{"id":308,"date":"2015-06-20T03:40:02","date_gmt":"2015-06-20T08:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/phnom-penh-cambodia-2015\/?p=308"},"modified":"2015-06-21T07:50:46","modified_gmt":"2015-06-21T12:50:46","slug":"book-in-cambodia-bargaining-in-cambodia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/phnom-penh-cambodia-2015\/2015\/06\/20\/book-in-cambodia-bargaining-in-cambodia\/","title":{"rendered":"Book in Cambodia? Bargaining in Cambodia?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In my very first day shopping in Cambodia, the very first market I went to is a local market in the Tuol Sleng Area. The first thing I was fascinated is the books they were selling. I was very curious what kind of books they sell in a foreign country. While I was checking the book lying on top of the front desk, the lady was pressuring me in buying the books right away. Obviously, this is a common method in every Cambodia flea markets that they are really hasty in making you buying the souvenir. Nonetheless, looking through all the books in the market, majority of them are in English texts and the subject of the books are history contexts about the Angkor and the Khmer Rouge era. They were novels all about the Khmer Rouge era. One of the Cambodian local asked if they are any books written in Khmer. The merchandiser said they are none. It somewhat uncommon to find any texts written in Khmer from its original novel or any text translated to Khmer. It sparked my mind that they are some Cambodians who are interest in reading book other than just magazines or local newspapers. \u00a0Although they are many young Cambodians in the urban city can speak and read English fairly well, in my opinion, I feel like it\u2019s unfair for many Cambodians who wanted to be academically smart for those who are incapable in learning \u00a0second language. Us Americans, we are really fortunate in having many books and novels in our local bookstore to redeem our knowledge. I like to read to book cause\u2019 it keep my brain in good shape plus I simply enjoy it. I just wish they have more novels or books translated in Khmer, so that way it might enhance educational values in Cambodia. Anyway, back to my shopping experience, I was ready to purchase four books. The lady was using a calculator and charging me $10-15 for each of the books plus the t-shirt. Altogether, it was $65. Now, I had never heard of bargaining until after I purchased the items. I had totally forgotten about how the flea market is willing to rip-off foreigners with ridiculous prices. She knew I was American with an American money cause\u2019 I look like one and I speak like one. I could have it all for simply $15. Yes, that\u2019s truly inexpensive since Cambodia has the lowest economy. Bargaining in Phnom Penh is not easy for foreigners to get a good deal. You need to disguise yourself in speaking Khmer fluently and looking like a Khmer native. Well, at least it is a funny experienc shopping in Phnom Penh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my very first day shopping in Cambodia, the very first market I went to is a local market in the Tuol Sleng Area. The first thing I was fascinated is the books they were selling. I was very curious … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/phnom-penh-cambodia-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/phnom-penh-cambodia-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/phnom-penh-cambodia-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/phnom-penh-cambodia-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/phnom-penh-cambodia-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/phnom-penh-cambodia-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":330,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/phnom-penh-cambodia-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions\/330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/phnom-penh-cambodia-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/phnom-penh-cambodia-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/phnom-penh-cambodia-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}