Information on moving to Sihanoukville?! (Im 21)

Hello.

Here are some answers:

1. and 4. No you don't need a job on forehand. You can come in on an Ordinary visa, valid one month, when in the country you can apply for a EG [general] extension of stay for 6 months. That makes together 7 months in that you can find a job. After that you have to leave the country if you didn't find a job, but you could do the whole process again.

2. Of course a personal thing, but $1000 a month is sufficient for rent, utilities and living.

3. No, not a big expat community, not before and not now. There used to be a nice contingent of expats, but a lot of them have moved as Sihanoukville is in the process of development into a large city with many high rise buildings, meaning a lot of construction works, hundreds of sand trucks a day, ruining the air [sand and dust] and the roads. Now the rainy season has started the roads are a mess.

Some people have moved to Kampot, some to Koh kong, some to Phnom Penh.

5. I cannot answer the question about moving costs, it totally depends on what you want to take with you, if you need a small container, a shipping box or just come with one suitcase.
It seems enough if you move not too many items, I mean the flight, about $200 for 7 months visa and extension, realize you will have to pay a deposit to the landlord if you rent a house, mostly the value of one month rent, so before moving in you need to pay two months rent.

That's about it.

Good luck.

Joe
Cambodia expert
Expat.com team

G’day Michael,

The $3000 you mentioned.    Is that your total “nest egg” ?? Because if it is ,  you’ won’t last long unless you find a job very soon.

Do you have enough for a return ticket?? 

Anything nice accomodation  near the beach has doubled $$ in rent recently.   

Also , your a young guy & you’ll be on “party mode” when you get here, probably landing in Phnom Penh.  Hotels, transport ,food , grog and a few nights out getting into “trouble” could  make a serious “dent” in the $3k. 
Then by the time it takes you to find long term accommodation in Sihanoukville,you will have partied away some more$$ , then the landlord will put his handout for probably most of the rest.   

Some places want 6 months up front. 😆😆😆

Definitely have a back up plan & a return ticket, because $3k is way too close to the bone.

What a negative and generalizing post Yogi.

Not all young guys spend a fortune on booze and girls, this guy has finished his study quite young so he might be of the serious kind.

Planning is all, that is true, but if he says he has $3000 to "move" it does not say he has to live from the same money.

He might not want to stay close to the beach where rents are high, there are other places where a young guy alone can stay for much less.

Give him a break, he is full of enthusiasm, let him experience his first far-away adventure.

Cheers.

Joe

C’’mon Joe,,
You know as well as any of us , most young blokes won’t be sitting around in Phnom Phen twiddling their thumbs & drinking herbal tea.
😆😆😆.
  Even the “wise old men”  get into situations that relieve you of your cashola.

Nothing like a bit of common sense & reality , but then again we are talking Expats in Cambodia😆

A long time ago Yogi set out at 20 yrs old with SE Asia on the drawing board.  Bali, Thailand , Malaysia etc and soon figured out that the initial budget wasn’t going to stretch as far as I would have liked.

That was long before Internet, Email, mobile phones ,ATMs and Banks weren’t widely  issuing Credit cards .  Travellers Cheques was about it.

All went well until Yogi started having some fun. 🤓. 

Like I said,, $3k will go fast ,,unless he can jag a job that pays a living wage.   Teaching English or Digital Nomad is probably the best option unless he has a specific skill set that locals need.

There’s a young guy here I know that sells local stuff on EBay , he mails this stuff everywhere in the world....coffee, potions, snake oil , trinkets etc,he does Ok, doesn’t make a fortune but covers his living costs.

If your still with us Michael, like I said, it’s all about the back up plan. Unless you want to get there now,,maybe grab some extra work back home & jack up your money stash to give yourself some more options & a bigger safety net. 

Another thing, you’ll be meeting other young backpackers who’ll ALL say..”you’ve got to go here, you’ve got to go there” in reference to neighbouring countries and places. They may want you to travel with them.  You may not like Sihanoukville, it’s not what it was a couple of years ago.   There’s massive development from Chinese Casino operations underway.....who knows what the next move will be.

A few extra bucks will give you that option to move around, so give it some thought.

Do you want to know how Yogi got into “trouble”.....😆

Better not to go into that on a public forum.   

Good luck mate

Nice read Yogi, but still you cannot think of guys that are serious and won't lose their money before they start. Give the guy a break, don't you think his family and friends have warned him of the ever so cute Cambodian girls that drink like sailors?

I think he meant 3K for moving costs, which is sufficient if he travels light. Even if he takes this also for living money he could manage two months. In that time he could get a teaching job to start with or to keep it. He is native English speaker, young, white, favourite for all schools.
So he got two months to get a job, not impossible.

If he follows your advice to travel around he will spend his money and not get a job, so not so good. Let him settle in Sihanoukville, get a job and earn money to spend.

I agree with you Yogi, that when he gets into the partying scene in PP he will lose his money quickly, we have been there, haven't we, I even live there. But somehow I think this guy is a clever one, he finished university at 21 and has done extensive research on what he wants.

Go for it Michael!