We Rent Movies, So Why Not Textbooks?

I love this New York Times story about chegg.com.

Osman Rashid and Aayush Phumbhra are the co-founders of Chegg.com, a company that in 2007 started renting textbooks to college students. Students [or their parents] would pay a lot of money for college textbooks only to offload the used books at college stores at heavily discounted prices. “The textbook business was wildly inefficient,” said Mike Maples Jr., managing partner at Maples Investments, a fund that invests in young start-ups; it was one of Chegg’s first outside investors. The two entrepreneurs addressed this market inefficiency with their book rental website.

There is a ticker that shows how much money the website has helped people save. As of now: "SAVED SO FAR: US$40,271,719.29". Chegg also plants a tree for every book you rent, buy or sell and claims that to date, it has planted over 500 football fields worth of trees.

This to me is the best bit:

Chegg began renting books before it owned any, so when an order came in, its employees would surf the Web to find a cheap copy. They would buy the book using Mr. Rashid’s American Express card and have it shipped to the student. Eventually, Chegg automated the system.

But as the orders multiplied, Mr. Rashid said, so did the traffic on his credit card, leading American Express to suspect fraud and threaten to suspend the account. He said he persuaded American Express not only to keep the card active, but also to issue a couple of dozen more so Chegg could spread out the orders.

There is plenty of secret sauce to Chegg’s business, including logistics and software to determine the pricing and sourcing of books, as well as how many times a given book can be rented.

Fantastic. I love how the entrepreneurs came up with creative yet simple solutions to get their business off the ground. Lessons in there for Bloom!

Tonle Sap Chong Kneas floating village

These photos show the work being carried out by the South Korean company Sou Ching Investments, which has monopoly rights to operate the Tonle Sap tours here in Siem Reap. The company reportedly will spent USD2 million to develop the area. Here you can see the dredges and the big bulldozers, the boats berthed by the riverbank and a sign that reminds boatmen not to speed (the symbol must mean "No Waves").

In May 2007, when Sou Ching first brought in the bulldozers, the villagers of Chong Kneas blocked the gates. They said it was the first they'd heard of the tourist port as the company did not talk to the people or the community leaders, according to this report by the Phnom Penh Post.

Back then, the Post reported the villagers were also afraid the port would damage the area's flooded forests and rice fields. Also, they worry the developer would block them from moving in and out or charge them a fee to access the river.

Resistance has now moved from the villagers to boat operators and the Cambodian Association of Travel Agents (CATA). [I could not find information on how the villagers were appeased--were they compensated or were their complaints and them just bulldozed over?]

A 30 April 2009 report says:

"Some boat owners are also burned by the fixed pricing system, which prevents them from fleecing tourists.

"They're not losing their livelihood," said a source who works at Sou Ching. "They're losing their corrupt livelihood."

Well, the tour operators are still corrupt , despite Sou Ching's claims that under its fixed-price system, tourists will stop being ripped off.

Is this a matter of a good idea ("one boat association and one price") executed poorly?

In any case, there is now a stand-off between CATA, which has 170 members, and Sou Ching. CATA members, like tour company Intrepid Travel, have agreed to boycott travel to Chong Kneas until Sou Ching meets with them.

IPhone 3GS's short battery life

For those obsessed with the iPhone. Here is an update from LA Times:

The new, high-octane iPhone 3GS is loaded with features that could light up your life -- but its battery isn't one of them.

Buyers are finding that the device, introduced two weeks ago, has trouble making it through a workday without a rest stop at the electrical outlet. It's proving to be something of an Achilles' heel on Apple Inc.'s flagship device, more than 1 million of which were sold in the first weekend.

Google searches

HAHAHA! Thanks to concept61 for adding to reddit.

Cambodia to go legal with HBO?

From the Phnom Penh Post, "Royal Group in HBO rights agreement":

"THE Royal Group's Cambodia Entertainment Production Co Ltd (CEPCO) said Thursday it had obtained the exclusive rights to distribute American cable network HBO channels to nearly 100 cable operators in Cambodia."

Wow, there are 100 cable operators in Cambodia--every town must have one, and every hotel group too.

The GM of CEPCO says there are 1.5 million potential viewers of HBO programming, but many cable operators illegally redirect network signals from neighbouring countries. Well, we have been getting HBO since moving to Cambodia in 2006. Right now in Siem Reap, we get it through an analogue wire from the TV company. How the company gets the images from Thailand I have no idea (I do know it is from Thailand because sometimes you see some messages giving instructions). I don't know if they use a satellite dish and pretend to be a Thai customer or do they get it through a cable to Thailand (unlikely).

