John Bingham wrote: ↑Mon Nov 19, 2018 8:53 pm

frank lee bent wrote: ↑Mon Nov 19, 2018 7:50 pm Jamie knows the language. That is serious.

I've never met Jamie, but he seems to be transitioning towards spending longer and longer periods here. Eventually he'll get so caught up in the web he will never escape.

Hotdigr wrote: ↑Mon Nov 19, 2018 7:20 pm

John Bingham wrote: ↑Mon Nov 19, 2018 2:25 pm

Beerinthemorning wrote: ↑Mon Nov 19, 2018 1:02 pm so to reach full expat maximum status one must actually have never left KoW over the full span of a decade?

Don't be ridiculous. An expatriate is someone who lives in a country other than the one they were born in. They can travel as much as they like but will be based in a foreign country. You are a tourist - which is someone who goes on holidays. We know you like to make out that you are a wise old hand in Cambodia, but you have never lived or worked here so that's just disingenuous nonsense and nobody is falling for it.

I tend to put people into 3 categories ( you may disagree with the names of the categories, but I think all you long termers know what I mean).
1/ Tourists - here for a quick holiday, may even come for a month or more for a few years, but don't consider it "home". Then they fuk off to the next hot spot.Nothing invested in the country, not real emotions or finances, when they get bored they will leave and never come back. Jamie is a perfect example of this category.
2/ Long term tourists - those blokes you meet regularly. These are the blokes who decide "This is IT.This is my new home" they may even buy a bar and have a girlfriend. But they invariably live in guesthouses long term, eat 3 meals a day out at restaurants, sleep all day and piss up all night (with all that goes with that lifestyle) and never really create a real life here. But you sort of know within a couple of days of meeting them that they just don't have what it takes to may a life here. OR they are younger and just want to keep exploring the world. OD and the General are perfect examples of this category.
3/ What I term as immigrants or long termers - they live here full time pretty much and see it as their home. They make a REAL life here. Work, a real home life, ie: they put down roots. JB is a perfect example of this category.
I'm not saying one group is better then the other, just that all categories are different and are here for different reasons and have different goals for the time they spend here.
Trapper, you know I'm not one of the idiots that pays out on you all the time, just because you put yourself up as an easy target. However, you are and never have been, anything other then a category 1 Tourist. Nothing to be ashamed of mate, but stop pretending you are an immigrant when you ain't mate.

Hotdigr wrote: ↑Mon Nov 19, 2018 7:20 pm … 1/ Tourists - here for a quick holiday, may even come for a month or more for a few years, but don't consider it "home".
… 2/ Long term tourists ... the blokes who decide "This is IT.This is my new home" they may even buy a bar and have a girlfriend (but) they just don't have what it takes to may a life here
… 3/ What I term as immigrants or long termers - they live here full time pretty much and see it as their home. They make a REAL life here. Work, a real home life, ie: they put down roots ...

k*rm*geddon wrote: ↑Tue Nov 20, 2018 2:27 am

Hotdigr wrote: ↑Mon Nov 19, 2018 7:20 pm … 1/ Tourists - here for a quick holiday, may even come for a month or more for a few years, but don't consider it "home".
… 2/ Long term tourists ... the blokes who decide "This is IT.This is my new home" they may even buy a bar and have a girlfriend (but) they just don't have what it takes to may a life here
… 3/ What I term as immigrants or long termers - they live here full time pretty much and see it as their home. They make a REAL life here. Work, a real home life, ie: they put down roots ...

Hotdigr's post is causing introspection.
The conclusion is that I'm both a 1 and a 3, the exact muddle that JUDGEDREDD refers to above.

I came here in 1992 as a 1, expecting just a brief look-see. A former boss who'd got on the oil rigs off Western Australia had contacted me to join him. However, as Cambodia had just reopened, I asked for a grace of several weeks in Phnom Penh first.

But I didn't go back to Australia.
I8 years drifted past.
Marriage, a daughter, and a house (bought way back when they were cheap) all followed. But through that entire duration in Cambodia I regarded it all as a brief holiday before I would return to the real world and get a proper job. The irony is that my job in Cambodia, though one derided on the Khmer forums, was probably the 'most proper' job I'd ever had in my life.

