Cambodia Vs Thailand

First of all, as far as Siem Reap goes, let’s talk about crime. From what I can gather, it’s very, very safe. There is the occasional pickpocketing in tourist areas, things like that if you’re not careful but then that’s everywhere, isn’t it? And from what I’ve read, crime against tourists vicious crime, violent crime is very, very rare. So I don’t think that’s something to worry about in Siem Reap.

Friendly and Genuine Cambodian People

The next thing is the people. How are the people compared to Thailand? Well, quite frankly, I found them very, very friendly. It reminded me of when I first came to Thailand 30 years ago. Now, the Thais are still nice people, don’t get me wrong, but they’re different. When I first got here 30 years ago, there hadn’t been a lot of foreigners. Over the years, a lot of the foreigners who come here have not been well behaved, and they grind down the staff. They’re not as friendly and polite as they used to be. And a lot of that’s got to do with our fault, not theirs.
As far as Cambodia, that hasn’t happened yet. I found the staff all extremely friendly, very nice. They still give you the ‘wai’ when you go in. Tuk tuk drivers, for example amazing. Most of them spoke the language because there are so many tourists there. Very friendly. Didn’t try to rip me off. In some cases, they said, “Well, you pay me what you think I’m worth.” So the people come across as extremely genuine and friendly, and it didn’t come across as fake.

Cambodia’s Visa System Is Easier Than Thailand

The visa system from what I gather is a lot easier in Cambodia than what it is in Thailand. I’ve just gone through the process of what you need to do to obtain a visa here in Thailand. In Cambodia, it’s a lot easier. You’re going to go for the E class visa as opposed to the tourist visa. And then once you’re there, you’d apply for something called an EB visa, I believe it is. But it’s just nothing like Thailand.

I believe if you use an agent you can get a year long… there’s no such thing as a retirement visa in Cambodia. It’s kind of a business visa, but they don’t have a problem. Nobody has a problem staying year after year after year. And from what I can gather, if you use an agent, the cost is going to cost you around $300 a year to get a year visa in Cambodia. There’s no stipulation that you have to go to immigration or go online every 3 months. You don’t. There’s no minimum amount you have to have in the bank. It’s that simple.

This video is really for people who are going to retire out here and they’re thinking: is Thailand getting a bit expensive? Is there an alternative? Just with the visa, the money you’re going to save $300 a year put it into perspective with what you need to stay in Thailand.

Local Food and Western Options in Siem Reap

I was only there for a short period, but I did make the effort and I did try some Cambodian food. One of the things that winds me up more than anything is when I make a video here in Thailand and I might go out for a pizza or show somebody I’ve had good fish and chips I always get the same comments: “You’re in Thailand. What are you doing eating foreign food? You should be eating Thai food.” My answer to that is: if you come here for 2 weeks, that’s all well and good. But when you live here full time, you can’t eat Thai food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner 365 days a year. And anybody who says they can, I’d be very dubious about it.

So it’s the same thing. If you go out to Cambodia, you’re going to want your own home food, aren’t you? So I tried everything.

The good thing about Siem Reap in particular because of the temples and there are so many tourists going there (not gangs of young men or mongers it’s mainly couples, families, but for the most part couples) you see young couples anywhere from 24, 25 right up to 40, 50. They’re real tourists they go there to look at the many temples.

First of all, talking about the foreign food because there are so many foreigners who go there for the temples and they all congregate in one area, and that’s generally Pub Street. So if you live there and you thought to yourself, “Oh, I fancy a pizza or I fancy a steak or something,” it is available. You don’t necessarily have to live in a tourist area. You could live in the city. And I did go into the city, and it’s very, very clean in the center of town.

It’s like comparing it to Pattaya. It’s like living in Jomtien, for instance. You want to go out and have a Burger King it’s 10 minutes over to Pattaya and you’ve got everything: Burger King, McDonald’s, the whole range. So it’s similar in Cambodia. If you wanted some foreign food, it’s available for you.

Now, the local food is dirt cheap. If you go to the market, I had a meal on the river. They’ve got some great little markets there, and the food’s delicious. It’s very similar to Thai food, but it’s not spicy. It’s completely not spicy at all. In fact, I had a problem because I had to keep asking them to put lots of chilies in. They were kind of looking at me like, “Are you sure?” But the food was nice. A typical Cambodian chicken fried rice, for instance $1.50. What’s that? 50 baht. Very, very cheap. If you eat foreign food, you’re going to pay anywhere between $4 and $6.

