Category: Daily Life in Cambodia

This is a picture of a corner of our kitchen at the Maryknoll office. It’s rather basic. Notice the wooden stool at the bottom. The lady who cooks twice a week sits on that while cutting and slicing all the vegetables and meats on the floor. There is a counter she could stand at but Cambodian women normally sit on the floor–or a stool–while working in the kitchen.

Cambodia has been too much focused on survival for the last half century, and discipline, order, and the rule of law sidelined. That is seen in the increasingly problematic traffic where there is no order. If you can do it, you have right of way.

For many years the mainstay of local transportation was walking. Then wheeled vehicles appeared on the scene. Some day I’ll do a spread on the stages of development in transportation in Cambodia, but today I want to show the most recent transport mode: What in India is called an autorickshaw or an autorick.

They first appeared in Cambodia three or four years ago. imported from India, and immediately became very popular. One reason is that most of them run on LPG (liquid propane gas), not gasoline, and LPG is about half the price of gasoline. What that meant is that everyone who used to ride on the back of a motorcycle taxi can now ride in a motor tuk-tuk with more comfort, protection from the sun and rain, and no need to carry a helmet.