Category: Daily Life in Cambodia

It’s 6:05 AM and these women are closing up their shop in a wholesale market. They start selling about 4:00 AM and by 6:00 AM they have supplied restaurants, stores, and smaller markets and it’s time to pack up and go home.

I had an unusual experience today when I rode a tuk-tuk home from a meeting. There was a young woman driving. I always assumed there were some women drivers–in a predominantly man’s job–but this was the first time I’ve seen one. The trip was unusual also because although the most efficient route is shown on the phone app in front of the driver, two times she deliberately went WAY out of her way and did not follow the map. The cost of the trip is set by the app before the trip starts so her going farther than necessary costs her money.

Here is a typical phone shop in Phnom Penh. There are thousands of them, often three or four on one block.

it’s rather difficult getting around the streets near my house these days. Phnom Penh is known for flooding–especially because the government tycoons keep filling in the water catchment areas to sell to their friends–so new sewers are a necessity, but when a busy street–the size of an alley in the U.S.–is torn up, I and the fruit seller and the school girl all have to find an alternative route.

This is one of the least comfortable ways to get around on a moto during a rainy season trip.

These two young women are wearing backpacks and doing it right. Too many people, especially women, are injured when thieves on other motorcycles drive up next to them and grab the strap of a bag or backpack. If it doesn’t break, they pull the person off the moto and still get away with the bag. The woman above on the right has the best protection–covering the backpack with her jacket. Wearing a backpack behind you, like the woman on the left, can be dangerous because it’s reachable, but this woman’s back is shielded by her companion.