Cambodia: Top 10 Best and Worst

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Trip Start Sep 01, 2005 Trip End Sep 01, 2005

  Garland, Texas
Sunday, September 2, 2001

Greetings fellow citizens of the world:

I only recently realized that there was no Summer Edition to the Life and Times on-going saga. I'll blame it on sparse readership response and general malaise of the writing staff. However, we're back for the Fall 2005 Edition, just in time to reveal the results for the latest EIU survey (The Economist Intelligence Unit, part of the group that publishes "The Economist" magazine) assessing the "quality of life" in 127 international cities. The criteria for assessment was: stability, health care, culture, environment, education and infrastructure.

Top of the list and the world's best place to live was... Vancouver, Canada (shout out to all my Canadian friends, you lucky dogs!) The very worst place to live was Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Fortunately, I don't know anyone in PNG, but safe to say, if your country is named after a furry pet rodent, life ain't good...

Phnom Penh, my beloved home for the past four years, ranked on the list.... (drumroll, please)... sixth from the BOTTOM, in the number 122 slot, sandwiched between Lagos (Nigeria) and Abidjan (Cote d'Ivoire). Even Tehran (Iran) beat us out as a better city to live in! IRAN!?!??! You have GOT to be kidding me. IRAN?!?! "I ran" away from Cambodia is more like it...

The report indicated Phnom Penh had "severe restrictions on lifestyle" and that "extreme difficulties are faced" by people living there. Noted areas of poor performance included: quality of public health care, availability of consumer goods and services, prevalence of petty crime and general public education. (A tear is running down my cheek, I'm so proud... Vancouver, eat your heart out!)

So, in honor of this inauspicious award, I've compiled a top ten list of the best and worst of living in Phnom Penh. I know a lot of my friends and family read this for the entertainment value, and so I tend to more or less sugarcoat some of the realities of living here, in favor of the more cute and fuzzy humorous stories. But I think I feel like a brutally honest rendition this time. We'll go back to the Sugar and Spice, Puppy dogs and Babies, Hello Kitty version next time. This is going to be brutal at times, so fasten your emotional seatbelts and I hope this doesn't shock anyone too badly.

Ten Worst Things About Living In Phnom Penh

10. SMALL NUMBER OF WITNESSES

With currently about 200 publishers, take away the Cambodians who don't speak English and the dozens of Japanese who don't speak English, and you're left with a handful of people who speak the same language as you to associate with. Coming from Bethel where people routinely had friends in 20 different congregations, gives this an almost "dried out gene pool" feel. Besides me, there are 3 other single-brother need-greaters. One's getting married in December, one qualifies for social security and the other lives 4 hours away... Everyone knows everyone so all our get-togethers have that "been there, done that, deja-vu" feel to them. New blood needed pronto! Many living here are also quite limited in disposable income. Obviously, the locals, but also lots of need greaters. Most teach English, but since most don't have a uni degree or any other qualifications, the average is about $8-10 per hour. Most don't work full days, but only three hours per day, and rarely in a block. One brother in my congregation has to go back and forth to his school three times a day, once at 6:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.!

9. LACK OF GOODS/SERVICES

We have supermarkets (hooray!) where some Western items are available (but you'll have to pay through the nose). Just today, after being here four years, I finally found a place that sold hot chocolate (it was $5 for a small canister). No McDonald's, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Wendy's, KFC, Dunkin' Donuts, Burger King -- all my favorite people! What I wouldn't give for a whopper with fake grill marks, radioactive green KFC coleslaw, a 39 cent burrito or an unusually square hamburger! If you order beef of any kind, you'd better have hydraulics put in your mouth, because your jaw will be aching for DAYS. Seriously. Forget Texas/Alberta beef, Cambodian steaks are taken from the oldest, toughest water buffalos who couldn't pull a plow to save their lives... literally (cuz that's why they've been turned into steaks... think "Pharaoh's bad dream"). No movie theaters where you can plunk down $10 and eat a bucket of popcorn with fake butter in stadium seating. No malls with speedwalking old people. No Home Depot. No public libraries where books are (gasp) free!

