Ponytail helmet

In Hanoi, there were several women wearing what looks to be a very functional invention, the ponytail helmet. What, you have never seen one.

In Vietnam, helmets are required and there does not appear to be any manufacturing standards. Helmets are not only required but they are a part of one’s outfit. We spotted helmets being sold in a hat shop.

Ponytail helmets more than regular helmets are a mark of style.

Vietnam cover-up

In Saigon, Anita and I noticed many people riding motos wearing face masks; we assumed it was to filter out polluted air, even though the air seemed fine.

We wondered why the masks were so large, some continued down over the neckline onto the shoulders and chest.

In Hanoi, we noticed even more women wearing face masks than in Saigon.

Some of them were wearing not only masks, but also helmets, huge sunglasses and lightweight windbreakers with extensions to the arms, covering the hands.

We asked a young man traveling on our tour to Halong Bay if he could explain all the cover-ups. He responded women in Vietnam are serious about protecting their skin from the sun, they do not want to get dark skin. OK, that makes sense; all of the skin creams advertized appear to have a whitener in them.

A NEW RECORD 7

I have seen four young men on one moto, three on the seat and one sitting in front of the driver.

I have seen a moto loaded with the family for a vacation.

The other day my colleague Ammar and I were chatting and I what was the maximum number of people he had seen on a moto. He said "six". I was impressed the most I had ever seen was five.

Today I set a new record, there was a family of seven on a moto. The father was driving; he had two toddlers in front of him. Mom was on the way back, it looked like she was trying to nurse an infant, and she had two more toddlers between her and pop.

I saw the moto stopped at a light. I counted them once and said to myself, "that can't be" I counted them again, yes "seven". Then I counted to make sure I had all of the heads. There were really seven on one moto.

I had been shopping in the Russian marked and did not have a camera. I really wanted a photo of this.

Children on motos

In Cambodia the major means of transport is the moto, I have several posts on motos, this one is about children riding on motos. Children start riding motos very early, I have seen several that were newborn being held by mom as dad drove. The child below is not a lot older.

This photo has the whole family aboard. I have been told that there is a law that you can only have two people on a moto. Now what constitutes a person may be up for discussion

By the time children in Cambodia can walk their balance must be very good or they would not be able to ride on the moto. I have seen two or three children very scabbed up, it looked like they had fallen off of a moto.

The next photo is one of the only times I have seen a parent and child with a helmet. Would this be legal in the USA?

The child is riding on a box of water bottles, no problem he fits.

Children have to learn to balance early so they can ride. I have seen several children riding looking like they are very bored with the whole process. I guess they ask the standard question, are we there yet?

One year in Cambodia

WOW!! One year in Cambodia. It does not seem like that long in some ways and in others it seems a little longer.

In the past year I spent six months in Kampong Cham and six months in Phnom Penh. On my initial stay in Phnom Penh I went on a cyclo tour. Its has been about 37 years since I drove a cycle in Udorn, Thailand. It was fun to be in the driver's seat and watch the reactions of the locals.

Phnom Penh definitely has more to do but Kampong Cham was much easier to explore and it allowed me to get out into the countryside. Driving my moto really taught me the rules of the Cambodia road.

In my apartment in Kampong Cham I had a great cleanup crew, most of the time they were really on the ball but there were times they were a little over anxious but they did a great job.

I had a small shrine in Kampong Cham and it really worked. After my moto accident I have been thinking of putting up a better shrine here in my Phnom Penh apartment.

Now living in Phnom Penh one of my favorite places is the Orussey Market which is only a short walk away.

For my celebration for one year in Cambodia I went to the Szechuan restaurant, the kimchi is still great.

The only dark spot in the year was my Moto accident, which in reality was not nearly as bad as it could have been. This year I am concentrating on keeping the shiny side up and staying out of everyone's way.

My next job

I went out to walk around a little and make an image or two. Just up the street I found a moto driver taking a nap on his moto. I don't know if this is comfortable or not but he sure looks asleep.

