Category: Daily Life in Cambodia

Cambodia is a country of subsistence farmers, each family eking out a simple living on a small plot of land–and utilizing every opportunity to add a little more to the family income.  Sometimes that is by selling homegrown vegetables in the market, or selling fruit from the trees around the home from a table on the side of the road.  For this family, it means drying some sort of bean or nut or spice on the expanse of pavement in front of their shop selling pumps, compressors, and ice crushing machines.  This is in Phnom Penh city, not a rural province.

I’ve mentioned before that I can only identify some seasons by the fruits that are available.  This vendor has a yellowish fruit just come into season.  I don’t know what it is but it’s something like a guava.  Just for good measure, she is also carrying a box of apples.

Pineapples are starting to appear on the streets now!  Another season has begun–one of my favorites.  IMHO, there’s not anything better tasting than fresh pineapple!

The appearance on the streets of some fruits marks the beginning of a season of the year, but not so with bananas.  They are available all year round, in multiple sizes, shapes, and colors.  Here a husband and wife team make an early morning delivery to the small markets they supply with Cambodia’s staple fruit.

It probably happens in every culture and I’ve certainly observed “cruising” in US culture as I was growing up and as I worked with youth in Kentucky.  Cruising–riding around aimlessly with your friends–is part of youth culture here in Phnom Penh, too.  Here a group of high school girls take to the streets on a Sunday afternoon.

 

 

 

“Hold on up there!  I’m gonna do a wheelie!”

When the weather doesn’t change throughout the year and there are no sports seasons and the trees don’t shed leaves, one of the few indicators of time are the seasonal fruits.  And now it’s mango time!  Hooray!   IMHO, this is one of the best parts of Cambodia.  I was never really exposed to mangoes before I came to Asia but they have become a much-appreciated new part of my diet when they’re available.

Jim McLaughlin, former Maryknoll Lay Missioner in Cambodia and a frequent visitor here as he continues his microbiology work in the kingdom, spotted this suspicious vehicle on Phnom Penh streets.  What kind of nefarious V Ice is going on in the back of this truck?  It must be hot stuff since it’s a refrigerated truck but there could be many different kinds of mobile v ice.

 

North Americans on the road tend to dash in for hamburgers or ice cream or large sugary drinks.  In Cambodia the traveling clientele opt for different kinds of fruit or bags of snacks like dried bananas  or other crunchy things.