The article continues:

"Cambodia currently has no legal access to the five channels operated by HBO, and the cost of accessing the channel - and any potential future channels - is likely to be passed onto the consumer, Ouk Vora said. He added that cable operators would have to upgrade to digital technology before they could start charging customers for separate channel packages - the cost of HBO's channels, based on experiences elsewhere, would set users back between US$7 and $10 per month."

Right now we pay USD5 a month for some 80 channels, so I already knew the channels are pirated. In Singapore, we paid at least 20 times more for far fewer channels. According to Mr Ouk Vora quoted above, legal set up would cost you USD7-US10 just for HBO's channels (and extra for Star World, BBC etc etc)

Anyway, I expect it will be some time before the Royal Group can start charging for their services, since the infrastructure has to be in place. Digital TV is a ways away for Cambodia, except maybe for the cities. There is no digital cable where we live, for instance, so the analogue cable has to be upgraded. And the better ones are fibre optic cables, not copper ones which is costly. Then you need the decoder or set-top box, which I expect will be beyond the average Cambodian (the Royal Group may give it free but you can bet they will get the cost back in subscription fees).

Still, it is good to see there are plans for Cambodia to upgrade its technology. Just last month, on the 12th June, television stations in the US completed the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting. This deadline was pushed back several times in the last few years because of both broadcasters' and consumers' inability to meet the FCC's [Federal Communications Commission, not the restaurant group in Cambodia!] criteria for a successful transition to digital broadcasting. The UK will start soon. We have been receiving digital cable in Singapore for a few years now. It is much better technology, clearer reception and you get additional features such as programme synopses.

If you want to learn more about digital cable, you can read the entry on wikipedia.

Khmer rouge trial a "novel approach to international justice"

Just read this interesting article on how victims of the Khmer Rouge want money and the precedent this sets for international justice. But you can hardly fault the Khmers for demanding money - they learn from their leaders, from their police, the people who are supposed to uphold the law. Besides, what meaningful alternative is there since most of the KR leaders are dead? There's no justice left to extract.

From the article by the Christian Science Monitor :

"It's a novel approach in the field of international justice," Clint Williamson, the US ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, said at a recent press conference in Phnom Penh. "We think victim participation in the process is a positive thing, but it should not be taking place because people are seeking some type of monetary remuneration at the end of the process."

One of these people is Chum. "I want money," he told CSM. "I lost five family members – my wife and four children – and some property under the Khmer Rouge. The court needs to calculate what this equals with money."

"Some of the victims are even jealous of the defendants – they have a nice place to live, a car that brings them to the court," says Mr. Kong Pisey, a Cambodian attorney representing Chum.

"[Duch and the other defendants] don't have to sleep with small containers filled with their own urine and [excrement]," Chum scoffs, describing his life while inside Duch's prison. "If S-21 was hell, they live in heaven."

One German lawyer, Silke Studzinsky has requested the creation of a trust fund into which third parties might donate money for reparations. Awarding individual financial reparations, she tells CSM, "is part of the justice process. It is not complete if you miss this very important part" even though the court has twice declined her requests.

Siem Reap Tonle Sap boat tour scams

I'll have to find the old photos to show how the place has changed. Before, it was a menagerie. When you arrive, boat men will come up to you to tout their services and you hop on a boat. There was no jetty like today.

The boatman told me why. A Korean company now operates the Tonle Sap boat tours in Siem Reap.

To get to the Tonle Sap, you need to take a tuk-tuk from Siem Reap town. We paid Phern USD15 for the whole day but a return trip by an independent tuktuk is just USD6 or 7. If you book with a travel agent it is USD10.

The boat ticket itself is another matter. Of course, they tried to scam us Singaporeans. My aunt and her friend were charged USD15 per person. I refused because it was ridiculously expensive. I argued and tried to bargain but the corrupt, arrogant man running the ticketing sales said it was "fixed price". Just as the boat was about to leave, (and while I was relaxing with a coconut (2000 riels) at one of the little stalls) the man decided to let me on free, partly because Phern asked on my behalf, but mainly because he had profited enough from my friends and it would have cost him nothing to let me go on.

