Spiralling prices in The Penh

I am guessing everybody back home in Australia has this vision of Cambodia being a dirt cheap country in which to live right? Well, the dirt cheap is fast becoming a thing of the past. Last month the hottest topic on everyone’s mind was the increasing cost of buying land and apartments. Sure, these are certainly on the up.They had to go up. Polpulation is exploding, supply is low and foreign investors are on the prowl.

Now, however, it is the massive surge in the cost of basic necessities that has got everybody talking….and fuming!

Last Month;

One case of Anchor Beer (24 cans) -US$10.50
One kg of rice - US$.50c
One large gas bottle - US$15

This month;

One case of Anchor Beer (24 cans) -US$16
One kg of rice - US$1+
One large gas bottle - US$35

In Lucky Supermarket a pack of bacon was less than $5 in 2007, now it is close to $7. Their "spicy" ham was $4, now it is $6.30 .1 litre of milk has gone from around $1.20 to around $2 .Tins of tuna fish 0.90c to $1.30 (same brand).

I smell a rort……………

Cambodia rushes to calm food price fears
Agence France-Presse

PHNOM PENH - Cambodia Thursday rushed to calm fears over spiraling food costs, as it pushed out a series of measures meant to halt price hikes as thousands of factory workers facing hunger threatened to strike for higher wages.

A lifting of the ban on imported pigs and pork products was announced earlier in the day, following moves Wednesday to bring down the cost of rice by banning exports of the staple and prevent people from stockpiling other foods.

Finance Minister Keat Chhon, in a statement released Thursday, appealed for people "to remain calm ... and not to stock up on foods, which could make the situation even harder."

The price of meat and other goods has risen by as much as 40 percent over the past year on the back of near 11 percent inflation, with rice -- Cambodia's most important staple -- now costing nearly one dollar a kilogram.

Since Wednesday, the government has released surplus rice onto the market, allowing people to buy five kilograms each at reduced prices.

While rising food prices are part of a global trend, they have hit especially hard in Cambodia, where more than a third of the country's 14 million people are mired in poverty.

Prime Minister Hun Sen asked the country's finance and commerce ministries to address "the abnormal increase of price of goods," saying rising costs are "affecting the daily livelihoods of our citizens, especially workers, farmers and civil servants."

The measures come as thousands of garment workers threaten to strike if the industry's monthly 50 dollar minimum wage is not raised by five dollars.

Garment manufacturers narrowly prevented a walkout in 50 factories Thursday morning by agreeing to talks between factory owners and workers.

While Chea Mony, head of Cambodia largest workers' group the Cambodian Free Trade Union, described this as a "positive" step, he said a strike would be called next week if negotiations failed.

"We have postponed the planned strike at the request of the manufacturers," he told AFP, but added: "The workers' current wages cannot keep up with inflation."

The garment sector is Cambodia's largest industrial employer, putting to work as many as 350,000 people, mostly young women supporting poor families in the countryside, where many live on less than 50 cents a day.

Aid agencies have warned that Cambodia's growing food crisis could threaten tens of thousands of rural Cambodians with hunger in the coming year, as even food handouts have become significantly more expensive and harder to distribute.

Faced with this recent rising tide of anger, government officials have blamed the staggering cost hikes on "opportunists" seeking to gouge prices or gain political capital ahead of national elections, now expected to be held in July.

"Bad people are hyping up the situation for their own interests," Keat Chhon said.

Takeo day trip

On Saturday night we had yet another black-out and as the temperature soared, there was only one thing for it. Hit the bar. We headed off to Miles’ and I sat down with Ammo, an interesting character I had met at Adventure Moto a few months earlier. As more and more sweaty guys arrived “bloody blackouts GIMME A COLD BEER!", we soon had quite a gathering of guzzlers and Ammo mentioned he an Brady were riding down to Takeo the following day. A quick SMS to Brady to secure an XR650 and I promised Ammo I would be there at the allotted time of 7a.m. After retrieving the Miles-ites (Tee's little girls are spending a bit of time with Leakhana in the apartment at night as their dad is sick and in Bangkok….) and taking them home, I retired.

