I felt like I was stagnating in the US. I wanted to pursue computer programming but I didn't study it in college and didn't quite have the skill set to succeed professionally at that point. My original plan was to buy a van, drive around warm parts of the US, and live cheaply while I studied for a year or so. Then I realized that I would have a lot more runway if I went abroad. Three weeks later (on the day of my 25th birthday) I was in Cambodia... for absolutely no planning whatsoever things have turned out very well. While low cost of living was originally the main reason I chose to live here, now there are many things that would make it hard for me to go anywhere else. I have become a different person here and living a very simple lifestyle (80$ per month apartment in an ultra densely populated neighborhood, no hot water, no AC, no TV, walking everywhere, eating only healthy food, exercising daily, etc.) has fixed most of my numerous neuroses :)
Thats very interesting. I am currently in cambodia (siem reap heading to battambang tomorrow) and my frist impression is that this is not suited well for online workers. But the last part of your comment explains it. For me its really hard right now to let away some luruxy i am used too. Kudos!
The enormous hassle for me is transferring money in and out of the country. My internet service in Phnom Penh is fairly steady fortunately. Let me know if you need any advice, translations, or whatever while traveling!
I was surprised to see that half of the banks dont accept mastercard and half of the rest was somehow out of service. I can imagine there is quite a banking hassle. Thanks for the offer. Maybe i need to come back to it, but so far everything is nice (except the internet, where both 4G and the hotel Wifi fail every other hour).
From all the interesting dishes, what do i have to try?
Try all of the exotic fruits. Salak, jackfruit, sapodillas, dragonfruit, rambutan, mangosteen, durian, custard apples, and whatever else you find. Any of the familiar fruits are especially good here too (there are many types of bananas and mangoes here, for example, that taste different from any that I had eaten before). There are also fruits that I only know the Khmer names of -- /pɲiev/, /lɔŋkɔŋ/ -- that are very good and also unusual tasting (they both look like longans).
I like a lot of Khmer food but tend toward simple vegetable-heavy stir fries with okra, kale, bamboo, lotus stems, water spinach, etc. Rice porridge is very common here and usually includes bean sprouts and coagulated cow's blood plus added lime / pepper / chili (the cow's blood is great, but chicken blood tastes terrible IMO). I also eat grilled fish and grilled chicken skin on a near daily basis.
It hasn't caught on here much and not many freelance employers offer payment in Bitcoin anyway. Most of the time it's Paypal, which you can't even access online in Cambodia. I have to have my dad log on to my Paypal account from the US, transfer the money to my US bank account, then either bite the bullet on the international ATM fees or do a wire transfer to my bank account here. The fees add up as you can imagine, especially if you find freelance work through some place like Upwork, who then take their own massive cut. It would be amazing if cryptocurrencies caught on, many hundreds of millions of people would benefit greatly from that. It would also be amazing if I had not spent the 400 or so Bitcoin that were once in my possession ;)
There are websites like Upwork which only work with cryptocurrencies.
For the existing employers, you could offer your employers a discount on your rate if they use bitcoin (or rather, ask them for a surplus percentage if they don't ;) ).
