[Baudolino]

Hey guys. I've lived in Cambodia for 10 years now. I've been all over the country but I've always lived in Phnom Penh.

For the past couple of years, due to the pandemic, the economy here has been in ruins. Something like a 99% drop in tourism at one point and even though the country is open again, technically, things haven't improved much yet.

Add to that the fact that something like 100,000 expats left when the pandemic was in its early months and most have yet to return and you can see the sort of situation the girls at the bars are facing.

When the bars were closed there were so many prostitutes on Tinder messaging me I thought I must have used the wrong pictures on my profile or something. It was like I'd lost 10 years and 20 pounds overnight haha. Even now, if you go into a hostess bar you're liable to see a half dozen girls playing cards with no patrons around and you can take your pick.

Some of these girls used to be able to get $100 when there were tourists in town but the local rate is more or less $50 as a baseline. However, with the pandemic, things are looser than that. Some will agree to do it for $30 or even $20 depending on how appealing you are to them.

I had one girl I met on Tinder stay with me for a couple of weeks during the strict lockdown we had for a brief period. I got what I wanted (including my house cleaned haha) and she got a nice place to stay. Of course, I was working from home due to the lockdown and could keep an eye on her or else that might not have been the smartest move.

The best ways to find girls are ...

1. Hostess bars. If something goes wrong you know where to start looking haha.

2. Dating apps. Badoo, Tinder or even just apps like Line with the people nearby function. There are crazy hot girls on Line openly advertising themselves but they are asking $300 because they are there for Chinese high rollers I imagine. Oh but watch out with Line - tons of ladyboys. Cool if that's your thing but it's not mine and it can get sketchy.

3. Clubs like Pontoon. As far as freelancers go they tend to have some of the hottest ones out there. Avoid the freelancers on the street at places like Wat Phnom because some of them are working there rather than a bar because they're known to be HIV+ and that does get girls blacklisted from the hostess bars once word gets around.

Oh I should also add: Not much of this probably applies anymore in the People's Republic of Sihanoukville. Stay out of that place anyways. It's full of triad gangsters laundering their ill-gotten gains at the casinos and I'm sure the girls are priced to match.

Any questions, feel free to ask, though I imagine some of you are veteran Cambodian sexpats and probably don't need my advice lol.