(page 2 of 7) He doesn't claim the workplace is free of hassle for beer girls, though. "Cambodians ... have very bad drinking habits," says the Singaporean Mr. Soon. "They like to touch their buttocks, they like to grab their hand ... . After a while, you get used to it." As for Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch Cos., it says it expects those who employ young "Budweiser ambassadors" to provide a safe and healthy work environment, as it does for its own employees. Ms. Aeng tries to stay healthy with vitamins. The costly drug cocktails taken in wealthy nations to keep AIDS at bay are essentially unavailable here. The country's cash-strapped Health Ministry focuses its limited efforts chiefly on groups deemed most at risk, such as brothel workers. It's just another way that the beer girls of Cambodia fall through the cracks. City Lights Ms. Aeng's route to the Shady Bamboo was a circuitous one, beginning as a flight from rural poverty. Her father is a rice farmer. One of 10 children, she made meals for neighbors to supplement the family's meager income. This skill led a friend to recommend her for a cooking job in Phnom Penh at a bride brokerage that specialized in matching Cambodian women with Taiwanese men. So in 1996, at 20, she left home and headed for the city. She says she worked at the business for about six months, until the owner's son crept into her room one night and raped her. Distraught, she quit and moved in with a family elsewhere in Phnom Penh, agreeing to help with various chores. She had few other opportunities, having completed only the fourth grade in school, and going home was out of the question. "Since that day, I felt too ashamed to face the neighbors in my homeland," she says. Her new landlady knew of a job promoting Stella Artois, the Belgian beer, and went with her to an interview. When asked if she had ever worked as a beer girl, Ms. Aeng simply said yes. She got the job.         PREVIOUS PAGE RETURN TO BIO NEXT PAGE