Since the dawn of time, Cambodians have been smoking cigarettes. It all
started back in prehistoric times, when lightning struck an ancient
forest, deep in the jungle. Some wild tobacco plants caught fire, and
while the cavecambodians were fleeing, they got a whiff of pure tobacco
smoke. From there, the rest is history.
After setting up in their new caves, they used tobacco leaves (not yet having invented paper) to wrap dried and shredded tobacco leaves. They used the fire that they had saved from the forest fire struck by lightning to light these tobacco sticks, and called them "ba ray".
Now in Cambodia, a country in South-East Asia between Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand, several dozen brands of cigarettes are sold. From the Malaysian Asian made Marlboro's and Swiss L&M's, to the locally made Ara and Golden Goat brands.
Cambodia has a great wealth of cigarettes, both locally produced and imported. You can stop by any cigarette stand and get a carton, a pack, or just sample a single cigarette, or "ba ray mooey dam" as we call it here.
You can also visit the tobacco fields in the North and West, which produce not only the tobacco for the locally made cigarettes, but export some of the finest tobacco in the world...... Come see for yourself.