8. WEATHER

A hundred degrees by 10 in the morning. Humidity like you wouldn't believe. Thunderous rain storms where you can't see a thing and that flood the streets up to your knees. Heaven help you if it starts pouring anytime you actually need to go somewhere! We all keep raincoats in our bags, just in case.

7. THINGS COMMITTED IN THE NAME OF RELIGION

Lots of religious groups are active here - Mormons, Korean religions, zany Baptists, to name just a few. So many of them come in and offer aid in exchange for membership, it paints a warped picture of true religion. So of course, when people see us, the first thing many ask is how much they'll get if they join our religion. People assume we all get salaries and bonuses when we find a "convert". My return visit is a Mormon "elder", and he gets paid $140 a month as one of their missionaries (quite a lot for a local), plus a promise of an all-expenses paid travel study program in Hawaii once he's finished with two years of service. He's been on paid training courses to Hong Kong and the Philippines. Other religions give out rice, supplies and money each month, but only if you've attended all their meetings (they keep attendance lists). Churches double as English classrooms and vocational schools. No wonder so many people are fed up with "Christianity". Buddhist monks are no better. Saffron robed monks smoking cigarettes is a common sight. They're quite secular. Actually, it's not uncommon for criminals to sign up to be monks in a monastery, hoping to avoid arrest by shaving their heads and becoming a "holy man". Monks molesting children are as common here as priests molesting children in the West.

6. WEIRD DISEASES

Tropical weather, tropical diseases. In the past four years, I've had two out of the three "biggies" - Typhoid and Dengue Fever. I just need to get Malaria to complete the hat trick. I'm sure many of these diseases are ones no one has ever heard of in the West, but they're quite common here. Typhoid is spread through dirty water and feces (eeek!). Typically, an infected person passes it on, usually through handling food. I rarely eat out, but you're always offered a glass of something in service and the householder always notices if you don't drink it. Symptoms are high grade fever and the feeling that someone is ripping your guts out. Had it in 2004. (I still think quite a lot of brain cells were toasted during that episode...)

Dengue fever is spread by mosquitoes who have bit an infected person and then bites you. Although my house has screens, none of the locals have them, so when you're out in service, you're fair game. Symptoms include throbbing joint pain, searing headaches and fever. Had it last month and was out for almost a week and a half. Good news is that you develop an immunity to it after the first time. The other good news is that you can't eat for days. Loved the weight loss.

5. TRAFFIC AND CRIME

Phnom Penh is thankfully still a relatively small city. You can get anywhere in 20 minutes. Unfortunately, people on the streets are maniacs. It's jungle rule when it comes to traffic. Most people drive motorized scooters (motobikes). Unfortunately, you don't need a license to drive one. Many of the people are recently from the countryside and have just traded in their cow for a moto. The ones in cars are the worst. Driving down the wrong side of a one way street, moving all the way to the right before suddenly turning left, ignoring all traffic lights, piling 5 or more people onto the moto, loading it down with 50 chickens or ducks, are just some of the things you see every day. Drivers also tend to slow down and stop if they see anything remotely unusual along the road (someone doing something totally crazy - like picking their nose, for instance). Crowds also form around any type of incident or traffic accident. If you have a minor accident, both parties generally shrug and keep going, no matter who was to blame. If it's more serious, expect a crowd of 20-30 people to gather around like moths to a flame. Since there is no ambulance service here, you're relying on a good Samaritan to take you to the nearest hospital. More likely than not, though, the crowd is looking for a chance to grab your cell phone and wallet while you're still unconscious. (Seriously). As there's also no vehicle insurance, hit and runs are popular. If someone is down, they generally can't chase you. If you stop, you'll probably have to shell out some money, whether it was your fault or not, so most people just keep on going. Petty crime is prevalent. I've heard of maybe a dozen sisters getting purses snatched while on motobikes. Gold necklaces are a favorite, too. (Ouch!) The key is not to fall off the bike as they're grabbing your stuff. Robbers are quite ingenious here. Most houses have bars on the windows, but without screens. Long rods are inserted between the bars to "fish" out pants hung up in hopes of retrieving a wallet (happened to one of my Bible students). Wet rags are tied around the bars and then twisted to bend the bars just enough to fit a little kid who will slip in and grab whatever he can (happened to someone in my congregation). My house is locked up like Fort Knox, which is why I haven't been robbed... yet.