Using US Dollars in Cambodia

The dollar is the currency in Cambodia. When you go to an ATM machine and you make a withdrawal, you’re going to get US dollars. The local currency, the riel, is basically used for small change. You can spend it, but it’s small change.

Now, if you withdraw dollars from an ATM machine, the charge is quite high between $4 and $6 a transaction. So you’d need to keep that in mind. There are probably cheaper ways to get your hands on your money maybe go into the bank and withdraw it. If you live there, you’d find all of this out. But generally, it’s dollars. So when you’re talking about the currency, that’s what you need to take into consideration, not the local currency.

The Myth About Receiving Change in Riel

One myth as well people will tell you that if you spend a $50 note and your meal is $7, you’ll get the change all in riel. That’s not true. Especially in a tourist area, they’ll give you the change in dollars from the $50, and they might have to make up one or two dollars in riel (4,000 riel from memory is a dollar). So once you get a couple of 10,000 riel, you can go and spend $2 in a market and get yourself a little meal.

So you’ve got the best of both worlds. You’ve got the foreign food, which is very, very good and on a par with Bangkok I’d say, and then you’ve got the local food. And it’s like everywhere else you can go to markets or you can go to tourist areas.

Groceries and Daily Needs in Siem Reap

As far as getting all your daily items toothpaste, toiletries, everything that you need to live on, food shopping, if you want to cook at home I did make the effort and I had a look around. They do have a Metro, which is kind of like a wholesaler. They have a Lotus, a big supermarket, and they also have some independent shops. You can pretty much get anything.

You’re not going to get exact name brands from your own country like you can get here in Bangkok and Pattaya (you can get absolutely anything in Bangkok or Pattaya it’s all imported). It’s not quite the same in Cambodia. I had a really good look in the supermarkets, and I couldn’t think of something like, “Oh, I won’t be able to get it.” They had just about everything, and a lot of foreign food is imported from Thailand actually.

Cheap Alcohol and Cigarettes in Cambodia

It’s a bit of an alcoholic’s paradise, is Cambodia, because alcohol is just dirt cheap. You’re typically going to pay 50 cents for a half pint of Angkor beer draft which is peanuts. What’s that? 20 baht. A bottle of spirit they’ve got a local Thai whiskey here that they sell in 7 Eleven over there it’s cheaper. They have all the international brands all the scotches, vodkas, everything. Prices I couldn’t see a lot of difference between here in Thailand and Cambodia, and in fact it looked cheaper over there.

If you’re a smoker (which I’m not) I looked at some packets of cigarettes. They worked out about $5 US a pack of 20 for international cigarettes. Drum rolling tobacco, which is from the UK 50 grams would cost you probably $25 in the UK $4.50.

Tourist and Non-Tourist Areas

I did go and explore non tourist areas because the tourist areas are great (you can get your pizzas and your burgers and your foreign bits and pieces). Local areas are considerably cheaper. I never got food poisoning at all when I went to restaurants. As I said earlier, people are friendly. Transportation is great you can get around in tuk tuks dirt cheap. The way I look at it is you could live out of a tourist area cheap, and if you needed your bits and pieces, you could go into a tourist area.

Scooters and Tuk-Tuks in Siem Reap

You could buy a motorbike there. The most popular scooter I saw there was the Honda Dream. They didn’t have the selection of bikes that they have here in Thailand (you’ve got everything here, especially scooters). The Honda Dream is a 125cc scooter. It looks a little bit dated, but it’s fine.
It’s $15 a day to rent a scooter in Siem Reap double what it is here. So if you’re there, you’d probably buy one. The price of a scooter over there is about a third more expensive than it is here in Thailand. Local transportation you haven’t got MRT or BTS. I don’t think there’s a boat over there (somebody who’s been there a long time will probably correct me on that, but certainly not in Siem Reap). But the tuk tuks are dirt cheap, friendly guys, as I said, and you can go anywhere for a couple of dollars. They’ll even wait for you.
I remember one day I said to the driver, “I want to go somewhere,” and he said, “$3.” I went there and I didn’t give him any guarantee of a job going back. He just said, “I’ll wait here just in case.” I was in there for about half an hour, and I came out and he was there all smiles. So I paid him $6 there and back and gave him a dollar tip as well.