Later, I found out from a travel agent that the REAL PRICE is USD12 PER BOAT if there is one or two persons on that boat. If there are three of you, it becomes USD5 per pax, which makes it USD15 PER BOAT. That means he made a profit of USD18 out of the boat trip we took. Imagine if I too, had paid the USD15. And you can bet the boatman who does the actual work gets zero of that. [Note to the Korean company Sou Ching Investment Company: Get your act together. At least the entrance fee at other tourist spots in Cambodia are genuinely "fixed price".)

[Update 28 July 2009: I just found out this blog post was quoted in tripadvisor.com. I should have made clear you will not get the prices I mentioned if you book through a travel agent since you have to compensate the travel agent for his/her service. You will be charged USD10 per person if there are 1 or 2 of you. This INCLUDES tuktuk, which is very fair, because as mentioned, the tuktuk transfer itself is USD6. This means effectively you are paying USD7 per person for the boat trip (USD10-USD6/2). If there are 3 of you, you will be charged USD8 per person, which means you will be paying USD6 per person for the boat trip (USD8- USD6/3). I just verified this with the travel agent next door to my shop so you can book through them if you like. It is called CMT travel agency. Also, please note that the prices may go up with the high season (Nov-Feb). Also interesting is how the boat fee differs with skin colour- white people get charged USD20, Asians between USD12 - USD15 per person].

My advice for travellers planning to go visit the floating villages in Siem Reap is to BOOK THE TOUR WITH A TRAVEL AGENT AHEAD OF TIME, paying the prices I mentioned. This is because once you have made the long trip out, the boat ticketing people know they have got you. There is absolutely nothing else to do there, so they know you will pay whatever they charge to go on the ride.

The other scam happens halfway on the boat, when the boatman will try to get you to visit a school so you can buy supplies for the children. Fine - except what they charge for the supplies. Here is one traveller's experience, as posted on travelfish.org:

I agree that the floating village is not worth to see. We got there with a Tuk-Tuk, payed the entrance fee ($ 20 pp!!!), got a small boat (we were the only 2 tourists), we shiped around the village for half an hour, but there was nothing special to see. After introducing a little of their lifestyle we were asked if we want to visit a school. We agreed because there was nothing else to see. But they nearly forced us to buy some pencils, pens and books for the school (they insisted to bring something for all 40 pupils). We would love to do it, but the "shop" in the floating village asked $1 for 1 pencil! Here you really get ripped off! So we bought only 4 pencils and the crew (2 young boys) got really angry and the didn't speak to us anymore! I would not recommand to go there!

I had already known about this school scam so I told the boatman, since I speak Khmer. He kept saying, "mian p'new klah chet la-or, chong jouy k'meng k'meng" or "some tourists heart good, want to help the children."

I despise this Cambodian tactic. The tour guides, the local NGO staff and the boatmen use it. They imply your heart is not good if you don't help, or rather, fall for the scam. I know exactly how my heart is, and what I do everyday for a group of Cambodians working at Bloom, and then some--thank you very much. I don't need your pathetic, transparent attempts at blackmail.

Still, some tourists find it hard to say no. See this one on travelblog.org:

A bit further along our driver asked us if we were interested in buying some stationery and books for one of the local very poor schools. Well, what can you say to that without sounding like a total jerk? Of course we agreed and before we could say "Boat House" we were moored alongside the local General Store - floating variety. Now this is where the fun began. The shop proprietor was obviously well versed in this scenario as she met us with a package of books and pencils - asking price US$25!!! "You must be joking", I said. "Do I look like a fool?" After a bit of haggling, during which time I was feeling like we'd been totally scammed we finally settled on $10 and not a penny more! What a con - and for some reason, I felt like I should have known it was going to go down like this. Anyway, we were then dropped off at the local school comprising of one floating classroom complete with basketball court on the top to present our "gift" to the eagerly awaiting principal. I only hope the kids actually get to use the books, which by the way would have cost little more than a $1 in Siem Reap."

Anyway like the travelfish poster, our boatman became sullen after repeated attempts to get me to buy the stationery. Well, I give as good as I get and I stopped chatting with him. Despite the unpleasantness, I tipped him USD3! (10% of his monthly wage!) See how crazy I am. Heart of marshmallow. I pity him because I know USD30 is too little to live on.

Other things I can share is: wear sensible shoes when going on this trip. The metal ramp leading from the jetty to the boats have hardly any grip. It is very slippery and dangerous. Thank goodness there are bars you can hold onto when making your way down. If you wear high heels you will regret it. I wore flip flops and struggled. You not only have to make the walk down the ramp, but also up, when you get back.

