How long have you been in Phnom Penh? 18 months? Well I've lived in Phnom Penh and Kien Svay for the past 4 years and obviously I get around a lot more than you because I know how Cambodia works and have experienced everything I have talked about.
re the provinces after dark on a moto - well your not real smart if you keep doing it. I used to think it was Khmer myth also until I had a brick sail past my head near Kien Svay and my wifes uncle was bashed to death for his moto on the same stretch of road she warned me not to take after dark and a friend had his neck broken by jowe trying to steal his moto by stringing up a piece of rope between 2 trees.
And re boeung Trabek - your obviously not talking about the area I am reffering to. I challenge you to ask somebody which streets are the vietnamese drug dealing streets and take a walk through one side to the other at night and report back here ( you will have to walk anyway because you will not get any motodope that will take you through after dark) I'm just using boeung trabek as an example - theres more.
BTW just so your prepared for your little adventure through those streets - when you see a local run his hand across his throat he is warning you to get out before you are killed also keep an eye on things like garbage bins - this is where jowe hide waiting for something stupid enough to ride through on a moto after dark before slicing up the unco-operative with knives and stealing their wallet and moto. I kid you not and can even give you names of westerners this has happened to so you can confirm if your doubting.
I'm not going to report every act of violence I have witnessed here but I can tell you the average foreigner never hears about them - a few examples off the top of my head: Psar Kandal - about a year ago witnessed a Khmer women have her throat cut by another stall women with a fish knife. Psar Kendal again - my wife was their about 1 1/2 years ago and witnessed 4 guys come with guns in a car and take one the stall owners very pretty daughter (as far as i know never seen again) and we do not frequent Psar Kendal that often. Not long ago 2 tourists seriously hacked up by gang with samurai swords outside royal palace around midnight. Sihanoukville just very recently 2 french journalists doing a piece on cambodian politics (not real smart) taken from hotel and found shot dead on the beach. Want me to continue??? or will you try to educate yourself a little better before saying how safe it is?
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<hr>How long have you been in Phnom Penh? 18 months? Well I've lived in Phnom Penh and Kien Svay for the past 4 years and obviously I get around a lot more than you because I know how Cambodia works and have experienced everything I have talked about.<hr></blockquote>
I don't live in Phnom Penh, I live in Siem Reap, out in the provinces. I come to Phnom Penh once a month. You might get around a lot more, you might not, I really don't know. And I don't doubt you've experienced everything you wrote about, you come accross as a guy who really would ride "... my motorbike through the centre of a brawl between about 15 youth gang members that killed 5 of their own during the brawl,...". But as you've sufficiently proved, you're an expat yourself, not a tourist. The things you've mentioned don't generally happen to tourists. And if they happen to expats it's because they're not heeding local advice.
As I said at #28, "Sure, once in a while there's violent crime directed at foreigners, it's unavoidable."
I am in PP once a month, I like to eat at the grilled beef places just before the roundabout before crossing the river to Srok Mean Chey (better than Pasteur Street eateries IMO). Pretty safe in my eyes. Locals keep an eye out for their motorbikes if they're new, that's all. Nobody is scared to pass through that area at night that I spoke to, tourists don't even go there. If you want to put out a warning of areas in which you have to be a bit more careful why not mention the riverside or the area around Wat Phnom instead? Not saying they're dangerous, I walk back to my hotel right through there at 2, 3 or 4 am and nothing has ever happened, but again, it's the locals who are a bit more careful, not even the odd drunken tourist.
I stick with my opinion that Cambodia is as safe as any destination in SEA.
And how does your once a month visit to phnom penh make you any sort of an authority to be even commenting? I live in Phnom, have done for years, have my own home and live amognst locals.
Get over yourself tightass. 4 years is squat. I don't live in a cocoon, but I don't live in brothel or a drug den either, as you seem to. My God, how can so many things happen around one person? You're like that guy in the comics with a little black cloud over his head that follows him wherever he goes. And yes, I speak Khmer, pretty darn well I think. I also read and write Khmer, though not as well as I speak it. And you?
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<hr>Thats why I avoid most expats in Phnom Penh - none of them have a clue at anything that go's on.<hr></blockquote>
When you find yourself alone and imagining that you are the only barang in Cambodia that knows what's really going on, you've been here too long, even if it's only been 4 years. Time to step out for some fresh air.
Yeh, of course - I would have to be either a liar or a druggy. Let me guess, NGO's or schoolteachers? Your the type of people I end up getting called in to bail out of trouble.
Wow, is that another deep insight born of your extensive 4 years in-country? You guessed the two largest employment categories for expats and you still managed to miss the mark. Ooops. Keep guessing tightass. And judging from what you've written above, calling you to get out of trouble would be like going to Sharkys to get away from the taxi girls.
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<hr>calling you to get out of trouble would be like going to Sharkys to get away from the taxi girls<hr></blockquote>
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<hr>Keep guessing tightass.<hr></blockquote>
Ok - Sexpat?
Is that the best guess your 4 long years of experience in Cambodia could muster? People that have never been here could trot out this touristy list of guesses. You're getting colder. Keep guessing tightass.
Re crime in Cambodia, there's certainly crime here, but unlike most normal people, you seem to live at the center of the criminal cyclone. Like I said, your life reads like three issues of Phnom Penh Post police blotters.
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