Job Discussion Forums

[struelle]

[khmerhit]

Hey Steve,

What have you been smoking, my friend?

Tell you what, life's too short to worry about all that stuff, unless you do it professionally of course. (Scientist, environmentalist, ecologist etc.)

And regarding the scourge of development, and all the concomitant nastiness that you describe, pollution, vice, exploitation, and so on--well, it depends on your point of view, doesn't it? I expect the citizens of Kabul wouldn't mind suffering a little development these days.

I used to ask newly arrived travellers what they thought of Phnom Penh. Many of them were Asia hands who had been born in Asia and came back as adults, or they were teachers or NGOs who had been in other Asian countries for a while.

Depending how long they were able to stay and check the place out, they had different reactions.

But there first impression was always--this town is small and quiet, like Bangkok 50 years ago.

Of course, as you point out, Things Change. During the time I was there, the volume of traffic increased quite alot, for example. And there have been other changes, too, such as the first escalator, installed last year I think. And the people are certainly not as desperate to welcome strangers as they were in the early years from 92, when there were no vehicles in the streets and the women were very, shall we say, very spontaneously friendly. But don't worry-- it is still not Bangkok, not by a long shot.

Anyway, try it and see. And have a good one.

El Khmer Heet

cambodia

[struelle]

[garbotara]

I like Cambodia.How difficult is it to find a job there? What is the salary like compared to other Asian countries?

[khmerhit]

Jos arent hard to find, but very good jobs are not as common. I earned 1100usd a month working 40 hours a week. You can do better than that, and much worse, depending. But no one lives there for the money---that's not the draw, mate. Hey, it's













cambodia. try it and see.

[khmerhit]

You know when you've been in Phnom Penh too long when.....

*Rice seems quite an appetizing prospect.
*Your new girlfriend is over twenty.
*Doorways seem like the natural place to hang out.
*You think that condom is an abbreviation for condominium.
* Three a.m. is early.
*You *beep* at the laundry if the bill is 500 riel too high.
*You get poked in the eye and have the offender put in jail two years later at a cost of several thousand dollars (German Andy--le rendezvous)
*Go out on a Saturday night, get pissed, pick up two girls from martini's and your biggest expense is moto taxi fees.
*You buy a bar, spend a load of cash doing it up. Insult all the customers and wonder why you're losing money.
*The way you take left-hand corners is no different to how a blind man would.
*When you're sitting in the living room you reach over to the fridge, touch the car and adjust the mat on the floor. Without having to move whilst watching your favourite Thai soap opera on TV.
*You think your dog is the second most intelligent being on your block.
*Playboy and other dirty mags are boring.
*A one way street is if more than 50% of the traffic is going one way.
*Rain is the best excuse for staying a bar all day.
*A brothel next door is normal.
*You get paid on Friday and you're skint on Saturday.
*You ask for a raise and your boss docks someone else's salary.
*You can't get someone to walk fifty meters and order food for you. So you drink more and worry about it later.
*When streetwalkers come up to you, guess you're a teacher and give you a bunch of bananas.
*Nothing surprises you even if you don't understand a thing.
*You enjoy meeting backpackers and scaring the *beep* out of them.
*You think you can outstare a local.
*When you have to reach over the car in the living room to get to the fridge and then complain the beer's too warm.
*You laugh at your own jokes before telling them and then forget what you were going to say.
*A shag is not a wading bird.
*You take a driving test to get a local license.
* Cyclos are your preferrred method of transport.
*Whatever you think won't happen does, and when it does, you're not that surprised.
*You have to write things like this to amuse yourself.

from Bayon Pearnik Magazine September 2003, p 9.

[Shaman]

Congrats on your new forum, khmerhit.

Shaman

[jibbs]

Sounds like quite an escape from the world.

Then again, how many of us in other countries are already doing that?

[dmb]

Khmerhit, are you still selling Cambodia. Has the value gone up or down?

[khmerhit]

I am indeed still pushing Cambo----none better. Well, it's a matter of taste, but everyone who lives there knows they are onto something good.

Value....? For foreign teachers, it's probably stable at good, not spectacular, not lousy---in terms of pay, that is.

For the rest, well......foreign investors might want to keep staying away until there is a clean government that understands how investment works.
Ie, it's not to provide income to the already rich and corrupt elite! Do you know, Cambodia is more corrupt now than it was before 1975, when corruption was wiped out by the communists?

it really is a fascinating country, I miss it a lot. All you have to do is step out the door to expereince it, while here in the West... you have to switch on the radio/tv/computer, take a streetcar, a bus, a car to the city.....commute for hours, and wait for the freakinsummer!!! ---when it is too hot to venture outside!

-------but thanks for askin, DMB. Youre lucky, youre in Istanbul, the most romanatic city inthe universe, the mystic-historic divide between the East and West--hey, I should write ad copy/!!

[dmb]

[yaramaz]

Are there any romantic pubs in Ist? (I am seriously wracking my brain!)