Along the way on the river trip, a small child will suddenly appear on the boat. Our young girl was rowed by her brother. Their boat comes really close so she can hop on with a bucket filled with cold drinks. You can buy if you like, I think for USD1 a drink. We didn't so she hopped onto the other boat. We were just amazed at how quickly it all happened.

In two days I have heard two scams that happened to two groups of backpackers in Scambodia. I'm sure many Khmers are just as angry at their countrymen for being so short-sighted. As the tourists told me, they will return to their home countries and tell people of their troubles in this country. Do you think people will be encouraged to come?

Some Cambodian friends tell me these people "kert klai, ot kert vwairng" (think short-term, not long term). Other Cambodians tell me it is the government's fault. Because it corrupt and takes what it can, the ordinary Khmer also wants his/her own share.

Angkor Wat, Killing Fields, now the Tonle Sap boat tour

Is there nothing the Cambodian government will not privatise?

I once met an engineer from mainland China who was sent by the Chinese government to restore some temples at Angkor Wat. He found it puzzling that "the Cambodians have no pride" [his words, not mine - and I am saying this upfront because I am sure I will be flamed for this entry by overseas Khmers, as I do every time I am critical of this country]. The engineer said this because he believes China would never "sell" the Great Wall and other national treasures to foreigners, unlike Cambodia, where the main tourist sites are privatised to foreign in addition to local companies.

In fact, most Cambodians are extremely proud of their heritage (misplaced pride, as I've written here, and here on nationalism). However, it is true that for some Khmers, these objects have less significance than money which is why Cambodia is in the situation it is.

In May, I took my aunt and her friend on the Tonle Sap boat tour to see the floating villages here in Siem Reap. The place has changed remarkably since I was last there a couple of years ago. It is now organised and you get the tickets from a ticket booth and get assigned a boat.

I found out why it was so organised. The tours are now operated by a single company, a Korean one. The company is Sou Ching Investment Co. Ltd, part of a large investment fund established by two major Korean companies - SK Securities and Golden Bridge Asset Management.

"SK Securities asset manager, Yim Yeo Ngijin, was quoted as saying that the companies were expecting returns on their investment of up to $1 trillion. He described the Sou Ching Port Investment as part of a "cultural exchange package." [yeah, right.]

"According to an April 2007 tourism working group meeting at the Ministry of Tourism (MoT), about 60,000 tourists now visit the Chong Kneas area each month in high season. By charging $1 dollar per tourist, the working group estimated that revenues of $120,000 every two months could be achieved rapidly.

"Sou Ching requested the rights to invest in road construction, channel restoration and to charge a toll fee, parking fee, and pier fee. The company also asked to charge an entrance fee to the Tonle Sap. The MoT said these requests, especially the entrance fee, were "a problem."

Well, I guess the entrance fee is no longer "a problem". And USD1? Well, we were charged USD15 - each, a scam, I later found out. For the real price and advice of the trip read my Tonle Sap boat scam. [Note from a pissed off customer: Get your act together Sou Ching Port Investment Co. If you want monopoly rights to manage the tours at least do it properly.]

Find these quotes and how the villagers tried to protest the bulldozing (with no success, as usual -- I'll upload photos later so you know what I mean) here on the Tonle Sap database. The article is a Phnom Penh Post report dated Dec 14, 2007.

The Killing Fields is licensed to a Japanese company, JC Royal Company, which has a 30-year contract starting in 2004 for USD15,000 a year, with graduated increases. The Cheung Ek killing field was the main execution site for prisoners from Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh, about seven miles away. Says the New York Times:

Based on figures provided by an official here, the company stands eventually to earn about $18,000 a month in entrance fees. The profits are to go to a fund that is half owned by Cambodian government officials. The company has agreed to clean up and organize the site. Some fear that will dull the raw immediacy that gives the area its haunted.

And of course, there is Angkor Wat, which earned Sokimex (or Sok Kong Import Export Company) , a Cambodian conglomerate, an estimated USD50 million in 2007 alone. Sokimex apparently pays the Cambodian government USD10 million a year for the right to operate and manage Angkor Wat.

Here I have to re-iterate that Sokimex, also Cambodia's largest petroleum company and owner of the upmarket Sokha Hotels is a Cambodian company and NOT a Vietnamese company. All the tuk tuk drivers and tour guides will tell you the money goes to Vietnam. It does not. The money stays in Cambodia (the bulk, if not all of it vis-a-vis Vietnam. How much ends up in Swiss or Singapore bank accounts I do not know), only it goes private individuals instead of to the national treasury.