I walked up to the central market, and found that the old grocery markets that was on the south side had been demolished and replaced by a street. WOW. It makes the area smell a lot better.

From the central market I walked down street 130 and saw remnants of the French past an Art deco building.

Then I found the Shere Punjab Indian restaurant an Indian friend has recommended. Now that I know where it is I will go back.

I walked along the Mekong and watched the boats large and small.

I walked back through my neighborhood and I saw the same moto driver stretched out on his moto. 

I had taken the first photo 1 ½ hours ago and he was still snoozing away. This is the job I want.The only problem I see is that I may be too tall.

After the accident

You know that after exercising hard the worst day for pain is two days later. That is also true for an accident. The day after the accident I did OK, but the day after that, little things started to show up, the six inch long and three inch wide bruise on my calf, my left thumb did not want to bend without a lot of pain and my neck being stiff.

I was lucky, the weekend which gave me time to recover. I stayed home Saturday and napped. On Sunday I put on my back pack and walked to the market, I found what I think will be the last sweet corn of the season, that went into the back pack and then pineapple. After the market I walked to the store and added a few more things. I put my backpack on and started to walk home, my shoulder said "not so fast", the top of my right shoulder was not happy with the weight. I put on the waist strap to take the wait lower and saved my shoulder.

Monday a few more bruises showed up, my right elbow was an interesting shade of yellow and blue and there was another yellow bruise that showed up below my shoulder.

The only thing that really still hurts is my shoulder, that is the most problematic when trying to sleep.

Moto accident

Sorry I have not write more lately but I have been exhausted and my shoulder has been hurting a lot.

On my way to work a few days ago, I made a right hand turn. The traffic in the other lane was backed up because they were waiting for a light. I saw a moto coming toward me in my lane and I was watching it to see what stupidity he would do. He passed me and all of a sudden a tuktuk clipped me from the right. I was not watching that side enough because I was watching the crazy on the other side.

In a flash I was on the ground. I got and I seemed to be ok. I did not seem to have any bad injuries. Someone helped me right my moto and I drove the kilometer to work. At work I got my first aid kit out of the moto and went to the bathroom in my office to clean up my knee, elbow and outside of my right hand. I scrubbed away any dirt and then realized I had gauze pads but no tape. I went to the receptionist who had shown me the DDD first aid kit. I put Batadine on the abrasions and then the receptionist taped down the gauze.

The abrasions are not the problem, when I hit the ground I must have landed hard on my elbow; the problem is my shoulder which did not contact the ground. I think what happened is l landed with a lot of weight on my elbow and my shoulder took the strain.

Lifting my right hand from my lap to the mouse and from the mouse to the keyboard hurts. You do not know how often you make that move in a day.

The worst part of the accident is it ripped up one of my good pair of pants. It will be hard to find a replacement for someone my size in Cambodia.

Lock it up

When I moved into my apartment my landlord told me I needed a second lock for my moto. The moto comes with a steering wheel (handle bar) lock. With this someone can easily wheel the bike away.

I needed either a lock on the front wheel to keep it from turning or a padlock that kept the large stand in place. The padlock for the large stand would go on the very bottom of the bike which would be hard to put on and take off. I opted for the lock on the front wheel.

I found a shop that had a lock; the young guy tells me $8. Ok, I will look around, that sounds expensive.

There is a moto repair shop every 100 meters in Phnom Penh. I stopped at ten or more, none of them have the lock. I found one that had the lock but they wanted $12. That's way too expensive. I kept looking. I did not know the name for lock either which made things a little harder.

I went back to the fist shop, they young guy was there and his mother. I asked the price, this time it was $12. I should have purchased it when his mother wasn't there. I kept looking.

I finally found a place that would sell the lock and put it on for $10.

Here is a photo of the shop that had the lock, and the boy who put it on.

 

Left turn in Phnom Penh

After lunch I took a new colleague to purchase a sim card (mobile phone chip) for his phone. This was only the second time I have has anyone else on my moto with me. The tires were a little low on air so the ride was soft and a bit wobbly. When I am alone on my moto, I can get around smoothly, with a passenger I was a bit more careful.

