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The traffic in Cambodia totally defies all norms of Western logic and order. Some day I hope to put together a series on traffic here but until then note this one example of what I mean. This is a two-way street. The automobiles are on the proper side of the dividing line of the street. But note that the opposing lane is filled with drivers who can't wait behind another vehicle. Instead they pull into the opposing lane--which means on this narrow street that the traffic coming across the intersection cannot get into the street. That is a norm here and what boggles the mind most is that everyone accepts it. No one gets angry when he or she comes through an intersection and finds his lane totally blocked by traffic illegally coming against him.
Construction Quirks #7
The Street Crimes Unit of the New York Police Department has a motto "We own the night." In Cambodia, in the Maryknoll office--and probably in most buildings here--it's the bugs that own the night. What are probably most properly called palmetto bugs (we called them cockroaches when I was a kid) are all over the floors when the lights go out. And some of their dead bodies are much in evidence when daylight returns. Here are three corpses in our dining room one morning.
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| From the rear, it's obvious this motorcycle is carrying quite a load. From the front, it's obvious that it's not only the rear of the motorcycle that's loaded. The front is piled high, too, with the load held on by the passenger. | |
4 April 2014
On the other hand, it's good for slam dunks....
3 April 2014
Construction Quirks #6
This is a column supporting one end of the roof over the front area of the deaf office. When we started renting the place, there was a wall supporting the roof. The landlord tore down the wall and moved it toward the street but the roof still needed to be held up, so he put a 6x6 beam under the heavy metal grillwork under the edge of the roof and then balanced the beam on a pile of bricks. The aesthetics certainly don't bother him and neither does the dangerous haywired arrangement for keeping the roof up.
1 April 2014
Motorcycle Loads #194 
31 March 2014
Construction Quirks #5
Nothing is built or constructed according to code in Cambodia. Many cities and towns have running water but the infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired. This is the water pipe coming from the street into the property of the Maryknoll office. The pipe is suspended in the air, not with formal supports, but just laid across the fence foundation. The water meter just rests on the ground, set in a pile of cement to keep it stationary.
28 March 2014
LOTS of people ride bicycles in Phnom Penh. It's one of the major modes of transportation in the country. But slowly the bikes are giving way to the motorbikes or small motorcycles for daily commuting. And then there are the young and rich who have long ago gone from bicycles to motorcycles to SUVs and sports cars, and now they are coming back to bikes. But with a difference. Now they ride high-end expensive racing bikes, complete with the proper attire. These are two of three young men riding in traffic during the morning rush hour. Some young people scrimp and save and ride racing bikes just because they like to ride but I am afraid they are in the minority.
27 March 2014
While many new buildings are springing up in Phnom Penh, blocks such as these still dominate the city streets. They were emptied out by the Khmer Rouge in the mid 1970s and then occupied by the returnees from the refugee camps along the Thai border.
26 March 2014
Phnom Penh is still a flat, compact city, but now more and more high-rise buildings are appearing on the cityscape. Most of them are individual, i.e., there is no central district or big commercial area, but rather developers stick their new creation in an area where they guess—and hope--the city will grow and develop in the future.
24 March 2014
The ambience doesn't match that of Starbucks and there's no air conditioning, but Phnom Penh's little coffee houses do a brisk business every day. You can park at the door, there's plenty of fresh air, and the coffee is about 65¢.
23 March 2014
In the last few years I have noticed several men, maybe three or four, who look like they are from the Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh). They walk the streets from morning till night carrying large bundles of brightly colored cloth goods like towels and sheets and sarongs and other woven items. I can't imagine that they sell that much but they must be making some money because they continue to walk the streets of Phnom Penh. They are hard-working individuals with their unwieldy bundles!
20 March 2014
Motorcycle Loads #193 "I think I can, I think I can...." 
