Jeff in Phnom Penh

[jmudrick]

Lurking here for ages, enjoying my modded Technics table with great thanks to folks here.

Vinyl - Techincs Sl1200 w/KAB supply & tonearm damper yadda yadda - AT 150MLX cart - Quicksilver Phono Pre
Digital - Winamp - HiFace - Citypulse 7.2x DAC with mods
Pre- Hornshoppe Truth
Amp - Music Reference EM7
Speakers - Hornshoppe Horns - Hornshoppe Cube - Kalinowski super tweeter

[goraman]

Jim rib sue...

What the hell are you doing in Cambodia.
Have you seen Ancharwat yet?
Thats one hell of a hard place to put togather an audio system unless your Poll pots grand son or some political power house.
I have eaten my fair share of pinapple soup from Phom Phenh and still can taste the spring rolls in peanut sauce!

Duckie bolutes.
Not to mention the roasted potato bugs stuffed with a garlic clove.
Do tell,Jeff

[jmudrick]

Ahkun!

Yes the Phnom Penh Audiophile Society is a rather small group. There is no high end (or even mid-fi) equipment available locally. Great audio scenes of course in Bangkok and Saigon not too far away but the local riche don't seem to have discovered audio (or music) and although there are plenty of expats here, not nearly enough for a shop to thrive. All my stuff I've hauled over from the States.

I run a music bar (of course). We had a Leonard Cohen fest last night which was great fun. Been here about six years, this bar (called Garage) is my third bar effort.

Though I do prefer Vietnamese and Thai food by a good margin, I get by all right with the local stuff. Sure, love them bugs. Crickets, little black beetles and silkworm larvae, goat with black ants...

Angkor Wat, sure been there many times, always an awesome experience.

Other than getting equipment the other challenge here is that Khmers love to tile their walls (I guess if your kid pisses on the wall it makes for easy clean-up) -- not the best thing for audio, nor are the 6 meter high ceilings. All part of the fun.

[goraman]

What brings you there?
Surely not the bugs and tile walls...

[jmudrick]

I could never afford to do a bar like I do here in the States. I love southeast Asia generally, particularly Vietnam, and travelled here often before I moved from California. Khmers are particularly friendly people and pretty accepting of the Barang in their midst, more so than the Thais and Viets. Beautiful women of course. Cambodia is one of the easiest places in the world to set up a business, cost of entry next to nothing (paid $7,000 for my first bar in a prime location), no real regulation, easy visa situation, incredibly corrupt but easily managed. So much easier than Vietnam and Thailand. And a very diverse and interesting expat community. It's pretty livable as Asian cities go. Cheaper than Bangkok, a bit more expensive than Saigon but not bad.