A host of memories passed before my eyes: strolls by moonlight through the temples of Angkor; the warmth and smile of a child’s face. Aspects of Cambodia which are true and good. I always hope the perfect combination of time, place and love that made Indo-China unique, a Paradise for me, will come together again. I am ever hopeful, but how difficult it is to believe that it ever can.
On Being Back
Jon Swain, River of Time, Epilogue:
- spitthedog
- Is the World Outside still there ?
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Well, now that's just being sarcastic now isn't it.Miguelito wrote: ↑Mon Jul 22, 2019 9:16 amI'm trying to nail down the formula that seems to be what all the nostalgia is about:
Other white people: There should be a large handful of expats living in the same city. There should be enough to fill a few bars, but not too many so that you're not meeting new faces too frequently when you go out. Any tourism is frowned upon, especially from a younger generation that could be deemed backpackers, hipsters, etc.
Safety: There should be a hint of danger, but little to no actual danger. One should be able to get pissed drunk and home safely at any time of night, but there's always the chance that if one were to pass out drunk on the street they could be robbed.
Electricity: Full working electricity and internet is discouraged. There should be enough each day to get some A/C, and work and check the internet, etc, but cut outs need to occur.
Traffic: The streets should be enough of a mess that they would scare your grandmother back home, but not too much as to cause gridlocks. They should be generally safe enough to ride your moto around drunk.
Scenery: It should be dirty and ugly. Not a cesspool like a Haitian street on a midsummer day after a hurricane, but one must need to watch what they might step in. Fresh paint on buildings is discouraged.
Economy: The average wage for earners should be about 1/40th of the wage of respectable expats, or 1/10th the wage of TEFLers. Locals should not be able to afford nice cars or to dine out at the few nice hotels or Western restaurants, and obviously cannot afford international travel. Typical jobs for locals should be menial, with office workers as the exception.
Hookers: These are a must. They need to be cheap and plentiful, with enough options that you're not shagging your mate's ex and there's a variety cycling through the bars every few months to keep it interesting. A few ladyboy bars too, for good measure.
How does the above sound? Have I got it down?
I reckon there is beauty in decaying shitholes though.
Loving the older imperfect stone cottages here in Ireland, over the newer Barbie & Ken houses, with perfectly manicured lawns and imaqulate driveways.
I wonder whether part of peoples problem with the rapid change is that it all feels abit unreal? SHV is not really a proper town anymore for example. Even Yatingpong says so.
Phnom Pehn's property market does not really reflect the state of the average khmer's lifestyle no? So Riverside aside, aesthetically when you look at the place, has it become abit fake/ugly in parts? The life has gone out of the place in parts.
I can be an unsociable cont, but it's nice to see abit of life when i go out.
The fun has gone out of Bangkok last time i was there. Locals didnt look jolly.
They are definitely under the cosh. Almost anti small business establishment i would say. You used to see average Thais sitting next to yoy having a beer. Abit of a rare sight now in BKK.
Vientiane, didnt feel like a thriving real town either last time i was there. Mutton dressed up as lamb i reckon. Where is everleebody?
My day off work today.
Fark, €5 for a pint of Irish Black Panther. Criminal.
Gonna miss the Kingdom of Wonder this evening. Ahhh nostalgia.
"I don't care what the people are thinking, i ain't drunk i'm just drinking"
This. Exactly as I felt when I first arrived, even as late as 2011... so different from being a 9 to 5 statistic in my nanny state home country.... nicely writtenPlayboy wrote: ↑Tue Jul 16, 2019 2:49 pmEdC are still cunts.
GavinMac probably still wonders about what areas of town to avoid.
The early 00s were a fun and exciting time to be here. As has been mentioned by others it was a much smaller, and closer knit, Expat community. Most of us knew each other, knew who we could, and more importantly who we could not, rely upon in a tight pinch.
All of this change and chaos was simultaneously going on, along with the inherent difficulties of living in a foreign country, with a foreign culture, and a language that we nearly spoke. Along with the additional challenges of it being a third world country back then.