To get the phone store we went up one of the main boulevards and turned right, crossed another boulevard and we were there. When we left the phone shop, I calculated that the safest way back was the way we had come.

We crossed the first boulevard and stopped at the light where we would turn left on the other boulevard. I did a standard Cambodian left turn at a light, as soon as the light turned green (or a little before) I cut sharply left to cross in front of the oncoming traffic. Good turn. Not so fast Tom.

About 20 meters down the boulevard were two policemen. One stepped out into the lane and motioned me over. Oh OH. My thoughts were, "this was a normal Cambodian turn. What's the problem?" The policeman only spoke Khmer. In English I asked "What's the problem?" He explained and explained motioning at the light this way and that way. I said "I am sorry but I don't speak Khmer." Then he drew a very poor sketch of the intersection and tried to explain it what way. My refrain was "I am sorry I don't understand I don't speak Khmer."

The other police man took over in Khmer. My response was the same. While all of this was going on my passenger was patiently waiting on my moto. After about five minutes of this, the first policeman called on his radio. Oh reinforcements.

Shortly policeman rode up on a moto. He looked at my driver's license and said American said I could go. Whew!!!

The trip back to work was uneventful after that.

Driving in Phnom Penh

Over the past week I have been going to work early and leaving work late thereby missing rush hour traffic. Today I was tired and left work at 17:30 in the height of rush hour. When I pulled my moto on to the street I thought "Oh yes, I had forgotten how bad traffic is during rush hour."

Looking at the intersection 50 meters to my left, I thought, "Should I go around the block and try the intersection up the street?" I replied to myself "Self, it will be just as bad there."

I headed off to the intersection. I was lucky, as I approached the intersection a car was going my way and he blocked traffic. GREAT!

Traffic was normal, people coming at me on the right side, and one moto flying out of no where from my right front crossing the lane right in front of me.

I approached the light where I would turn left onto a main boulevard. As I was 100 meters from the intersection I watched a car going my way drive into the one coming lane and go all the way up the intersection. I thought "OK, he is in the left lane, he will most likely pull a Tom and make a quick left hand turn." So much for my assumption." He turned on his right blinker. He wanted to make a right hand turn from the left hand lane.

I had the pleasure of cutting him off.

My shrine really works

About three weeks ago, a friend sent me an e-mail saying she was having trouble finding a job. I wrote back saying that I would put a special offering in my shrine and light incense on her behalf. Last week, she sent me an e-mail saying "your shrine really works!" She had been offered a job.

Yesterday I took a local taxi to Phnom Penh for a meeting, a three-hour trip on a narrow two-lane highway, with bicycles and motos along the edge mixed with a lot of very large trucks. On the way down the driver drove a little faster than the usual Cambodia speed. He also made several questionable maneuvers, passing on curves and when he could not see if the road was clear ahead, and not shifting down to pass so it took a long time to pass.

On the way back he crossed the line between Cambodian crazy and truly insane. There was heavy rain with a lot of water on the road, and severely reduced visibility. He was driving way too fast for such conditions.

In a blinding downpour, the driver pulled out into the oncoming lane to pass a long line of cars, although he could not see to the end of the line. While attempting to pass, he received a call on his mobile phone and looked down at the number on the phone, then took the call. As soon as we cleared the line of cars and were back on the right side of the road, I told him to either slow down, or pull over and let me out. That slowed him down for a little while, but as soon as we made it through the rain, he resumed his fast pace.

As soon as I arrived home, I made an offering to my shrine and thanked if for its efforts.

Yesterday my shrine saved my life—again.

I was about 300 meters from work and had just started maneuvering to make a left hand turn. Whoosh--a moto raced by me on the left; I could feel the breeze as he went by. Another meter into the turn, and I would have been in a very bad accident. It is my fault, I was making a left hand turn from the right hand lane, no one does that in Cambodia.

