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I came to Cambodia to cover the fighting, especially in 1997, Amat says. I became interested in Cambodian culture. But at the same time, I became interested in foreign communities living in Cambodia. This was a poor country at that time. It started with nothing. There were a lot of expats and many expressed a lot of arrogance towards Cambodian people. I felt so much shock by the way these expat families treated the locals. This was the idea for me to write a book.

Amat says that many expats first come to Cambodia as tourists with an idealised picture of the countrys people and its natural beauty, leading to unrealistic expectations when they decide to settle here over the long term.

When they just visit as a tourist, Cambodia is like what they saw in postcard, a beautiful country. When they decided to live, then they turn to the back of the postcard and they begin to face a lot of culture shock: bad traffic, poverty, beggars.

Rather than confront these issues, many instead decided to form their own expat communities and separate themselves away from local people.

They dont really open the window to Cambodia. They dont try to speak the language. They are not interested in the culture. When they finish their job, they just go to the foreign bars, have beers with friends. They live in Cambodia, but they dont really live with Cambodians.

Frdric Amat took at least seven years to compile the activities, routines and problems of the expat community into his book. Of particular interest to him were those foreigners who travelled to Cambodia to look for a prospective partner.

A lot of single men come here because its easier for them to find love in Cambodia than their own country. They go to the bars in Cambodia. Some of them have the Cambodian girls from the bars. I write about the girls in the bars, who do not adhere to the usual traditions of Cambodian girls, he said.

In the last chapter, Amat gives his formulation for how expats can enjoy life in Cambodia to the fullest. To him, Cambodia is not a hard place to live and people are not hard to communicate with; the only barrier lies in foreigners refusing to truly open themselves to the society. If they open their mind a bit, they will enjoy their life here.

Jrme Morinire, the publisher of Cambodias Tuk Tuk Editions publishing house, has printed 4,000 copies of Amats work in English, with distribution planned for Thailand, Laos and Myanmar in the coming weeks.

Mostly our writers wrote books about Angkor temples or the Khmer Rouge; this is the first time that weve published a work about peoples daily life, their social life and their culture, Morinire said. - Expatriates Strange Lives in Cambodia is available at Monument bookstores and the airports in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap for US$12.

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Expatriates’ Strange Lives in Cambodia | 7 Days | The Phnom Penh Post - Cambodia's Newspaper of Record