Tweet
Pics...gotta wait until my next trip to Phnom Phenh, which I avoid as much as possible....it is a den of iniquity. The countryside people around Kampot are actually quite conservative, in a Southeast Asian Buddhist kinda way.
About 'hellholes''...Much better and infinitely cheaper selection of cheeses, sausage, and wide variety of cuisine, even out here. Angkor Stout is much better than the Korean imitation stout. And the architecture! I'm so tired of drab concrete slabs and Korea's obsession with building 1980s-1990s style glass-and-steel crap. Middle class Cambodians really care about the external appearance of their houses.
Bottom line, it takes some adjusting, but people are basically the same and want the same things everywhere. There are four white sand beaches a short distance from me, an excellent French bakery, wine bars, much better restaurants and cafes than in Korea, swimming pools. It is basically almost always the same temperature.
But for me it's really about the freedom. In this country, I can maximize the return I get for my money. If you know the right people, and have the right information, you can do whatever you want to here. I can go out, jump on a motorbike, go fishing, start a business, with out any worries over licenses, or fees, or insurance, or regulations, or 'park rules' or 'not carrying opened alcohol containers' etc. I am constitutionally unable to abide the heavy foot of government on my neck, and I would trade all the safety and security of the 'civilized' regulated countries, for the pure freedom of the knowledge that, as long as I keep making money, anything is possible here.
Of course, for those in the top 0.1% like Asher and Co., it doesn't make sense to live here. Most of my workers cannot read or write in any language. They grew up in an extremely limited environment. And as infants they grew up without the micronutrients and essential fats that promote early brain development. That means that they often can come across as extremely backward, for example the day I had explained to me by the foreman that one peasant didn't know the names of the cardinal direction, even in his own language (north, east, etc.) No one had EVER bothered teaching him. They also tend to live very much in 'present time'. No matter how many times I tell them to use the sanitary outhouse and wash their hands, if the overseer is not always watching them, they will squat right down in the livestock area to do their business and there is no point in firing or reprimanding them. Any new peasant would be much like the old peasant and they just smile and shrug if you talk about the remote past of an hour ago.
For me, I am not in the top 0.1% in terms of IQ, skills, etc. In Canada I would be just another upper-lower class chump living from paycheque to paycheque and working for someone else. I would and have given up a lot in order to be able to decide my own destiny. In Cambodia you can change lives, build houses, plant fields, hire tonnes of workers for full-time employment, train people in valuable skills like basic hygiene and Western-style 'time based' work, for the same money in Canada you could buy a brand-new car with no gas. So it's about using the limited talent, ability, and capital I have in the most maximal way. Risk? Yes. So?
About 'hellholes''...Much better and infinitely cheaper selection of cheeses, sausage, and wide variety of cuisine, even out here. Angkor Stout is much better than the Korean imitation stout. And the architecture! I'm so tired of drab concrete slabs and Korea's obsession with building 1980s-1990s style glass-and-steel crap. Middle class Cambodians really care about the external appearance of their houses.
Bottom line, it takes some adjusting, but people are basically the same and want the same things everywhere. There are four white sand beaches a short distance from me, an excellent French bakery, wine bars, much better restaurants and cafes than in Korea, swimming pools. It is basically almost always the same temperature.
But for me it's really about the freedom. In this country, I can maximize the return I get for my money. If you know the right people, and have the right information, you can do whatever you want to here. I can go out, jump on a motorbike, go fishing, start a business, with out any worries over licenses, or fees, or insurance, or regulations, or 'park rules' or 'not carrying opened alcohol containers' etc. I am constitutionally unable to abide the heavy foot of government on my neck, and I would trade all the safety and security of the 'civilized' regulated countries, for the pure freedom of the knowledge that, as long as I keep making money, anything is possible here.
Of course, for those in the top 0.1% like Asher and Co., it doesn't make sense to live here. Most of my workers cannot read or write in any language. They grew up in an extremely limited environment. And as infants they grew up without the micronutrients and essential fats that promote early brain development. That means that they often can come across as extremely backward, for example the day I had explained to me by the foreman that one peasant didn't know the names of the cardinal direction, even in his own language (north, east, etc.) No one had EVER bothered teaching him. They also tend to live very much in 'present time'. No matter how many times I tell them to use the sanitary outhouse and wash their hands, if the overseer is not always watching them, they will squat right down in the livestock area to do their business and there is no point in firing or reprimanding them. Any new peasant would be much like the old peasant and they just smile and shrug if you talk about the remote past of an hour ago.
For me, I am not in the top 0.1% in terms of IQ, skills, etc. In Canada I would be just another upper-lower class chump living from paycheque to paycheque and working for someone else. I would and have given up a lot in order to be able to decide my own destiny. In Cambodia you can change lives, build houses, plant fields, hire tonnes of workers for full-time employment, train people in valuable skills like basic hygiene and Western-style 'time based' work, for the same money in Canada you could buy a brand-new car with no gas. So it's about using the limited talent, ability, and capital I have in the most maximal way. Risk? Yes. So?
:
Comment