Daily Life in Cambodia – Page 5 – Welcome to Cambodia, and…..

Mango Season

Flowers? Bananas? We have them…

These are some typical street vendors who have claimed a space at the entrance to Wat Sansam Kosal in Boeung Tum Pun. On the left is a woman selling lotus bulbs and flowers to people entering the wat (pagoda), and on the right is a man selling bananas to those merely passing by.

No rope, please…

Today this sign was up in front of one of the six elevators in the building where I live. I really hope they are using steel cables rather than ropes. It is interesting to see the various different words U.S. English and other Englishes use for the same reality.

Life in Cambodia

This is an illustration of what I like best about Cambodia–and what I am going to miss most when I leave. Here a technician from the apartment where I live and his partner fix a shower hose that stopped working. I sent a message this morning about the problem and suggested a time when I would be home, and immediately got a response that Vuthy and his partner would be there then. And I love the way they work. In the US, if I couldn’t fix it myself and had to call someone to work on it, it would take several days to get someone to the house, cost me $25/$50/$75 when he walks in the door, and then he would just pull out a new hose and charge me another $25 or $50 for it. Vuthy got out his channel-locks and needle-nosed pliers, took the hose apart, repaired it, and fifteen minutes later the water was back on. And no charge. I’ll miss all that.

Funeral Flowers

Lots of people die in Phnom Penh every day. The market for funeral arrangements never slows down or takes a break. Here a woman at shops at Central Market puts together floral displays that will be used that day to note someone’s death.

High Pollution

Meals on wheels….

You want corn on the cob for dinner? Here it is!

Photos required

For practically everything in Cambodia, an ID photo is required. That’s true of ID cards, company and NGO badges, job applications, school IDs, training certificates. Everyone wants to see your face.

Recently I had to get a new passport and I decided to pay $1.25 and go to a photo shop instead of doing it myself. The U.S. Embassy now requires that passport photos be without glasses so I needed to get some made like that. There are hundreds of little photo shops all over town since everyone needs photos so it was easy to arrange. I just walk in, sit for a photo with the appropriate background, choose the final photo size, and wait ten minutes or so. Here a tech person is checking my raw photo for any problems before printing it.

Shop from your moto!

Here’s where you get your fresh pineapple (husk already removed!), tamarind, and other fruits and goodies. And you can make your purchase without even getting off your motorcycle!

Say what?

Some events really point out how two cultures think differently and express things differently. Notice the text says the bridge is 77.04% complete. In the U.S., an article would say the bridge is 70% or 8o% complete, or maybe that it’s 3/4 complete. But never would it say it is 77.o4% complete!

And how do you figure a bridge under construction is 77.04% finished? What are you measuring? The amount of time projected for completion? The tons of concrete used already? The length of roadway already laid? How much of the budget has been spent?
[Photo from the Khmer Times]