I will made an extra offering to my shrine.

Moto Trip to Kampong Thom

I have been working too much lately, so Sunday was a day off. I decided to drive to Kampong Thom, about 2/3 of the way to Seim Reap (Angkor Wat).

"Why Kampong Thom?" Good question. Within about 50 kilometers of Kampong Thom, the many pre Angkor temples are virtually tourist free, unlike Angkor Wat. I would like to be in Kampong Thom on a weekend morning to photograph the old temples. To do that, I will need to leave Kampong Cham after work on a Friday and given driving conditions here, be off the road by sunset. In Cambodia, night arrives promptly and completely at about 6:30 pm. This moto trip was a trial run, to determine how much time the trip takes.

Samira, a friend working in Kampong Thom, had asked me to bring her canned tuna, as there is none to be had in Kampong Thom. I purchased the fish, gassed up the moto and headed off. I left at 08:20 and arrived two hours and 15 minutes later. If you are into numbers, it was 110 kilometers, and the moto averaged 49 kilometers per hour.

Even without a highway map, the route turned out to be easy. Most of the way the road was good by Cambodian standards. Just two sections were rough gravel, which is not that much fun on a moto.

The usual speed here is 50 (31 mph) to 60 kph (37 mph). I was driving a little faster than most Cambodians, about 80 kph (55 mph). As I came up behind an old man on a bicycle, he turned left in front of me. Wow!!! I just missed him. Ok, Tom, slow down. 
In Kampong Thom, I had lunch with Samira and then headed south on the return trip. It started out much like the trip up, but about half-way things got interesting. Black storm clouds and heavy rain were headed my way. I needed to reach Kampong Cham before dark so I pressed on.
 

As I neared the storm, a brutal right-to-left crosswind hit. I slowed to 50 kph to keep from being blown off the road. A stand of short trees to my right blocked much of the wind. When I came to an area without trees, the wind just about blew me into the other lane.

I was now driving through a huge plantation of young (small) rubber trees. I felt a few drops and then a few more, and put on my rain jacket. I looked for a place to wait out the storm, but didn't find one. My only option was to keep going. I headed slowly into the storm, the rainfall became heavier and heavier, and I was soon drenched. I met a horse cart and two motos going the other way. The drivers were all in the same situation as me, exposed to the elements and WET. Luckily the road was good, and the drive reasonably safe.

I finally cleared the storm, and was amazed to see that two or three kilometers on the other side of it, the ground was completely dry. It had not rained there at all.

With 25 kilometers to go, I stopped to fill the gas tank. To pay the soaked bills in my canvas wallet had to be peeled apart. When I reached home, not a part of me was dry.

I never thought I would do this

I was invited to have a snack after work with five of my female Cambodian colleagues. The woman who invited me asked if I had ever eaten a baby egg. What she meant was had I ever eaten a fertilized, boiled duck egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside. I had not tried a balut in the Philippines and did not intend to sample Pong tea khon now. After Len reassured me that there would be other things to eat, I said I would come along.

We drove away from KAPE on five motor scooters; it felt like being in a ride with the Hells Angels and some of these are real angles. We pulled up at an outdoor restaurant and parked our motor scooters alongside the other 20 or so already there. It looked like a Honda used-scooter lot.

We found a table and someone ordered in Khmer. Shortly a bowl with eight slightly gray-looking duck eggs appeared along with a plate of leaves and slices of lime and very fine ground pepper.

When you don't know what to do, be slow and wait to see what others do. This approach has served me well in Morocco and other places, and it worked here. The women each took an egg and placed it in the little egg cup. They tapped the top end of the egg with a spoon to crack it open.