There was little Internet and no smartphones, no Facebook expat groups being used as an instant
Cambodia concierge.
No Google maps, little to no GPS.
It was wild, it was exciting, there was a hint of danger.
There was shit on the streets, there was broken tarmac roads, there was only electricity sometimes.
We did not live like kings, but we explored as adventurers, wondering both in delight and horror at the new challenges that we faced head on and (sometimes) overcame.
We loved, we lost. We climbed back on horses and tried again.
By God, we lived - not existed !
- zehner
- I live above an internet cafe
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I lived there for 6 months in 2002.
Began at a ramshackle establishment on lakeside "owned" by an African immigrant with a Khmer wife. We haggled over the dollar a night price of the oven-like rooms but spent most days in the hammocks eminently stoned. The area was a shithole. I recall changing $50 once at the stall next to the great baguette seller and had to give most of the larger notes back as she tried to fob her torn notes off onto me. Laughs galore. I learned after a while that you could pass off the damaged bills at the petrol station on the main road across from lakeside as the staff were not allowed to refuse them. Popcorn aplenty.
Decided I liked it there so got a "job" at Asian Pacific International School. The Head was a South-African guy with a love for himself and the assistant Head was a Nigerian lad who drive an old battered Mercedes Benz. Later on an Aussie guy came onto the scene who had enthusiasm but was generally ignored by most of us. The journey there in the morning was epic as we got an apartment around the corner from Freebird so had to direct the motodops in my broken Khmer. Rooms packed to the ceiling and little in the way of air-con and resources. I had the pleasure of teaching little Mr Kok. In our first pay raise meeting I was summoned to meet the Taiwanese overlord in his cooled cubicle of ubermensch bliss and duly given a 50c raise. My friend was handed a cool $1. Never has the difference seemed such a chasm since.
Freebird was great if you were American and wanted to talk to the owner. I drank their cheap early-bird beers and chatted with the superhot barmaid. Bought $10 bags of dope from the Pink Elephant (one ounce) which kept us going for the week. We played pool in Howies and rolled up joints outside...sometimes we bought extra items from the motodops to add to the buzz. The Walkabout was a dump back then. We had a few drinks in the Irish bar around the corner. An English guy with loads of ring medallions ran it. He was dead a few weeks later from a heroin OD. Another Canadian teacher turned up dead in his crusty riverside apartment soon after. Also heroin.
It was an amazing time to be in PP but there was a lot of darkness too.
Began at a ramshackle establishment on lakeside "owned" by an African immigrant with a Khmer wife. We haggled over the dollar a night price of the oven-like rooms but spent most days in the hammocks eminently stoned. The area was a shithole. I recall changing $50 once at the stall next to the great baguette seller and had to give most of the larger notes back as she tried to fob her torn notes off onto me. Laughs galore. I learned after a while that you could pass off the damaged bills at the petrol station on the main road across from lakeside as the staff were not allowed to refuse them. Popcorn aplenty.
Decided I liked it there so got a "job" at Asian Pacific International School. The Head was a South-African guy with a love for himself and the assistant Head was a Nigerian lad who drive an old battered Mercedes Benz. Later on an Aussie guy came onto the scene who had enthusiasm but was generally ignored by most of us. The journey there in the morning was epic as we got an apartment around the corner from Freebird so had to direct the motodops in my broken Khmer. Rooms packed to the ceiling and little in the way of air-con and resources. I had the pleasure of teaching little Mr Kok. In our first pay raise meeting I was summoned to meet the Taiwanese overlord in his cooled cubicle of ubermensch bliss and duly given a 50c raise. My friend was handed a cool $1. Never has the difference seemed such a chasm since.
