Why I'm still in Siem Reap - a year in the Khmerde part 2

12 months ago I was getting ready to up sticks and move to Cambodia to teach English as a Foreign Language at a private English academy in Siem Reap. Initially my contract was for 6 months but obviously I ended up staying - and I have no intention to move away yet. Having just finished my fourth term, and sitting in a hotel in Phnom Penh with all the room-service coffee I can drink, I've got the time to reflect on the year and the reasons why I've got so attached to my life in Siem Reap.

1. The sleepy pace of life. There's not that much to do here compared with larger cities. Enthusiasts of yoga, photography or cycling will find enough to do; otherwise most leisure activities revolve around eating and drinking. Some people find that's not stimulating enough, but personally I find it relaxing. I have a fairly light teaching schedule, which allows plenty of time for getting massages, drinking coconuts, reading books, studying Khmer, taking yoga classes, having the best intentions of getting up early to go for a run, a bit of voluntary teaching/tutoring (but not enough - resolution for 2015...) writing for Kindle and having a blogging job on the side.

Mondulkiri: elephants are available

2. It's a (fairly) good jumping-off point for travel in SE Asia. You can get from Siem Reap to Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Ho Chi Minh or Pakse swiftly by plane or slowly (but cheaply) by bus. Flights to Indonesia, Malaysia, China or the Philippines are not extremely cheap, but reasonable. However Cambodia's roads are bad so it takes a disproportionate amount of time to get anywhere by bus, and night buses carry the risk of breakdowns, crashes and theft of personal items (whether from the baggage hold or from your pockets while you sleep). If you're serious about finding the most ideal hub for SE Asia travel, then Bangkok might be a better bet, but Siem Reap does the job for me. I've travelled to Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh, Mondulkiri, Phnom Penh and Koh Rong this year without any particular trouble (most were solo trips).

3. Rapport with students. Terms at my school are 3 months, and we get a different set of classes each term. This means that with each passing term, I have a growing number of students I used to teach, who greet me with an excited "Hello teacher!" whenever I see them in the corridor. It can be disorienting to get a new set of students every 3 months, but once you've put in the work to break the ice and develop a rapport, the students repay you with loyalty and a sense of belonging to a community.

This class is awesome.

4. There are a few things I miss... Proper sandwiches. Khmer sandwiches ruin perfectly good baguettes by filling them with pickled vegetables and dodgy processed meat and drowning it all in watery sauce. I miss proper cookies, the big chewy freshly-baked kind. Bakeries abound in Siem Reap, but cookies are just never the right texture dammit. In general, I miss fair-quality products at a fixed, reasonable price. Over-haggling in the markets feels mean-spirited, so I probably tend to overpay for items of uncertain quality. Branded items are only available in the supermarkets, and they're overpriced anyway. Fake branded goods are rife, so you can't always be sure what you're getting. I also miss clothes that come in different sizes. I'm petite back home, but the clothes here are made for elves. I miss H＆M. Yes, I know their clothes are manufactured here but they export all the non-elf-sized ones, meaning I have to go to another country to get them.

5. ...but some things I don't miss at all. Queues in the post office. Christmas hype and the annual 'overcommercialisation' whinge. The M25. Drizzle, fog, frost, hail, de-icing the car. Squabbling over the central heating. Sitting for 8 hours a day in front of the same computer, pretending to be busy to keep your team leader off your case. Rail replacement buses. People banging on about reality TV (are celebrities still getting dunked in vats of bugs in the jungle? I have no idea!). Car tax, car insurance, MOTs, and paying £1.30 for a litre of petrol. The persistent, insidious influence of advertisers and the government trying to tell you what to do.

Overall I'm still happy with my decision to live and work in Cambodia, and don't think I'll leave until something drastic changes. Settling into a new culture has been a challenge but full of nice surprises. I look back on the year with a feeling of contentment, and forward to 2015 with excitement.

Suosdey bong! The first 10 phrases to know in Khmer

If you're planning a trip to Cambodia for business or pleasure, you should learn a few key phrases so that you can be polite to the local people you meet. Don't worry too much about pronunciation at first - Cambodian people are warm and friendly, and many will just appreciate you making an effort.

1. Suosdey = hello

A friendly greeting. Variations: Arun suosdey = good morning, reatrey suosdey = goodnight.

2. Jom reap suar = hello (formal)

A more formal way to say hello, to someone in a position of authority or an older person.

3. Sok sabai = how are you?

Literally: are you safe and happy? It can also be used when saying goodbye to someone, by way of wishing them well.

4. Knyom sok sabai, joh neak wenh? = I'm fine, how are you?

Note: neak is an informal word for you, and should only be used with friends. To show more respect to someone you don't know, use bong.

Try it on a tuk tuk driver.

5. Baat/cha = yes

Say baat if you're a man, and cha if you're a woman.

6. Ort dte = no

The same for both genders.

7. Som = please

Use it at the start of a sentence when asking for something, for example som kiet luy = bill please

8. Or kun = thank you

Or kun jran means thank you very much.

9. Som dtos = sorry

Use it to apologise or to say excuse me.

10. lia haie = goodbye

The formal version is jom reap lia.

Want to learn more? Why not invest in my Cambodian (Khmer) Phrasebook for Kindle. It contains all the key phrases for starting to learn the Cambodian language. Translations were provided and checked by native speakers. What's more, $1 for every copy sold is donated to Kantha Bopha hospitals who do amazing work for women and children in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh.

Go to Amazon for more details or to download your free sample today.

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