Hello steemit Community, after introducing myself here on steemit, some of you might wonder why this German guy is living in Cambodia? The small country between Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam is not exactly a popular emigration destination.
I would probably never have landed here not either if my business partners hadn't persuaded me to take a vacation in Thailand about 20 years ago. Southeast Asia has never before tempted me as a travel destination, but in the end, I flew with them. The holiday was planned for three weeks, which of course went by very quick. One day before I should go back to Germany, I decided in the noontime at the hotel swimming pool to stay in Thailand.
Already for a long time, I had been thinking about turning my back on the life in Germany, which is determined by constraints and rules. What I saw and experienced during the three weeks of vacation was enough for me to take this step. At that time I was self-employed and independent in the private sector so that this could be set up fairly easily. After a few months, I flew back again to officially break off my tents and say goodbye to my old life.
This spontaneous decision was followed by about 9 years in Thailand on a dreamlike island in the south-east of the country, which at that time was still just a little touched by tourism. During this time I met my wife and got married, I became a father, was a novice in a Buddhist monastery for a short time, ran a restaurant (the classic), then an insect breeding farm and finally a small bungalow complex. In this time I also started to find out how to make money on the internet.
Never in my life, I had been so happy before. I had a lovely wife, a strapping son, lived on a dreamlike tropical island, with dense jungle just behind the house and white sandy beaches just a stone's throw away. But I had to learn that nothing in Asia is permanent. Everything is constantly changing, or as Buddhism says, everything is transient.
Mass tourism was moving in and within three years the island had changed completely. Rentals and everything else became more and more expensive, in the end, too expensive for us. In addition, visa requirements for foreign nationals living in the country were constantly tightened up. These circumstances made life increasingly difficult, so we decided to move to the neighboring country of Cambodia, where everything was much easier. We found someone who took over our bungalow complex and went to Cambodia shortly afterward.
Since I only knew the country from a few short visits to places close to the border and my wife even had never been there before, we chose our future place of residence, according to what we had heard from travelers over the course of time. The small town of Sihanoukville seemed to be the best choice. It is situated directly by the sea, located on a peninsula, was not yet too busy with tourism and very importantly, there was an English-speaking private school for our son.
So that's how I came to Sihanoukville in Cambodia about 10 years ago. Even though many things have changed, I have never regretted this step.
Just follow me and learn more about life in Thailand and the Kingdom of Cambodia!