Category: Daily Life in Cambodia

After incurring only about 375 positive cases of COVID-19 in the first fifteen months of the pandemic, Cambodia now has experienced more than 72,000 cases in the last five months. Phnom Penh is almost completely vaccinated but the country has had 800-1000 cases per day for more than two weeks. A good number of those cases now are “imported,” i.e., brought into Cambodia by migrant workers returning to Cambodia after their jobs disappeared in Thailand when factories there were closed. Many of these returning workers are crossing the border illegally and it is feared that they are bringing the delta variant of the virus.

Above is a picture of 325,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine donated by Japan, part of a one million dose gift. This vaccine arrived yesterday.

This motorcycle driver is a good illustration of the casual approach to driving here. He has no helmet. His bike has no rearview mirrors. His taillight is broken. His bike has no license plate. Does anyone worry? No. Could he get stopped by the police? He could, especially if the officer feels the need for a little extra money. Is it likely? No.

When the major markets were closed because of COVID-19, all sorts of people selling meat and vegetables and fruits appeared on the sidewalks and street corners. Could they become a permanent part of city life? Click here to see a variety of street vendors.

Today’s Khmer Times newspaper had an article about a new water pumping station that was put in operation today. The new pumping station, one of six funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, will reduce flooding in the streets in Daun Penh area.

And there are the days when you a) forget your poncho, b) left it at work, c) it’s too torn to do any good, or d) you just feel macho and power on. The good thing here is that it’s always warm so you may be wet, but you’re not freezing.

Here is what a large anti-COVID-19 billboard looks like in Cambodia. You can probably recognize what are called here “the three do-s” and “the three don’t-s.” Just the Khmer script is different.

When large areas of Phnom Penh were locked down and restaurants were closed or forbidden to have eat-in diners, the food delivery services bloomed all over the city. And very quickly these drivers developed their own ethos: anything goes. Cambodia has never been a nation to follow the discipline of careful driving and now these delivery people take driving arrogance to a new level. There is no law they do not flout, and since there is no traffic law enforcement, they have established themselves as a dangerous, separate entity in the life of the city–driving too fast, not stopping for lights, driving in the opposite lanes, watching their phones to find the delivery address, cutting through and around normal traffic. There is no limit.