Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
In the first officially recorded community transmission of the COVID-19 virus in Cambodia, 40 infected persons have been identified by contact tracing. Two or three new infections are discovered every day during the past two weeks, and that has frightened Phnom Penh-ers. More people are wearing masks now and more shops have blocked access to their establishments.
Expiration dates on products are not unusual. Note this one for April, 2023.
But now notice the product the expiration date is on. In case you can’t read Thai, it’s soap–a bar of soap! How the heck does soap expire?
“Did I get the radishes???”
Cambodia doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas so there’s no pre-Christmas buying spree starting the day after Thanksgiving. But we have Black Friday! Local merchants will latch on to anything that gives them reason to offer their specials
In my old website I had a section called “Charlie’s Own,” a take-off on Steve McQueen’s “Steve’s Own” salad dressing long ago, in which I showed the various places I frequent for different services. I used to have a young man by the Boeung Keng Kang Market who fixed my watch, replacing bands, changing batteries, etc., but he moved on. Now I’ve found this man by the Russian Market. What you see is his whole shop: basically the left part which looks something the shape of a phone booth (although not that big) with a chair for him to sit on. Here he is working on my watch band today. Charged me 75¢.
Maybe I’d learn to like it, maybe I’d even do well at it, but working with heavy steel cables seems like one of the worst jobs imaginable. Trying to splice them, adding hooks and clamps—maybe there is even some artistry to it but something in my mind really doesn’t like the idea.