. Even worse will be availability: shortages go hand in hand with high prices. The country is looking to greatly increase its hydropower but that energy dries up with the hot dry season which starts in February. Because of air-conditioning, the use of which is growing rapidly, that coincides with when the power is needed most. Add the likelihood of climate-change-driven drought and I really should do the right thing and go with the sun.

All in all a fascinating and exciting prospect: the opportunity to design and create a little rent-free, self-sufficient tropical Eden to wile and laze away a few good years. At least until the world goes to shit, as I’ve confidently predicted will happen before we know it. Will Cambodia be a safe place during those trying times? Really hard to say, but the one most important thing it has going for it is that it’s a very watery place. The worst drought will only mean digging a little deeper. Ground water in the area is only about 5 meters below the surface.

The are nonetheless frightening aspects to this venture. Not least is Cambodia itself. While it is now a very stable and harmonious place, that obviously has not always been the case. Who knows what possible social upheavals may be in store. There’s also a technical problem in that only Cambodian nationals are allowed to own land here. This is gotten around by putting the property in a local friend’s name and having them lease it back on long terms, say 50 to 100 years.

It is entirely possible, even probable, that the property will appreciate in price over the next few years, especially considering the pace of development in the area. But I’ve also seen property values go down so nothing is certain.

For another thing it will substantially eat into my stash: if the project doesn’t go according to plan, I could be back depending exclusively on social security in no time at all, assuming, that is, I’m not a famous author by the time the stash runs out. (Judging by Y3K book sales to date a very longshot prospect. By the way, I should remind you that, having gotten this far in this article, you must like my writing and therefore you are sure to like my novel Y3K. You can get it in Portland at Powell’s on Hawthorne or online. I’ll also gladly send a free copy on request, since that currently is my only means of promoting it.)

Furthermore, it will be mountains of work and oodles of hassles setting up a house and property from scratch for someone who’s gotten used to and has been thoroughly enjoying being really, really lazy. At any rate, this life change feels very strong and inevitable – every time I arrive in Kampot I feel a tremendous sense of relief – so I’m going for it.

Stan Kahn