The allegations are made by Cambodians because the owner Sok Kong is Cambodian, born to ethnic Vietnamese parents. And if you think that makes him Vietnamese, then you must consider me a mainland Chinese instead of a Singaporean, and a Malay born in Singapore to be Malaysian instead of Singaporean, and a Polish person born in France to be Polish, and an African American to be from whatever African country instead of the USA. If you do, you're ignorant at best, racist at worst. And if you don't, yet consider an ethnic Vietnamese born in Cambodia to be Vietnamese, then you're just a hypocrite.

Phnom Penh in Dragonair's Silkroad magazine

I write freelance to earn some money since I don't get a salary from Bloom (although I have been thinking this must change, after almost 3 years). This one was on business in Phnom Penh for the carrier Dragonair, a subsidiary of Cathay Pacific. The in-flight magazine is called Silkroad. Dragonair has daily flights from China to Phnom Penh and most of its passengers are business people, hence the business angle. (Don't you just love the photo of Phnom Penh's Monivorng Boulevard? It's by Anthony Gibbin for Lonely Planet Images)

It was a great opportunity to meet some businesspeople in Phnom Penh and I made sure to get all different nationalities in different industries. In the end I wrote about ANZ Bank (with New Zealander James Lowrey, head of corporate and institutional banking), the Pavilion Group in the hospitality industry (with French owner Alexis de Suremain), web design company House32 (with American owner John Weeks), publishing company AsiaLIFE Guide (with British owner Mark Jackson).

I need to get permission to upload the entire story on my blog, but there was a lot of information and insight the gentlemen gave me about business in Cambodia, which was fascinating to me, since I also run a social enterprise here. I'll write those up as separate entries when I can, to share with others interested in business here.

Writing is fun, and is the only thing I really enjoy these days in Cambodia.

Creepiest vintage ads of all time

I think Pears was trying to say the baby had so much fun during bath time he toppled over!
The Gilette razor: so smooth it can even be used on babies, by babies!
Eeeps! What a creepy little girl!
Suicide pork.
All photos from retrocomedy.com. Go check it out, the author's got some great lines! My favourite...
6. Locked Out
You better wash out your privates with Lysol, or your husband will install cartoon locks on the door. Hahahah!
Thanks to souryoghurtsupergirl for adding to reddit!

Electronic cigarettes

Hahahaha! Check out the electronic cigarette. It seems one Dr Murray Laugeson of Health New Zealand found the ecigarette "...very safe relative to cigarettes, and also safe in absolute terms on all measurements we have applied. Using micro-electronics it vaporizes, separately for each puff, very small quantities of nicotine dissolved in propylene glycol, two small well-known molecules with excellent safety profiles, – into a fine aerosol. Each puff contains one third to one half the nicotine in a tobacco cigarette’s puff. The cartridge liquid is tobacco-free and no combustion occurs."
Check out the cigarette pack which you can plug in to charge!
The site is convinced "electric cigarette technology is the future of smoking". It's better for you than real smoking in number of ways! It's safer because "each puff contains one third to one half the nicotine in a tobacco cigarette’s puff. The cartridge liquid is tobacco-free and no combustion occurs." Which means you won't burn your house down in case you fall asleep smoking!

Our True Colours

A great article pointing out that Indians who accuse Australia of being racist should take a look at themselves. Racism Indian Style:

- A Madurai sessions court sentences Farook Batcha to two years' RI ["Rigorous Imprisonment" apparently, whatever that means in India] in 2008 for harassing his wife so much about being dark that it drove her to suicide.

- The information and broadcasting ministry issues a notice to Nimbus Communications for a racist ad during the 2007 India-West Indies series. The promo featured a West Indian running around for water after eating spicy food. No Indian comes to his help. The ad's punchline: "It's tough being a West Indian in India."

- Bilyaminu Ibrahim, a Nigerian student at an engineering college in Greater Noida, is spat at by one of his Indian seniors.

- Robert, a Kenyan student in Pune, is denied entrance to a pub. He is asked to return on Tuesday for an "all-black" night.

- A controversial ad for Fair & Lovely cream features a father who is unhappy because his daughter is dark and unsuccessful. The cream changes her complexion and lands her a glamorous job.

One of my close Cambodian friends, a woman around 30, was pursued by an African man. She went out with him for a while, but could never really accept him, even though she tried her best to, "as a good Christian". She kept saying he is a "black man". They soon broke up. I have no idea which country in Africa, since my friend herself did not know.