Prior to that it had all been high-paying labouring jobs with intent to accumulate then blow the lot in Southeast Asia, then go back and start again. Over and over, for many, many years, I repeated that pattern.
And Cambodia was the cause of that behaviour. Phnom Penh April 1975 had taught me that the only security in this world is a full stomach … and in just a few short hours you're hungry again.
So I determined to just enjoy life while I could.
I was the Jamie Lambo prototype.

But by the early 1990s it seemed that surely all the world finally grasped the evil and false premises of progressivism, so as my responsibilities in Cambodia grew then so did I change priorities.

And too, I fell into the trap. Life here was so interesting and so different, and things were so easy (particularly when the mindset was that it was all just one long vacation). And with the occasional cheap term-break bus trip to Pattaya providing civilization, then why would anyone want to live anywhere else.

But then from about the early 2000's, Phnom Penh descended into noise, clogging and dust. And, into my sixties, came the realization that the energy levels would eventually deplete and that I was ineligible for any kind of pension.

So though I still maintain a house in PP, I've not lived here for 8 years and only have the occasional visit.
I've got no idea where 'home' is. As JUDGEDREDD puts it, some of us are in total confusion, capable of nothing more than trying to figure it out.
Maybe it's true that most people just bluff it throughout life, not really knowing what we are doing.

k*rm*geddon wrote: ↑Tue Nov 20, 2018 2:27 am

Hotdigr wrote: ↑Mon Nov 19, 2018 7:20 pm … 1/ Tourists - here for a quick holiday, may even come for a month or more for a few years, but don't consider it "home".
… 2/ Long term tourists ... the blokes who decide "This is IT.This is my new home" they may even buy a bar and have a girlfriend (but) they just don't have what it takes to may a life here
… 3/ What I term as immigrants or long termers - they live here full time pretty much and see it as their home. They make a REAL life here. Work, a real home life, ie: they put down roots ...

Hotdigr's post is causing introspection.
The conclusion is that I'm both a 1 and a 3, the exact muddle that JUDGEDREDD refers to above.

I came here in 1992 as a 1, expecting just a brief look-see. A former boss who'd got on the oil rigs off Western Australia had contacted me to join him. However, as Cambodia had just reopened, I asked for a grace of several weeks in Phnom Penh first.

But I didn't go back to Australia.
I8 years drifted past.
Marriage, a daughter, and a house (bought way back when they were cheap) all followed. But through that entire duration in Cambodia I regarded it all as a brief holiday before I would return to the real world and get a proper job. The irony is that my job in Cambodia, though one derided on the Khmer forums, was probably the 'most proper' job I'd ever had in my life.

Prior to that it had all been high-paying labouring jobs with intent to accumulate then blow the lot in Southeast Asia, then go back and start again. Over and over, for many, many years, I repeated that pattern.
And Cambodia was the cause of that behaviour. Phnom Penh April 1975 had taught me that the only security in this world is a full stomach … and in just a few short hours you're hungry again.
So I determined to just enjoy life while I could.
I was the Jamie Lambo prototype.

But by the early 1990s it seemed that surely all the world finally grasped the evil and false premises of progressivism, so as my responsibilities in Cambodia grew then so did I change priorities.

And too, I fell into the trap. Life here was so interesting and so different, and things were so easy (particularly when the mindset was that it was all just one long vacation). And with the occasional cheap term-break bus trip to Pattaya providing civilization, then why would anyone want to live anywhere else.

But then from about the early 2000's, Phnom Penh descended into noise, clogging and dust. And, into my sixties, came the realization that the energy levels would eventually deplete and that I was ineligible for any kind of pension.

So though I still maintain a house in PP, I've not lived here for 8 years and only have the occasional visit.
I've got no idea where 'home' is. As JUDGEDREDD puts it, some of us are in total confusion, capable of nothing more than trying to figure it out.
Maybe it's true that most people just bluff it throughout life, not really knowing what we are doing.

Beerinthemorning wrote: ↑Mon Nov 19, 2018 11:18 am yep, confirmed it.

its been a decade since my first trip to KoW

place has changed alot.

no more wild west feeling, no more walkabout bar , no more lakeside, khmer440 died in the arse, sinoukville expats are either dead , in jail , were pushed out by there landlords or moved to Kampot.

backpackers play facebook on there Iphone X and make VLOGS instead and any geniune travel experince MUST BE recorded and posted online for view and likes.