Expat misses Cambodia after repatriating to home country.

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xandreu
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Re: Expat misses Cambodia after repatriating to home country.

Post by xandreu »

Food isn't a problem for me here. I prefer to cook everything myself using ingredients sourced from western suprmarkets. Just like I did at home. It can be an expensive way of eating but there are economical ways of doing it, such as cooking big batches of whatever and freezing it. I just don't trust the majority of street food here and often find myself questioning the source of restaurant food.
The difference between animals and humans is that animals would never allow the dumb ones to lead the pack.
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phuketrichard
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Re: Expat misses Cambodia after repatriating to home country.

Post by phuketrichard »

i dont know what all this is about,
Yes Cambodian food is not up to Thai or Vietnamese cuisine but you will NEVER go hungry,
i cant think of anywhere I have been that i was not able to find; chicken, (or pork) and rice, noodle soup, fried noodles, fried rice and fruit.
The kids, some of them when they are a bit older are spooked by us white guys, so you never know.
i kinda doubt this unless ur referring to 1980
Only in parts of Africa in my past 20 years of traveling have i ever seen kids spooked ( have seen a few babies cry when they saw me but.....) :beer3:
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
taabarang
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Re: Expat misses Cambodia after repatriating to home country.

Post by taabarang »

phuketrichard wrote: Mon Feb 04, 2019 8:23 am i dont know what all this is about,
Yes Cambodian food is not up to Thai or Vietnamese cuisine but you will NEVER go hungry,
i cant think of anywhere I have been that i was not able to find; chicken, (or pork) and rice, noodle soup, fried noodles, fried rice and fruit.
The kids, some of them when they are a bit older are spooked by us white guys, so you never know.
i kinda doubt this unless ur referring to 1980
Only in parts of Africa in my past 20 years of traveling have i ever seen kids spooked ( have seen a few babies cry when they saw me but.....) :beer3:
Not going hungry and eating well are different experiences. They were perhaps synonymous during the Khmer Rouge period.
As my old Cajun bait seller used to say, "I opes you luck.
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nuzen
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Re: Expat misses Cambodia after repatriating to home country.

Post by nuzen »

phuketrichard wrote: Sun Feb 03, 2019 7:08 pm there a saying;
if ur hungry enough you will eat dog and fight for the bone
I did eat a small piece of dog that was in a dish offered to me. Just to be able to say I did.
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nuzen
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Re: Expat misses Cambodia after repatriating to home country.

Post by nuzen »

RickyBobby wrote: Mon Feb 04, 2019 6:54 am I've always found sufficiently good food options here without complaint. I don't take the mystery meat in the big pots and stuff, and a few times I have transplanted a few interesting looking bits to 'her' bowl, but overall I can find good food almost everywhere. I also can keep it simple. Plain rice is available everywhere and so is some barbecue chicken or pork. Bor Bor is always good. When I can, I buy a whole rotisserie chicken, lasts me for a few days.

Recently in Rattanakiri, I went for days being the only westerner in sight. Even there, I found good food at the market and elsewhere. Maybe its just me, but I didn't mind and have no complaints.
Perhaps it's that I not a rice guy. My grain is wheat, as in BREAD, etc. :)
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nuzen
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Re: Expat misses Cambodia after repatriating to home country.

Post by nuzen »

xandreu wrote: Mon Feb 04, 2019 8:14 am Food isn't a problem for me here. I prefer to cook everything myself using ingredients sourced from western suprmarkets. Just like I did at home. It can be an expensive way of eating but there are economical ways of doing it, such as cooking big batches of whatever and freezing it. I just don't trust the majority of street food here and often find myself questioning the source of restaurant food.
That's pretty much how I ate too.
Ricky Dunn
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Re: Expat misses Cambodia after repatriating to home country.

Post by Ricky Dunn »

I have dreams about buying juicy 4 Lb bags of ground beef at Walmart....and then I wake up in PP and get drunk.
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nuzen
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Re: Expat misses Cambodia after repatriating to home country.

Post by nuzen »

Ricky Dunn wrote: Sat Feb 09, 2019 9:36 am I have dreams about buying juicy 4 Lb bags of ground beef at Walmart....and then I wake up in PP and get drunk.
Sounds familiar to me.
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ExPenhMan
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Re: Expat misses Cambodia after repatriating to home country.

Post by ExPenhMan »

RickyBobby wrote: Sun Feb 03, 2019 1:59 am When you leave the west and come to Cambodia, you are irrevocably changed. You never totally feel you belong but then when you go home, you feel the same. No one gets you anymore either. Total shift in values.
Yup, "no one gets you anymore." I would go one step further to say and "I don't give a f**k" whether they do or not. Harsh, but that's how my new life rolls.

RickyBobby says later:
I have talked about Cambodia a lot with my friends and family, I am surprised how uninterested most of them are. Then I just stopped talking about it. The west and consumerism and hamster wheel of life is another strange phenomenon.

I never worked in the KOW, and I feel that if I was plugged in, my experience would have been a lot more positive because I find it hard to stay healthy in mind and body. But, the entire experience of coming here and seeing the world from a whole other perspective has also been pure gold and I wouldn't change if for the world.
I learned after a couple of trips east that people don't want to hear about your new life lessons. I can tell they're just being polite by asking the usual questions. They're not listening, really.

The "hamster wheel of life" in the west becomes very visible on my returns, brief as they are. In fact, my stays started out as a month or more, and have fallen to a mere two weeks. It's not all bad but I know I don't want to be there for long.

Fortunately, I made some decisions before my eastern forays in the early 2000s to downgrade my role as a consumer. Sold off the fancy car and motorbikes, bought a 10-year old shit box, stopped buying this and that. Started shedding debt and finally achieved a positive cash flow. I was able to shed my life as a rent slave and bought a downtown condo. Second best thing I ever did.

Little did I know that I would be using the extra cash to escape to Southeast Asia as often as possible to continue my journey of knowledge about other cultures. It's been the best thing I ever did in my life.

PS I've lived in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. What an education!
Cambo Dear
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Re: Expat misses Cambodia after repatriating to home country.

Post by Cambo Dear »

After five years, meats should no longer be a mystery, especially if you are so plugged into the country and culture. Cambodian food can be great, but not at the 5,000 riel street-side shacks catering for motodops and factory workers. If you are really struggling, grab a copy of Tuttels Cambodian - English Dictionary and ask questions to the waitresses or waiters. They are usually very receptive and patient and will explain dishes. Repatriating to America for the 'good food' is a bit like moving to Scotland for the weather!
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