Getting Around

Motos, scooters, or mopeds overrun the roads.

City life means figuring out how to get around, and there are many options for getting around Phnom Penh. Most of the forms of transportation involve motorcycles in one way or another. It's the creativity with the motorcycles that truly makes getting around Phnom Penh an interesting endeavor. First, there are the motos, or scooters, that are the standard form of transportation in and outside of the cities. Have a family with 4 kids who all need to go to school? No problem! Everyone on the scooter for a quick trip to school. But if you don't want to take your kids to school yourself in the morning, there are a plethora of vans that act as school buses for the plethora of private and English schools throughout the city.

You can also get a moto ride just as you would a taxi from any of the moto drivers prowling the streets. If you need to go somewhere with your friends, there are also tuk tuks, which are similar to rickshaws. They have a moto attached to a more elaborate cart with a comfortable seat and roof. They're another taxi equivalent, but they're more closed to the elements than a moto something you'll want to consider if you see plean threatening in the sky. Want to go more old-fashioned? Take a pedi-taxi, which looks like a big chair attached to the front of a bike. Personally, I've never taken one, so I can't recommend or warn you against them, but I do see some people taking them closer to the city center for shorter distances. There are also truck taxis that take people to and from the provinces to Phnom Penh, which are trucks with benches in the back. Lastly, there are the all-too-familiar mode of transportation in the US: cars. Having a car usually means your family is pretty wealthy, which is why there are so many motos and scooters on the roads.

Tuk Tuks getting friends from one place to another.

Isn't there some form of public transportation in the cities? The short answer is no, but there has been much talk in the past decade of installing some form of train or bus system at least in the capital. For with all of the motos and tuk tuks on the road, it can get very crowded in the morning and evening rush hours, not to mention the crazy traffic patterns. However, given the length of the talk and the general inaction, I doubt anyone is planning on seeing its construction anytime soon.

A group of vehicles beginning to turn left.

Traffic in Cambodia follows one rule: go with the flow. Quite literally, the roads are like an ocean. You have the minnows which are the pedestrians and people riding bicycles, the motos are your standard-sized fish, the tuk tuks and carts are the bigger fish, and the cars, vans, and other trucks are the whales of varying sizes. All of these submarine participants in the flow of traffic make for a ride anywhere that is simultaneously frightening and awe-inspiring.

The group made it successfully across with a few more following suit.

Why is it frightening? While there have been an increased number of traffic lights installed and enforced in the major cities, other traffic laws common in the US, such as not crossing over double lines, one way streets, and stop signs, are generally considered optional or nonexistent in Cambodian traffic patterns.  This means that when you want to go somewhere, you just do it. This is how the roads begin to resemble an ocean traffic pattern. If you want to merge into traffic, you simply begin inching out till you become one with the rest of the flow. This laissez-faire style of traffic is the main reason I plan on sticking to being transported as opposed to transporting myself in Cambodia.

Plean, Plean, Plean...

When someone says the phrase "rainy season" they generally mean it. It's the rainy season in Cambodia, and that means daily rains that more than likely rival even London's notorious rain clouds. For someone who loves the rain but lives in Colorado, where we're more known for fires as opposed to rainfall, the almost daily sound of rain is a welcome change. In fact, one of the first words I learned in Khmer was actually the word for rain: plean (pronounced plee-an). Usually the rains come when you least expect them.  The sky grows dark, but it doesn't rain for another hour or so. And when it does you're walking home. At least its beautiful sound tempers the fact that you're soaked to the skin in a matter of seconds.

The sound of the rain.

What becomes of all this rain in Cambodia? Much of the rain that falls here feeds into two main rivers, the Mekong and the Tonle Sap River. One of Cambodia's most prominent geographic features, the Tonle Sap River and its Lake are geographic oddities. From April to October, the Tonle Sap flows in its normal seaward direction emptying the Tonle Sap Lake into the Pacific Ocean.  However, in October when the ice melt from the Himalayas finally flows to Phnom Penh with the Mekong, the volume of water is so great in the Mekong that a magical feat of physics actually reverses the flow of the Tonle Sap River to go into the Tonle Sap Lake.  The reversal of the flow of the River causes the lake to expand, flooding the area and allowing fish to multiply.  Many fisherman have taken up residence in the Tonle Sap Lake in houses on stilts to take advantage of the plethora of fish during the dry season. 

Wait, so the Mekong has more water in it during the dry season? Yes, actually, because it has spent the past half of the year collecting the Spring ice melt in the Himalayas and the monsoon rains from 5 other countries that also have a rainy season1.  It just takes a few months for all of the water to get to Cambodia, which is on the southernmost end of continental Southeast Asia.  That's a long way for water to travel only to reverse its course to spend more time in the Tonle Sap River. Yet, the annual flooding of the Tonle Sap River basin keeps the rice farms growing their excellent crop in the dry season through a vast irrigation network.

Yet, the rain is not always welcome in Cambodia. Many people are rightly concerned with what comes with the rain: thunderstorms. As one of the main causes of death in the rural areas of Cambodia, lightning is a very real danger here. Without much protection in the wide open rice fields, many people take shelter underneath palm trees, which unfortunately only draw the lightning to them.  Luckily, cities are more immune to this danger, but many people still take extra precautions if even a hint of thunder comes through the clouds. The streets around my host family's house rapidly become empty and people avoid using electronics so as not to get a surge. Of course, not everyone takes the lightning as seriously since we are in the city, but I have heard this advice from several Cambodians.  But this danger brings about 75% of the nation's annual rainfall 1. So as the summer rains set in wherever you are in the world, don't forget to steer clear of lightning and enjoy the sounds.