The Mysteries of Phnom Penh

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As I’ve made my way along this interesting journey I’ve managed to learn a great deal .......... however, some mysteries remain and I hope to also find enlightenment re these conundrums as I continue along this merry path... For example:-

• What is the significance of the little cream flowers that are sold at the traffic lights?
• Why, in 30+ degree heat, do people wear beanies, hoodies and thick socks? I understand covering up to avoid burning their skin, but seriously, beanies!! ..............hoodies!!
• Similarly, what is this “fashion statement” of wearing pyjamas out in public..........SO many people do it.........I even saw someone last night walking down the street in her PJs and a very flash pair of sparkly high heels........BUT they weren’t pretty satin PJs, more like the cotton equivalent of winter flannos’ !!
• Where does Yoshi (Japanese volunteer) fit all the food that he eats? He’s half my size and eats twice as much....
• Why in a country where prostitution abounds, and men pee up against anything upright, do I have to wear shorts that cover my knees (not that, that’s a bad thing, just a curiosity). The prostitutes wear dresses that look more like large belts !! No knee covering there, in fact, not much is covered.
• Apart from sitting in my local cafe all day, every day, what do the senior armed forces staff do? (The Cambodian Armed Defence Force compound is across from the end of my street).
• What are the Cambodian road rules..............or to be more precise, do they even exist?
• If around 95% of Cambodians are Buddhists, and therefore believe that if they do one thing wrong in their lifetime that they’ll go to hell and therefore starve for 350 days a year (remembering they get out only for 15 days a year to eat during the P’Chum Ben Festival).....why is every house, shop, building so heavily fortified with fences and bars on windows/doors etc???
• On that note – the “security guards” outside of shops, banks etc....considering they are more often than not, asleep, what good would they be if one of the 5% non-Buddhists tried to rob them?
• And keeping with the theme.....do the rifles that the police carry around on their motos, actually work? And considering half of them are talking or texting on their mobile phones as they ride around, would they actually put the phone away in time to use one of these rifles on the aforesaid 5% non-Buddhists as they’re robbing the shops of a few riel (4000 riel = US$1)??
• Why do cars park on the footpath (and pay for the luxury) and I have to walk on the road, dodging tuk tuks, motos and cars?
• Why are so many staircases here built for giants, when the Cambodians have such short legs?
• How do stall holders at the market make a living when they are selling exactly the same items as the person next to them, and the person beside them, and the next person etc?
• Do monks ever kill mosquitoes when no one is watching? Or do they maintain those serene smiles while they thank and bless the mozzie for attacking them?
• What is the “milk with syrup” item that I see on the cafe menus? No, not brave enough to try that yet...the long life milk is bad enough, let alone adding syrup to it.
• Why does my phone battery last for 4 or 5 days here, when at home it struggles to survive 2 days? I probably receive and send up to 10 – 15 text messages a day here and phones calls, and only 2 – 4 texts at home......and yet my netbook battery lasts under 3 hours here, yet when I first used it at home just prior to leaving, it was lasting 6 hours !!!!!!
• Why don’t the Cambodians realise that the rubbish they dump in the streets, washes into the drains and adds to the flooding problems during torrential downpours?
• Why don’t the guys that pull up outside our apartment and blast their horns for the prostitutes next door, get that it takes more than 30 seconds for the girls to come outside.......they really don’t need to keep blasting them constantly after that time....they’re on the way fellas!!
• Why is it that the skirt/top you really want to buy at the market is always “too small for you madam”, yet the tiny tank top that looks like it will only fit a 6yo, will “stretch madam, it’s big size”?
• On that note, aren’t nuns and monks supposed to be nice, kind, considerate? So how is it then, that the nun at school on Friday took great delight in telling me how big I was? She has arms & legs like sticks and is all of 4’ nothing yet took great delight in showing me how small she was, and squeezing my arms and giving the measurement signal that guys use when telling us about the size of the fish they caught !!
• I understand the surgical masks everyone wears on the motos, tuk tuks etc.....there is so much dust that if you don’t wear them, your lungs would fill up I’m sure....but why is that I see people in cars, with windows up, air con on, and no passengers, are wearing them??

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Comments

[Sylvi]

Mysteries indeed
First on your previous entry - glad you aren't affected by the flooding. We saw on the news how bad things are in Thailand at the moment and the authorities are saying "no problem, all is well, long way to go before we need help". OMG, half the country is under water. On this blog entry - so many things going on there that don't make sense and totally foreign to our way of living. I know you are there to do this good work for a certain length of time and you will obviously be putting up with things that are cheesing you off, which you have to or go mad or be on the first flight home. Funny how we can put up with things when you know there will be an end to it. I know you're also enjoying alot of stuff there too which is great. We are finding that Ireland totally sucks (basically). There are some good bits, some beautiful things, but alot of downers too. They are really quite backward, their economy is shot, their camp sites are not great and I really can't wait to get back to the "mainland" of the UK. We're now in Kilkenny and then onto Dublin before taking the ferry back across. Sorry to whinge when you're putting up with far worse. Must away and work on our blog which I've neglected the past 3 days. Take care, stay safe. Sylvi xo