The Kingdom of Cambodia, formerly known as Kampuchea, is a nation situated in South East Asia with a population of about 14 million people.  The capital and largest city in Cambodia is Phnom Penh.  The area which is now Cambodia was once the Khmer Empire, a powerful Hindu and Buddhist empire which ruled the Indochinese Peninsula between the 11th and 14th centuries.  Cambodia is still predominantly a Buddhist nation, although all of the other major world religions are also represented.  Life in Cambodia is changing rapidly for many people, with strong economic growth in a number of sectors.  Per capita income is still lower than in many neighboring countries however, and much of the population is still dependent on the traditional farming industries.  Life for many people living in rural Cambodia is quite basic, with electrical appliances like a coffee machine and a computer still being a very rare sight indeed.

The major exports of Cambodia are rice, fish, timber, rubber and garments – providing you with a rough idea of what the average day for a typical Cambodian person might entail.  While tourism is a growing industry which supports many workers, most Cambodians still work in the traditional agricultural fields.  Recent civil wars mean that the median age of a Cambodian person is only 20 years, meaning that the average Cambodian is well and truly of the working age.  Along with farming work in the rice fields and on the fishing boats, mining is also a huge industry in Cambodia.  Many people are injured or killed while mining, making the nation infamous for its unsafe mining practices.  While the real life of the average Cambodian person does entail a lot of physical work, there is also a strong home life and a rich traditional culture that manages to survive in the 21st century.

Cockfighting and football are popular recreational activities in Cambodia, and those in the cities are also becoming interested in the recreational aspects of western culture.  There can be quite a gap between the cultures of the urban Phnom Penh population and the rural farming areas of Cambodia.  Traditional villages are also under the influence of globalisation, however, traditional values when combined with a poor material lifestyle mean that many luxuries we take for granted in the west are never even seen in parts of Cambodia.  Coffee grinder products and other electrical appliances are simply too expensive for the majority of Cambodians, although they are used by many affluent Cambodians in the towns and cities.