Daily Life in Cambodia – Page 17 – Welcome to Cambodia, and…..

You can find it on the streets

Just about anything that can be grilled, roasted, fried, boiled, or eaten raw can be found on Phnom Penh’s food carts. The cart in the rear sells ramen noodles with a little meat and vegetables on top. I’m not sure what’s in the cakes roasting on the grill.

Back on January 1st, I showed some pictures of the small motorized tuk-tuks that have become the new norm for public transportation in Cambodian cities. Four models with LPG-powered engines were featured.

Well, there’s a new kid on the block. The Onion is a new version of the now familiar motorized tuk-tuks but it is different for two reasons. First, it is produced in Cambodia! It was completely designed here and is locally manufactured. And secondly, it is electric. It has a lighter plastic body and a really quiet electric motor to propel it.

Is it safe?

When I opened up a new box of soap (from Thailand) today, I noticed it had an expiry date printed on it. Given that food dealers are super cautious about things like expiration dates because of the risk of getting sued, I’m betting that even a year after 8 November 2024 the soap will still be safe to eat.

They’re still around

When I arrived in Phnom Penh, sewer grates like this one–made from cut pieces of stone–were still being installed although their era was ending. Today the new sewer grates are metal but there are plenty of these old models still make the streets really rough.

It’s 6:00 AM in the morning and this woman is setting up a food cart for the morning breakfast crowd. She’s picked a spot in from of a closed intercity van service.

Not everyone wears motorcycle leathers

Yep, women ride motorcycles with high heels in Phnom Penh. Notice the burn mark on her leg. That is from backing into a hot motorcycle muffler. Ouch!

Still celebrating…

It’s been three weeks since the Lunar New Year was celebrated and peach blossoms and chrysanthemums were everywhere in festive abundance. Most of them are gone now but today I passed several businesses still maintaining their chrysanthemums at their storefronts.

No mailman

After I wrote an article for the Catholic newspaper of the Archdiocese of Louisville family, former students, and others donated to help pay for our work with refugees here. I wanted to write a personal thank-you to them but we have had no outgoing mail since it stopped in May, 2020 because of Covid. I decided to write the thank-yous and send them by courier to Louisville where my sister would drop them in a mailbox. Yesterday I contacted UPS here and they wanted $92 to send the letters; DHL wanted $82. I then went to Express Mail Service of the post office and sent them for $37. But after I paid, the clerk told me it would take five to ten days to get to the US!

Oh, well….at least my investment years ago in Forever stamps paid off. I bought them for 32¢, I believe, and now they cost 60¢+.

Category: Daily Life in Cambodia