Category: Daily Life in Cambodia

A young woman preparing for the after-work shoppers picking up something for dinner.

This is where you get your shrimps–all sizes–and other bite-size shellfish.

Coming from a German background and a family where Mom baked cakes, cookies, or pies every week, for me the cakes in Cambodia are a real disappointment. They are created for visual effect rather than good eating. Who needs play money, huge candles, and two Spidermen on a cake–and especially when the icing is like whipped lard?

A night time food stall–with an arriving customer!

There are all sorts of mangoes just like there are many types of apples. I can’t tell them apart but these lower mangoes are distinctive because of their size. Look at the difference between the upper and lower ones!

If you like mangoes–my favorite fruit!–it’s a great time to be alive. We are at the peak of the mango season and they are everywhere. Mango trees appear on almost every household lot and right now many, many people have many, many mangoes. People are giving them away and dealers like this one above are selling a kilogram (2.2 lbs.) for 75¢. Love it!

I haven’t seen a Tesla on the road here but saw this one in a dealer’s showroom recently.

This afternoon I was riding my bike home from a grocery run with a six-pack of Coke Light in the bike basket. I hit a bump in the street–not an uncommon experience in Phnom Penh–and one of the cans exploded, ripping open the whole side! Quite a surprise!