Phnom Penh
A few photos of Phnom Penh street life taken within the space of just a 10-minute, 500 m or so stroll from Street 178 to Phsa Kandal, (Kandal Market). Starting at Wat Sarawan on the corner of Street 19 and 178, we came across this nicely restored French-period colonial villa – now a tapas bar of all things!
Corner of Street 19 and 178. (A recent visit confirms the restaurant is no more.) Some vital deliveries on the corner of 172 – the Angkor Beer ‘Party Truck’! That section of 172 Street is a bit of a would-be ‘Pub Street’ and the rate it’s growing, we’ll give it a couple of years before it looks like the ‘real one’ in Siem Reap!
Wat Sarawan, also on the corner of 19 and 178, isn’t one of Phnom Penh’s most picturesque temples, but there’s always something going on or something to photograph, even if it’s only a flash of colourful laundry amid the decaying French architecture.
Wat Saravan on Street 19 Even in the inner city area, a lot of cooking is still done on charcoal or even wood stoves. Electricity prices in Cambodia are very high and a lot of street vendors don’t have access to it anyway.
Charcoal delivery truck on the corner of 178 This mess of cables is a common sight at Cambodian street corners, as it still is in most Southeast Asian destinations, for that matter. When an old line is upgraded or replaced, it isn’t removed, so in fact, 75% of those lines probably aren’t live, but even so, it’d take a brave man to be a Cambodian electrician.
Good luck sorting that out Break time for a charcoal vendor – some of the travelling vendors have motorised carts, some still have to push them around town.
Break time for a charcoal vendor Pavement barbers along 13th Street – haircut, shave, head and shoulder massage for a dollar or two, and if there’s a foreign client, then the locals get free street entertainment too!
Pavement barber outside of Wat Ounalom Sort of converted motorbikes and sidecars, these mobile drinks sellers are also a common, and often welcome sight in the city streets and it’s where you can buy the famous Cokes in plastic bags!
Mobile cold drinks seller This guy has pushed his cart in from the suburbs to sell a few fresh coconuts. They’ll either supply cafes and restaurants or you can buy directly from the cart. A few hacks with a machete and in goes the straw. (Don’t try it at home.)
Lovely bunch of coconuts And finally, a cyclo or rickshaw – pedal-powered taxi, which again is a common sight in the kingdom’s capital city. When we first started running Cambodia tours, it was practically only cyclos and moto-dops – the now ubiquitous tuk-tuks being a relatively recent phenomenon in Cambodia.
Rickshaw or cyclo driver at Phsa Kandal Aside from the famous sites and the bar and cafe culture, one of our favourite occupations in Phnom Penh is just wandering around the streets. But don’t go out in the Cambodian capital without your camera!
