Charles Dittmeier – Page 149 – Welcome to Cambodia, and…..

Unusual Vehicles

Topics: Traffic Rules

In a country like Cambodia where there is little regulation or even a sense of discipline, anything goes. In terms of personal style like clothing, hair color, etc., it doesn’t much affect society, but the same easy-going style influences things like traffic where just about any kind of vehicle, with or without standard safety features, is fit for the road. Here are a few unusual vehicles that appear around Phnom Penh.

Going fast…

Here’s something not seen too often these days–one of the old traditional wooden houses still standing and still occupied in Phnom Penh. Most of them have been torn down and replaced by the concrete shop houses seen next to this wooden house near St. Joseph Church.

Maryknoll Bangkok Meetings–4

We had a short meeting session this morning and then everyone departed the Bangkok Christian Guest House–and Bangkok—for our mission sites all over South and Southeast Asia. Click here for scenes from the final day.

Maryknoll Bangkok Meetings–3

Today was half meeting to finish the agenda and half a Thanksgiving celebration to mark the US holiday two weeks early while we were together. Click here for scenes from today.

Maryknoll Bangkok Meetings–2

Today was a full day of meetings after our regional superior arrived in the morning from Hong Kong. The agenda was interesting and the day went quickly. Click here for some scenes from today.

Maryknoll Bangkok Meetings

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Every year the Maryknoll Society has a meeting of its members from Asia South, a grouping of countries which have only a small number of priests and brothers in each. Click here to see the trip from Cambodia to the meeting place in Bangkok.

Rest Stop….I’ll pass

I had to return by myself to Phnom Penh from the DDP annual staff meeting rather than with the group. I took a bus service and we made a stop halfway through the trip. Each company has an arrangement with the restaurant or shop where they stop, to allow the drivers to eat for free, etc.

The place where our bus stopped for a rest break was a real dive. It is out in the middle of nowhere and has nothing attractive. It was late evening when we arrived and the bus driver left the headlights on to shine into the eating area so we could see. (The picture looks lighter but it was really dark inside.

Most such rest stops allow passengers to choose food from a menu, to be cooked on the spot. This place had five or six large pots of food probably cooked early in the morning.

This is the little “convenience store” which all these places have. It was stacked with trash and covered with a layer of dust. The toilets were to the left of this shack and were unlit and absolutely dark when we were there.

There was no selection in this “store” that would entice anyone. Everything there looked like it had been there for months. I had some cookies with me so I just bought a Coke from the orange coolers on the left, figuring that would be safe.

Collage (second attempt)

Yesterday I experimented with a collage of small mug shots of DDP staff. It didn’t turn out the way I wanted so I tried again today with another software. This one isn’t perfect but it’s better than yesterday’s attempt.

Driving while Distracted?

Driving any vehicle while using a phone is a dangerous no-no although there is little awareness of that in Cambodia where everyone uses phones while driving and no one has a sense that there’s anything wrong with it. Wearing a motorcycle helmet adds another layer of risk to the whole equation.

DDP Annual Staff Meeting–5

This is just a compilation of head-and-shoulder shots of a lot of our staff at the annual staff meeting in Kep Province. It was also a disappointing test of a “gallery” widget which groups photos. I was hoping it would not put them in even regular rows. Click here to see the results.