Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
One man on our street has a small business he runs from the ground floor of his house. He seems to supply other small shops with snack foods and every morning he has his motorcycle loaded for delivery. He’s actually quite efficient at loading the moto. Click here to check out his style.
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A watched pot never boils. |
I’m trying to learn how to place images in relation to text in this new WordPress editor. This is a first attempt–and not a very satisfying one.
This is the Golden 42 Towers, a building under construction for ten years. Or let’s say construction started ten years ago. The original Korean company ran out of money in the financial crisis and the building just sat there, not golden at all but rather covered with green construction netting. Some people called it the Green 32 for the number of floors finished then. Now a Chinese company has taken over and is moving full speed toward completion, and it’s actually becoming golden as panels of tinted class are installed.
A recent trend in advertising in the kingdom is the use of inflatable figures set out on the street to beckon to customers. Click here for some examples.
This photo has some remarkable elements. It’s not remarkable that one of the motorcycles waiting at the red light is across the double yellow line. It is remarkable that ONLY one is over the line because the two lanes have a row of motos in front and culturally it is not acceptable to stop behind anyone so the only place to stop is in the opposing lane. It’s not remarkable that the second motorcycle is running the red light. It is remarkable that ONLY one moto is going through the red light.
What is most remarkable is that any of the vehicles have stopped. Notice you can’t see the stop light. It’s hidden by the trees and thick bundle of utility wires. In other countries that would be grounds for moving the light, trimming the trees, or rerouting the wires, but in Cambodia it’s a non problem. Who cares if you can see the light or not? Traffic signals are optional to begin with. If you want to stop, you stop. If you don’t want to stop, you don’t.
This is a view of the Cambodian countryside from the air as we approached Phnom Penh two days ago. The Tonle Sap River is on the left; the Mekong River goes across the top of the photo. Under the plane’s wing are large flooded areas. This is normal flooding every year but it’s lasting a little longer this year because the seasonal rains–normally ending in October–are still continuing. It actually rained again today, something relatively unheard of in this “dry” season.
This is a Phnom Penh city bus on a regular route. It’s rush hour and notice that the bus is basically empty, just one or two passengers (not visible). Japan and China have both given over 100 buses in the last two years and the number of routes was increased from three to thirteen, but mostly the buses run almost empty. When the first route was started about three years ago, people were interested in the idea–and attracted by the free rides for the first couple months, but since then nothing successful has been done to increase ridership. Donors have given the vehicles; now they need to teach the government how to market and run an effective bus system.