Downshifting for a programmer? Cambodia, survival experience and life experience

Hello, dear readers. I must say at once that I am a bit of a strange person and my experience is far from being acceptable to everyone, and I often come across misunderstanding from both close and absolutely strangers. It will be about how I threw everything and left with $ 300 in my pocket to a new country, which seemed to me something wild and unknown. In the discussion of one of the posts, I casually mentioned my experience and I was asked to write more.

Initial data

I am 21 years old and I am quite an average representative of the profession. In Russia, I work as a senior PHP developer, I have experience as a system architect and lead programmer. He had 3 works at the same time, thanks to which he learned self-organization and gained the experience I needed to develop software in various fields. He worked without exaggeration for 20 hours a day for almost four months. I don’t have a higher education, because the roads to many foreign offices are closed to me from interesting points of view.

On a typical spring day at the weekend, I sat at home and thought that it was time to go on vacation, because I had not been on vacation for more than a year. Frankly, until that moment I did not even know where Cambodia is. And so, some small note of a Russian tourist about visiting the temple complex of Angkor comes across. The views of Angkor struck me, of course, but the article, the link to which was in the discussion of that note, even more fascinated me. The article was about the time of Pol Pot. From that moment on, I was completely absorbed in Cambodia, I read books, watched the issues of the World Inside Out program, studied expat forums in Kampuchea. Only a week has passed, and I have already firmly decided that I will go to Cambodia not just on vacation, I will go there for a long time. It is worth noting that I already had a long-term experience in a different country. He lived throughout the year in the Czech Republic and during that time he had seen quite a lot. He even tried on the skin of a homeless, poor, hungry emigrant.
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Hi Kampuchea!

A little more than a month after reading that note, I ended up at the airport. It was a one way ticket and about $ 400- $ 450 for the first time. This may seem like a very desperate act, but my reasoning was something like this: “I have arms, legs, a head, and even a laptop, I’ll not perish from hunger” - and it’s not lost.

To fly to Cambodia on a direct flight is not a very sensible move, the best thing to do is through popular tourist destinations, from where it is easy to get to Cambodia by land. At that time, the cheapest tickets turned out to Bangkok - 11,000 rubles one way, a fairly affordable price. Arriving at Bangkok airport and passing through passport control decided not to rush and assess the situation slowly. He walked around the building, went out into the street, talked to the taxi drivers and found out that there is a train station at the airport, from where it is easy and cheap to get to the city. There was absolutely no idea where to go in the city, so I bought a token to a geographically central station and went there.
The first night was the most difficult. I deliberately did not buy anything except simple and cheap food, I went on foot in search of cheap housing, but such walks with a backpack are very tiring. The first day almost ended up spending the night on the catwalk of some statue, but took the remaining energy in time, went to the motorcycle driver, said that I had no money, I was hungry and I needed the cheapest overnight stay. The driver took me to the hostel, for which he received his well-deserved dollar. I spent a couple of days in Bangkok studying it, walking.

A train ticket from Bangkok to Aranyapraheta (border town with Cambodia from the Thai side) costs 50 baht (approximately $ 1.3). By the time I bought the ticket, as a result of an unpleasant incident and rash spending at airports, I had $ 300 left.

Difference

The first thing you see arriving in Cambodia - devastation. If Aranyaprahet is still a more or less well-kept city with adequate roads, then Sing Pet (the border town from the Cambodian side) just knocked me out of a rut. Poverty, rubbish, smells, heat, a broken road - all this gives the first idea of ​​Cambodia to those who go there from Thailand and says later that Cambodia is a uninhabitable country.

In fact, most people who come here have never seen and most likely will not see real Cambodia. The laws of a market economy and the development of tourism business in Cambodia postpones indelible imprint on popular tourist cities. The Khmer have not yet learned how to keep track of where they live and create attractive conditions for tourists. They, as a rule, do not think about long-term development, but want to fill their pockets here and now. This is the tourist realities of this country. With some training, you can very easily cope with this, after all, we are all human.

The real Cambodia is far from popular tourist destinations and resorts. Real Cambodia is made primarily by people. Selfless, sympathetic, cheerful, all this despite the suffering that this people suffered and the fact that many of them are beyond the poverty line, earning $ 60 per family (!) Per month. They do not look in your pocket, they look at you with interest, they are waiting for your stories and are ready to help you in almost any matter. This is why I came here.

Closer to the point

Lyrics are lyrics, but it would be time to write about why I find this country attractive for living / visiting / remote work.

Economic situation

Kampuchea is now at the stage of economic development, trying to attract foreign capital, just learning how to do business. Legislation and its observance in Cambodia is a separate post, but if it is short: you will not be disturbed, until you cross the border of reasonable, you will not be forced to do unnecessary things to anyone. What can I say, I wanted to trade in food - you go out and trade, that's all. This may seem strange, but for some reason it works well here. I often ate in street establishments, which, of course, no one inspects, but the quality was always very good and there was no even any talk of poisoning. And in Russia it seems there is a SES, and people are being poisoned ... A case in point is how the law works: “If you cross a double solid and do not hurt anyone, make it safe, you will not be fined”.

