Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
Not all motorcycle loads are piled directly on the moto. Here is a motorcycle pulling a tuk-tuk that is fully loaded. Notice the jerry can of water on the side of the moto, behind the driver. Most motorcycles pulling tuk-tuks these days have one of these water containers which just drips plain water directly on to the motorcycle engine, adding a bit of water cooling to the air cooling.
I was in a three-wheel tuk-tuk, the new motorized kind, and the driver went through the Boeung Tum Pun market area. We got stuck in a big traffic mess and this lady selling hats wanted to make a sale. She was half-joking but started offering me hats for 25¢ apiece. I should have bought a bunch to give to the kids.
If we needed any further evidence that the rainy season is upon us, a bit of confirmation was afforded last week when we returned to the Deaf Development Programme office after a four-day holiday. While we were away, these–and other–mushrooms sprang up from the wooden threshold board in the doorway of our upstairs balcony! Apparently the early rains indicated to some dormant spores that it was time to bloom!
Squat toilets are not unusual in Cambodia—in fact, they’re the norm–but a squat toilet with a water tank for flushing! Now that’s unusual. I don’t ever recall seeing a squat toilet with a tank for flushing before. Usually there is just a barrel of water or a reservoir for scooping pans of water to flush everything down by hand. Another different feature of this squat toilet is its height. Because it has to accommodate the incoming water pipe for flushing, it stands eight or ten inches above ground instead of being flush with the floor.
Kinda reminds me of the 60s and the Beach Boys and “It’s the little old lady from Pasadena! Go, granny, go, granny, go, granny, go!”
This is a ting mong or scarecrow-like figure erected by Cambodian villagers to scare away disease and evil. Read the article in the Phnom Penh Post to get an idea of some of the beliefs of less educated people in rural areas where proper medical services have been lacking.
The streets are crowded in Phnom Penh and the situation is made worse by all the vendors on the edge of the street, occupying what would be a sidewalk. Click here to see one stretch of street beside a school.
Here’s still another fruit–now in season–for which I have no name.
Our power has been going on and off daily for quite a few weeks because the dry season has lowered the water levels in the reservoirs which generate 60% of Cambodia’s power. This week we have had three one-hour downpours, though, so maybe the rainy season is just about here. The government newspaper says it will begin the third week of May. This is what the street looked like yesterday when I came out of a hamburger joint after a lunch meeting.