Great story of a Khmer guy who saw an opportunity, seized his chance, and worked hard to better himself.

Das leben ist gut! The career of a German-speaking guide in Siem Reap
3 October 2017
“Fear is inevitable at first”, says tour guide Soeun Chamnan. He’s recalling the experience of shepherding a group of well-built, long-nosed, white-skinned foreigners around for the first time.

Chamnan has been a tour guide for twenty years in Siem Reap and knows Angkor-era history, and the layout of the huge city site like the back of his hand. However, as a local, he is also intimately familiar with the traditions and lifestyle of local people, and for the German tourists he guides this makes him a mine of fascinating tid-bits of information.

Reminiscing about his first experiences has a tour guide, Chamnan says: “I was scared at first because I didn’t know foreign languages so well. Also, I couldn’t yet remember the history of all the areas in Angkor zone. It made me feel quite insecure.”

After working as an English-speaking guide for a few years in the early 1990s, Chamnan learned that there was a real high demand and a big market for German-speaking tour guides...
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