The guiding principle in transporting people and things in Cambodia is that if it’s not dragging on the ground, you’re good to go.
Notable Quotes
Opinion is really the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding. The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world.
~ Bill Bullard
It’s good for you…
Cambodians have this unshakeable belief that whatever ails you, you need an IV. You can go into a pediatrics ward and every child will be hooked up to an IV. For many Cambodians, if they don’t get an IV when they’re sick, they might as well get nothing. Here two parents ride home on their moto, with their son in between them, and he has an IV in his arm.
Watch your step!
New sewers are being installed in parts of Phnom Penh and in some respects they are literal life-savers. Open pits and holes along the roads like this are quite common, and when the road is flooded with water, you proceed at great peril. Things are better now but I remember walking along flooded roads with a staff, feeling for holes, pits, uncovered sewers, etc.
Sun Dried
When I was a kid I remember seeing “sun dried” on boxes of raisins. Here in Cambodian culture, sun dried takes on a whole different meaning where there are few processed foods. People buy fish, fillet them, and leave them out on the street to dry–and catch dust and street grime.
Your choice…
It’s lunch time with street food all around. What will it be, vegetables (boiled corn on the cob)? Or fruits?
Phnom Penh’s Problem
Phnom Penh’s population is rapidly increasing and so are the problems dealing with the huge amounts of rubbish generated every day. Click here for more about that.
Safety is #1–but late arriving
Not a good night…
It’s Saturday morning now in Phnom Penh. Last night I was trying to do an update here on the website but a convergence of hardware, software, and scheduling gremlins intervened. After opening and working on the computer twice and after re-installing some programs, I think I’m back on the air now.
Money Laundering Needed
Cambodia has lots of good things about it. It also has more than its share of quirks, superstitions, anomalies, corruption, and downright ignorance. An example of the last is this $20 bill from the U.S. I tried to pay for some groceries in the big foreigner supermarket using this bill and they wouldn’t accept it because of the red corner. Any bill with a dirt spot or stain, a slight tear, a strange marking–No, we can’t accept that. The fact that the U.S. Government will accept it carries no weight. The majority of people just feel that somehow a marking invalidates a bill although their own currency is often in tatters with all sorts of marking, tears, tape, etc. In the defense of some of the non-accepting people, they know it is valid but they also know that THEY can’t pass it off to other customers so they will be stuck with it.