4. DIRT AND DUST

Phnom Penh is very much a developing city. Only half of the roads in the city are paved, which means muddy streets with huge potholes everywhere. No emissions checks means sooty smoke from cars held together with duct tape. We're all on motobikes, so there's no protection from the dirt and dust. Every time you wipe your face, the cloth comes away black. When I go on a far away call, I always get the "racoon eyes" effect after taking off my sunglasses to reveal a black face and white eyes! Showering 3 or 4 times a day is normal. I remember coming here with my Neiman Marcus clothes and leather shoes only to face the harsh reality of not being able to wear anything nice. Back home, if someone got a spot on their clothes, they'd probably go home and change. Here, I've waded in dirty sewer water up to my waist and kept on going in service! Roaches are everywhere. And I don't mean the "cute" little roaches in America. These ones are the size of your FACE. And they FLY. They're so big, I think they're categorized as mammals. I remember the first time I saw one, I was like: What IS that!?!? And the first time one flew and actually landed on me, I'm sure the people in Africa could hear my schoolgirl screams. No matter how clean your house is, every house has them to some degree. Even the missionary homes. And don't get me started on the rats. Rats lying on the street are common. Actually, more common are ones that are pancake flat from being smushed by a car. There's one the size of a chihuahua in the parking area two floors down from me. I think it's the guard dog's friend. I think I actually saw him and the dog eating out of the same bowl once. Seriously. People have no concept of cleanliness here, either. Every meeting, babies and small children poop and pee in the Kingdom Hall. Parents are continually in and out with mops (hence no carpet). The locals don't use diapers of any kind, kids normally run around naked with no shoes even when walking along the street. Here's a typical conversation out in service:

Me: (to a mom holding her baby) So, do you believe in God?
Mom: (baby pees all over her)
Me: Uhhh...
Mom: (doesn't blink. Switches baby to other side)
Me: Uhhh...

The other day, I was getting a fruit shake at a roadside kiosk. The blenders are weak here, so people normally have a big chunk of ice which they shave before putting the ice shavings in the blender. Anyway, the chunk of ice fell on the ground. The lady, being very clean, promptly rinsed it in the bucket she had used to wash all the dirty dishes, and put it back on the ice shaving machine.

Me: (suppressing gag reflex)

Most people throw trash everywhere. Especially by markets, there'll be a huge mountain of trash every night right in the middle of the road, when the trash truck comes to pick it up. If you saw where some of the food sold on the street was prepared, you'd never eat it.

3. LOW EDUCATION

While the worldwide literacy rate is somewhere around 83%, in Cambodia, it's 65%. Amongst the Vietnamese in Cambodia, it's probably around 40%. Most of these were too poor to live in an already poor country (Vietnam), so they emigrated to Cambodia (which for them was actually a step UP, if you can believe it). Most were too poor to afford schooling. Others were refugees during the Khmer Rouge era (1970's) and never got the chance to go to school. Others went to school but haven't read anything in so long, they're practically illiterate. Due to this low education, people haven't been trained to think or reason. One woman I met asked if my service partner had ever gone to the moon. Another woman thought her child was light skinned because she drank milk while she was pregnant and her second child was dark because she had switched to coffee. An auxiliary pioneer in my congregation won't say the names of certain illnesses out loud because she thinks she'll catch it if she says it. Another sister couldn't remember if the earth went around the sun or the sun went around the earth. To cure a sty in your eye, the common remedy is to tie a string around your finger. The list goes on and on. Children are trapped in this same cycle, as many parents feel they can't afford the school uniforms or books to send their child to school. Theoretically, schools are free, but with teachers making about $40 per month, they collect additional fees from students of anywhere from 10 - 50 cents per day. Also, many parents need their children to stay home and help with housework or to help the family make a living which further propagates the cycle of miseducation.

