We still have a friend in our village looking for land to buy, and after several days of hunting we have found some options for him.
Finding Land Is Hard ⛰️
One of the biggest challenges for a foreigner looking to buy land in Cambodia is convincing locals that all foreigners don't have millions of dollars just sitting in a bank account. Most of the Khmers buying land in our village are playing around with several hundred thousand dollars, and even though these guys show up in Range Rovers, the villagers always give these guys a local price even though they have no interest in doing anything other than turning a profit for themselves.
I have a foreign friend looking to spend $10,000, and he rides a secondhand motorbike not as nice as the ones most villagers here have. Regardless, it has been very hard for us to get normal price quotes for the few tracts of land that are available here. One lady in the village even said to me on a Thursday afternoon while sitting in her hammock at home, on land worth $100,000 that she owns outright, that Americans don't have to work hard like Khmer people do. I kindly told her I worked 60 hours a week nonstop since graduating highschool, and never once had an opportunity to just chill in the mobile home park during the middle of a weekday.
I could've worked like that in the USA until I died and never had an opportunity to buy land outright like is common place in Cambodia. Here in Cambodia I would probably work until I die as well and never have a chance to buy land, but years and years of Hive work combined with a very austere way of life have given us the chance to make a downpayment and borrow funds from friends and family to finally own a tiny piece of land in the middle of nowhere. It has been hard dealing with everyone in the village lately because they are getting overly greedy now that my friend is looking to purchase a small plot.
Wildlife Alliance's Most Wanted Man 👮
I hope my friend is able to find something that suits him without being taken advantage of, but that is always easier said than done. After a hot day of viewing a few different places, we stopped by our main wood supplier's house, also known as the Wildlife Alliance's most wanted man. I am joking a bit, but this guy does cut down more of the forest than anyone else in the village. Because the government has made it nearly impossible for the Wildlife Alliance NGO to protect the forest, they can only arrest someone if they catch them in the act, and no amount of evidence is sufficient if they don't physically seize someone in the act of destroying nature. All I can say is that it is damn hard to sneak up on someone in the forest, so they certainly have their work cut out for them.
The locals have set fire to hundreds of thousands of acres this year, and I've watched entire mountains burn to a crisp with all biodiversity lost. Perhaps these forest plants are safer being sold on the roadside than they are in the forest, where their fate is likely to become ashes. After illegally burning the forest in this "protected" wildlife sanctuary, people are allowed to occupy the land, eventually own it, and then sell it. There are only incentives to destroy nature in Cambodia, and almost no penalties for destroying it.
It's sad, but all you need is a box of matches to get into the real estate game here. With less than 100 hours of actual labor, one can eventually own a piece of land that can be sold for over $100,000, and that is what many people here do, so I do get a bit upset when these folks who have never been to the USA tell me I've never had to work hard in my life. The reason our village looks like a wasteland is because of alcoholism, gambling addictions, a lack of maintenance and upkeep, and discarding trash directly in front of their homes. Okay, well now I've rambled and not mentioned much about the search for land with my friend. Too late to turn back now, gotta call this a post and publish it........
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