I was at Adventure Moto at 7a.m sharp. Shame our tour leader wasn’t! Ammo the Alaskan Fisherman eventually showed up at 9a.m mumbling about crow-bars waking him up or some such and Brady, Ammo and I were soon on the road. We drove out through Takmeo and past Murray’s house and then hit the dirt out in the back lots. Found some stunning back country just outside of Phnom Penh and criss crossed the outskirts seeing a lot of land being developed and swamps being backfilled etc. Eventually we made our way back onto the tar and we were soon pulling into Takeo. I was really really surprised at what awaited!

View from the restaurant

Takeo is actually a very pretty provincial town. It sits on a massive lake that spread as far as the eye can see in the wet season (though it was down on this visit) and the town has lovely wide tree=lined streets and a palm lined boulevard that wraps around one edge of the lake. There are many little boats ferrying people to and from Vietnam (no visa required for locals apparently) and the rice was already in full bloom on the floodplains. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant perched over the lake and had a tasty and cheap nosh of beef lok lak and sweet and sour pork.

Brady and Ammo

After lunch we explored some random dirt trails and then with the heat of the day threatening to melt us, we finally headed back for Phnom Penh around 3p.m. About half way back my bike gave out and after an hour of sweat-puddle inducing work on the carburettor (lucky Brady carries tools!) we were on the way once more.

Cold beers at Adventure Moto HQ never tasted so good...............

Now THIS is funny !

On the Cambodian Ministry of Planning / National Institute of Statistics web page under the "CAMBODIA DEMOGRAPHIC AND HEALTH SURVEY 2005 (CDHS 2005)" it has some statistics about "Injury and death in an accident by type of accident).

Take a look at the column between "Landmines" and "Road Accident" …

http://statsnis.org/SURVEYS/CDHS2005/Table1.htm

Death by Bukakke ? messy way to go.....................

The Phnom Pen cracks 10,000 visitors

YAY ME !!!!!

Thank you to all my readers and supporters who have taken me to this milestone of 10,000 visitors. More to come !

A slice of heaven; Chapter Three

With Bruno and his visitor from the Philippines, Michelle, in tow, we headed off down to Kep to close on the Watermelon farm. Having left Phnom Penh at 4p.m, driving into Kampot in the dark was less than enjoyable. The lack of any kind of lights or edge indicators on the road meant I had my face pressed to the windscreen and the annoying habit of Khmer drivers putting all available headlights and driving lights on meant I was almost driving blind. Livestock was identifiable only by the two glowing dots in the dark and gnarly potholes with the usual tree stuffed in them as a warning threatened to derail us like landmines.

Arriving exhausted, we dropped Bruno and Michelle over to Feral Heaven(a.k.a Boddhi Villa) and then after failing to find a little riverside Thai restaurant recommended by Jeff, we headed to the Rusty Keyhole for dinner and a cold beer before retiring to The Kampot Guesthouse. Sleep came swiftly but as the aircon was not working, the night was fitful and sodden. Kampot was very still and VERY humid from 12a.m until about 4a,m and the pre-storm light show was amazing. I even got a text from Bruno who was fighting legions of mosquitoes over in Dreadlock Valley. Leakhana of course slept with no worries. Eventually the rain came and the temperature dropped and I fell into a deep sleep.

We had noodles at the marketplace at 7.30a.m and then picked up my Uncle at his house and headed out to the Watermelon Farm. Junta (our man) and the owners were waiting for us and after hellos, the first thing I did was confirm the details of the road rectification. We are told we can make the dog leg corners 3m wide and the road 2.5m wide.Sweet. Junta then showed us a couple of other blocks which I will in turn show to some friends who want to buy in Kep (who doesn’t!) and we were soon off back to Kampot.

Michelle, in from Manila,Pi.

