Tips and Tricks from Cambodia

March 26, 2015

On Sunday, March 15, 2015, I and my ILO colleagues traveled by van to Bangkok through Poi Pet - Aranyaprathet border. We had a great time along the way.

Us, stopping by at a Battambang restaurant for lunch, and resumed our trip at 13:00.

I and my colleagues have arrived at the border. Here is a picture of us already crossed the border, at Aranyaprathet side


Took this shot while waiting for Chhoung at Siam Paragon
So, the summit began with Connor's welcoming message and lots of inspiration
First evening of the EA Summit at pool party to welcome all Enterprise Advisors


Enterprise Advisors from other country programs seemed to like Krawma (Cambodian scarf) a lot. Cambodian team offered many gifts during the summit. 
A picture I took from BTS Udom Suk while waiting for Chhoung to go to IKEA at Mega Bangna. 
For the evening of second day, I went out with my colleagues to some malls in Bangkok.

Although M was so busy going to hospital, but he stopped by to carry a gift from Moscow to give me at Siam Paragon, while I was waiting to meet Chhoung on the first day of his arrival.

I missed walking with my girlfriend from hotel to Pratunam and BTS Ratchatewi every morning. And that was not long, we went there in November 2014, just 4 months before the EA Summit which took place in March 2015.
Walked through Central World almost everyday, took a chance to grab this shot with my iPhone 5

Waiting for ferry to come. Here is Mamiao my lovely friend. Don't remind me of her getting mad. It was scary. But that was my fault that I kept her waiting all of the time.

The next day after spending a night on a floating house, Mamiao's friends started swimming. I joined them after :D. It was my first time to swim in such a big lake. I only used to swim in pool. This was a great experience. 

M, Mamiao, Chanutr, and I - We met at Terminal 21 for cheap dinner. Thanks my lovely friends who come to see me every time I go there. 

A house-like boat was dragging our floating house to an island for a better view and cleaner lake to swim. It took one hour to drag the house there. 

My colleagues cheered during pool party during the EA Summit


Always the same buffet, every morning. Sigh.. 


P' House was singing all along during the trip to Kanchanaburi, and yet when he got back, he still sang at his HThroughHeart Ice Cream shop at Khao San road. He is so energetic!! Not to mention, his ice cream was so delicious! 



Chhoung, M and I at Mega Bangna. Chhoung wanted to shop a book case and we decided to go there again. 

Before crossing the big lake to another side of Kanchnaburi province

With Mamiao in Central World for Tacos

Chhoung got up like this

Evo was introducing Diagnosis in the EA summit

Ice Cream introduced by M at Terminal 21. So many flavors. Love it.

I liked standing at this corner with less people on BTS

Spent my last night before returning home to watch a movie called Run All Night. 

This year at the EA Summit, the team building activity was to build Krathoong and present its meaning  

Also went to Asiatique again and bought some small gifts for ILO colleagues

Another picture at Asiatique

Minna, was acting as press during EA summit

Took sometime to visit with Mamiao and Chanutr at Jatujak plant market on Wednesday night

Kanchanaburi waterfall. It was beyond reality! 


I bought a Bonsai tree from Jatujak. Love it and going to take care of it well.

After the EA Summit, I stayed at Tune Hotel with Chhoung. I love this location as it's very close to Terminal 21

In warehouse of IKEA
The trip ended well with M seeing us off at the airport on March 24, 2015. 

I hope to see Mamiao, M, and Chanutr, Ae, Mai, Mim, and other Thai friends visiting Cambodia soon. I won't let Mamiao wait for me again :D

March 7, 2015

Boycott is the power to negotiate for what we want and that is positive change. Abroad where people follow democracy, boycott is quite popular as it will help citizen to bargain for what they really want. For example, when a brand is taking advantage of cheap labour, or forced labour, and citizen realizes that, they simply tell one another to help boycott the brand so that they will change. That is why more and more brands tend to create Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) department. If you open a company, what you care is profit, not any CSR, that is the nature of business. However, since companies are afraid of people boycotting their products, they tend to care more about their workers' welfare and working conditions so that it is fair.



In Cambodia, however, boycott is not popular. People do not normally join hand to bargain for what they want, and simply lose the power to the authority or someone who have more money. Yet, in Cambodia, we are more familiar with citizen-justice where when people witness injustice, they do not send the accused to the court, instead they want to take justice by beating in public, which is totally different from boycotting because boycott is resilient and perseverance.    

