I think that none of these people have ever been to Basingstoke if they think Cambodia is hell. In fairness, Cambodia is a love it or loathe it kind of place and a lot depends on your tastes and where you visit. Every time I meet someone heading Snookie way, for example, I can gauge within 30 seconds as to what their final impression of Cambodia will be. Siem Reap too. I rarely meet anyone who says; "Cambodia?" *shrugs* "It was OK, I guess."

HE is totally right.

The foreign media about Cambodia is 90%...

1. Describing the country as though the KR fell last year and civil war was ongoing.
2. Reminding the reader about pedophilia and sex trafficking in every second paragraph.
3. Making reference to the corrupt and dictatorial nature of Khmer society in the few spaces that are not taken up by the first two.

The other 10% is hipster travel articles with piles of temple, elephant and smiling child photos.

TheGrinchSR wrote:I think that none of these people have ever been to Basingstoke if they think Cambodia is hell.

Comment from someone on Basingstoke
"i went to basingstoke for the first time ever today. I still feel traumatised like i'd walked into a budget episode of bladerunner. I have a phobia of tower blocks and aggressive people so i guess it was like my worst nitemare. Sorry but i don't think i can ever return unless its in a blacked out van under sedation.. what have we done to this country..."http://www.knowhere.co.uk/Basingstoke/H ... info/stuff

Some comments on present day Britain
"Gangs and gun crime are growing by the day, you are scared to walk out of a night now and yuv got one of these chavvy c**t belends after you making youre life hell, in croxteth liverpool, "rhyse jones" died for nothing, for walking home from junor football practice, "James Bulger" got mursdered by two lads Thompson and Venebles for nout, absolutely nothing all that liitle lad did and god bless him, is amke the god damn mistake of walking away from his mother, to these two s**t bastard, retatrted people who got 7 years for doing what they did?, they should be locked inside for life and the key thrown away, whether they were 10 years old or 100 yeras old, that was off the f*****g ricter scale and they need to be brought to justice and justice for that family needs to be brought to life, i could go on all day, but there you have it folks."http://www.ilivehere.co.uk/broke-britain.html

No desire to leave Phnom Penh although I suspect that the increasing traffic insanity and recently instigated police road checkpoints might get me eventually

Kuroneko wrote:

Welcome to the Hotels in Cambodia
Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
They livin' it up at the Hotels in Cambodia
What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise)
Bring your alibis

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the ‘plane
I had to find the passage back
to the place I was
before I went insane
"Relax, " said the night man,
"We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave! "

with apology to the Eagles

Now that's some real hot catz.

Well done. I personally like to equate 'this place with a black hole that has slippery edges. You can slide in easily enough, but just try getting out again. I remember I felt a tremendous sense of releif the last time I made it out. Then I came back for a quick holiday. Nearly two years later...

Still, off to the Nam in the net few days, not sure if I'll make it or not though - It's just a feeling I get. Didn't use to get it in Vietnam, but there I could save money without losing weight.

maybe hell for a silver spoon tourist? or the modern day flashpacker,
im not overlooking the fact that there is a hell of a lot of poverty/people that earn peanuts and corruption, but one thing i love about the khmer people is that they are so well adapted and just get on with shit, get a standard western person to live a week/month as a poorer end khmer and they'd probably top them sen

Jamie_Lambo wrote:maybe hell for a silver spoon tourist? or the modern day flashpacker,
im not overlooking the fact that there is a hell of a lot of poverty/people that earn peanuts and corruption, but one thing i love about the khmer people is that they are so well adapted and just get on with shit, get a standard western person to live a week/month as a poorer end khmer and they'd probably top them sen

A lot of people have no concept of what living in hell would be like. I would think being a Yazidi in an area under Isis control would be about there or thereabouts. Cambodia's not easy but then again nowhere is but with "Western advantages" at your command - Cambodia can only really be hell if you put yourself there. Try being a Khmer sleeping in a $20 space in a packed room with wafer thin walls and worrying that all your meager possessions will be nicked during the night and it might be hell but sipping 50 cent Angkors and worrying about the price of pineapples doesn't even come close.