Freebird was great if you were American and wanted to talk to the owner. I drank their cheap early-bird beers and chatted with the superhot barmaid. Bought $10 bags of dope from the Pink Elephant (one ounce) which kept us going for the week. We played pool in Howies and rolled up joints outside...sometimes we bought extra items from the motodops to add to the buzz. The Walkabout was a dump back then. We had a few drinks in the Irish bar around the corner. An English guy with loads of ring medallions ran it. He was dead a few weeks later from a heroin OD. Another Canadian teacher turned up dead in his crusty riverside apartment soon after. Also heroin.
It was an amazing time to be in PP but there was a lot of darkness too.
- Petrol Head
- Grand Poobah
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- I live above an internet cafe
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Haha, that's very good. My friend who used to live in Phnom Penh around the early naughties, said that the overall feeling he had was one of anticipation. I think he meant waiting for something, anything to happen. Sounds pretty boring to me. I'm sure it had its high points though, in between all the waiting...Miguelito wrote: ↑Mon Jul 22, 2019 9:16 amI'm trying to nail down the formula that seems to be what all the nostalgia is about:
Other white people: There should be a large handful of expats living in the same city. There should be enough to fill a few bars, but not too many so that you're not meeting new faces too frequently when you go out. Any tourism is frowned upon, especially from a younger generation that could be deemed backpackers, hipsters, etc.
Safety: There should be a hint of danger, but little to no actual danger. One should be able to get pissed drunk and home safely at any time of night, but there's always the chance that if one were to pass out drunk on the street they could be robbed.
Electricity: Full working electricity and internet is discouraged. There should be enough each day to get some A/C, and work and check the internet, etc, but cut outs need to occur.
Traffic: The streets should be enough of a mess that they would scare your grandmother back home, but not too much as to cause gridlocks. They should be generally safe enough to ride your moto around drunk.
Scenery: It should be dirty and ugly. Not a cesspool like a Haitian street on a midsummer day after a hurricane, but one must need to watch what they might step in. Fresh paint on buildings is discouraged.
Economy: The average wage for earners should be about 1/40th of the wage of respectable expats, or 1/10th the wage of TEFLers. Locals should not be able to afford nice cars or to dine out at the few nice hotels or Western restaurants, and obviously cannot afford international travel. Typical jobs for locals should be menial, with office workers as the exception.
Hookers: These are a must. They need to be cheap and plentiful, with enough options that you're not shagging your mate's ex and there's a variety cycling through the bars every few months to keep it interesting. A few ladyboy bars too, for good measure.
How does the above sound? Have I got it down?
- spitthedog
- Is the World Outside still there ?
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Give it another 10 years and Angkor Wat will have a stair lift and a place to park your mobility scooter.
I'm so hardcore i visited the temple in the days when you had no hand rail for support. Expat 0.5 Ernesto Che Guevara.
What was that rustic bar in SHV (ran by a German guy?) called, which they knocked down and replaced it with Lucky Ocean supermarket....which has become a Chinky nightclub..? He used to give the odd free Jagermeister shots.
The Kingdom of Wonder started to become abit unhinged around the same time that Spicy Dallow fellow told us the place was full of professional people. Then the dodgy Chinky money came like B52 carpet bombing.
Professional people.
Bwahahahaha!
Oh, the suns out on the coast of baaayuuuteefull Co Kerry as i gaze out across the ocean towards the mountains.
Get out while you can! Cambodia is no country for old men.
I'm so hardcore i visited the temple in the days when you had no hand rail for support. Expat 0.5 Ernesto Che Guevara.
What was that rustic bar in SHV (ran by a German guy?) called, which they knocked down and replaced it with Lucky Ocean supermarket....which has become a Chinky nightclub..? He used to give the odd free Jagermeister shots.
The Kingdom of Wonder started to become abit unhinged around the same time that Spicy Dallow fellow told us the place was full of professional people. Then the dodgy Chinky money came like B52 carpet bombing.
Professional people.
Bwahahahaha!
Oh, the suns out on the coast of baaayuuuteefull Co Kerry as i gaze out across the ocean towards the mountains.
Get out while you can! Cambodia is no country for old men.
"I don't care what the people are thinking, i ain't drunk i'm just drinking"
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