19 March 2014
Buildings in Cambodia that have electricity usually have junction boxes like this one set into a wall, generally near the ceiling. For some reason, various circuits in the walls make connection in these boxes. And when something goes wrong, often the boxes are used to gain access to the problem. And often, too, the boxes are left open with hot wires and dead wires sticking out like in this box in our eating area in the Maryknoll house. 
Construction Quirks #4
17 March 2014
There are no deities in Buddhism, but the spirits and monks do like their canned drinks. Most of the time, when monks come to perform their chanting and rituals for weddings and funerals, the package of gifts they receive contains soft drinks and they can be seen seated in front of the people with open soft drinks in front of them as they chant. The fixed shrines for various spirits of ancestors and others usually involve canned drinks, too. In this restaurant, the shrine erected for the spirits is supplied with both lots of beer and lots of soft drinks.
16 March 2014
Click here for photos of the heavy wooden shrines made for Cambodian homes.
15 March 2014
When I first arrived in Phnom Penh, for anyone to have even a small motorbike was an achievement, a sign of status. Most people walked or rode bicycles. Today as standards of living creep upwards, so do the aspirations and dreams of the young people. Now just as teenagers in the West will spend hundreds of dollars for a pair of sports shoes, so young people here will spend outrageous amounts on huge and specialty motorcycles. There's certainly no need for them and no advantage on the road. They just give status, like this odd-framed bike outside a shop.
12 March 2014
Click here for photos of the ritual of opening street shops in the morning.
11 March 2014
On a back street near where I did a house blessing I came across this young man washing ten or so pushcarts used for selling food on the street. I don't know if the cleaning gets them up to any decent hygiene standard but it's nice to know they do get washed. My basic rule on mobile foods like this is that the food has to be hot. Then there's a chance it will kill the bacteria from the air and maybe that on the plate.
10 March 2014
Last Friday I was making a left turn on my bicycle on to our deaf office street and two young guys on a motorbike tried to pass me in the intersection and knocked me down. I got just a scrape on my leg but the bike took a big hit and the rear wheel was twisted and immovable. Right on that corner was one of our ubiquitous "repair shops" and the guy grabbed the bike and tried bending and standing on the wheel to get it straight. He did make it better so I could roll it to the office but I couldn't ride it like that.
On Saturday I took it in a tuk-tuk to this shop where I bought it and the owner came out and said he could fix it no problem. I told him I'd come back the next day, and on Sunday, on the way home from mass, I had the motordupe driver drop me off there and I had my bike back. I was expecting maybe a new rear wheel and $20 or $30 for the repair job. He charged me $3.
9 March 2014
Here comes the mango man, selling the mangoes, now in season, from his moto. Ahead of him are the traffic police (inset) but he doesn't have to worry about them. They only shake down the van and traffic drivers.
21 February 2014
Motorcycle Loads #192 Here is a load of vegetables going somewhere early in the morning. 
19 January 2014
Yesterday I passed a road construction site--a road being repaved--and saw these three women sweeping new concrete with little hand brushes. That says something about the status of women and about the way work is done and about the way profits are maximized. Women workers are cheaper than men. Small brooms are cheaper than big brooms. Why change?
17 January 2014
When I arrived in Phnom Penh in 2000, there was one building--the Intercontinental Hotel--above four stories. Today the skyline in every direction is dotted with many buildings rising much higher. This is a scene just half a mile from the deaf office in the area called Boeung Trabek. The open area is a boeung, a shallow lake in a flood plain where flood waters collect. In the far distance are the buildings of Phnom Penh encroaching on the flood plain--with disastrous effect when the heavy rains come.
15 January 2014
Motorcycle Loads #191 
4 January 2014
Kids learn early about motorcycles in Cambodia. 
Easy Rider.
1 January 2014
This is an intersection I go through each day on the way home from the Deaf Development Programme. There is no traffic control like stop lights or stop signs or a policeman, and everyone just does what he pleases. The congestion this day was no worse because it was New Year's Eve. It's just because it's Phnom Penh.