https://www.scmp.com/rss/329026/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com On a pier on the Thai resort of Pattaya that was once teeming with the flags of ever-present Chinese tour groups, Guangzhou natives Huang Hubin and Huang Junjie were enjoying the freedom of their first holiday since China dropped its pandemic travel curbs. The trip was even more rewarding because the cousins had reserved it themselves. By booking independently, Hubin and Junjie, a marketing manager and a music producer both in their mid-20s, were liberated from the strict schedule of a guided... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3210637/chinese-travellers-shunning-tour-groups-free-and-easy-trips-southeast-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3210637/chinese-travellers-shunning-tour-groups-free-and-easy-trips-southeast-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Feb 2023 00:30:11 +0000 Online loan sharks are targeting Cambodian women desperate to keep their businesses afloat and families fed, victims say, charging illegal interest rates of up to 80 per cent a month to borrow a few hundred dollars – and then demanding nude images as collateral. Vanna, a mother of three, lost her savings during the coronavirus pandemic trying to service pre-existing loans she took out to open her restaurant in southern Kampot. Drowning in debt and with her restaurant closed, the 37-year-old was... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3195972/cambodian-women-become-targets-online-loan-sharks-who-demand-nude?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3195972/cambodian-women-become-targets-online-loan-sharks-who-demand-nude?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 16 Oct 2022 00:30:09 +0000 Mangoes are a matter of national pride for Cambodian farmer Chum Chamm. For years, Chamm, who grows mangoes in the well-known Kampong Speu province, witnessed Vietnamese traders come to Cambodian farms to cut deals for entire harvests of the fruit. They often brought their own workers to pick and pack the fruit in brown paper, labelling the packages in Chinese, before sending them to mainland China and the rest of the region. “We’re farmers and we have nothing to do with transportation. But it... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3161201/chinas-appetite-cambodian-mangoes-grows-amid-surge-demand?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3161201/chinas-appetite-cambodian-mangoes-grows-amid-surge-demand?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Dec 2021 00:30:13 +0000 Vann Thoeurn, his wife and their teenage son had been surviving on a construction site in Thailand for months despite having no work or salary. They had been working for six years on different developments in Bangkok but when work slowed after the outbreak of Covid-19, they made the decision to leave, spending their savings on bus tickets back to Cambodia, aiming to return to their family in Kampong Cham province. Thoeurn, 41, recalls his wife experiencing breathing problems days before their... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3143729/cambodian-workers-flee-thailands-coronavirus-surge-exodus?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3143729/cambodian-workers-flee-thailands-coronavirus-surge-exodus?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Aug 2021 01:15:19 +0000 When Reoun Sreyneang received notice she would be let go from her job tending hotel rooms for US$300 a month at Phnom Penh’s gold-tinted NagaWorld casino complex, she decided to accept the news without a fight. “I don’t believe I can win against the company that has millions of dollars in its pocket. They will always win,” said the hospitality worker. Still, she admitted she was shocked that NagaWorld, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed firm NagaCorp that has an exclusive licence to run a casino... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3135645/cambodian-workers-nagaworld-casino-vexed-over-lay-offs-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3135645/cambodian-workers-nagaworld-casino-vexed-over-lay-offs-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 02 Jun 2021 00:30:14 +0000 The Cambodian government’s two-week lockdown to contain a surge of Covid-19 cases in the capital, Phnom Penh, has cut off food supplies for thousands of garment workers, market vendors and others who survive on a day-to-day income. Prime Minister Hun Sen announced the restrictions on April 14, which allowed only people in essential jobs such as delivery, restaurants and food and medical supply factories to work, with families permitted to visit markets three times a week. Days later, the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3131048/cambodia-extended-phnom-penh-coronavirus-lockdown-leaves?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3131048/cambodia-extended-phnom-penh-coronavirus-lockdown-leaves?