It is a common enough sight to see tuk-tuk drivers sound asleep with their bare feet sticking outside their vehicles, mostly rented for $100 a month more or less, when the sun is high.
Less frequently, a pedestrian may well spot drivers taking more than a short nap when it is dark.
There is a simple reason: Continue reading
When they answer their ubiquitous cellphones, Cambodians begin by saying Hallo, which is not a typo. I suspect the word has its roots from the years that this nation was a protectorate of France, where they don’t pronounce the “h” and the first sound is “ah.”
The telephone greeting often is linked to the Khmer phrase for “how are you?” The populace apparently has tired of the words, and many can be counted on to reassemble the few syllables in their response to amuse themselves.
When I answer the way they do, I await Continue reading
Visitors to Europe expect to see sites such as the Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum and remnants of the Berlin Wall. Probably most also are little surprised to see homeless individuals on the street.
But the sight of homeless (presumably) whole families like the ones in three of my photos can be jarring. I know that I was shocked to see Continue reading
At the edge of a slim park dividing Sihanouk Boulevard, an advertising sign insults most views east. It obscures the top of Independence Monument, which commemorates a modern achievement and is a two-minute walk from the sign. One end of the NagaWorld complex lurks above the trees at right.
They are immense, nearly blinding in intensity and grotesquely damaging to the experience of living in Phnom Penh.
They are advertising displays mounted on brutally big columns, except in the case of the NagaWorld casino and hotel complex, where Continue reading
Walk by a Phnom Penh wat — translated here as “pagoda” or “temple” — and you are likely to encounter what I think of as a special breed of cat: the pagoda cat.
As dusk approaches, you also may encounter a special breed of human: Continue reading
The Oculus, imposing portion of New York’s transit hub cum shopping mall that I photographed near One World Trade Center (also called Freedom Tower) in downtown Manhattan.
Thirty-five years.
That is how long I had made my home in New York City — only in Manhattan, from Washington Heights to Greenwich Village — in two long periods before moving to Phnom Penh toward the end of 2013.
How I loved New York over any other place I had lived such as Boston, San Francisco, Hartford and the Washington, D.C. area, where I went in my relative youth to work in the Pentagon and again, in 1995. At that time, I worked in the U.S. Treasury Department before heading back to Manhattan in 2006 after having transitioned to real estate sales.
To my mind, Manhattan’s highlights run the gamut of the many clichés that you know as well as I do — energy, diversity, cultural opportunities, Central Park and, among so many other attributes, paradise for a food lover.
Continue reading
You easily can guess where I snapped this photo of a man enjoying his chocolate croissant.
When most Cambodians eat, the implements of choice are chopsticks for transporting noodles to their mouth, of course a spoon alone for soups lacking noodles, or a fork that pushes most other food to be consumed onto a spoon.
Never is a knife used at the home table or in Cambodian restaurants; spoons do the same work instead.
However, when Cambodians order croissants, doughnuts, a slice of banana loaf or pizza in Western-style eateries, Continue reading
Pichayada Promchertchoo chronicles the improbable influence that Catherine Harry has had on other Cambodian women in her article below. With two of its images, the piece is published here with the permission of Channel NewsAsia, a regional news organization based in Singapore.
Anger is not always a bad thing, at least not for 23-year-old Cambodian Catherine Harry. Such emotion has led her to be featured in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Asia 2018, the magazine’s annual selection of young visionaries who tackle issues that matter in countries around the world.
Harris
Born bred in Cambodia, Ms Harry often gets angry about certain aspects of her culture. She finds several customs, social values and ideas that have shaped millions of lives in her homeland, oppressive towards women. In her eyes, many of them are victims of a patriarchal society, where women can be confined by what she views as outmoded conventions and biases.
Yet, Ms Harry knows Continue reading
The unfortunate victim of extortion for a crime that he did not commit has been working at this pool.
The 18-year-old pool attendant at my gym is gawky, gangly and unusually skinny. No taller than my chin, he has kind of a goofy smile that always accompanies his dependably friendly greeting when we run into each other at the facility.
His was only one of two recent incidents that are symptomatic of rampant injustice in Cambodia.
I got to know the young man — call him Chan — when his job was to clean the equipment on one of the gym’s floors I visit. I since have seen him frequently when he stands outside the glass doors at the entrance of the pool, where he has been assigned for more than a year.
On March 13, Continue reading
No pipeline? Cambodians have you covered. They are the delivery system.
Phnom Penh is not fully developed, though a plenitude of high buildings new or under construction creates a different impression.
To get an idea of the reality, you need look no farther than the kitchens of restaurants and newly completed luxe kitchens in residences with virtually all the amenities found in the West. What you see in them is Continue reading
I, on Cambodia 