Here is a gratuitous bikini shot of Michelle in Tahiti.
4 words come to mind ( apart from 1.man 2.is 3. she 4.hot !)
BRUNO IS A BONEHEAD

Bruno and Michelle were waiting for us at Too Kool For Skool and after a celebratory Anchor and a swim in the Kampot River ( sweet ! ), we headed back out to the road to show them our blocks.We motored on down to Kep and after checking into our lodgings, we hit the crab shacks for a huge seafood nosh with plenty of icy cold Heineken and it was then off to KBC for a relaxing after lunch swim and a few Coronas in the pool. The sunset was blood red and amazing and after the days activities, I was exhausted and soon fell into bed at the early hour of 8p.m. Our travel companions ventured out for pizza but I simply cold not raise the energy.

In the morning it was off to the ever-expanding, forest raping, quarry creating FWC HQ a.ka Verandah. Sorry, as stunning as this place is, the crowd makes me want to puke. As we sat down in the cool of the for a nice quiet breakfast a couple of lesbians and their bloated sunburnt FWC friends plonked themselves down, turned on their laptops, turned on the gyrocopter style fan that destroyed the silence and started smoking cigarettes, the smoke of which blew directly at us. I felt like going over and saying “look you rug munching, laptop tapping bloaters….FUCK OFF”. I didn’t. The breakfast was slow and disorganised and I was glad to get out of there. I did meet the female owner and she was delightful but like Feral Central in Kampot, I just don’t feel comfortable there.

Our friends then took off to look at land and villas whilst my wife and I drove around Kep talking to all manner of tradesman who were making roads and stone walls and landscaping etc about the cost of such jobs. Jesus H Christ. Trying to get a per m2 price on anything is impossible. “Prices going up every day” (we had also been told the restaurants are now paying $50 a sack of rice instead of $30 last month!). Talk about frustrating! JUST TELL ME HOW MUCH! You can see their minds go into overdrive thinking about what a fair skin tax might be. We ended up at Kep Lodge and (harking back to Dancing Roads review), this place is an absolute cracker. Up a long and scenic dirt road, it is nestled in the hills and is very quiet. They have built a lovely dining area and the bungalows look nice but the biggest draw card will surely be the HUGE pool with spa they are currently building. I will definitely be a regular if the kitchen is good. You wouldn’t need to leave and I hope they do well.

Finally after waiting patiently while my wife bought some famous Kep crab for some friends in Phnom Penh and had it cooked at the market (why the hell can’t they just cook the bloody thing in their own home!), we loaded up the car and headed back into Phnom Penh. As we headed back into Takmeo, we took a short cut and ended up in Hun Sen’s street. Drove straight past the guardhouse and past Mr Sen’s front…er……”door” ! What a whooper his house is ! Non-descript street though apart from all the CCP banners flapping away in the street. The car was dropped off and we then boarded the pre-ordered Tuk Tuk to get back into the city. On the way we stopped off on the Bassac riverfront in Takmeo to get some cold Asahi for the trip and the strip was buzzing with revelers. As I waited for the beer, I drank hot rice wine with some soldiers and I decided ( and my wife agreed ) that Takmeo is a place that we could definitely relocate to.

All in all…another successful weekend.

A visit to The Royal Rattanak Hospital

Having tried various other hospitals, today we went to The Royal Rattanak Hospital in Toul Kork. This facility was previously a smallish private clinic however it has morphed into a large hospital. So here is how it went.......

After pulling into the spacious driveway we were directed to the moto parking area by a chap in the sharpest security uniform I have seen. The parking area is right next to the front door and we were soon walking into an air-conditioned, spotless, brand spanking new medical reception area. We are greeted by a delightful front desk lady who asks us if we have been here before and then shows us to the brand new leather chairs where we sit down and fill out the New Patient document. I watch as minions of mostly Thai medical staff in spotless uniforms ( including white starched matrons with 60s pope-style nurse hats on ) bustle around and workers of all sorts put the finishing touches on everything.

