Category: Daily Life in Cambodia

Water Festival Preparations

Every year the Water Festival takes place at the full moon in November.  Approximately two million people come from the provinces to Phnom Penh to race and watch their local boats in the three days of boat races.  The festival starts on Thursday but today, Sunday, many people were out preparing for the celebration to come.  Click here to see the scenes along the Tonle Sap River.

3-in-1 Shop

Cambodians are versatile, creative people, partly because they don’t have a lot of technical and other resources to fall back on.  They just do it themselves.  This shop could be an illustration of that.  Notice the sign says that it is a phone shop and the silver counter on the right is for phones.  But the silver counter on the left is a money changer’s counter.  And then if you’ll notice inside (the big teeth are the giveaway), the owner has a little dentist shop set up, too.  How can you go wrong here?

Pchum Ben 2017 #3

Today is the first of the three days of the official Pchum Ben holiday.  Most people have already left town, but there are always some whose departure is delayed by their jobs or other circumstances.  This morning here were some of the late-departers cramming themselves and their belongings into an overcrowded van for a trip that can’t be too enjoyable but is just part of life for the majority of the populace who depend on this kind of transport.