Expatriates strange Lives in Cambodia

So who are they, these Western expats who spend their lives in developing countries where they possess many privileges but few, if any, rights? Despised and envied in equal measure in their native lands, are they high-minded professionals anxious to help the helpless? Or are they ruthless entrepreneurs with an eye on the main chance? Or are they dope and sex fiends who merely ended up in that special place on earth where their vices could be reliably and inexpensively serviced?

All of the above, according to journalist Frederic Amat, who has studied the phenomenon with both authority and zest as it occurs in poverty-stricken, war-crushed, guilt-ridden but nevertheless resurgent Cambodia. Indeed, adaptation to an alien, if exotic, way of life not only brings out the best and the worst, but sometimes both at the same time in the same person. Frederic Amat shows us how a do-gooder morphs from giving away prostheses to land mine victims into selling law-enforcement aids to the police; family men become bar flies; expat wives seek identity in a world where feminist values hardly attract lip-service.

By dissecting the demi-mondes of Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville, the author has revealed the secrets of a vast and growing global tribe. A compulsive read for anyone who has ever wondered: what's it really like to just up sticks and live on the other side of the world?

Author: Frederic Amat

Publisher: Tuk Tulk

Released Date: 2011

ISBN: 9789996359842