Koon Khmer

i just found this resource, and all i can say is thank you!! so many questions answered re: my desire to move to cambodia.

i just returned from a trip there following a friend who is running for parliament and was fortunate enough to have lunch with this guy that everyone called the king, but he is not the guy on all the billboards.



when i asked around, i was told--"you met the king!" but when i questioned them with "then does cambodia have two kings?" i got the same response 3 different times.... "i not know how to say"

i looked him up online, and found him referred to as Prince Sisowath Thomico, but i'm still left wondering why everyone calls him king. any info would be most appreciated.

Hi Don, welcome!

As you probably know Cambodia is a constitutional monarchy; the Prime Minister is the head of Government and the King is head of State. The King reigns but does not rule.

The Prince you're referring to belongs to the Sisowath royal house (the reigning King belongs to the Norodom royal house). IIRC Prince Sisowath Thomico was the former King's nephew and secretary.

I'm no historicus at all but might you be interested in more information regarding the recent past of Cambodia I'd like to recommend you 'Cambodia's Curse" from Joel Brinkley. It's not always accurate but it's a very easy reading book and from that book on you can always go more into detail of some specific aspects.
'When the war was over" from Elizabeth Becker is much more accurate.

The 3 individuals (in the meanwhile 2 since one of them recently died) on the billboards are:
Chea Sim, the former president of the CPP (Cambodian People's Party) and former president of the Senate.
Hun Sen, the current Prime Minister.
Heng Samrin, the president of the National Assembly.

If you have more questions regarding Cambodia's history you may always post them in the 'History&Culture' subforum. At the moment we don't have so many members to reply them but let's hope that will change in the future. Quality over quantity!

May I ask you a little bit more about your friend? Running for parliament during the next elections?

It's our aim to keep the forum politically neutral; every person and party has its good and less good points. As long as it doesn't lapse into propaganda I'm interested in your story.

thanks for the reccos...i'll get those in the queue for sure. and i'll be sure to watch your history/culture section.

i was asked to follow a friend from here in the states on his campaign trail, his name is Alexander Ky and he's running for the CNRP Ratanakiri Provence seat. on our trip around Cambodia, we started in PP and headed through back roads to various town meetings and rallys...many of which i was asked to sit at head tables of dressed in a suit representing the money stream that they are seeing from U.S. donations. i travelled with mr. ky & mr. Ho Vann with his staff and saw much of eastern side of Cambodia, then back in to PP, through batambang and up into Siem Reap. during this trip, i probably met about a dozen parliamentarians, heads of immigration from pp & sr, city/business leaders, and this man who everyone calls the king. it was an amazing trip, to say the very least.

my camera has a facebook page, you can see some of those events here:

Interesting story! I can imagine that the speeches themselves were a little bit boring (since they were most probably in the local language and they can take hours) but the social networking and traveling must have been great! By the way; does your friend speaks Khmer?

Should your friend get elected, is he planning to settle again in Cambodia? Just asking since there's a big gap between the American life and living in Ratanakiri of all places. (stunning province by the way).
How did your friend end up in the States? Probably as a refugee after the Khmer Rouge era?
Did he/you experience any boycots from the ruling Cambodian People's Party during your visit to Cambodia?
What were the main concerns/issues of the people you and your friend spoke with?

So many questions.

Now I'm gonna have a look at the pics! Thanks for the link!

Hi all members, let's grow this forum.