My wife is then whisked into a spotless space where blood pressure, temperature,weight and height are all taken and recorded with spotlessly new equipment and we are then told to wait a few minutes for the doctor. While we are waiting, we are given a brand credit card-style hospital patient card with wife's name and a unique ID number on it.

A few minutes later the Doctor arrives and we are taken to a specialist consulting room. The male Thai Doctor speaks perfect English and is very thorough with his questioning and after a quick examination of Leakhana, he says that really we should wait another 2 weeks before getting another ultrasound as the baby is too small to determine sex ( this is news to me ; Calmette blurted out the sex to my wife a month ago , she told a friend under oath of secrecy and friend then blurted it out to me so I have been under the impression we knew the
sex 100% ......). He suggests doing full blood testing ( funny -none of the other hospitals recommended that ) and then says that whilst the Folic Acid we were given by Calmette is good, they have only prescribed a half dosage routine. He also recommends calcium and tells my wife to " eat eat eat !!". I really am liking this guy. I ask about the Australian mid-wife Sandra and he says yes she is working there and yes of course we can talk to her well prior to the birth but it is still a bit early yet and yes of course we can check out the private suites etc. He says they also have Thai,Filipino and Khmer mid-wives. He asks my wife is she has any questions ( both of us are in too much awe of the facility to even speak i think ! ) and then he schedules us for a return visit in two weeks.

We then head over to the hospital pharmacy who has all our drugs in a nice Tiffany style bag with rope handles and after paying with my visa card ( $80 for initial check-up by nurse,full blood serum testing, doctor's consultation of about 30 minutes and all drugs for the next month ) we head out the door.

Also worth checking out when you leave is the seriously large FUCK OFF villa next to the Hospital. The residence of the Hospital's Khmer Owner ( and coincidentally Leakhana's old boss at Phnom Penh Internet Cafe ), the gatehouse is staffed by full-on soldiers with polished battle helmets and AK47s ! Actually it looks more like a wing of the hospital !

This place is surely going to set the pace for new medical facilities in Cambodia. I will continue to add to this report as it might be all bells and whistles and nothing more but it sure was a great start and we are both very happy with the initial visit.

Planning a house

At the moment I am consumed with not only my work load but also researching the web for ideas for a special house to build amongst the rice paddies of Cambodia . Although it is not going to happen for a while (years !) I like to think about things in advance !. I will probably only get one shot in my life at building a special place so here are the things I like so far.........

Nicholas Murcutt's Box House, Australia


Glenn Murcutt's Marika-Alderton house, Australia


Kampot Coastal Waterways Admin' office, Cambodia


Knai Bang Chatt Concrete 60s,Kep,Cambodia
Traditioanal Khmer Wooden House, Cambodia.

I have even been looking into shipping containers and bamboo as cost-effective building construction methods !

Anyways, all suggestions and links to cool sites are welcome.....

Srey Pich comes to stay

Srey Pich in Pink attending Leakhana at our wedding.

We have a new house guest. Srey Pich is Leakhana's closest friend.... in fact they always call each other "sister". They have known each other a very long time and for the last 4 years Srey Pich has been toiling away in Malaysia as a house maid to a wealthy Chinese family. She was looked after quite well and managed to save enough money to buy her parents some land and build a small house in Pailin here in Cambodia. However Srey Pich came back broke$ and took a job in a Pailin restaurant. She was working 7 days a week / 12 hours a day in this restaurant. Her monthly take-home pay ? $20. Yes.........$20. By the way....did I mention Srey Pich had 3 kids to a scum bag Khmer guy who left her when she was still very young and her parents have been looking after them for 4 years. Can you imagine not seeing your kids for 4 years ?? So I had a talk to my friends at Talking to A Stranger, Wendy and Derek, and they agreed to try Srey Pich out as a waitress. Her English is quite good and the $150 + tips she will earn here in Phnom Penh will go alot further than the $20 she was getting in Pailin. I have told Leakhana she can stay with us as long as she wants/ needs as I am happy the girls are together and hanging out.