By this time Len had placed an egg in a cup in front of me. As I held the egg to crack the shell, I realized it was cooked, because it was HOT. While I was slowly tapping the top of mine, Len open hers. I am sure I grimaced; the color is a nasty looking grayish black. I thought "I don't know if I can eat this…"

As my colleagues began spooning little bits out to eat, I decided to give it a try. "It won't kill me". I mixed lime juice and pepper and put a little of that inside the egg. "Ok here goes". There was not really much flavor except the pepper and the texture was just like a hardboiled egg. I ate slowly, I was wondering if I would have to avoid feathers and bones, but I was lucky, the chick was not that developed.

After the Pong tea kho, there was a tasty salad of cucumber, ginger and other vegetables, dressed with a little vinegar. One of my colleagues told me that if you eat much of it, you will be very thirsty later. After I had eaten about half of the salad, the waitress brought a bowl containing what looked to be marbles on skewers. They turned out to be tiny sausages. They were good, but so small. Then came a bowl of thin slices of meat on skewers, with the meat skewered through the long thin pat so it would cook quickly.

Everything was GREAT! Now I can say I have eaten a baby egg (balut).

There’s a storm blowing in

I needed to get out of the house so I took my moto and camera out. I went west even though there were very black clouds that way. I made it to the twin hills about five kilometers west of town. I took a few photos of the spires of the pagoda and decided it was time to head home if I was to beat the storm to Kampong Cham. On the way back, people were taking down umbrellas and moving their signs inside. I was flying on the way back, there was a bit of a tail wind.

When I reached Kampong Cham, I saw that the other side of the Mekong was in sun. I drove over the bridge to see what things were like on the other side. What I found was that from the top of the bridge I had a good view back of Kampong Cham and the approaching storm.

As I came back across the bridge I had the throttle fully open and was only doing 40 km per hour into the wind. The moto will to over 90. That was one of the strongest headwinds I have experienced in a long time.

When I got to the top of the bridge, I stopped and took this shot.

Rules of the road

Someone told me that introducing traffic lights, stop signs and helmets in Cambodia has really messed up driving here. Before, drivers would look around and follow Cambodian laws of etiquette, giving right of way to older drivers. Nowadays, it is not that simple.

Intersections

From what I have seen, stop lights will stop traffic but stop signs appear to have no effect. So what do you do at an intersection?

First, do NOT slow or stop to give someone the right of way, they will become totally confused. It is just not done.

As you approach an intersection, be sure to honk your horn. No one really pays attention, but everyone does it.

Plunge in and cross by weaving through traffic going every direction. People will miss you and you will miss them, thanks to divine intervention.

Left turns

Cambodia has right-lane driving. In the US and Europe, as a driver, you stay in the right hand lane, continue to the middle of the intersection and wait for a break in traffic and turn left into the right hand lane. Simple, yes?

That is not the way it is done in Cambodia. Think of all driving here as riding a bicycle, no matter the size of the vehicle, from moto to dump truck.

To make a left hand turn, move into the oncoming lane on the far side. Yes, that is right; you are now going against traffic and have traffic coming at you. Don't worry; everyone here is used to that.

As you approach the turn, stay as close to the left hand curb as you can. Look to the left, down the street you are turning onto, for people who may be coming up the street and want to turn right. If there are vehicles headed your way, honk your horn and get closer to the curb.

When the coast is clear, make your turn, keeping close to the curb. You have half of the battle won. Now you must cross over to the right hand lane. Look over your right shoulder to see if there is anyone in the lane you want to go to. Look ahead to see if there is anyone coming at you. There will most likely be vehicles in both lanes. So just go. Don't worry, people will miss you, they don't want an accident any more than you.

The only thing you have to pray about is those drivers who are making cell phone calls while riding their motos, the three motos driving side by side while they talk, and the young girl who is waving to friends and not looking where she's going.

Whew, you made it!

Transportation in Cambodia

Cambodians make the best of whatever means of transpiration they have. Take a look at my Flickr photo stream and see how they do it.



Let me know what you think of the other photos.

Moto ride in the country side

06:00 I am up, I planned to go with Gideon into the countryside on my motor scooter. It rained last night and looked like it might rain today, so I took a raincoat along. I was ready when Gideon arrived at 08:35.

