I am still in cambodia. I will leave soon to go back to VN. I was going to try to go to Laos but I am slightly behind in my schedule and I know it takes a long time to travel from place to place in Laos, so I will save that country for another time. It also a money factor too. I have already spend a small bundle, and I am not sure I have enough to travel to Laos... Ha!!
In Cambodia there is garbage service, but you would never no it. You can see garbage everywhere. Sometimes, the smell will knock you over. Ravy, my friend in Phnom Penh, says the smell is from bad water. I think he means open sewers. Yesterday, I saw a young boy collecting dead rats. Too much for me!!! I couldn''t get away fast enough. I have seen workers cleaning the streets, but most of Cambodia looks dirty, strewn with litter everywhere. I always look for the trash barrel but they can be hard to find. They do a certain amount of recycling here, only because the poor have no jobs. I often see bike riders with gunny sacks filled with empty plastic bottles that they take in for small amount of money.
Dogs and some cats roam the street freely. I am think most of the dogs do stay with a family, but they they go everywhere. How they keep from getting hit in the street is beyond me. I often eat at a local restaurant and you never know what will rub against your leg while you are eating. Yesterday, I had some ducks eating the crumbs off the floor next to the table I was eating at. Generally, it is dogs and sometimes cats. Like in VN, they often just throw debris on the floor, and sweep at the end of the day.
I had one shared taxi ride and one bus ride that I thought was a little too close to the edge. In the shared taxi ride, there were 6 of us in the car. I was in the back, but next to the oncoming traffic. In the front seat, the driver sat but there was a passenger between him and the driver's door. I mean, there were really two people sitting in the driver' seat. This was a bucket seat, so the driver wasn't really too comfortable, I am sure. Now I rode in this car for about 4 hours, in heavy highway traffic, with the driver, sometimes, talking for long periods of time on his cell phone. Then there was this quick but short stop in the middle of the road with another car, that were either police or maffia. The driver took a small bag from this car and put it in the trunk of the other car. All I could think of was drugs.... Ravy said it was a bribe-beer- to the police. I was just glad to get out of the car.
My other ride was on the bus from the beach back to Phnom Penh. We caught the bus early in the morning, for a long 5 hour ride back to PNP. The bus was full and I sat in a seat, next to the back. My seat was good but the longer I rode with this driver, the more I worried. For one think, I thought he was going exceedingly fast. When we stopped for lunch, Ravy confirmed my thoughts. He had called the bus company to complain about it already. Yet, he didn' t seem to slow down after lunch, and I could always feel a rather ominous sway , like we might tip over on any curve. The km markers along the road are in the form of tombstones, and looked a little too prophetic . I counted each marker and only really relaxed after I saw the 20 km sign, because I knew we were close enough to the big city now that he would have to slow down, due to heavy traffic...
The traffic in Cambodia really has no rules. I know it is worse than VN. Cambodia has the highest death rate of all the SE Asian countries. You would not believe how some people travel here!! They sit precariously atop a loaded van or truck, sometimes as many as 10-20 people. First, I cann't envision how they got up there to start with. Then, it seems to me, at the first quick tap of the brakes, they would go flying off. I do have a photo of this. It is unreal. Cambodia has a very poor bus system, so maybe that is why people travel this way, but I am sure it is very cheap too. And along the highway, everywhere, you will see, these roadside umbrellas, with liter Pepsi bottles filled with gas. NOT filled with Pepsi, but with gasoline.. These people buy gas somewhere, then fill empty Pepsi bottles and sell to moto drivers along the highway. You see them everywhere. There are gas stations too, but not eveywhere. Gas is expensive here, about $1.45 per liter.
I bought a good umbrella because it rains at least once a day. I mean heavy downpour. Streets flooded. I will probably give it away when I leave. Ok, that is all for now. Enjoy your life. I am good and thankful for everything....especially after being in Cambodia.......
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