Category: Daily Life in Cambodia

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.

You don’t see many safe companies in most U.S. cities but they are not uncommon here. The main reason is that people don’t trust banks so they keep their money in a box under the bed if they are a family, or in a safe if they are a business. Banks are more stable now but many of them have failed in the years that I have been here.