Cambodians in general are racist towards black people. It's not hard to believe, since even among Cambodians, darker-skinned people are discriminated against. Just ask Knila who writes: "When I was in primary school, my friends called me 'black' because of my skin color. "Black" was said instead of "brown"; I guess, their parents didn't teach them to distinguish between colors very well. Very sad. Half-blood chinese children were proud of their white or pale skin color. Some of them behaved superior to others in the class."

"Many women told me that to have white skin is to show a wealthy status in Cambodian society," she continues. "I thought, 'Oh, so Cambodians have disliked Cambodians themselves and 'brown' means dirty or of low status.'

It's a great article and I encourage you to read it yourself.

I know one Cambodian father who calls his daughter Srey Mao as a nickname, "K'mao" being the Cambodian word for "black" because he says, she is dark. Like Cambodia, Thailand too, stigmatises dark skinned people. One common insult I learnt from this article is "tua dam," or black body, a rude term to degrade someone of lower social standing. Also "e dam" (black girl) or "dam tap pet" (black like a duck’s liver).

So obsessed are Cambodians with skin colour you can find questions like "What is the actual descendant of a Cambodian who have white skin?" and Light Skin Vs Dark Skin Cambodian at groups and forums online.

Cambodian women use skin-whitening products, some of which are harmful. This led the Ministry of Health to declare in 2008 that it would control powders and lotions that promote skin whitening especially those that contain hydroquinone. Although commercial whitening products are widely available in Cambodia, they are also sold on the black market where they are incorrectly labelled or not labelled at all.

Of course the women do this also to attract men. Chhun Hy always tells me he wants to marry a girl with "white-skin". He categorises every girl he knows - me and Chantou are "white skinned", Rath and Thyda are "black skinned" etc.

In India, Cambodia, the whole of Asia really, people admire fairness. In a survey carried out in June 2004 by Synovate, 61 percent of respondents in Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan said they felt they looked younger with a fair complexion. Half of Filipino women, 45 percent of Hong Kong women and 41 percent of Malaysian women said they were currently using a skin-whitening product. I am sure the percentages are higher now, not lower. In the last few years in Singapore, I have noticed magazines carrying advertisements for *more* whitening products.

The Taiwanese show "Meteor Garden 2" featured a Singaporean actress, Michelle Saram, of Indian-Chinese parentage (we say "Chindian" in Singapore). She was slammed by Taiwanese netizens for "looking like a Filipino maid" because of her darker skin. She has Indian blood, what do you expect? She is still a very pretty girl, but apparently not enough for Taiwanese audiences who expect their leading ladies to be snow-white.

Argh! I have to stop now. Just writing this makes my blood boil. People are just so stupid.

My tuk-tuk driver in Siem Reap 2

I've written about Phern, my tuktuk driver here in Siem Reap. He is 54 and speaks very little English. I mentioned in my previous post that is the reason why I use his tuk tuk. It is almost impossible for him to compete with the younger tuk tuk drivers who speak English. They are the ones who get the tourists and the big tips.

Whenever friends visit, I always suggest they help him out, because he is a sweet old man and is very honest. Recently he told me because of the low season he gets sometimes only 2000 riels (50 cents) a day. Phern has 4 children so it is hard for him. I try to help him out by giving him odd jobs. More recently, I asked his wife to try making necklaces out of recycled paper which I can buy to sell in the Bloom shop.

Anyway I visited Phern and his family recently. This is his home, a single room for which he pays 50,000 riels (USD12.50) a month. His place is only one room, with one door, not the whole building. It is the one with the table and the plastic chairs, which Phern's wife (pictured) took out for me, my aunt and her friend. I had bought them different varieties of fruit and they insisted we have some (of course we felt shy). Cambodians are very hospitable. Even if they have nothing in the house, you can be sure they will offer you at least water.

You can see in the second photo his home consists of 2 beds, one for the parents and the other for the 4 kids. He has a gas stove which is kept on the bed during the day as the wife prepares the day's meals. At night it is put on the floor to make space on the bed. The red bucket on the bed contains drinking water. Underneath the bed in a basket are plates and bowls and cooking utensils. Clothes are put in baskets (behind Phern's wife in the photo).

The house is unbearably hot during the day because of the zinc roof, so the family usually sits outside the door. The shared toilet, the one made out of bricks, is used by three families, so 10-12 people. Phern is showing my aunt the chicken coop in the next photo.

