Category: Daily Life in Cambodia

The bishop’s house on the Mekong River, where we had our lay missioner meeting, offered a viewing point for fishing activity on the river.  Click here for some photos of the people fishing and their boats.

“I never thought I’d say it, but rearview mirrors really can be useful!”

A couple days ago we had a photo of a woman with a scale she carried around, weighing people for a few cents each.  Not far above her on the economic scale is this woman with a stack of khramas (scarves) and other cloths that she is selling.  She probably pays a deposit for the cloths in the morning (and maybe rents the bicycle along with them) and then walks all day to sell a few items.  Will she make two, three, four dollars in  day?  How much of that can she keep?

Cambodia is trying to get its economic ranking raised from low-income country to middle-income country, and by some standards, progress is being made.  But then you see people like this woman.  She rents a scale and then walks the streets all day hoping to weigh people who may give her 3¢ to 5¢ for the weighing.  Here she is counting her money.  Will she have enough to buy food at the end of the day?

All kinds of food are sold on the street in Cambodia.  Some of it is seasonal, but one offering that is available almost any time is the roasted bananas.  Three or four on a skewer stick, they are grilled on a cart going around the city and eaten warm, a real favorite.  Here this man is also roasting some kind of round cake but I don’t know what that is.  Maybe it’s some kind of mashed-banana cake?

Here is a busy street corner in Chbah Ampov, across the Vietnam Bridge, along Highway 1 (of Vietnam War fame).   These women dispense bread and gossip, probably a goodly amount of both.

You’ve got your pink plastic flamingos and you’ve got your garden gnomes–and then here you’ve got the real thing!  I don’t think you can find these on Amazon, but if you’re interested, let me know which one you like and I’ll negotiate a deal for you, F.O.B. Cambodia.

This past weekend the pineapple vendors were out on the streets again, another change in the seasons.  IMHO, fresh pineapple bought on the street like this, is one of the best tasting fruits there is.