The three most frequent words in Khmer language are NO! NO! NO! Means: no have, no can, no want, no care. That is truly Khmer! There is an equivalent gesture with the hand, turning it with the ankle to and fro a couple of times. I often see that already from 50m away, when Khmers see me coming and don't want any contact with a foreigner. Most of them are not exactly people who like to help, and xenophobia is clearly widespread.

Impudent and dull beyond imagination, there is usually an ambition for 'good business' (easy money) in the air. 'Farang pays, Khmer takes' is the basic attitude, and any fraud and cheat is good enough.

Cambodians are mostly illiterates. There is no literature here, no culture, nothing. Cambodia is a mental desert. Signing a contract has to be done with a thumbprint.

When being around in the countryside, many of the kids I see behave illmannered. The usual 'Hello, hello!' appears in many variations. 'Hello you!', 'Hello farang!', 'Hello money!' (shortform: 'Money!'), 'Hello pay!', 'What's your name?' and more. Also that: 'I want to fuck you!' (heared from eight years old boys). One afternoon, girls of about ten years old from Kampong Bey School in Kampot asked me repeatedly: 'Can I fuck you?'. They couldn't stop giggling and laughing. Drug abuse, by the way, is rampant also among the youngest.

prettyvacant wrote: ↑Sun May 06, 2018 2:10 am Most definitely a glass-half-empty kind of guy. And he has really put a lot of effort into funnelling all that bitterness into text. Fascinating reading.

dron wrote: ↑Sun May 06, 2018 2:59 am You have to respect his organizational skills at least though. He broke his critique down into well defined sections LOL

dron wrote: ↑Sun May 06, 2018 2:59 am You have to respect his organizational skills at least though. He broke his critique down into well defined sections LOL

Gilmore wrote: ↑Sun May 06, 2018 9:09 am When I came here in 2004, the literacy rate was 55%. It is now over 60%. People shouldn't make uninformed statements.