Cambodia’s Cost of Living Is Cheaper Than Thailand

When you read on forums about Cambodia, people will tell you it’s dirt cheap. It is cheaper than Thailand, but it’s not dirt cheap. You do need a fairly decent income to live there. I think you could live fairly well on a pension even from the UK you could live pretty good.

A one bedroom apartment in Siem Reap you’re looking anywhere between $200 and $450 US. Even if you took the top end at $450 a month what’s that? 16,000, 18,000 baht? It’s cheap, and you could even go cheaper than that. If you wanted to live in a big studio room with a kitchen area in the corner and a door that leads to your bathroom, you could probably get something like that for $100 a month. I’m guessing.

English Levels Are Better Than Bangkok

The level of English that people speak there from what I could see, even in the non tourist areas was better than here in Bangkok. The reason for that is because thousands and thousands of tourists travel to Siem Reap every year. Anybody who’s doing any kind of business in Siem Reap the Cambodians want to speak English because they want to be able to communicate. I had no problem whatsoever communicating with everybody. And even in the local market, a guy who couldn’t speak much English could actually speak Thai. So I don’t think even out of the tourist areas the English is very broken it’s very good for that sort of thing.

Power Cuts in Siem Reap

You are going to experience the odd power cut. Now, when I was there this is something that happens fairly frequently but not as often as it used to years ago apparently. I went back to the hotel one afternoon. It was about 2:00, and I thought, “I’ll go back and have a little sleep for an hour and a half and I’ll come out later.” And the whole street was out. I said to the owner (very nice guy) he said, “I don’t know how long it’s going to be out. Sometimes it’s out 5 minutes, sometimes it’s out for an hour.”

All I did was go over to a local coffee shop on the other side of the street, and that side of the street had power. It was just this side where my hotel was. So I sat and had a couple of coffees, spoke to one of the waitresses there, had a snack, and I could see Starbucks (they have Starbucks in Siem Reap). I could see that Starbucks was dark inside. I sat there drinking coffee, and as soon as I saw the lights ping on in Starbucks, that was it bill paid and back to the hotel.
You have to be aware of that. If you’re one of those guys who needs everything to work absolutely correctly and you get irritated when things don’t go right, then Cambodia Siem Reap probably isn’t the place for you. You need to be one of those people with a mindset like, “It happens. I’m here. I’m enjoying the country. I’m having a nice lifestyle. It doesn’t always go right.” You need to have that mindset.

Avoiding Tourists in Cambodia

If you’re one of those people who don’t want to be near tourists, although thousands and thousands of tourists go to Siem Reap every year to look at the temples you can put yourself away from that kind of scene. That’s a small area. As I said earlier, the tourists tend to stay in hotels that are right in the city center, and when they go out and eat and drink they tend to hang around Pub Street (the Western areas). Some of them might want to get into the local culture a little bit and branch off a little bit, like I did when I went to the market at the river and had dinner one night.

But generally speaking, if you lived in the city, you wouldn’t be seeing foreigners on every corner. I know there’s a lot of guys who don’t want to live in areas where it’s nothing but foreigners expat areas. I, for one, like to be in the middle. I don’t want to be totally local, but I don’t want to be living in a tourist area. Hence where I live in Bangkok it’s a nice mix. I’m in a kind of tourist area where they’ve got everything. 5 minutes on my scooter and I’m in a totally Thai neighborhood.

Fast and Cheap Internet

Internet is very, very fast. I was very surprised, especially in the center of the city. You can get a good internet package for between $10 and $20 a month. The hotel where I was staying I hooked on to their internet, and it was very, very good.

Just a quick tip: if you’re an expat already living here in Thailand and you fancy going to Cambodia for a few days, you can actually buy a very, very cheap roaming package. I’ve just recently changed from True to AIS (the service is better when you’re out of Bangkok). I phoned them up they speak English and they advised me if I’m going to Cambodia for 3 days, buy the roaming package 199 baht which gave me 3GB of data. So if you’re going from Thailand to Cambodia on a little visit and the phone’s important to you for checking your emails and keeping in touch with people, it’s very, very cheap to do that.