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Apr 2021 02:30:37 +0000 Maggie Eno and her Cambodian staff wade through thigh-high murky water as they assess the devastating damage at their headquarters. Destruction surrounds them as they start the huge task of clearing up in the wake of unprecedented flooding that left Cambodian coastal city Sihanoukville under water. “Our building has been here for 11 years and we’ve never seen flooding like this,” says Eno, co-director of M’lop Tapang, a non-profit organisation that works with thousands of vulnerable children and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3024872/chinese-money-drowning-sihanoukville-cambodia-floods?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3024872/chinese-money-drowning-sihanoukville-cambodia-floods?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 01 Sep 2019 21:00:12 +0000 Lang Srey Sar, 19, looks at the place where her arm was just a matter of weeks ago. The Cambodian factory worker lost the limb in a gruesome road accident. “Missing an arm … I look like a bird without a wing,” she says, sadly. Srey Sar was one of about 40 garment workers on their way to their factories in an open-back truck on April 4 when it collided with a cement mixer truck that their driver was trying to overtake. Eighteen of the women were injured and five, who were holding on to the top of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3014826/horrific-accident-puts-cambodias-poor-travel-conditions-garment-workers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3014826/horrific-accident-puts-cambodias-poor-travel-conditions-garment-workers?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 Jun 2019 22:45:14 +0000 Behind Seng Oeun’s humble wooden house on the outskirts of Phnom Penh lies Boeung Tamouk, the large lake that has provided the 39-year-old fisherman with an income since he was a youngster. Every morning before the sun rises, when most Cambodians are still asleep, he climbs into his small boat to try his luck. “On a good day I can catch 100,000 riel [US$25] worth of fish. It’s enough to buy food for my kids and send them to school,” he says. Cambodian bastion of genocidal Khmer Rouge a tourist... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2187695/phnom-penhs-vanishing-lakes-put-cambodian-capital-peril-and-harm?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2187695/phnom-penhs-vanishing-lakes-put-cambodian-capital-peril-and-harm?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 Feb 2019 23:49:03 +0000 Thuch Salik, a 14 year-old multilingual Cambodian internet sensation, is wearing jeans and a white button-up shirt appropriately patterned with outlines of big stars. Sitting in a small, leafy park on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, he is recognized by passersby, who ask for photos. Including his native Khmer, Salik speaks 16 languages, and his linguistic skills have been his claim to fame since he became an overnight sensation this month after a Malaysian tourist posted a... https://www.scmp.com/society/poverty-and-debt-true-story-multilingual-cambodian-boy-thuch-salik/article/2175382?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/society/poverty-and-debt-true-story-multilingual-cambodian-boy-thuch-salik/article/2175382?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 28 Nov 2018 10:02:04 +0000 Thuch Salik is wearing jeans and a pristine white button-up shirt appropriately patterned with outlines of big stars. Sitting beside a swimming pool in a small, leafy park on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, Salik, 14, is recognised by passers-by, who ask if they can have their photo taken with him. Even the pool attendant tries to chat with him, in a variety of foreign tongues, and calls out to others that “he’s the boy who speaks 15 languages”. Find out what lies beyond... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2175030/cambodian-internet-sensation-and-his-mum-contemplate-big?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2175030/cambodian-internet-sensation-and-his-mum-contemplate-big?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Nov 2018 23:45:15 +0000 When the small boat lands on the island, it’s eerily quiet. It isn’t hard to imagine that the air once rang with the sound of hammers on stone, and the shouts of workers, but now the only sound is the snap of tattered tarpaulins being whipped by the breeze. The sole sign of activity is an elderly security guard – bare-chested and dappled with tattoos – and his dog. No, not Songkran – that other water festival next door in Cambodia On the island, at the midst of a vast reservoir, sits West Mebon,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2170818/angkor-temple-restorers-face-financial-ruin-after-french-funding-ends-want?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2170818/angkor-temple-restorers-face-financial-ruin-after-french-funding-ends-want?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Nov 2018 00:15:15 +0000