@Bob *********

I would like to visit, but is it worth it? I've been reading up on it but that 's no substitute for going, of course. What do you recommend I see/do there if I go later this year? Thanks.

@Bob *********

Yes, so I've heard. The Chinese-built casinos have been famously converted into "pig-slaughtering" centers. I briefly knew a Khmer girl who married into that. She shared a little about it, but not much. I suspect she was/is one of the scammers spamming dating sites. The central government used to be beholden to Vietnam but now is to China. There are lawless areas. The rubber plantations in the north are patrolled by the army to protect plantation hands from bandits. No normal communities with families live in that region. The southwest rural parts on the border with Thailand are apparently still controlled by remnants of the Khmer Rouge. Cambodia's poor, weak government has been a cakewalk for Chinese investment like the container shipping hub they built in Sihanoukville but also for the Chinese underworld.

@Bob *********

Haha. Lots of cranes. Well, I just hope the locals come out okay. They're hoping so, too. 😏

@Nongnuch *******

I don't think now you can get even 5%. But give You-know-who's tariffs a little longer and rates will have to go up.

@Bob *********

Yep. And in Sihanoukville at the other end. Can see the more legitimate Chinese investment all over PP, too. And Xi Jinping was just there, yesterday.

@Bob *********

You beat me to it. Cambodia and Laos are beholden to Chinese investment, both official and of the underworld.

@Keith ********

They sure would. I've had this conversation with not a few Thais from there. He's being a simplistic foreigner throwing them all together just because there were some shared roots.

@Suzanne *****

Yep. We'll end up being like North Korea where EVERYONE falls all over themselves trying to profess their love for Dear Orangutan lest they be strapped to a canon and blown to smithereens for treachery.

@Mark *********

This.

I am not familar with the city water of Bangkok, but in many a developing-world city the water supply has heavy metals and other toxins leaching into the ground or river source due to improperly disposed industrial water and waste upstream. Boiling does absolutely nothing to remove these toxins. And water softeners add sodium to your intake.

If somebody has recent research about the BKK water supply, would be much obliged. Oh, and the "I'm drinking it and I feel fine" comments are only helpful for short-term visitors. Anyone living here for years can be exposed to harmful buildup of metals in the water supply. It's doesn't slap you in the face right away.

Furthermore, they will gin up false charges of "treason against the US" to strip people of their citizenship. If clapping and cheering at a college protest constitutes "interfering with US foreign policy objectives" you can be damn sure Americans of color are next to be disappeared into El Salvador to never be heard from again.