Category: Daily Life in Cambodia

Full of fizz, for sure!

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!

Hygiene? What’s that?

I’ve been trying to get this picture for months. This is a street vendor selling meat on the road to the school where I have mass on Monday mornings. Those are slabs of meat draped over the back of the pickup truck. No need to bother with a table or even something under the meat. Heck, the buyer is going to cook it, isn’t she?

Usually my tuk-tuk driver is going too fast or there is traffic blocking the view but today I finally got my chance to take the photo. This is 6:00 AM in the morning. At 6:00 PM in the evening this will be your hamburger. Life in Phnom Penh….

[The comments are turned on for this, if anyone is so inclined.]

Things I’m going to miss…

This year will probably be my last in Cambodia. Because of age and the departure of Maryknoll, it has become more of a challenge–and more expensive!–to live here in the kingdom. Life is certainly easier here but I need to consider long-term implications like getting sick and needing assistance that I don’t have now after Maryknoll left.

One of the things I will miss is having my own IT technician! At the Deaf Development Programme office today, my desktop started acting up. I got our tech to take a look and he found an external drive is on its last leg and then cleaned the RAM contacts with alcohol, and–voila!–I’m back in business. I won’t have the type of service in the US of A! 😮

Vanity Plates

This year has seen the introduction of vanity license plates in Cambodia. They start at $500 and seem to be quite popular which must make the government happy. From what I’ve seen, it looks like the plate must have eight digits, not a lesser number.

Why wait?

Notice all these motorcycles turning left on to the street where I am stopped for the red light. The motorcycles are all driving the wrong way in the opposing lane of the street they’re coming from rather than wait in their lane till the traffic moves forward. In Cambodian traffic, if you can physically get your vehicle into a space, you have right of way.

Difference between women and men

The first time I headed for the toilets in the baggage claim area after getting off a flight in Phnom Penh, I did a double-take before entering to make sure I was in the right one. Most toilet iconography would feature a figure with a skirt or something similar for the women’s room, but in Cambodia the emphasis seems to be on a waist and a flip of the hair.