Politically speaking, in 2013 after an election, one political party did use this strategy to bargain with the winning party. It did work!

I would like to raise an awareness that we all should join hand to fight injustice and noncompliance. We are the people have this power to boycott, and boycott will kill our opponent economically. That is why in a company, they need a union, because a union represents collective employees. The more members a union has, the better it is.

From this post, I hope that people understand more about their own power to drive change and to cooperate more as a collective force. It can be shown via stopping from buying certain products or using a service if they have bad impacts for the other people' livelihoods. We have to understand that we alone don't have any power to fight against authority, but we collectively can make authority think twice.

August 17, 2014

It is definitely one of the time that I have to remember later and thus, I have to include in my personal blog post. Mainly, it's for my own mark.

On Saturday, August 16, 2014, I went to Oudong, Kampong Speu with my mum to see plots of land if it was worth buying. 

In deed, we found one; and it's all for myself.

The land is located on National Road No. 44, 4 kilometers after turning left from National Road No. 5. 
The road 130 kilometers long and the plot is located on the corner of National Road 44 and a small paved road leading to villagers in that area. 

The size of the land is 20m*60m. There is a small house inside, totally livable. There is a well, and many trees, especially mango and longans, and the plot was filled with land already almost about the same height to the road.



Price of the plot: $1,3000, bought on August 16, 2014. 

I hope this investment will lead me to making my first million before reaching 35 years old. 


June 1, 2014


When it comes to loving someone, what do you normally expect? To be the first one? To be the last one? Or be ready to discover more about your loved one? To me, I am ready to hear all of the surprises. It should be damn good to know about girlfriend's past.

In this post, I am not going to focus on the girl's side, but the boy's side only. I would like to ask you readers a couple of questions:

Does it matter if a man used to flirt many girls before? Would you bother to seek for more information? I have seen many girls got jealous and even want to dump their boyfriends for that. Well, it's fair enough to dump him if he betrays while having you, but when you have a look back at his past. Probably, you should only use it as a sign to alert, but you can not judge that quickly. It depends whether the flirtation was for fun. Is it him just like that, flirting every pretty girls? Or he has been interested in one girl at a time, but faced many rejections already? Because facing rejections could lead to depression. Should you pity him for that because now he is yours?

If he faced rejections, now that you are his girlfriend. What would be your reactions when you read his old messages and found out that he used to chase a lot of girls. Let's say you found out his messages to many girls before you knew him. The messages could be "I love you til the end of my life". "Oh dear, I miss you so much". I know you may feel stupid to be his girlfriend, right?

Would you pity him? Or would you simply think he's a jerk chasing girls since he was a kid? Please share your opinions.

April 2, 2013

Every year, both Khmer people and Chinese people celebrate for their ancestors. For many people in Cambodia, we celebrate both Pchum Ben Festival and Qingming Festival. April 2, 2013 was the day that my family chose for Qingming festival. For this year, I went for the festival with my parents, sister, and an elder brother. We managed to arrive Oudong at around 9:00AM and went straight to the first tomb who my father's grandparents

My Father's Grandparents
My Brother Preparing on the Top

Paying Respect to His Grandparents

We brought along a battery fan and umbrellas for such a hot weather

After Everything is prepared, we have monks saying prayers to the ancestors and the living
After spending the morning seeing my ancestors at their tombs, I went to my grandparents' house which is about 5 kilometers further. Here is a picture of my lovely grandma walking on her own with a stand and my grandpa sitting on a chair. They are both in their 80s and not very strong but are pretty healthy. 

Grandma (left), Grandpa (right)
We relaxed a little bit at my grandparents' house. Probably after an hour, we went to another tomb which belong to my grandmother's grandparents. Interestingly, it is my first time to be there!

The tombs last for more than 200 years, I guess.

We can't drive directly to the tomb, here is a picture of my parents walking to their great grandparents' tombs

This man newly cute his palm fruit for us for free. How lovely! However, we paid him some money as well

It normally costs 2000 Riel only. Can you believe that?

My grandparents' grandparents' tombs

Just hope that the next generation of the Chour family visit their ancestors here every year. The year is being added from time to time :D

Here are pictures of my elder sister and brother



These kids are lovely. They helped with the festival and lined up for some give away




How about you? Have you celebrated the festival for this year?