My aunt and her friend were quite affected by the visit. They were dismayed at the living conditions. I explained that as far as Cambodians go, Phern is actually ok. He has a concrete house, which means the family is protected from the monsoon rains. They also have mosquito nets and access to a toilet and running water. It is hard for Singaporeans to imagine anything worse. My aunt says even in the 50s in Singapore, people were not so badly off.

The last one photo shows firewood. In case you think it is shared--it is not. The wood all belongs to the landlord, who sits on a huge wooden double storeyed house in the same compound. I wanted to take a photo of his house, but his wife who was sitting under the house (it is raised on stilts) was eyeing me suspiciously.

Sex and the Cambodian artiste/artist

From romony.blogspot.com, a Cambodian blogger living in Japan who is a follower of this blog. I just checked out her site, which I found interesting for its pan-Asian coverage. Among other things, Romony writes about entertainers in Korea, Taiwan as well as Cambodia. Here is one, with a youtube video of Cambodian singers "playing behind the stage" with a sex toy.

Says Romony in her post:

I remember these people; popular or not, they were Cambodian singers I used to see on the stage. They used to step on to the stage from the room behind and greet audiences with their gentle words and gesture traditionally (matching their acts to Cambodian culture). However, the video footage below shows their hidden faces and acts - things that are still unacceptable to Cambodian society (at least to the conservative Cambodians)....Many people in Cambodia are now playing more with camera embedded within their hand-phones, thanks to what is termed technological diffusion. When camera-ing something like their own naked body or own sex scene, however, these people totally forget or never think of the consequences, particularly in the age that internet is far beyond our control.

I found Cambodia actually has a Maxim model! For those of you who don't know, Maxim is a men's magazine, like FHM and Stuff, and they feature sexy and sexily clad women. Meng Lau, born in Phnom Penh but now lives in San Francisco has been featured in more than one men's magazine.

Khmerbird says "people know her as America’s hottest doctor’s assistant on Maxim Magazine and as Neighborhood Knockout Meng Lau on Stuff Magazine." Here is Khmerbird's interview with Meng Lau as well as photos of her.

Then there was this hoohah of the drawings of Reahu, who draws Apsara dancers with big boobs. Really, which Cambodian woman has a chest like this? It's all in Reahu's fantasies, which I find laughable. But some people take him seriously.

Quoted in the linked article above: "Mr. Chuch Phoeung, secretary of state of the ministry of culture and arts, said that the website was not based in Cambodia. He said that the Cambodian authority cannot do anything. If it is based in Cambodia we can invite them to explain to us. He agreed that those drawings can cast a bad image of the Khmer culture but said that the Khmer authority is unable to do anything (to stop them)."

Well, they obviously can. If you try to go to reahu.net, you'll see this message:

ERROR
The requested URL could not be retrieved
While trying to retrieve the URL: http://reahu.net/
The following error was encountered:
Access Denied.
Access control configuration prevents your request from being allowed at this time. Please contact your service provider if you feel this is incorrect.

How NOT to install a Wifi transmitter

Hahahaha! Thanks to Lukadium for adding to reddit.

I love Cambodian Monkeys

Awwww...Check out this cutie-pie. It seems it is an old monkey that lives in Siem Reap town. I spotted her at the Soria Moria Hotel one Wednesday when I went there for drinks (all drinks and tapas $1!). The waiter tells me the monkey is not owned by anyone. She (I think it is a she) is so beautiful I really thought someone was looking after her. She often comes by the restaurant, the staff tell me. One time she turned her nose up at a spoiled banana. Only when the waitress returned with a fresh banana did she take the fruit. I keep smiling looking at these photos because it is so cute. :)

Here are more photos of urban monkeys, this time taken in Phnom Penh, as they did a hire-wire act.

Cambodian insect

I took this a few days ago. It was at night (hence the flash) and on the floor in our living room.

I was fascinated at the two, beautiful, fan-like feelers at the top of the insect's head. But I could not find what bug it is. Anyone knows? If you like insects, insects.about.com has a Bug of the Week contest. Maybe I should enter this Cambodian bug.

How to cut the grass in your Cambodian garden

We have 5 Cambodian dogs (Austin, Nessie, Sunshine, Buster and Sooty). For this reason, we rented a house with land. We are lucky to have fruit trees, sweet potatoes, beautiful bamboo etc. The only problem is keeping the garden tidy. It is a lot of work, weeding, cutting the grass and overgrown shrubs and trees.