TheGrinchSR wrote:

Jamie_Lambo wrote:maybe hell for a silver spoon tourist? or the modern day flashpacker,
im not overlooking the fact that there is a hell of a lot of poverty/people that earn peanuts and corruption, but one thing i love about the khmer people is that they are so well adapted and just get on with shit, get a standard western person to live a week/month as a poorer end khmer and they'd probably top them sen

A lot of people have no concept of what living in hell would be like. I would think being a Yazidi in an area under Isis control would be about there or thereabouts. Cambodia's not easy but then again nowhere is but with "Western advantages" at your command - Cambodia can only really be hell if you put yourself there. Try being a Khmer sleeping in a $20 space in a packed room with wafer thin walls and worrying that all your meager possessions will be nicked during the night and it might be hell but sipping 50 cent Angkors and worrying about the price of pineapples doesn't even come close.

I was living in a 50 usa dollar per month room when i was at the college. It was so hard as the room is so small and i have got so many stuff. Everything including kitchen and restroom are in one single room. However imagine those factory workers who have to share a tiny room together.

TheGrinchSR wrote:

Jamie_Lambo wrote:maybe hell for a silver spoon tourist? or the modern day flashpacker,
im not overlooking the fact that there is a hell of a lot of poverty/people that earn peanuts and corruption, but one thing i love about the khmer people is that they are so well adapted and just get on with shit, get a standard western person to live a week/month as a poorer end khmer and they'd probably top them sen

A lot of people have no concept of what living in hell would be like. I would think being a Yazidi in an area under Isis control would be about there or thereabouts. Cambodia's not easy but then again nowhere is but with "Western advantages" at your command - Cambodia can only really be hell if you put yourself there. Try being a Khmer sleeping in a $20 space in a packed room with wafer thin walls and worrying that all your meager possessions will be nicked during the night and it might be hell but sipping 50 cent Angkors and worrying about the price of pineapples doesn't even come close.

exactly
cambodia has been through hell though in the not so distant past, but its come a long way since

i didnt bother reading what its all implying tbh, is this meant to be about it being hell for foreigners living in cambodia or cambodians living in cambodia? i can imagine for a good 20% of the population at least, that the poverty is that bad it would be hell (there isnt bombs going off but poverty and poverty related diseases kills more people than what bombs do) but for foreigners its not even close, cambodia is westernized enough to easily get by, what i would pay for a night in a cheap hotel in england would get me on some 5* resort out here, not my idea of hell

Samouth wrote:

TheGrinchSR wrote:

Jamie_Lambo wrote:maybe hell for a silver spoon tourist? or the modern day flashpacker,
im not overlooking the fact that there is a hell of a lot of poverty/people that earn peanuts and corruption, but one thing i love about the khmer people is that they are so well adapted and just get on with shit, get a standard western person to live a week/month as a poorer end khmer and they'd probably top them sen

A lot of people have no concept of what living in hell would be like. I would think being a Yazidi in an area under Isis control would be about there or thereabouts. Cambodia's not easy but then again nowhere is but with "Western advantages" at your command - Cambodia can only really be hell if you put yourself there. Try being a Khmer sleeping in a $20 space in a packed room with wafer thin walls and worrying that all your meager possessions will be nicked during the night and it might be hell but sipping 50 cent Angkors and worrying about the price of pineapples doesn't even come close.

I was living in a 50 usa dollar per month room when i was at the college. It was so hard as the room is so small and i have got so many stuff. Everything including kitchen and restroom are in one single room. However imagine those factory workers who have to share a tiny room together.

driving past them factories on the outskirts of the pig penh around 4-6pm it always blows my mind, the vast scale, the sheer numbers of girls working in them factories, getting piled into them wagons to be taken back to the villages, its tough, theres nothing like that in the UK no british woman would go through that for $80-170 per month!