2. CORRUPTION

As Cambodia is a developing country, it's survival of the fittest here. Whoever has the money, has the power. Every other week, there's a story in the paper of some rich high official's spoiled teenaged son who shot someone in front of 20 people but who never got arrested. Money can buy you anything. Killed someone? $5,000 to the judge will set you free. Want to pass your grade at school? Better make a "gift" to the teacher, or you'll find yourself repeating the grade, no matter how you did on the final exam. Afraid you'll fail the written test for your driver's license? $20 will pay someone to stand by you while you're taking the test and read out the answers to you. Is your house burning down? You'd better have $3,000 ready to give to the firemen when they get there or else they'll stand idly by and watch your house burn down. Need to stay in the hospital? Better pay off the doctor, the nurse who brings the medication, the x-ray nurse, the janitor and the person who comes by with food, or else you'll be laying in a forgotten corner all alone. When the Awake! article came out a few years back with the title "The Police - Why Do We Need Them?", I almost laughed out loud, as the police here are the last ones you'd EVER want to call. Because they receive very low salaries (about $40 per month), as with almost any civil servant, they feel they have to supplement their income with bribes. Clusters of traffic cops are lined up on every major street corner. To catch people who run red lights, go the wrong way down one way streets, or drive recklessly? Oh, silly rabbit! Those tricks are for kids. These policemen are watching for motorists who inch beyond the pedestrian walkway or who violate no-turn signs (even if the sign has long disappeared!). Before, they'd pull you over for any true or conceived infraction, and depending on what you look like, they'd assess a fine. $10 if you were a foreigner and 50 cents if you were a poor-looking local. After many complaints, policemen were forbidden from levying fines on the spot. Instead, they wrote down your infraction and you had to take the paper to a police station. The catch is they keep your motobike, so if you don't get back in time, they cart your bike off to wherever they want, and make you pay a steep "towing" fee. I've been pulled over twice in four years. The first time was a $5 fine for turning onto a no-turn street (this was the first week I was here, hence I didn't know enough to try and bargain with the police). And about two months ago for being about 5 inches over the pedestrian zebra stripes along with 3 other motobikes. We all got pulled over. Funny thing is they had never waved people over for that before, but it happened to be their new thing. The ticket had no address of the police station, so paying the fine officially wasn't an option as the policeman couldn't explain to me where it was I had to go. I had to talk him down from a $5 fine to $1 one. Most people just whiz by the cops as they're trying to pull them over. Once in a blue moon they give chase, but more likely than not they won't, so if you don't physically get caught, you're off the hook.

1. POVERTY

We're down to the single worst thing about living in Phnom Penh - the crushing povery that is ever-present and leaves a film of despair over you which you can't wash off. People routinely work for $2-3 per day. This is for unskilled laborers, garment factory workers, construction workers, etc. Tradesmen (carpenters, mechanics, electricians) average $5 per day. Gas is now $1 per liter, which is more than most can afford. Life is daily desperation for so many, a delicate balancing act of how to buy food and still have rent money. If you get sick or lose your job, you're in big trouble. I remember trying to use the Satisfying Life brochure when I first got here. I thought the section about "Money Management" would logically be terrific to use. So I excitedly propounded the benefits of setting up a household budget. My Bible student looked at me perplexed and said: "I make $5 a day. After I feed my wife and baby, there's nothing left to budget". I didn't know what to say to that. When people get in trouble, they normally pawn something. For every $100, they pay $3 or $4 in interest per month which works out to be 36-48% interest per year. That's for the lucky who have something of value to pawn. For others, their only option is to borrow money from a neighborhood loan shark. For the loan shark, this is a risky proposition, because the borrower generally has nothing to lose. For this, he charges 20% interest PER MONTH. Borrow $100, you gotta pay back $120 within 40 days. That averages out to an annual percentage rate of a whopping 240%. (And you thought that 18% APR Visa was a bad deal!) More often than not, something unexpected happens and the person can't pay back the loan within the time limit. So it keeps on building and building, and pretty soon a $100 loan turns into an $800 loan with no hope of repayment. The bruisers who come by and "collect" the money are soon to follow. So the only option is to up and move in the middle of the night. I've had countless students who have done that. One guy had furniture, a refrigerator, a grandma and two kids, lived on the fifth floor of a building, and STILL managed to move in the middle of the night!