Toul Sleng gets beautified

As last they are making the Genocide museum a more attractive and "welcoming" place. They have just planted some huge mature mango trees in the courtyard which will really make it look nice.

At first I thought some land mines had been set off but no.......


They planted some lovely mango trees !

A slice of heaven; Chapter Two

A big week of anticipation finally drew to a close and we were off down to Kep to close on our first block of land. I was apprehensive, half expecting to get down there and find out that someone had gazumped us yet again or the owner had decided to change her mind. The wad of cash was secure in my pocket and once we had booked into a guest house, we headed straight off with support crew in tow. This time we had two Uncles with us, both Kampot guys and one was packing a walkie talkie and “Khmer Hit Man “ style suit which gave me some assurance.

On arrival at the owners house we were greeted with waves and smiles (all a good sign that things were going to happen) and I first checked the corner posts they had installed for us. One was 1/2m out but they explained that the ground where they had tried to put the post in was hard as concrete and I could indeed see where some poor bugger with a shovel had messed with a nasty piece of rock. So we headed back to the house and the owner told all the kids and general flotsam to bugger off, this was our business and they were not welcome. We were taken under the house and given an iced tea and after thumb printing and signing our names to all the relevant documents, I handed the cash over. The owner counted it just once ( I had thought that everyone might have a go ) and then we sompahed each other with a smile and it was done! We are now Kep land owners. Wuhooooo!

But wait …there is more.

The road out to our second block with main road in background. Those views are terrible aren't they !

As mentioned in Chapter 1, we had been shown a very nice block just before we left last time. This block is 55x55m and was set off the main dirt road along a 200metre long /2.5m wide access track through the rice paddies that the owner tells us we can improve /raise at our own cost. Surrounded by rice fields, the block sits about 2- 3m higher on its own little island-like knoll. It has a nice big clear, lawn strip at the back of it with some huge mature trees and the rest of it is furrowed and tilled and currently sprouting watermelons. Lovely views of the mountains and again, only 4km from Kep main beach.

There's watermelons in them thar fields

I got my trusty tape out and measured it all up and then we went back to the owner’s house and the deposit receipt paperwork is prepared. We ask for 4 weeks settlement. Ming wants 2 weeks. The land is well priced so I throw all caution to the wind and agree to the 2 weeks. Our police contact, the Sangkat chief , the neighbours ( at my Uncle’s insistence ) all thumbprint the contract. We pay a deposit and whammo, we are almost Kep watermelon farmers. This block is only 300m or so from our other block.

And then, just as we are leaving, we are shown another stunner………Chapter 3 ?....

Anyways,after one night in Kampot we decided we wanted to hang at the beach and so the rest of the weekend was spent eating and drinking down in Kep with Paul and Angela who accompanied us. We got great rooms overlooking the ocean @$20 a night and after an afternoon Drinking rose and eating terrible fish and chips at the stunning Knai Bang Chat Sailing Club, we played some serious backgammon and then hit the crab shacks for dinner.

Lunch at the Sailing Club


Kampong Trach Caves

The following day we drove up the the border of Vietnam but were thwarted just 5km short by terrible roadworks. Still, we had a lovely drive in the countryside , took in the Kampong Trach caves and we were soon back in Phnom Penh and back in Murray's pool having a swim and a beer.

A slice of heaven; Chapter One

Looking from rear of our block to front

The main road at the front of our new block ( on the RHS )

Hot on the heels of Stan Kahn's excellent articles about buying land in Cambodia I will now share the first chapter of our experience with you all. Bare in mind as you read this that our goal is to buy a few blocks. One to build a special house on (maybe totally Khmer wood style , maybe hybrid western / Khmer, pool, garden etc etc ) where we can escape the city with our child/ren. We also want to buy one farm on (I am from farming stock and like a lot of guys here I like the idea of having some pigs and some chickens and some fruit trees ) and one to flip at some time for profit. As Stan says, everyone wants to profit but I figure if you buy sensibly in Cambodia that is a no-brainer. Absolutely a $150k shop-house in Kampot makes 0 sense.

