/expat-qa/expat-qa-starting-a-coffee-social-enterprise-in-cambodia/ Fri, 12 Jun 2020 13:02:48 +0000 hourly 1 /expat-qa/expat-qa-starting-a-coffee-social-enterprise-in-cambodia/comment-page-1/#comment-196037 Fri, 12 Jun 2020 13:02:48 +0000 /?p=909148#comment-196037 A great read! I always find it fascinating to read about the lives and experience of expats who have managed to call Cambodia home. :) Myself included.

]]> /expat-qa/expat-qa-starting-a-coffee-social-enterprise-in-cambodia/comment-page-1/#comment-196033 Fri, 12 Jun 2020 08:45:56 +0000 /?p=909148#comment-196033 I first went Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ in 1996.
There was no internet search for plane tickets, you just picked up the sunday times and went to the last page where the ticket brokers advertised.
Not one of them would sell me a ticket Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ since there had been a kidnapping and killing of a westerner…so I bought a ticket to VietNam.
I wanted to go there anyway after watching body counts every night in the 60’s and hearing how terrible these people are. I had to see for myself. They were great.
In VN I went to the Cambodian embassy and got a visa the next day, so I booked a flight to PP.
I didn’t realize at first what I was in the middle of. The people are beautiful (it’s why I’ve been back 7 times) but it could have been a dangerous time. Once on the back of a motorbike at a traffic light in PP, the guy on the back of the motorbike next to me had his hand in a manila envelope. When I looked at him he slid his hand out to reveal a 9mm.
I smiled and pointed my camera at him and he just laughed as they took off. You really didn’t go out at night and the restaurants had printed right on their menu “If you’re afraid to be robbed, we deliver.”
PP was great and chilling, photos I have of S-21 and the killing fields and the tree where babies were beaten to death…
When I wanted to go to Siem Reap I was told I would not make it by land and I didn’t want to fly, so I went on the 6 hr boat crossing of the Tonle Sap. When I bought my ticket I was told to not sit by a window because sometimes they shoot at the boats from the shore. We stopped at a floating market for a break and something to eat and it was one of the best rest stops I’ve ever been to.
Once in Siem Reap,I hooked up with a guy on a motor bike where the boat docked to get me a room. He took me to a clean place and I gave him cash to get me a 3 day pass to the temples and drive me around outside the tourist zone. The temples were so cool to see for the first time. When I wanted to stop and take pictures, my driver would stay a hundred feet from me. I didn’t realize why at first but then figured out that he didn’t want to be near a westerner if something happened.
Besides people at a wedding and workers doing restoration, there were only a few others. I have photos of the temples with no people in them.
One day after my driver brought me lunch, I went to the top of the main temple at Angkor Wat and sat in the shade then passed out and had the best cat nap ever…until a few local kids starting throwing pebbles at me and run away! This was their playground and I have a great photo of the four of them.
You couldn’t leave the perimeter because of the landmine danger and there were no vendors selling. There were some landmine victims begging, but one women had no hands or feet. Can a landmine do that?
Cambodia has it’s issues but what country doesn’t? It’s just a great place with great people and a lot of potential…andthe waterfall at Kulen is the best.

]]> /expat-qa/expat-qa-starting-a-coffee-social-enterprise-in-cambodia/comment-page-1/#comment-196000 Wed, 10 Jun 2020 15:18:00 +0000 /?p=909148#comment-196000 Very interesting to start writing about this !
Thanks !

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