Bamboo is crazy - if you have ever had bamboo you would know it just grows and grows. Also, snakes like to sleep under the bamboo because the shed leaves make a cool bed. I took these photos last year at the very spot - they show a green snake trying to swallow a gecko. There is also a 2 metre black snake which hunts for small animals in our garden, which really freaked out our helper.

I don't mind the snakes. I think they're more afraid of us. The only thing I worry about is the dogs getting bitten because they like to annoy the snakes. Austin once bit a smallish one and swung it around before flinging it. Amazingly the snake survived. Our landlord says the only snake we should be afraid of are cobras (!)

Anyway, snakes also hide in the tall grass, so my mom convinced me we had to cut the grass when it was overgrown. The landlord recommended I hire some Khmers to do it. The cost? USD25 a day for a couple to do the work.

Of course I overpaid. It does not sound like a lot for a foreigner, but you have to remember this is a country where most people earn USD1- USD2 a day. And grass cutting is unskilled labour, using sickles. Indeed, subsequently 3 young men offered to do it for 15,000 riels (USD3.75)--that is in total, not each.

Our landlord is not a mean man, on the contrary, he has been very kind to us. A few months ago, he volunteered to cut our rent because "the economy is bad". I don't think for a second he intended to rip us off. What I think is he was just trying to help his relatives, which is a very common Khmer trait.

Anyway, I also explored the option of buying a strimmer (string trimmer). My landlord picked me up on his motorbike to see the shops, along the road to Psar Leu. There are petrol and electric ones, but you can only get petrol ones in Cambodia, which go for USD90 new (made in China) and USD40 second hand. There is also a Japan made "Honda" that you can get for USD200 new.

The landlord advised me against getting a second-hand one because he said "you pay 40 dollars, but it works only 40%". I find in general, richer Cambodians have an aversion to second-hand things, whereas I always think second-hand because I want to save money. Maybe they are speaking from experience though, who knows?

I got a friend to compare prices in Singapore and found electric strimmers to be cheaper than the petrol ones found in Cambodia. On the other hand, the petrol ones in Singapore are more expensive, twice the price, but they are good ones.

Usually people use electric ones for their homes, because most people live in a country where land is expensive. Electric ones are not available in Cambodia because land here is cheap and many people own large tracts (our rented place sits on about 16,000 square feet of land).

Anyway, I had a spot of good luck recently. A woman came and asked if she could cut the grass to feed her cows. We had already considered this as a solution: letting in a few cows to eat our grass. Except our five dogs go barking mad when they see the placid creatures (Austin was kicked by one for annoying it).

Here are the photos of the woman at work. You can see curious Sunshine looking on and also how the woman transports the cut grass home, in a basket on her bicycle. She came twice this week. I wonder how many cows she has?

Pirate Bay sold to software company

Interesting. I wrote previously about Pirate Bay getting its 22 million users to pay a buck each for its legal fees and how one of the co-founders, Anakata, was rumoured to be in Cambodia. Well, here's the latest.

From torrentfreak.com:

The Pirate Bay Sold To Software Company, Goes Legal
Written by enigmax on June 30, 2009

According to gaming company Global Gaming Factory X (GGF) , it is in the the process of acquiring The Pirate Bay for $7.8m (SEK or Swedish Krona 60 million). The acquisition is scheduled to be completed by August and will see the site launch new business models to compensate content providers and copyright owners...GGF claims to have the biggest network of internet cafés and gaming centers in the world.

The changeover of ownership is scheduled for August 2009, whereby GGF will take over the operation of the site...

“The Pirate Bay is a site that is among the top 100 most visited Internet sites in the world. However, in order to live on, The Pirate Bay requires a new business model, which satisfies the requirements and needs of all parties, content providers, broadband operators, end users, and the judiciary,” said Hans Pandeya CEO.

What happens when today's teen uses a Walkman instead of an iPod

I love, love this BBC Magazine experiment! What a great idea!

Pictured is 13-year-old Scott Campbell, from Aberdeenshire in the UK:

"My dad had told me it was the iPod of its day. He had told me it was big, but I hadn't realised he meant THAT big. It was the size of a small book...

"It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape [Side B--haha!]. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.

"Another notable feature that the iPod has and the Walkman doesn't is "shuffle", where the player selects random tracks to play. Its a function that, on the face of it, the Walkman lacks. But I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down "rewind" and releasing it randomly - effective, if a little laboured."

Hahahaha! I remember my Walkmen (yes I had a few). This does bring back memories, including the time I was so desperate for music while backpacking alone in Europe for 3 months, I bought a metallic pink Walkman in the UK.