Housing is intolerable. I've seen people live in shacks built over open sewage and trash heaps. You could actually see trash six inches below the floor boards. Don't even ask about the smell. My Bible student lived in a 4' x 6' room that had a wooden slat as a door. There was a wooden bed which was exactly the size of the room. Rain water dripped down the walls when it rained. One bare bulb provided light. I had to keep one eye on the Knowledge Book and the other on the roach on the wall two feet from my head to make sure there was no repeat of the "screaming schoolgirl" incident. Lots of Vietnamese live near the river, as it's cheap there. Unfortunately, when the rainy season comes, the water level rises and their shack is in 3 feet of water. They literally prop up whatever furniture as they're basically living in a swamp.

Don't EVEN get me started on health care. Most people don't have the means to go to a proper hospital. So anyone in the neighborhood with a stethescope or an anatomy poster qualifies as the doctor. These people often do more harm than good. The number one "cure all" is an IV of saline solution. You see people on the streets all the time on motos, one hand holding up the bottle of saline while it's dripping into their arm. Many people buy pills individually, not by the pack or bottle, as they can only afford to buy a few pills at a time. There is no mental health system to speak of. Clearly mentally ill people wander the streets rooting through trash bins for something to eat with nowhere to go. Mothers with babies sit directly on the street on busy corners where motorists have to physically drive around them in order not to hit them. Old women with backs bent over at impossible angles plead for charity. You never know who out of the faceless hordes deserves a handout. That cute kid could just as easily buy a piece of bread or a bottle of paint solvent to sniff. The old woman could buy a plate of rice or be forced to turn it over to her lazy children who beat her to make her go begging every day. Sometimes you just don't want to know or even want to look and then you spend the rest of the day feeling guilty that you didn't.

Being here just emphasizes that fact that we all need Jehovah's Kingdom so badly.

(Thanks to those of you who have contributed to our informal "Poor Fund". Just this month, we've used it twice already.)

But living here ain't all bad. In fact, sometimes I'll just be driving down the street and thinking what an awesome life I lead. So, here are the top ten best things about living in Phnom Penh...

10. TAX-FREE LIVING

Living overseas for more than 330 days out of the year, I'm exempt from American income tax up to $80,000. (Don't think I'll be in danger of paying taxes any time soon!) And working for an educational NGO (Non-governmental organization), I'm exempt from Cambodian taxes. This added cushion makes it possible for me to have my own personal cook and a housekeeper who does laundry and ironing, cleans the house, buys flowers every week, looks after the garden, cleans out my fish pond, looks after 12 birds and four bird cages, etc. I make a decent salary while working three and a half days a week. Those days are quite long (my first class is at 6 a.m. and I normally home at 6:30 p.m. with an hour and a half off for lunch and a snooze), but gives me the option of having full days off, which is great for service. My energy level is high, so I often go out on Bible studies after a 12-hour workday.

9. SHOPPING AND SIGHTS

Cambodia isn't a shopping mecca, but certain things are definitely a good bargain. Silk is produced and woven here, so silk products make great gifts at around $3-7 for a nice scarf. Cambodia's major export is clothing, so there are Gap, Old Navy and American Eagle factories here. Lots of their runoffs make their way to the local markets, which means I pay about $3 for nice dress shirts.

The city is built along the Tonle Sap River, so you can take a stroll by the riverside anytime you want. Wats (temples), cultural museums and old buildings give the town a "colonial" feel.

8. CHEAP TRANSPORTATION

Although gas prices are up ($3 per gallon), motobikes use hardly any gas at all. I drive around all week and only spend about $3 on gas. Plus, fixing bikes cost hardly anything. New tire? $2. New battery? $10. Labor? 50 cents. So far this year, I've spent a total of $29 on repairs, washes, road tax and miscellaneous. And for gas, a whopping $61. That'd be like three tanks back home.

7. MOVIES, MOVIES, MOVIES

I feel bad putting this as one of the best things about living here, but number seven on the list is "pirated" movies. I guess it's a conscience matter, but since they don't even SELL any real movies here, I'm pleading for leniency.