Having stumbled upon out our ideal location during our honeymoon down in Kep a month ago, we had our hearts set on a one acre block set back in the hills with glorious views over the rice fields to mountains beyond. Being an Australian I need to be right near the coast and I also am addicted to the Rusty Keyhole’s ribs so the location between Kep Main Beach and the RK was perfect. This weekend a friend very kindly loaned me his RAV4 (a great car and I have totally blown the idea of a cheap KIA in favour of a RAV) and we set off down to Kampot for another weekend. We wanted to revisit the block and we also wanted to look at several other blocks to see what else was available and how prices were comparing.

Saturday morning we head out to secret road X with my uncle in tow who is ex-Kampot Commune chief and arrived at the original block we had looked at two weeks earlier. I took another walk around the perimeter and still loved this block BUT I then found a grave within the boundaries which set off warning bells. Khmers don’t like ghosts and I had visions of many complications trying to get the body exhumed and moved. Not really the sort of start I wanted to our dream block. Some discussions with the lady next door to our dream block alerted us to the fact that there were actually quite a few graves in the back corner which was overgrown with heavy thicket and so that block was now off the menu. My Uncle and wife had no problem with one body but apparently a group of dead bodies is not so good….

Dead bodies = Bad Karma so we let this block slide..

Any of you have gone through this process of looking for land in rural Cambodia knows that the drums beat quickly and it does not take long before people are coming out of the wood work, walking out of the bush and crossing rice paddocks to talk to you about the land THEY have for sale. We are taken from left to right, up and down and shown all manner of interesting blocks at all manner of interesting ( mostly cheap ) prices with all manner of good and bad points. Every visit requires an hour or so of discussion .As we tootled along the road everyone was watching us licking their lips. At one point, we stopped at a junction unsure which way to go and were approached by a very nice, well dressed man who was drinking a coke at a stall and he asked us if we were lost. We told him no, were just looking for land and he mentions his brother and Uncle have some land along the road, which I might also mention now is an absolutely perfect hard packed, elevated red dirt. So we followed him to a very nice location and at the base of a mountain stood 3 blocks side by side (all about 40 x 50m and all $10k ) and then at the back of those blocks in a very secluded location was a one hectare ++ elevated, level glade of palm and fruit trees. My mouth was watering when he told us this block was $25k. HOWEVER access to this block was via a 2m “road” (moto track) that ran between two of the blocks at the front. We asked if it would be possible to widen the track to the back glade to allow a car and he said not unless you owned one or two of the blocks at the front….indeed, he advised that the best strategy would be to buy the front block to at least give us the option. There was no other way into that back block as nice as it was!!

This block was stunning but the access was a real issue so it went by the wayside too...

While we were looking at these blocks some ladies approached and told us not to bother looking at the blocks because they had already bought one and had put a deposit on the others. Our man rang his brother who confirmed this was bullshit – they were bluffing. So we went and had a pow wow with the family and told them we wanted to buy ONE of the blocks (the best one with direct road access). We explained we wanted to raise a family and could they please give us 24 hours to come back tomorrow with a deposit and they all smiled and said yes no problems. We figured if we bought the front one and could raise the cash for the back one we could then put a road across the front one and for $35k we would have close to 1.3ha of heaven. Even if we could not buy the back one, we still got a great block in the front one. We went back to our hotel all smiles and excitement and as we walked in the door my wife’s phone rang and we were told by our man that after we left the other people indeed arrived with a deposit and the land was now ALL sold. Our man however did say that he was very disappointed in the way things had happened but that as it was not his land he could not do much and he was very sorry but would keep trying for us.

