Category: Daily Life in Cambodia

Buildings in Cambodia are not “tight,” that is, they are open to air flowing through, don’t have glass on many windows, etc. This picture is in my bathroom where a long horizontal “window”—actually a vent–is located in the wall above my bathtub. On the inside there is a screen to keep out bugs and birds and bats, but on the outside it’s a type of hollow-block design, something like small concrete blocks.

Some sparrows have built a nest in the block in the corner of this long vent opening. You can see straws and grasses from the nest protruding through the screen. A couple days ago their eggs hatched and now there are several baby sparrows whose silhouettes I can see jumping around behind the dirty screen.

I’ve started covering up my toothbrush and glass in case my guests are carrying any sort of bird flu or some such.

For another part of Cambodian trivia, notice the electrical wires coming out of the wall and not capped or sealed off in any way. Apparently some previous tenant had a hot water heater for the shower and took the heater with him when he left.

One of the most aggravating parts of life in Cambodia is the condition of the roads. Many nations have given hundreds of millions of dollars to build and maintain roads but there’s little evidence of it.

The road crews seem to have the proper equipment and materials but the roads just do not last. Within a few months, holes–actual holes leading to hollowed out areas under the pavement–are appearing along with the more common potholes. Probably the paving companies are making lots of money by cutting corners. Instead of putting down three to four inches of asphalt they probably put down one inch. The inspectors let them do it and no one holds the companies accountable when the roads deteriorate.

We’re talking major holes when they appear. This one is fifteen inches wide and just as deep. The approved method of road repair is to stick whatever is handy in the hole to warn motorists of the hazard.

One of the quirks of Cambodian society is occasionally finding numbered sequences going right-to-left instead of the more standard, in the western world, right-to-left. These numbered windows are in a bank in Phnom Penh. It’s curious to me where this numbering might come from since Khmer writes left-to-right and there has never been a colonial power that would have promoted a right-to-left system.

There is a saying “Don’t waste a good crisis” meaning that even in the worst situations there are probably opportunities to take advantage of. There are many signs of that all over Phnom Penh now as offices, schools, and other organizations–closed by COVID-19—are using the time and lack of people and activities to renovate offices, decorate buildings, etc.

It’s scenes like this that make living in another culture so interesting. What on earth is this man doing? At first as I approached I thought he was using a meat cleaver to cut up some sort of food—and I wondered why he would be doing that out on the curb, but then I found that he was wielding a big rock to mash or cut up whatever the brown stuff is. And what is that brown stuff? Some sort of food? A root to be used for medicine? Some kind of nut with a hull to be knocked off? Petrified dog poop? I have no idea what is going on here although it may have been perfectly obvious to a local.