Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
This is a fishing boat belong to a Vietnamese family who have the Mekong River in Phnom Penh as their fishing grounds. (I always hope the fish I eat are NOT caught in the river here since Phnom Penh has no sewage treatment.) This boat is also their home. Note the mast with a TV antenna on it. These people are essentially stateless and become the scapegoats for everything that the Cambodian government screws up.
These are secondhand washing machines and freezers and air conditioners for sale on a sidewalk in Tuol Kork. The appliances may be used but having secondhand units for sale is a new development in Cambodia. Previously such appliances were barely available, and the rich families who could afford them held on to them. Now there has been enough development and rising incomes that more and more people can afford such appliances and a secondhand market has emerged.
Cambodia has a real problem with holidays. First of all, there are 25 public holidays (the U.S. has 11) so more than a month of work days is lost. Then whenever a public holiday falls on a Saturday, the following Monday is given off, too. (That happened October 3rd because the Pchum Ben holiday was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday).
Besides all the time off and lost productivity, the trash piles up as seen above. Households here do not use garbage cans or dumpsters. Everything is put in plastic bags and left on the street. When there is a long holiday, the piles get rather large.
The man squatting in the picture is putting air in a motorcycle tire. His “gas station” consists of the orange air compressor and a bucket of water and a patch kit for repairing flat tires.
This is the last day of the official three-day public holiday for Pchum Ben. The most important religious holiday in Cambodia, it is the equivalent of All Souls Day in the West. This woman is selling lotus flowers and coconuts wrapped with incense and lotus blossoms on the sidewalk in front of the royal palace. They will be offered in Buddhist ceremonies.