Offices of the Ministry of Cults and Religions have been transferred to local investment company Pheapimex in a property deal that some observers say is an example of the malfeasance that characterises the Kingdom’s public land management.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, officials from the Ministry of Cults and Religions’ National Committee for Organising National and International Festivals said they had received a letter from Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) lawyer Khiev Sepphan dated last Friday that asked them to vacate their offices on Sisowath Quay by the end of the month.
“If you do not follow this notification, the lawyer will make a report to the CPP office to pursue further measures,” read the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Post.
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Well well well. Where do I begin? That title probably has all the avid readers (all two of you) intrigued…..but before I jump into that fiasco, i’ll back track a bit on what we’ve been doing since the last entry.
We spent out last day in Bangkok in the Siam square district, shopping and revelling in the chaos of Bangkok. We found a gourmet food supermarket which was, as you may guess, Daryns idea of heaven so we spent alot of money getting heaps of tasty bits and pieces for a picnic..it was sooo good.
We went out for a few drinks on our last night in Bangkok and Daryn played numerous games of pool with a lovely Thai man and no, he did not lose anymore money. I went home before him but must have been sleeping too deeply as when he came home and tried to get me to wake up I ‘didn’t hear a thing, so he spent the night sleeping downstairs on the couch - I think much to the amusement of the guest house staff.
Bangkok was really good fun this time around, and Daryn really enjoyed his first experience of this part of the world. It is crazy and hectic but touristy enough to ease you into your trip slowly.
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This happened to me before Pchum Ben. I was tending to the Russian Market shop as all Bloomers were off to the provinces to see their families during this important festival. I was about to shut it when a Khmer woman entered the shop. In hindsight, I should have been more alert. All the signs were there: She wore a hat which she didn’t remove, she didn’t look at me, and she spoke in a very small voice. Not that she was shy—far from it. When it was clear that I hadn’t a clue that she was about to scam me, she became confident and even demanding at the end.
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I have decided to write about the scam volunteer project after enough customers have told me about their bad experiences. The last one was a young woman in her early 20s from Canada who paid, get this, USD6000 (!) for a 6 weeks volunteer programme with an organisation here in Siem Reap.
[I want to name names but I am afraid of being murdered. It’s not a joke. You can hire a hit man for USD100 (or so I was told, I did not enquire personally!) and when you are in the way of thousands of dollars, you can bet that it makes financial sense for a crook to pay a hundred bucks to get you out of the way.]
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Can volunteer scams get any worse than this? A day after I wrote about the bad experiences of travellers who come to this country to help Cambodians, another young woman told me about her encounters.
This young lady has been working 14 hours a day helping this orphanage, run by a Cambodian man, whose entire family lives at the orphanage. The first time we met she gushed about the orphanage. I was sceptical, and asked her if she knew the orphanage was legit, but she seemed so sure. She said the main reason she was impressed was that the kids looked well-fed and happy.
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