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In cold-climate countries, you would never see the type of white vent blocks in the picture above. They indicate the presence of a toilet and are open to allow air to circulate. In countries with a real winter, a building is always “tight,” to prevent heat from escaping. That isn’t a problem here as is further indicated by the pipes on the outside of the wall–instead of inside the wall–because there is no danger of their freezing.
There are a variety of modes of transportation in Phnom Penh now, many more than when I first arrived. Click here to see the first part of a series on transport modes in the city.
I remember one time, almost twenty years ago, that one of my staff told me that a wat (Buddhist pagoda) was asking us to put our DDP name on the wall. I had no idea what that meant and couldn’t get a good explanation so I said we’d pass. Later I found that it is the custom for the monks in wats to solicit donations from people, and those who contribute get their names carved in stone in recognition of their generosity. The brown marble plaques above immortalize some such donors on a Phnom Penh wat wall.
Something new and something different. NEW: in a country where a large part of the population doesn’t have electricity, we’re starting to see solar-powered traffic lights in Phnom Penh. DIFFERENT: note the directional arrow pointing downwards, meaning that drivers are not supposed to run into the barrier but should go to the right. Commonwealth countries have arrows pointing down. In North America, those arrows would point upwards.
Running a shop is part of the DNA of Cambodian people and that characteristic is developed by growing up in what are called shophouses, buildings one room wide and three or four stories tall, with the bottom floor open to the street as a shop and the family living behind and above the shop. This young boy takes his turn minding the store during this pandemic time when the schools are closed and he’s home all day.
After the first coffee carts seemed successful, semi-permanent outlets started to appear on the sidewalks, staying there day and night. Click here to see some of the first of these.
Maybe some cities are worse for overhead line congestion but I’ve never seen anywhere that compares with Phnom Penh. Such thick bundles of wires and telephone and electric and cable lines crisscross the streets that they often completely obscure the traffic signals.
This year, because Khmer New Year fell in mid April when COVID-19 was becoming established in Cambodia, the days off for the holiday were postponed until this week, August 17-21. All the formal celebrations at the palace and by the government went ahead in April, without public participation, but everyone was told to go ahead and work those days and they would receive five days off now, instead of the three days off then. Now we are in the middle of the nine days off (counting the weekends). This is a photo of a family waiting to head to the provinces for the holidays. Everyone is wondering what this is going to mean for COVID-19 with millions of people traveling back and forth across the country.