Best cities to live in Cambodia

Marley1515 wrote:

Hi Joe,
We are thinking of taking the plunge to Sihanoukville, as sounds like a good medium between the city business and beach fun if that makes sense.
We are in our late 40's with no high education, I'm Polynesian and my wife is Australian, and we are done with the rat race here in Australia.
Sihanoukville Is where We would like to start our new 2nd half of our life. Can u please advise me the following to be able to live comfortably in Sihanoukville.

Cost of living,  is $1200pm including rent be suffice.

With no university education, are there jobs for people like us.
Thanks mate,

The first part: yes it's possible to live from $1200, provided you live to your budget. Use the market for veggies, fruits, fish, meat, avoid the supermarkets with imported expensive goods. If you use $300 for rent, utilities and some extra costs, you got $900 left, that is $30 a day, enough to live.

Second part: If you are native English speaker you could take a TEFL course and apply to work as a teacher. Keep in mind that Sihanoukville is not that big and that there is far more chance to get a teaching job in Phnom Penh than in Sihanoukville..... Just saying.

Why don't you give yourself a test period? Come over and live here for a while, then you know what you can expect and what you need. Living costs are individual and have to be tailor-made.

Good luck!

AlexofSA wrote:

Aaaah Joe

you make my heart sing. Thanks bro! So cool to get these tips first hand from such friendly people. You're doing an amazing service, buddy. I hope you'll receive something for yourself in return too. Sounds like all my major needs are met already...ain't I the lucky one  No more queries, just need to book my flight now and all is sorted. Living in a service based country, I actually forgot that everything is available online these days too, thanks for the reminder  Guess I'm still pretty old school!

Have fun over there, guys, I'll be joining you all soon.

You're most welcome Alex.

Knowledge means nothing if you do not share it, hence my posts.

I wish you for the future a wonderful stay at the ocean side, sounds great!

Cheers

Joe
Cambodia expat-advisor
Expat.com team

james1963 wrote:

Dear Joe,

You live in SHV. So please help me out. SHV was the city were I would like to live. Close to the ocean, less hot due to the ocean, the harbour to earn some money and not so expensive as PP.
But this evening i have read on CEO concerning stories about the chinese taking over in Snooky. Barowners at the beach who must leave there bars in januari and rents and prices raising rapidly. Is it as bad as it seems?
My cambodian friend says SHV is her favourite destination too. Much nicer than Kampot and Keb. I would like to live outside the town at the countryside, but not too lonely and too far from the shops and restaurants. I have not been in SHV but have been in PP and SR.

Hello James.

As usual people like to push up the bad news and forget the good news.

Yes, there is an enormous influx of Chinese people in SHV, due to more and more hotels with casinos or casinos alone. They cater to Chinese people who like to gamble. Khmers are not allowed to gamble in those casinos, although you will find them anyway, so the casinos are mainly for Chinese.

The employers of Chinese staff take good care of them, they rent a whole apartment building and all staff stays at the same building in their own apartment. Nothing wrong with that.

Chinese are a bit lost in the world, they walk 3 next to each other on the street, they cross a roundabout diagonally. But as I have mentioned in the traffic post, the Khmers on motorbikes and suvs are worse and more dangerous.

I don't encounter many Chinese, and I go out a lot. Sometimes you find them in a bar, mostly in a group, they drink a lot, but different from barang drunks they are not aggressive, they are just having fun. Restaurants that cater to Chinese are opening really fast now but that does not bother anyone.

The beach bars is a story that is not as bad as it is brought. The Khmer owner has leased a part to Chinese on a 25 year lease. The Chinese want to tear all bars down and rebuild them in a smaller format. So they will be there as usual, just in another shape.

The good thing of Chinese money rolling in is that there is and will be more employment for Khmers too. I have a female friend who found a great job at a casino, and paid well. The construction of casinos and hotels is done by Khmers, under Chinese engineers supervision, translators are provided by the Chinese owner, so that all goes well. A perfect example of the advantage of Chinese investments is the SSEZ (Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone), started up with Chinese money and by Chinese companies, including a language  center, has now more than 100 businesses and gives employment to more than 10,000 people, mostly Khmers. Another one but nobody speaks of that is an enormous US-managed shoe factory, where 8000 Khmers find work. Japan invests in an extension of the deep sea harbour and container terminal.
This is called progress, 60 years ago Kampong Som (SHV) was a fisher harbour.....

Funny how early in the year people were complaining about all the construction of houses and apartments. Nobody knew why they build so many houses. Now the same people complain that those houses and apartments are occupied by Chinese

One thing is true, prices of land are staggering, rentals are up but that is due to Chinese employers wanting their staff stay in the same building. It's true that Khmer landlords fell for the money and summoned the tenants out in 2 weeks. That is not ok, but it happens. It's not the Chinese but the Khmer landlords that smell the money and change to Chinese tenants. Personally I think those who have a long term contract (I have one for two years) are in no risk. On top I rent a house, not an apartment. So to advise you James, if you come here, rent a house in a housing complex. I found myself a wonderful house in a garden type estate, there are 3 houses plus the landlord's house, and 7 bungalows. All tenants stay long time and have contracts that are registered at the Municipality.

So to sum it up: Sihanoukville is still a great place to be, with the beaches, resorts, plenty of restaurants to each taste, a buzzing nightlife, not too much traffic and not too hot because of the wind from sea.

It has now direct flights to Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, Macau and more Chinese destinations. Domestic flights to Siem reap.

Ferries bring you in one hour to one of the two islands off the coast, for a day trip or longer.

That's it James, hope you have a good overview now.

Cheers

Joe
Cambodia expat-advisor
Expat.com team

6beaches8 wrote:

Thanks Joe So much knowledge may be put a booklet out?  You certainly helped me out .                      Thanks bruce

You're most welcome Bruce