Graham E. Saunders

I enjoy this series, but this volume is lopsidedly heavy on culture and too light on etiquette and mores. Saunders does include a lot of useful information on culture topics such as bank hours and transportation. However, like many guidebooks of its sort, it generally assumes that one is a white heterosexual businessman. Specific advice for women is mostly about dressing modestly, which is helpful, but I'd also like to know what it might convey when I as a non-Asian U.S. woman initiate a handshake, run a meeting, or drink. How is female assertiveness understood? Should I be wary of invitations to an event at a male Cambodian's house? As a female guest invited because of my professional relationship with my host, should I remain and talk with the man, or offer to help the women clean up? Can I take a pedicab ride, or is that safer for men than for women? The answers to these questions will have to be met by a different source. Instead, Saunders devotes 16 pages to Angkor Wat--too much for this book, not enough to serve as a guidebook to the complex.… (more)