Gideon is a Cambodian tuktuk driver who operates a Cambodian taxi, by pulling a cart behind his scooter. Today I rode my scooter; Gideon took the cart off and rode his scooter.

Our goal for the day was to visit the Wooden Wat which is about 20 km down river. We crossed the river over the Mekong and took the better roads. There is a dirt road along the Mekong, I have bicycled it much of the way, it was rough when it was dry it would be very bad after a rain.

The good road didn't last very long. On the red dirt roads, there were large bright orange puddles from the rain last night.

We stopped to speak with people collecting rubber from rubber trees. The man told us that he and his whole family together earn $80 a month.



Figure 1 Rubber tree dripping latex

In the new stands of rubber trees, they have planted sesame and banana trees. I assume when the rubber trees get about six years old, the age they start tapping them, there is too much shade generated by the tree to have anything grow under them.



It took some time but we finally made it to the Wooden Wat. Gideon was my tour guide today and he told me some of the stories about the Wat.



Figure 2 Wooden Wat (temple)

The building was closed when we arrived. I took off my shoes to go in. I am not sure how long it had been closed but there was a huge amount of bird droppings on the floor. It looked like more than just one night's worth to me. Gideon said that the monks would come and pray there at 17:00 I don't know if that is every night or not.




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Figure 3 Pillars in the Wat


On the way back we took a ferry to an island in the Mekong.



Figure 4 We took the one on the left

This island is connected to the mainland by a bamboo bridge.




 


Figure 5 The road bed

The bridge is made completely out of bamboo.

 
It is quite sturdy, that is a Ford Explorer driving across it.





Back in town with a very dirty motor scooter.

Moto ride in Phnom Penh

I was shopping near the central market and needed to take a moto (motor scooter) back to the guest house. I asked the price. It started at 4,000 real ($1.00) way too much, we finally settled on 2,500 real ($0.62).

I hopped on and we started off. The moto was quite old, the needles on the speedometer and gas gauge were gone. We were headed to a street that had a divider down the middle. I knew that the driver would go left, that means that he will go the wrong way in lunch hour traffic. That is quite normal here.

We went about half a block against traffic and the driver turned off into a pagoda. Yes, we could use a blessing in this traffic. The reason he turned left was he saw a police vehicle just ahead. We bumped through the pagoda; the suspension on the moto was just like the needles, gone. Several sharp turns and large bumps over sidewalks and broken up cement and we were back onto a street. We ended up again on the divided street, going the wrong way. What a surprise (NOT). We came to where the divided street crossed another street. The driver moved next to the divider and then skillfully maneuvered into traffic going our way.

It is quite a site, seeing three lanes of motos and two lanes of cars coming at you.

I wish I would have had my camera with me.

New Motor Scooter

After dreaded language class I went to KAPE to ask the administrative manager to help me purchase a motor scooter. There were two reasons for this. First my Khmer language is not good and more importantly, I cannot own the motorcycle, only Cambodians can own cars, motor scooters and houses. So KAPE will be the name on the title.

Purchasing the Honda motor scooter was relatively simple. It cost about $1,600 (€1,187). Most of the motor scooters in Cambodia are Honda Dreams which is what I purchased. Also, most of them are black. I purchased one in blue so I could find it in the line–up in parking. After purchasing it, I took it for a spin. I headed out on the open road. It was fun and more importantly cool. Riding a bicycle always had me sweating in 20 meters. The scooter by comparison was air conditioned.

I went about 10 kilometers east and then turned around. When I got home, I broke it in. I picked up the 20 liter water container and took it to a shop to purchase a new one. I put the jug on the back of the scooter like a real Cambodian. Well that is not completely accurate, Cambodians usually put much more on a scooter than a 20 liter jug see below.


 


Figure 1 An average load


 


Figure 2 The family going for an outing


 


Figure 3 Did we forget anything?


You can see my scooter's parking space. It looks like it is parked in the living room. Yes it is.



Figure 4 Parking space



Figure 5 Ready to go in the morning