Cambodia

Map

January 5–10, 2010

The ancient Khmer civilization has left behind incredibly beautiful reminders of itself in Cambodia. There you are, driving through some dirt-poor village in the middle of nowhere, but the railing along the pond has been there since the 12th century.

I was certain that I’d already seen all the major monuments of long-lost civilizations. But I hadn’t seen Angkor yet. To say that this temple city boggles the imagination doesn’t even begin to do it justice.

If you send in an obsessive-compulsive photographer, he won’t be able to come out with less than 1000 images.

Even I am having great difficulty resisting the urge to show absolutely everything, as the reader may have noticed.

The French have left behind a legacy of concrete kilometer markers (like in Tunisia, Vietnam and Laos).

Curiously, the shape of one of the local types of trash cans resembles these marker posts.

No less curious is the technique used to get the trash out of the can and into the trash bicycle: the street cleaner uses two sticks to fish it out. Just like chopsticks, only these are half a meter long.

The French also left the Cambodians croissants and street lights with a red cross, which indicate that there’s currently a red light at the intersection (this system, in addition to France, also remains in Vietnam). It’s a mystery why they don’t just install another normal traffic light on the other side of the intersection.

The Khmer Rouge, led by the evil tyrant Pol Pot, left behind a completely destroyed country at the end of the 1970s. Even the most cursory knowledge of the methods this regime employed will make your hair stand on end. Nothing to laugh at.

Pol Pot studied at the Sorbonne but was expelled for poor academic performance. He then returned to his native Kampuchea (as the Cambodians call their country), came to power and avenged all his failures. City inhabitants were evacuated to the villages to grow rice. Every person showing any sign of being educated (for example, wearing glasses) was sent off to be rehabilitated. The only ones who survived were either total hicks or those who learned to pass themselves off as ones quickly enough. Teachers, doctors, construction workers—all of them were repressed. In just four years, the country regressed back to the stone age.

It’s surprising that none of this is taught in Cambodian schools today, when a mere thirty years ago almost half of the country’s population was tortured and killed. On second thought, it’s not surprising at all. Some former Khmer Rouge members remain in government to this day (now that’s truly surprising).

The diamond-shaped yellow traffic signs were inherited from the Americans. The other half of the signs are European.

The word “Russian” in Cambodian is the same as “Soviet.” The legacy left by the Soviets: shops selling Beeline SIM cards on every corner.

Meanwhile, most Cambodians live in extreme poverty, almost like in Bangladesh.

Even in places with lots of tourism, the locals aren’t shy about fishing right in the middle of the city, so you can imagine what goes on everywhere else.

People fish everywhere and in any conditions.

Life in the village:

Life by the yam fields:

Life in the center of the capital:

Houses generally don’t have any rooms. They consist of one big space divided up with curtains. The whole family lives together.

Cambodian transportation is unlike any other.

The motor is almost always placed far away from the cart, as if it were an ox and not a motor.

This applies to water transport as well.

Motor taxis follow the same principle.

The carriage is attached to a tow hitch which painfully digs into the taxi driver’s back.

There are no street post boxes here. You can mail a letter only from a post office, where the boxes perform the role of lions at the gate.

Cambodia is the second country in the world (after Ukraine) where the postal worker will stick the stamp onto your postcard herself.

A payphone.

Every self-respecting utility pole is decked out with a whole bunch of wires and meters.

The sidewalks are tall, so they’re equipped with built-in ramps for cars to drive up easily.

Like in Laos, every street corner has special shrines with incense holders.

Every street corner also has counterfeit Vietnamese gasoline for sale in 2 liter Coke bottles. Very convenient if you need to fuel up a moped.

The Three Little Pigs on a moped.

Transporting geese.

Flags are always hung diagonally. There’s a special Cambodian flagpole design for this.

Every kiosk has a styrofoam or plastic orange cooler full of half-melted ice and soft drinks, ranging from cola to cactus juice.

Motor vehicle inspection stickers.

A digger with a little teaspoon.

Learn to sneeze the proper way.

A brilliant drunk driving PSA.

The woman on the sign is telling her husband, “Stop with the domestic violence!”

Tourists trying out a local form of entertainment: a fish foot massage.

The storm drains are quite original. They consist of small holes drilled through the asphalt or a small slot in the curb through which the water is supposed to flow down. The maintenance access hatch is a concrete slab with metal handles for lifting it open.

Siem Reap (this is a city next to Angkor, sort of like Giza next to the pyramids) has absolutely wonderful trash cans. At first glance they look like cast iron. But in fact they’re made from old tires and other rubber.

All the major roads in Phnom Penh have a double solid line that’s raised 30 centimeters above the ground. When will they figure this out in Moscow? Never.

An expensive car has to have the manufacturer’s logo blown up across the entire side.

The most unabashed show-offs install elongated license plates with everything on one line. Everyone else drives around with more compact plates consisting of two lines.