DVD's cost $2 to buy and you can trade them in for new movies for 75 cents. Quality varies. Sometimes it'll be a video that someone clandestinely shot in a movie theater, so the sound is bad and every now and then the screen will go black from the person stuffing the camcorder in their jacket whenever an usher walks by. In those versions, you can hear the theater audience laughing and screaming and at the end of the movie, you can actually see heads of the people in front of you as they get up to leave. Hilarious. There's actually a channel on TV that plays pirated movies. So a few days after the movie is released by Hollywood, chances are that it'll be on TV here. They're even cheaper in Vietnam, only a dollar a DVD! With no movie theaters here, it's nice to be able to watch English movies at home.

6. MASSAGE-ORAMA

Number six on the list has got to be massages. I have a Massage Schedule. Every Monday night after a long day of work, it's off for a foot massage, which starts off with a hot soak in an herbal mixture followed by a back and neck rub. Then it's down to the feet and it all finishes with a hand massage. I normally bring my magazines to read for the hour of the massage. Total cost: $5.

Every three weeks is my Haircut / Head Massage. After a haircut, the shampoo girl comes and gives you a shampoo and scalp massage. It happens right in the chair. They put a glob of shampoo on your head and then squeeze just enough water to lather up, no sink required! Then it's off to the back for a rinse, then two types of conditioner. Meanwhile, you're getting a facial and cold compress for your eyes. Total cost: $2 for the haircut and $2 for the shampoo/massage.

Every other week, it's time for a whole body massage. The spa I go to moved to a new place just two blocks from my house - talk about convenient. You have your pick of aromatherapy, Swedish, fatigue relief, hands and feet, and the list goes on. Sip on a mango lassi during the process to feel heaven on earth. Total cost: $7.20 for the massage and $2.00 for the tropical drink.

5. CHEAP FOOD AND EXOTIC FRUIT

You could eat very well here on a shoestring. Certain things are expensive, namely imported things: Dutch hot chocolate, cheese of any kind, biscotti, sour cream, cream cheese, heavy cream, etc. But if it can be made in Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia, then it'll probably be very cheap. I have someone who cooks for me twice a week. I've built up a menu with over 150 dishes gleaned from cookbooks, bringing restaurant food home, etc. Whatever I am craving for magically appears in the fridge. Because I like Western food, my food bill is rather high - it averages $130 per month, including my cook's salary, groceries and eating out. Again, Khmer/Vietnamese restaurants are cheap but Western ones are rather dear.

My favorite breakfasts are: Vietnamese beef noodle soup ($0.80), Chinese seafood soup ($0.80), Grilled pork and rice ($0.50), Chinese dim sum ($1.00) and chocolate croissants ($0.50).

There is fruit in abundance. While not as cheap as in Vietnam, fruit in season is quite reasonable. A dozen mangoes will set you back $2.50. Watermelon, 25 cents. A bunch of bananas, 30 cents. Persimmons are $2.50 a kilo. Jackfruit, durian, soursop, lychees, longans, rambuttans - all yummy and cheap!

This isn't really food, but I'll throw it into my cheap category -shoe shines for less than 15 cents. Little boys with shoe shine kits are always around. So anytime you're at a restaurant, you can just slip off your shoes and wear slippers they provide while they shine your shoes. You've gotta keep an eye on them or they may disappear with your nice shoes, but that rarely happens. They generally do a good job, and for 12 cents, it's better than doing it yourself!

4. SERENDIPITOUS MOMENTS

It seems like in the West, you've gotta actively search out new experiences. Here, they happen around every corner. Last week, we were in service, turned the corner and saw a mahout washing his elephant in a pond. I bought some fruit for it and petted it like it was an everyday sight! In the city, people use the ground levels of their homes for business, so in a typical day in service, you'll see people making sugar, peeling mounds of garlic, raising tropical fish, sewing wedding dresses, and the list goes on. Today, we passed by a house where people raised tropical fish - 50 baby goldfish for $1! You absolutely never know what you'll see or experience which makes every day a surprise waiting to happen.

3. BEING AROUND FULL-TIME SERVANTS

In the West, congregations hardly ever saw real missionaries. Here, you can't walk 2 feet without bumping into one. It's really nice to be around such self-sacrificing people all the time. They're just regular people, doing regular things, but so devoted to service and the ones they preach to.