People

I have already written about this, this is the main plus of this country.

Education

In Cambodia, a huge number of foreign universities, schools, colleges, for example from the USA, Canada, Australia, France. I can’t accurately guide the prices, I only know that it’s not very cheap. The local population grabs the knowledge with special force. At the time of Pol Pot, as is well known, the entire educated population was to be destroyed, because now there is a real shortage of specialists in the country. Getting an education for the local population is a good chance for a better life. On Habré there was a remarkable series of posts ( tyts , tyts ) on building a mobile network in Cambodia, in which many features of the population and the country, including education, were revealed.

Prices

For me, a very important point. Living in Russia, I simply do not see how to buy an apartment, or a good car without contacting the bank for a mortgage / loan. Not boasting for the sake of - I had a very good salary, but you know how much I saved up? Not at all ... Here I can save 3/4 earned money.

Eating at a cafe on average costs $ 3, going to the movies - $ 3, renting a bike - $ 40, a liter of gasoline - $ 1. The only thing - utilities and medicine here are quite expensive.

Sea

Cambodia has access to the Gulf of Thailand. From the capital by bus to go somewhere 4:00. There are several cities on the sea, one of which is popular with tourists, and the other I chose for myself is a small, quiet, provincial town where everyone seems to know each other. They love me and call it “Mister Russia”, everyone asks how I am doing, sometimes they invite me to visit and feed me deliciously. In response, I show beautiful photos of Russia, talk about it and just exchange stories from life. It is very nice.

Job

Finding a job for a foreigner in Cambodia is easier than local. Local business requires “whites”, these are the realities not only of Cambodia, but also of Southeast Asia as a whole, as far as I know. Nevertheless, it is much preferable to have remote work, because local work = local salary, yes, is higher than that of the indigenous population, but a foreign company will pay you more.

Tongue

Khmer In the tourist cities, almost the entire population speaks English, and it is more difficult to find the English-speaking population away from such centers. The older generation of schools taught Russian, some speak French.

Housing

Housing is for every taste and color. For $ 100 \ month you can rent a decent odnushku or studio in the center of Kep. For $ 400 villa with a pool and a mango grove in the yard. Problems with finding a home usually do not arise either, I always acted according to this scheme:

• I come to the city
• I stay in a cheap guest-house (not more than $ 5 per day)
• I ask the local, I look at the ads, I go around the city in search of housing. It usually takes no more than 3 days

Crime

This section could be large, but, fortunately, I did not come across such a phenomenon, at least dangerous to health, or material well-being. My personal opinion is that it is difficult to find a country more dangerous than Russia. In general, in tourist places is quite developed. In towns like Kep, there is none; here everyone knows each other, everyone is always in sight. On the other hand, I walked on foot at night in all major cities of Cambodia and I did not have any problems, but they say that it is better not to do this.

the Internet

$ 12 / month for 3Mb / s unlimited, 3G available, 4G master. Coverage area - the whole country.

About $ 300 and how I managed it

Everything is very simple. Coming to a new place, you must give yourself a clear indication: “not to buy anything”. At the new place you are not familiar with the reality in which you have to live, you will want to buy everything, to try everything. No need to hurry with this, all have time.

Yes, at first it was hard. He lived in the dorm-room for $ 2 per day, while looking for acceptable housing options. As a result, I found a wonderful two-room apartment with a large balcony for $ 100 a month. Month was enough for me to raise at least some money. But I didn’t move out of the flat for quite some time, I really liked it.

From funny: once I had to literally step over myself. I ran out of money earlier than I imagined, and I had to urgently figure out how to earn it, I wanted to eat. Fortunately, I already had local acquaintances, one of my acquaintances sang at the hotel, I offered to help her somehow, after which I played music for the first time in my life, and also on stage. Of course, my help was dubious. He played the tambourine, for the first time in his life, he was very shy inside, but he tried not to show his appearance. I earned $ 5, which was enough to provide myself with food for a week.

I could still write a whole bunch of stories, but, unfortunately, I always question the usefulness and interestingness of the information I have presented, I will continue my writing with great joy in the next post if you specify a vector of descriptions. What would you like to know personally? You can ask the most stupid questions.

UPD: Since there were a lot of strange comments in which someone proves to someone that it is not necessary to go to Cambodia to achieve my goals, or you don’t need to go to it at all, I answer:

In Cambodia in no case do not have to go, especially if you do not want. By no means do I agitate anyone to go to other countries. I myself love Russia very much, but there are people who want to travel, I attribute myself to them and I travel. All arguments like: “Everything is the same in Russia” are true for people who voice them, but they are wrong for me. Understand that all people have different needs, philosophy, points of view and views on life and there is not one right or wrong, so why do you impose your own points of view?

Regarding "21 years senior / leading developer":

It's just inscriptions in labor and responsibility at work. Please do not engage in verbiage, after all, we are not talking about that at all. Who is very interesting, can talk with me on this topic in a personal.

Thank you for understanding and such an interest in the post, I did not expect that the topic could be of interest to such a wide range of people. Travel unforgettable to you, love your country and remember that you are its representative and you are judged on the country as a whole.