Cyclo drivers waiting

Being a cyclo driver must be hard work, I gave it a try when I was first in Phnom Penh. In the off moments, there seem to be a lot of those; they have a comfortable place to take a nap why not.

In the next two of the photos you can see that the parking break or should I say parking stone is set while sleeping. 

When we did a cyclo tour with VSO, it cost $6 for the half day. I am sure that was good money, it looks like the usual distance is quite short.

Juicer

In the USA and Europe you can have a juicer in your kitchen. In Cambodia they use industrial strength juicers to turn sugar cane into a drink. The operator peals the sugar cane and cuts it into about 75 cm lengths. These stand waiting for customers.

When you want a drink, the machine is switched on a stalk of sugar cane is run through the press.

When it comes out the far side it is collected, bent in half and run through the press again. This is repeated until the cane will not go through the press any more, about eight times. Sometimes the cane gets stuck, that is what the big what looks like a ships wheel is for, the leverage to really squeeze the cane through. This also works if there is no electricity.

The juice runs into a collection pan. When the cane is wrung out the juice is poured and served.

The juice is very good, not nearly as sweet as I had expected. 

Street cleaning

In the USA a large machine comes by periodically and sweeps the streets. In Switzerland street sweeping machines are smaller because the streets are narrower. In Cambodia, labor is cheap and streets are swept by hand. In Phnom Penh some of the sweepers have uniforms.

The cart is pulled by hand, no motorized machines like the vacuums used in Brussels.

Picking up the sweeping is in Phnom Penh done very much like in Fez, the sweeper has two thin boards, he builds a pile and then skillfully holds the dirt between the boards while moving it into the cart. In the Fez medina they don't use cats, the streets are too narrow and rough, they use trash donkeys.

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.

 

Taking the race photos

My last post was photos from the Water Festival. How did I get the photos? I believe the best way to make a good photo is to be up close so you can connect with your subject. I have also learned if you ask to go into what looks like restricted places you can sometimes get in.

The boat race starts very close to a city water pumping station. There is a walk way around the pumping station that put me out over the boats. This gave me some of the very colorful shots.

Several of the other shots were taken down on the water's edge. The banks of the river are cemented and not very steep so walking down to the edge is relatively easy. 

Where the VSO boat was launched there was a sewage drain, I found an area that was filled with rocks and stood on that, not having to get into the boat.

For the photos of the start of the race I worked my way out onto the construction barge where the announcer was.  I was able to work my way up onto the yellow crane and have a very good overlook. The pontoons were quite stable but when someone went the other way they did roll a little.

You can see from this following photos, this was a working barge, it was littered with junk.

After the barge set, I went back and got onto the tugboat. The tug is on the other side of the barge below.  I would have done that first but there was a long line of people walking over the planks and they were under water.

Tragic end to the Water Festival

Monday night about 10:00 a large crowd was on the bridge from the mainland to an island. The bridge is a short suspension bridge and it began to sway, according to reports, the police fired water cannons at the crowd on the bridge trying to force them to leave the bridge. In the ensuing panic over 300 people were killed, some were crushed and others were electrocuted. The bridge was covered with electric lights and the water from the water cannons possible caused the electrocutions.

One of the operators that works at Digital Divide Data and his wife were on the bridge, they escaped with only minor injuries.

CNN has several articles on the stampede.

I was had been in Kampong Cham photographing rice fields and did not participate in this part of the festival.

Cambodian Water Festival and boat race

While volunteering with VSO I told another volunteer I would photograph the Water Festival boat race, because VSO had a crew paddling one of the long boats. Check this post for photographs of the practice session.

Last Saturday was the race, I went to the VSO office to take the group photo and to the start.

Then we piled into two vehicles and went to the start. This festival is definitely a draw in Phnom Penh, it was early and the crowd was already starting to grow. Each team has a colored t-shirts, with teams in their boats side-by-side the colors made an exciting photography.

The race is run on the Tonle Sap River, which is unique, it switches directions each year about this time. This year there was still a good current and luckily the boats were rowing with the current. There are three types of boats in the race; the boat VSO was racing was a long boat, with a crew of about 55 people. VSO had 36 foreigners, which is a rarity; I did not see any other foreigners as crew members. In fact I only saw a handful of foreign tourists.

The boats race in pairs, they pull onto the river in pairs,

Head for the start point at a slow pace, and when about 50 meters upstream from the start marker they accelerate.

Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to the finish to see the VSO boat finish. When you want a moto, there is never one around.

Here are some boats that were really fighting for position at the end of the race.