Ever wonder how Cambodia connects to the internet? well, you probably don’t really care, as long as you are able to search, browse, read, watch, surf, chat, talk, blog all those world wide web craps. Even if you care, you would only point out to the usual suspects namely Online, CityLink, TeleSurf, AngkorNet or MekongNet.

If you really want to know though, the Cambodia’s Internet Scene is actually a lot more just the above companies. To be exactly, as of August this year, there are up to 20 (twenty) internet entities in Cambodia. (by comparison, our neighbors Laos has less than ten, while Vietnam has just over twenty)

Not all of the twenty are internet service providers (ISP), but it’s still pretty impressive considering a report of only 44,000 Cambodians have internet access compared to 16 millions in Vietnam.

Interesting enough, out of the twenty, 6 of them are brand-new start-up companies registered in 2007 including one with “THE BEST VERVICE IN THERE”. Yes, it’s “VERVICE“. Don’t believe me? Here is the list of Who is who in Cambodia’s Internet scene: Cambodian Internet ASN Aug07.pdf

Disclaimer: Such info is freely available in the internet. Use it at your own risks. Vireak shall not be liable for any loss or damage. Don’t ask how I get all these. Go figure out yourself!

Vireak.net is 365 days old today (if you’re numerically challenged, 365 days is 1 calendar year). Oh no! Vireak.net is probably gonna to listen the “happy birthday song” crap. So where does the time go? Not sure! How about some meaningless numbers (gotta apologize to those who are numerically challenged):

• as of today, Reak has written exactly 60 wonderful blog entries in 6 categories, a mere 1 lonely post a week,
• that is accompanied by 501 cool, calm and collected comments, an average 8.35 comments per post,
• there has been a total of just under 10,000 unique visitors and over 100,000 hits,
• the top 5 most visited posts are here, here, here, here and here,
• the most commented post is here with 29 comments, the rest of the top 5 most commented posts are here with 26, here with 25, here with 22 and here with 20,
• out of the 60 entries, only two are left uncommented. Help me set a record by commenting here and here,
• my own most favorite and most artistic entries though are here, here and here,
• on the dark side, there has been 12,250 spam comments caught-that is an average just over 33 a day,
• some of the weird search engine key phrases that have landed here are “funny looking cambodian guy”, “khmer girls in love”, “cambodia do they make good wife”, and “ah-oun cambodian”. Oh no! who search for all of these?

All right, that’s my friends! some meaningless numbers and stats. Thanks for your visits and wonderful supports over the year!

What factors come to your mind when it comes to decision to have family? Well, let see. I got to meet an old high school classmate a couple of months ago. She became somewhat of a mature lady. Well girls do get mature quiet quite fast at these ages. We were talking about old friends and high school classmates, many of whom went on to get married and make babies and many of whom were planning to, when unexpectedly she came up with this advice that I find probably worthy of sharing. She said:

Vireak, if you are to make a decision about a wife (oh no! not again), you must also consider the gene. Think about the offsprings….you would want them to be smart, right?

“Gene, Vireak, Gene is the key word“…..Alright alright, what did I say?….what did Vireak say:

Err…by the way….hmm…..i’m…..(cough)…just….(cough)….22!

See! It’s never been easier to be a guy….on top of that, you’ll have also have to consider this, this and this. Headache, no?

They say friends know more things about you than you know yourself. What would you do if you forget your own phone number? — You ring up your friend and ask “…by the way, do you remember my number?“. Most likely yes!

Now you even got more important thing you forget…”an important password“. Holy crab! What to do? But, first:

• you try all the names of the girls you know….only to find out that it isn’t right
• then it must be one of the girls’ phone numbers………no! not that either
• it must be one of the girls’ birthday you can remember…..then again, it is to no avail
• you pour some holy water on your head hoping to remember that damned password….holy water? holy crab! it doesn’t work either…
• this time, you try something more clever. You point the Harry Potter magic wang wand to your head and shout “Legilimens“…..you can call yourself lucky that nothing explodes….
• now you decide to go the Khmer way… “Jol Kru“. But “Kru Arok Arak Neak Ta” cannot help “kon chap kon preap” either…

You’re running out of options. What to do? What to do? Of course, you turn to your friends and ask “…by the way, do you happen to remember my password?“

The following is episode 4 of the Operation Heart Hunter drama series. Will the romance blossom?

As I rode home after the ice cream, something popped up in my mind.
‘Lok Kru Chea’s tuition class…huh?’ I pondered.
‘Don’t know whether he still remembers me. I guess I’ll pay him a visit’ I told myself.

The next day….It was just before 3pm. At Professor Chea’s home, the tuition class was about to start with around 20 students there. Knowing that Vonn, Pat and Rinn were in the 5pm to 6pm class, I walked in.

‘Who we’ve got here! If it ain’t Vireak!’ Lok Kru Chea looked out to me. And naturally, all the students in the class turned to look. I lifted my hands to Jum Reap Sour, but before I could say anything one voice was heard. ‘Lok Kru? Who’s that weird-looking Japanese?’ a girl’s voice….sounded familiar. Indeed it was no other than Rinn. And in fact, the trio Rinn, Vonn and Pat were all in the class. ‘Weren’t they supposed in the 5-6pm class’ I thought. But obviously she was being sarcastic and pretending not know me.

‘Lok Kru, I think I’m disrupting the class. I shall stay back until you finish.’ I decided to wait for a chit-chat with him after that. I walked up to a hammock near by and pulled out a book that I brought along. The title of the book was ‘Blink: The power of thinking without thinking!’.

4pm, the class ended. I continued my chit-chat with Lok Kru Chea as the students were going home when I looked around….. Gone! the three of them…all gone. ‘A miss opportunity’ I thought.

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