Hello from Phnom Penh, Cambodia,
It's been somewhat of a whirlwind week as I've been all over this region. The last time we spoke I was in Thailand and was not looking forward to entering into the fasco-communist nanny state of Australiastan. I showed up at Don Muang airport in Bangkok and the beautiful check-in girl for Air Asia squinted her eyes at the screen and told me I couldn't go to Australia. I wasn't entirely unhappy to hear this news but was curious as to why.
She said, "you don't have a visa." I told her that I was flying under my Kanadian slave card (passport) and that both Kanada and Australiastan are still purported to be owned by the Queef of England and part of the Orwellian named, "Commonwealth" and in my dozens of trips to Australia in the past I've never needed a visa.
They called the Australian embassy and told me again that I needed a visa. My flight had a stop over in Kuala Lumpur so I asked if I could at least go there and then figure out what to do. She aquiesed to that and while at the boarding gate in Bangkok I asked some TDVer Facebook friends and they told me I had to go to the Australian government website and ask for permission… to go to a place where England used to ship off convicts. It wasn't easy… at all. It was a full seven pages of telling the Australian mafia almost every detail of my life… and being extorted for $20 for the pleasure but I then got permission to go down under.
I wasn't sure if I was happy or sad to receive the news. Spending a few more days in Bangkok would have been like telling a fat man that he had to stay at the all-you-can-eat buffet longer. Or, visiting Kuala Lumpur would not have been a dissapointment either. But I felt obligated and did want to go to my first Australian Gold Symposium so I was happy to get there.
Upon arrival they lined us all up like slaves as some cute little dog sniffed us all and people angrily asked us if we had any meat or fruit. I then had to explain to some man why I was there and what I was doing. As I always do, when they ask, "What are you doing here?" I responded with, "What are YOU doing here?"I then asked him to show me some identification… which was met with the usual perplexed look and let me pass, befuddled.
I met a lot of interesting people at the conference and heard many interesting things about what is really happening on the ground in Austrailiastan. One stock broker told me that he makes $200,000 per year and can barely live on it. After all the usual taxes he said his true income is much less than half that and that just his energy expenses alone have nearly tripled in the last year… especially with the carbon taxes that have been instituted.
The cost of things in Australia is ludicrous. In threr days there I must have easily spent more than $200 on taxi rides that were never much over 10 minutes per time. Those same taxis in Mexico, Thailand or where I am now in Cambodia wouldn't have cost more than $20.
Worse though were all the rules and regulations. Australia almost makes the US feel like the land of the free by comparison… which is saying a lot! Everyone, everywhere is constantly telling you what you can't do. If you can even find a bar open after 11pm in Sydney they usually won't let you enter…. not that you'd want to anyway as it is almost always 60 guys and two unattractive, unfriednly women. I approached one bar near Star City casino at about 1am and was told, "Sorry mate, you can't enter."
I wasn't sure I even wanted to enter as it looked like it was mostly 20 crack addicts inside and one toothless woman but again I was curious and asked why.
"Because you've been drinking mate."
The answer left me stymied. If I hadn't already had a few drinks I surely wouldn't even be trying to enter that shithole at 1am. And, if I hadn't had any drinks surely I would once I had entered… so his logic made no sense to me.
I tried to explain that to him and he threatened to beat me up… and then call men with guns to kidnap me and put me in a cage. As I walked away fairly stunned I mentioned to a person nearby that I wish I was in Mexico. The person replied, "I hear it's dangerous there."
I don't think there are words in the English language that could half-way describe the look I gave that person as I got back into my $50 five minute taxi ride back to my hotel to smoke in the shower so I wouldn't risk a fine or death penalty… and, like in Vegas the windows don't open or too many people would have an easy way to kill themselves.
I then spent one night in Singapore where a TDVer actually flew to from Indonesia just to meet and we had a better time than what was possible in Australia but it still has too many arbitrary rules for my liking.
But today I just arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. TDV Passports Directing Manager, Chris Martin, who has lived here for more than a year now told me, "You haven't been here since 2008… you won't believe how it has changed."
That was a massive understatement! When I was last here it was quite a poor, but very nice place. Upon my return PP is starting to feel like Bangkok! The city has grown economically and in vibrance exponentially. I'm writing this from my room at my favorite hangout in PP, the Foreign Correspondants Club (watch the Killing Fields movie for some history on this place) and the amount of music, people, cars and motorbikes outside is astounding.
If you are looking for a place to go and invest or make a living… GO to Cambodia. This place is alive with action… something I said that would happen when I last visited and have written about many times at TDV.
I've only been here a few hours though and Chris should be here any minute to take me out on the town…. aside from updating me on all our worldwide passport operations which include Cambodia… and now Mexico. So I am sure I'll have plenty more to update subscribers on about the business opportunities here soon… including what I think could be a massive wealth generating opportunity here in the next year that will be for subscribers only.
I'll be here for 3 days then back to HK for more TDV and passport related business and then, unfortunately back to the third world hellhole of the USSA… but to an excellent event, the Silver Summit to get updated on the precious metals world with the likes of Bill Murphy of GATA and David Morgan. Then just a pitstop in Acapulco for a day before heading to Galt's Gulch in Chile with people like Bob Murphy and Luke Rudowski for GGC's first spring celebration event from Oct 30 to Nov 4.
For now I am heading off into the night in Phnom Penh. As always I wish you well!
