Essentials to live in Cambodia

Hi,

As an expat living in Cambodia, what would you advise the ones about to pack to bring along?

What are the items you can easily find in Cambodia? On the other hand, what is less common or quite expensive?

Share with us what you would recommend to bring in one's suitcase or container when moving to Cambodia.

Thank you in advance,

Christine

If you are staying for a month, pack a one year supply of patience.

Just bring the bare essentials. You can find anything here as long as you are willing to look around and haggle.

Shoes are difficult to find if you have larger feet (but easy to get made) and multi-vitamins. Other then that, you adjust quite easily, but you do need the patience and time to look around for things.

Bring a sense of humour and as a previous post says a lot of patience. If your going to drive a moto bring an extra pair of eyes and a brass neck. There is very little in Phnom Penh that you cant find with a little help.Lots of western shops in PP.Medicines are cheap.But I would recommend health and accident insurance as the hospital bills can be expensive if you are unfortunate enough to need their services.

Spare electric razor parts as they are impossible to get here. They sell Phillips here but not the spare parts. If you use Braun, like me, you are stuffed.

Contact lenses, Twizzlers, pecans (super expensive), your own pillow, plus size clothing, framed photos, lazy boy recliner (if have crate), my own kitchen knives, kindle, unlocked phone, and a good attitude about heat! 😃

work ethic -very short here,  can-do mentality, scarce .
smiles are everywhere -at least from Women & Children. Relearn everything you think You know?  form a new perspective !! and bring a sea-container full of Patience. Then you will love the Country-as I do.

1.  If you wear glasses, even sunglasses, bring a lot of individual wrapped lens cleaner packets, cannot be found in cambodia and thailand.

2.  Getting glasses made is inexpensive so have an up to date info on lens info that they can make new lens from, note all detail info needed for them to make the lens.

3.  Bring a good pair of walking shoes and sandals, if you use insoles, bring enough spares to last you for your lenght of stay.

4.  It is cheaper to pay for extra baggage so you can bring more goods with you.  So it's worthwhile paying to bring max amount of baggage with you, usually 50 more pounds of goods.

5.  Bring spare parts for your electronics and computers especially to repair power issues in which parts to fix it may not be available for most brands because they do not have licenses to buy from the OEM.  Good to bring extra battery pack for laptops too.  Lots of power problems, power stabilizers and battery back up helps to extend the life of your computer/electronics.  Good to have spare cords too.

6.  Bring your specialty kitchen tools and gadget too if you cook a lot. 

7.  Bring extra copies of passport size photos and make colored copies of your passport/visas to keep your passport secured,  good to have duplicate of your driver's license too. 

In general, high quality consumables is either difficult to find or doesn't exist so it's good to have ample spares to last you for the lenght of time you plan to be there.  Tools and equipment too.

Unsure if someone mentioned it but adapters..for any electrical equipment...

An open and well balanced mind free from extremes + a lot of patience.

Bring a junction box for your electric items. In this way you only have to purchase one adaptor and you can put all your stuff laptop, iPad, electric toothbrush etc through the electric junction box, I would recommend one with a surge protector .