bong.kuit wrote: ↑Fri May 10, 2019 11:51 am

LIVIDZX wrote: ↑Fri May 10, 2019 11:24 am I went to the pharmacy to buy one strip of alprazolam (xanax) the trainee pharmacist put 'it' on the counter... I paid the $1.25 and off I went. While walking up the road I notice that I'd been given a box rather than a strip so assumed that maybe there was only one strip left in the box or something... but no it was an unopened sealed box of 10 strips (100pills) of Xanax she'd given me. I went back and told them their error of basically selling me $12.25 worth of Xanax for just over a dollar, the owner looked at me stone faced - snatched them off me, opened the box and got me a strip out. Not a single world exchanged on her behalf... I still am glad I didn't take them all home though as I take them like candy as it is.

I guess the loss of face was worth more than ten bucks for her.

Exactly. I’d not be surprised if the “boss” (he mother) was lying in a hammock at the back observing the incident.

Brody wrote: ↑Fri May 10, 2019 11:58 am You're not staying at a guesthouse on St. 172 perchance, are you?

Haha no I am over at BKK3, but I assume I will end up the same way as those poor souls there who checked out, and I'm at ease with it despite only being 31. I take a lot worse than Xanax to get through the day. The xanax is for sleep purposes as I haven't had a good nights sleep without meds/alcohol in 4 years of being here.

LIVIDZX wrote: ↑Fri May 10, 2019 3:58 pm

Brody wrote: ↑Fri May 10, 2019 11:58 am You're not staying at a guesthouse on St. 172 perchance, are you?

Haha no I am over at BKK3, but I assume I will end up the same way as those poor souls there who checked out, and I'm at ease with it despite only being 31. I take a lot worse than Xanax to get through the day. The xanax is for sleep purposes as I haven't had a good nights sleep without meds/alcohol in 4 years of being here.

I'd reevaluate ur lifestyle and choices unless u dont want see 40

Kammekor wrote: ↑Fri May 10, 2019 10:12 am The word 'som' followed by a request in Khmer is not so much a request where the answer could be yes or no, the answer 'yes' is expected.

Use this to your advantage!

In the last few days, I was thanked by a khmer guy for holding a door when leaving the gym, and by a khmer lady when her hat blew off her head as she rode by me on her moto and I picked it up for her.

I don't help others in order to receive thanks, and I don't expect it, so when people do thank you, it's a nice surprise.

Ho boy, ho boy, if some expats not get the red carpet treatment they expect, they feel pretty offended.

andy_morris wrote: ↑Fri May 10, 2019 7:34 pm In the last few days, I was thanked by a khmer guy for holding a door when leaving the gym, and by a khmer lady when her hat blew off her head as she rode by me on her moto and I picked it up for her.

I don't help others in order to receive thanks, and I don't expect it, so when people do thank you, it's a nice surprise.

Exactly. It must be terrible to always look for the negative side of daily events. So many nice surprises - smiles and thank yous - happen all the time.

I have wondered why someone would stay in a country that continually disappoints them or feels that the locals are so inferior to themselves. The continual whinger and every bar, be it hiso or tin cup whiskey stall has them, more than likely can't afford to go home. Be it the salary of a tefl teacher is too low to save return airfare on or that the unpaid spousal/child support has grown so large, they are trapped, unable to return to their beloved homeland where ever that may be.

I recognize that the average IQ of Thais and Cambodians is 91 whilst the average American's is 98, but then the average Chinese is 105 and I don t find them particularly pleasant to deal with.

Again if I were to feel cheated or offended daily by the local population I would leave. Who would choose to be miserable and angry every day if they really were in a position to do something about it. This post is not directed at any poster in particular and there are a group of expats at the night market in the city I live in that have their two bottles of beer every night, complain about everything local and how inferior to their likings it is and then return to their rented fan room. I avoid these whingers like the plague.

I think the OP would enjoy Cambodia more if he appreciated the fact that he is a guest in this insane yet wonderful country rather than posting stories about how the locals don't seem to appreciate him.

This is a culture that was brutally divided, with all sense of community and unity ripped away from them and destroyed by the Khmer Rouge. The mindset of every person for themselves was programmed into anyone who was allowed to live. When it was all over, that mentality rebuilt the country. There is no empathy, selflessness, no understanding of one’s impact on the people around them because that was deleted from their programming. We hold the door for someone because we recognize that another human being is in that space and it’s wrong to let it shut in their face. Whether we realize this or not, we do this out of consideration for a fellow human being. That consideration was destroyed during the genocide. People from this culture are largely incapable of understanding that there are other people in the world and that their behavior - both good and bad - affects those people. Thus they trample through life never considering anything but themselves. Traffic is a good example of this. Traffic here isn’t bad because of the volume, it’s bad because each driver doesn’t give a shit about how their behavior affects the other drivers around them. The only thing that matters is themselves. Driving into oncoming traffic, lining up 15 people wide at a 2 lane intersection, blindly pulling out in front of each other, the list goes on... it’s all based on not giving a shit about anyone but themselves. The crazy part about all of this is that many of them know this behavior for what it is but refuse to acknowledge or change it. A good example of this is I always hold the door for whoever is behind me. Every single Khmer person has smiled and acknowledged it or even said thank you. So they recognize it as considerate behavior but they will never hold the door for someone else. While this behavior is infuriating sometimes, I consciously choose not to hold it against them because 1) we have a cultural difference and it’s not my place to demand that they change, 2) they’ve been kept largely unintelligent by the powers that be and simply lack critical thinking skills to analyze situations and change, and 3) they have been hopeless and oppressed their entire lives, why should they give a shit? I love this country and the people in it - just living here has been an education in many ways.