Category: Daily Life in Cambodia

Only 3.5% of Cambodian businesses are registered with the government. 88% of all workers are part of the non-formal economy. This picture shows what the non-formal economy looks like on a typical Phnom Penh street. The government tries to change that because non-formal workers are not protected by labor laws and do not contribute to social security systems.

The Cambodian government likes to talk about moving the kingdom from the least-developed country category to the moderately developed. They can point to all the high-rise buildings and expensive foreign cars and terrible traffic. But at street level, some things stay the same.

Here are three icons of the large majority of Cambodians who don’t live in high-rise condos:
• the young boy selling lotus pods to earn money for the family
• the roast geese for a special family celebration, and
• a moto food-delivery man.

I don’t like to cook and I don’t mind a lack of variety in my food. That combination leads me to food stalls like this one on a nearby street where they have five or six big pots with different dishes already cooked up. I lift the lids of each one, noting what is available, and then choose one, usually the less soupy kinds of offerings. I bring along a plastic box and ask them to give me enough for four people. In a second box I get cooked rice for four people. And that’s what I eat every night for the next week. That much food costs me 25,000 riel (US$6.25) and it’s a better deal than might be thought from considering the price because the amount they give me is more than for four meals. I bought food today and ended up dividing and freezing it into eight portions.

This is Street 163, a major north-south thoroughfare running through the Tuol Tum Poung area. This is looking directly south. When I came, there was one building in the country above six floors and only five streets in Phnom Penh were paved. Most are paved now (not very well!) but notice there are no curbs and gutters. That will be a later evolutionary step in Phnom Penh’s transition from a semi-village to a 21st-century capital city.

Here are fourteen cyclos–old, human-powered three-wheelers with a bench seat for one or two people. The cyclos have mostly disappeared from daily use but still can be seen around some markets, catering to elderly people who have never used anything else. This line of cyclos is about half of a bunch of them going to pick up a group of tourists for a slow tour of an area of Phnom Penh.

Maybe it’s a reality in other markets, but I’ve never seen a potato shop. This Potato Corner sells nothing but potatoes fried/boiled/cooked/served in a multitude of different ways with some different toppings. I can see a shop dedicated to ice cream or smoothies or hotdogs, but potatoes? Let’s see how long it lasts.

You can’t very well have a rollbar on a motorcycle but this configuration has some promise if you go down….

Cambodia has two seasons: hot and wet, and hot and dry. It’s always hot. The heat doesn’t prevent women from wearing gloves year round, though. Gloves on a hot day is better than letting the sun make your skin a little dark. At least this woman wears her gloves in style!