The Biggest Negative: Healthcare

I couldn’t see a lot of negative things, but there is one thing you have to think about if you’re getting on in years. I’m 65 now. Thankfully, touch wood, I’ve still got my health. I take statins and some other bits and pieces, but generally speaking, I get around and no major problems at the moment.

Something you need to think about if you’re going to live in Cambodia: the hospitals are not on a par with Thailand. In Thailand, the hospitals are absolutely excellent first class, world class. You pay for the service, but they have different levels, and they’re all very, very good. Even the public hospitals for the Thais here in Thailand not so much in Cambodia.

From what I’ve read, simple things like an injury a broken leg, for instance the Cambodian hospitals can deal with it. Infections where you have to have injections they can sort all that out. But things that are quite major like maybe a heart attack or a stroke I’m not saying they can’t, I haven’t looked into it, but from what I’ve read, most people in Cambodia who can afford it will fly to Ho Chi Minh City or go over the border to Bangkok. You have to keep that in mind.

In fact, when I was having a meal in the Red Piano (a very nice restaurant on the corner of Pub Street), I was talking to one of the waitresses. I had quite a nice conversation with her about all things Cambodia and all things Thailand while I was waiting for my meal. She actually said she’s got a sister who became ill, and she had to take her to a hospital in Thailand. She took the bus, went over the border, got it sorted, and came back.

So you do need to be aware of that. If you’re somebody who thinks you’re going to visit hospitals quite a bit, then Cambodia might not be the place for you.

Overall Verdict on Living in Cambodia

That’s most of the information that I’ve got for you based on my visit. As I said, I’m no expert. I didn’t go to the capital. It was only a 2 day visit, but you can take in a lot in 2 days. You really can.

So, my summary on the place for me personally: could I live in Cambodia? The answer is yes, I certainly could. Now, I don’t want to leave Thailand. My level of Thai speaking is up to a better standard now, so having to start from scratch again would be difficult. Although as I mentioned, most of them speak English over there. I love Thailand I love everything about it but as I keep saying, it’s constantly changing. It’s getting stricter. It’s getting harder to do things. And if it gets to the point where I couldn’t jump through the hoops that they want me to jump through, then I don’t want to go back to the UK. I really don’t.
I’m not slating the UK. I’m not running it down. I’m just saying again personally I don’t want to go back to the UK. I don’t want to. So where else is there to go? As I said, the other countries that I mentioned at the beginning don’t really interest me. So after visiting Cambodia yes, I could live there.
I could get a cheap apartment $200 300 a month. The food is very palatable. I can buy most of the items I need to cook (I do a lot of cooking). I don’t know about clothes shopping I didn’t look into that. But don’t forget, because Cambodia and Thailand are very, very close, you could do a shopping trip to Bangkok every 3 months. It’s 5,500 baht return on Air Asia. Or if you’re really living on a tight budget, there’s a bus I think it takes 12 or 16 hours but it’s dirt cheap. I know guys who can handle that. I can’t handle a 12 16 hour bus ride not because my body won’t take it, I just find it so incredibly boring that I’d probably throw myself out the window halfway. So you can fly.

I intend to go on another exploring mission. The next time I go, I want to go for maybe 5 days and I really want to start looking at things. As I keep saying, I’ve got no plans to leave Thailand and move to Cambodia. But if you’re one of those guys thinking of coming to Thailand, or perhaps you’ve already retired here in Thailand and you’re on a kind of minimal budget or your money doesn’t go as far as you thought it would, then it’s something you could think about. Could Cambodia suit you? You’d certainly save a lot more living in Cambodia.

As far as the entertainment scene goes if you’re one of those guys who likes to entertain the ladies I can’t really give you any information on that. In Siem Reap, for instance, there’s no go go bars, that’s for sure. I didn’t come across any bars that were full of ladies. I was told that there are freelancers that hang around Walking Street after midnight, but as I was there to see the temples, I was in my hotel room by 10:00 or 10:30 latest, so I didn’t actually see them. So if you’re one of those sort of guys who wants to have many dates, as it were I don’t know if online dating would work in Cambodia.
So if you’ve got a partner already, and perhaps the two of you could go there and see what you think of it even a Thai girl, if she’s married to you, she might not mind because it’s so easy to get back to Thailand, isn’t it?

That’s all I can tell you about it at the moment. So for myself personally, as I say, I could go and live in Cambodia, but I don’t want to if that makes sense.