Gazumped by locals on this one. Grrrrrrrrr

We were actually really devastated. You know when you really want something, you know it is a great deal and you can see so much potential it has to helo you realise a dream and then.well..defeat. We lay together in a deflated huddle on the bed… no talking and it was pretty gloomy. Then…lo and behold..our man called again. By now it is almost 5p.m and he tells us he has found another block and did we want to come look. In a flash we were in the car and back out to Secret road X and we were shown to a block that took me all of about 1 minute to decide this block was totally perfect for our needs. Funnily enough – it actually looked over at the blocks that had caused us so much pain. I pace it outand I figure it is roughly 35 x 30m, it is perfectly elevated and level on a corner position with an excellent main road along the front and a 2m moto track running down one side so that means no neighbours on two sides. With a house positioned facing the western sunsets, views will be a mountain right on the front door and Kep beach is oh so close. Power is also coming to the road.

Our Block ; Beautiful mountain views to the west

So……again we sit down and have a pow wow with the single mother who needs money for the rice crop. I offer her over the odds( trust me it was still bloody cheap ) and we have to tell them that we did not come with any money. We told them we would try to raise a deposit in Kampot through friends but if not, my wife could come back down on a bus in a few days. All is agreed and again, we leave ecstatic.

Side road to west of our block ( on LHS )

When we get back to Kampot we panic and decide by hell or high water, we will leave a deposit and will not be gazumped again so thanks to some very nice business owner in Kampot who know us from our dozens of visits ( thanks Christian at the RKH ), and a mate who happens to be down there ( thanks Murray !) we scrounge up $300 and the next morning we arrive with cash in hand. Prior to going out I buy a $5/50m measuring tape and on measuring the block it is actually 26m x 36m but I am not going to haggle over $1000 and a few meters here or there. (Word to the wise; if you do not have a tape – use a LONG pace as a meter). The land is perfect for us; it will easily accommodate a house, pool , lush gardens and machinery/carport and is a low-budget, low-stress foray into the land market. We are given a formal deposit slip which we all thumbprint and I am also walked through the title process which my uncle confirms with our man. Once we return with the balance this weekend, we will have a new formal soft-title (commune level) document with both our names on it and registered in Kep. I am not going to bother with hard title because no-one down there has it and at the price I am ok with this decision. After the formalities our man insists we go to the market to get 4 concrete plinths to mark the corners of our block ( more nice advice ! ) and we do this and then return to the block for installation. All is done. We now (almost) own land in Kep and we are stoked. Of course it could all go to shit in which case chapter 2 will make for interesting reading ;-)

Our Block ;Looking to the rear ( south )

I am actually going to take a little extra with me this weekend because on the way out our man shows us one last block… He has saved the best for last.A 52 x 52m farming block one km off the main road along a 2m moto track that they all want to make into a vehicular road. The block is surrounded by rice fields but sits about 3m higher on a little knoll, has some very mature trees along the back of it and has stunning mountain views. It would make another AMAZING site for a house (for some reason I am addicted to the idea of a house sitting in the middle of lime green rice fields) or a separate fruit farm or a flipper! As we only find out when we say goodbye, our man is actually a Kep police captain and his uncle is the Kep Commune Chief. He tells us not to worry about the process, it will all be handled properly and I feel we have met a very powerful ally in that area and he is already at work trying to find the owner of the block next to ours so we can hopefully secure that too.

Doing the deal; Policeman in white, owner in purple.

Concluding chapter one, I can tell you all that if , like us, you want to eventually live or own in Kep because of it’s coastal location and it’s potential for booming prices, it is ENTIRELY possible to buy super cheap, super sweet land RIGHT NOW. I cannot forecast the future but I can say with 100% certainty that nowhere in SE Asia or even the world for that matter can you buy land this beautiful near the coast at these prices. You have all heard about the $1m++ waterfront blocks but there is sooooooooooooo much more down there in the backlots. Let them have the waterfront. I am happy to pay peanuts and have to drive 5 minutes to get to it ;-) and my ribs are just a jaunt away.

STOKED !!!!