Photography & Chronicle: A November Morning in Phnom Penh
- Photographe
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
There are places in the capital where time seems to have no real hold. At the first lights of dawn, the old market district, not far from Wat Phnom, remains a small island of traditional urban Cambodia where slices of life unfold that do not appear to be affected by the construction frenzy animating the capital for more than a decade. A photographer's delight.
Phnom Penh, old market district, 6 a.m.: The first shops are rolling up their iron shutters while goods, pots, old wobbly tables, and plastic chairs are being set up to welcome the first customers who will quickly swallow their kuy teav before heading to work.
It is also the time when rice cakes are grilled right on the sidewalk, just a few centimeters from the motorcycles and cars starting to invade the main street of Riverside. It is also the moment when ragpickers push their carts and alert residents with their duck - a rubber toy to collect their solid waste. Often, one or more children are in the cart, handling an iPhone - a sign of the times - or simply lending a hand to this mother whose courage can never be praised enough.
6 a.m. in Phnom Penh is also the hour when bars lose their shine and lights from the previous night while Cintri employees sweep the sidewalks where old sofas and chairs lie; where just yesterday young Cambodian women were dancing, looking for love (?) or perhaps a better life.
6 a.m. in Phnom Penh is also the time when parking lots come alive, as employees of the many nearby administrations take their places. The motorcycle parking attendant is probably at this hour one of the busiest men in the capital.
A few hundred meters away, municipal workers wave their somewhat old brooms to keep the avenues bordering some large hotels, high schools, and embassies clean, green, and pleasant. Some joggers pass here and there, enjoying a relative calm that will not last long.
Finally, it is also the time of the cyclo-pousse. Although the profession - despite financial support from the former prime minister - is disappearing, engulfed by rickshaws, some of them still wait for their customers. Indeed, against the tide, some Cambodian women have preferred to keep their old habits and use this type of transportation to go shopping at the market. Vintage habit, solidarity? Who knows... but it's all the better for these Cambodians who are increasingly struggling to survive.
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