Edited for Alexandra Bless
A strange thing is happening to the tour business in Cambodia's second largest city. The sleepy town of Battambang is becoming known for its Khmerican service.
Chan isn't here by choice. He is one of 538 legal permanent residents of the United States who, after running afoul of U.S. law, were deported to Cambodia.
The Cambodian deportees are dumped in the capital of Phnom Penh, where they've often had a hard time finding their place.
A big man with a bald head, Mam talks relatively openly about the years he spent behind bars for drug dealing, breaking and entering and other "stuff like that."
Ry Mam operates a lounge restaurant that serves pancakes, bacon cheeseburgers and the kind of Cuban sandwiches he ate as a kid in southern California. Mam prefers English to the local Khmer language and feels most at home with fellow exiles, expats and tourists.
Nheb Thai, did time for first-degree burglary in the United States before landing in Cambodia in 2003.
Others, about 14, have ended up back in jail. Two have taken their lives.
Full article http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsod ... -get-aheadThe Khmericans have a reputation of keeping their American street culture, something that causes friction with locals who are not accustomed to heavily tattooed people who speak in slang and wear baseball hats and baggy shorts.