Almost all the foreigners are regular pioneers, so our get-togethers are always encouraging and fun! Just two weeks ago, there was a big holiday here, so I had a huge brunch and card party. Everybody brought something and it was a blast. Then last Sunday, about 40 of us took over a luxury hotel lounge where there's normally a live band, but we commandeered it with our own music and had an old-fashioned dance party! The missionaries were the ones tearing up the floor!

2. TRAVEL DESTINATIONS

If you're willing to put up with a little inconvenience, travel can be very cheap from Phnom Penh.

Within Cambodia, there's a nice beach with offshore islands only $3 and 4 hours away by bus. Or you could head north to Siem Reap ($3.50 / 5 ½ hours) and see the magnificent 1,000 year old temple complex of Angkor Wat (see a picture of it in the "Who is Jehovah?" tract).

Heading east, you can be in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in under 6 hours. The bus ride and visa will set you back $12 and $30 respectively, but you're in a different world there, with KFC's, trendy cafes and boutiques, delicious, clean food and high end department stores. From HCM City, you can head south to the Mekong Delta and explore winding canals and luscious countryside rice fields or head north to the beautiful white beaches of Nha Trang, where a full day boat trip to four islands, snorkeling and a seafood lunch is only $7. A short jaunt to Dalat, in the central highlands will bring you into a temperate zone with pine trees, strawberries and cool temperatures.

For the more adventuresome, a grueling 12-hour, $15 bus-and-taxi ride (take your pillow with you), will take you to bustling Bangkok, Thailand, where East meets West. Cheap electronics, designer boutiques and name brand clothing vie for your attention alongside ubiquitous food stalls, floating markets and orchid farms. From Bangkok, gorgeous islands in the Gulf of Thailand are a short flight or train ride away. Best thing about Thailand - no travel visas required!

1. FRUITFUL FIELD, BEAUTIFUL LOCAL BROTHERS AND FREEDOM OF WORSHIP

And the number one best thing about living in Phnom Penh is the great territory, the awesome local brothers and the freedom of worship we currently enjoy here.

Despite poor education, there are many who are still thirsting for the truth. So many have fought great odds to study the Bible and become dedicated servants of Jehovah. One of my Bible students has grade 5 education. We only study about 3 paragraphs in an hour because it takes him so long to read that by the time he's finished with a paragraph, he'll have forgotten what it said. But he and his wife are there like clockwork every meeting with their two year old girl and six month old baby. He witnesses to others, has withstood family opposition when he stopped worshipping ancestors and idols, reads the Daily Text every morning before going to work, and makes heartfelt expressions of love for Jehovah. Oftentimes I feel the locals are doing more to encourage me than I do for them. They surmount mountainous obstacles daily in order to serve Jehovah. And yet they plod on. I'm so proud of them!

Currently we have freedom of worship and speech, in contrast to neighboring Vietnam. I'm sure all of us yearn to move there someday when the work opens up. But until that happens, being here is the next best thing!

Wow. This journal is WAY longer than I had anticipated. I was planning on this one being short and light. Sorry! But I hope this helps you to understand more about life here in this backwards part of the world. Of course, nothing can replace actually coming here and seeing it for yourself - I wish this could have been a "scratch and sniff" e-mail, as I can't begin to do justice to what you'd see, hear, smell, and feel here. So please consider this an open invitation for you to come and experience Cambodia firsthand. I'll have a spare guestroom for at least until my lease runs out at the end of 2006, so get on the internet or call your agent to start making your travel plans now!

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Killing Fields, Choeung Ek	Kingdom Hall	Kirirom	Koh Samui, Thailand
Off Island, Kampong Som	Phi Phi Island, Thailand	Phi Phi Le, Thailand	Rainstorm
Reading	Ricefields	River Life	Riverside Elephant
Silhouette, Angkor Wat	Snorkeling anyone?	Spiders	Sunset over Phnom Penh
Sunset over the Sea	Sunset over Wat	Ta Prom, Angkor Wat	The Water Is Wide
Traditional Wine, Dalat, Vietnam	Traffic	Wat Phnom