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There are two common answers i always hear from expat in Cambodia when it comes to ask WHY CAMBODIA?

1. Escaping the busy world and rat race back home.

2. Life in Cambodia is easy.

I don't believe living in Cambodia or any other Asian country is easy for foreigners at all - it's often pretty challenging. It's many different things for/to many different people, but easy isn't how I'd describe it. There are some advantages and lifestyle benefits for those who prefer it over their home country perhaps, but there are a great many frustrations and annoyances that make it far from easy some times.

I Know that different people have different ideas, perspectives and expectation. However, i heard that questions so many time. Maybe it is so easy to just say it because it is short.

To be honest, as a local, i don't think living in Cambodia is easy. There are so many things i would complain about life in the kingdom of wonder. Living in the city like Phnom Penh is really struggling especially when you have no relative to live with and you have to live by your own. Everyday is a challenging.

I don't mean to say this in an unkind way, but life in Cambodia is so much easier than a lot of places by a long ways. I've lived in 5 different countries in my short life (Japan, U.S., Vietnam, Canada and Cambodia), and Cambodia is by far the most relaxing place I've been.

It's hard to imagine, and until you watch a friend lose their will to live because they failed a high school exam or lose a job because they were 45 seconds late in arriving for work, then it probably wont make any sense to you why some people say life is easy in Cambodia. Those types of stress though are our reality, and often times it's too much to handle.

However, as a "country boy" myself, I understand that life in the country is very different from the city. I went from a town with one traffic light to the 6th largest city in the world and it was a massive shock to me. Too much to handle to the point where I only lasted 18 months, so even the transition from small to big town is hard on it's own, so that I can sympathize with.

Life here is easier in some ways:

Less crime
More relaxed, generally
Lower COL
Less of a nanny state

Negatives:

Crap healthcare
Traffic is horrific
Noise in most areas

And most Khmers I've met in my work are incredibly tight-fisted.

They will tell people, for example, that they cannot afford to pay more than $10/hour whilst simultaneously buying their 3rd SUV in a year

God help you if you want to engage in small biz in Oz or USA.

You had better have legal training for all the licensing requirements before you even start.
Better be an accountant as well.

Plan on spending up to 5 weeks every year with regulatory and tax compliance.
Assuming you can actually get a permit in the first place, which is often unlikely.

Before coming here my quarterly electricity bill for my very modest 2 BR house in the suburbs came to $1400.
Rent for said house $2000/month.
Poky little place, normal going rate, in Sydney or Melbourne almost double.

Pack of cigs in Oz $27. A beer at the pub at least $4.50.

Here, life is free and easy if you have a little money.

life is easy??

life is life, u learn to deal with it where ever u end up.

I prefer life in Thailand, i dont think its especially easy ,
my daughter, who is half thai prefers life in America

its no country for old men.
USA I mean.

I find life here incredibly easy. I have a cleaner (something I could not have afforded back home). I have cheap and easy transport on the doorstep (god bless the tuk-tuk driver). I have security who also act as furniture removal and bag carriers when I have too much shit to carry up the stairs. I have to do precisely one action to get my year long visa (hand money to a travel agent).

But it's not why I'm here. I've lived in places that were much less easy to live in and enjoyed them too. I'm here because I find Cambodia fascinating and in many ways it reminds me of the sceptered-isle from which I hail. I like the people, I like the history and the culture, I like the smiles and small town life of Siem Reap. Even this morning when I have a wedding ruining the peace of my home... I love being here. Sadly for me - the banking system is a fucking mess and I think I shall have to leave soon because it's becoming incredibly difficult for me to get money into this country. When I go, I'll miss it like you miss an old friend.

As for escaping the rat race? It's over-rated. I'm still in the race... just in a sunnier and cheaper location.

TheGrinchSR wrote:Sadly for me - the banking system is a fucking mess and I think I shall have to leave soon because it's becoming incredibly difficult for me to get money into this country.

Apologies for straying off-topic, but may I ask why it is difficult for you to get money into the country? I regularly transfer money from bank accounts I have in Aus, NZ and the UAE into bank accounts I hold in Cambodia via internet banking. Always less than 10k at a time, and I have not experienced any difficulties whatsoever, so I am interested to hear the difficulties you are experiencing.