LTO Cambodia: signs

Showing posts with label signs. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Exsqueeze me?

Found in my travels around Cambodia over the last few months:

From a menu at a crab shack in the Kep Crab Market. When I saw it on the menu, I pointed and asked the waitress if the crap was meaty today. She assured me that the crap was very meaty and sweet that day. I asked if Fried Crap was a very popular dish and she told me that the tourists who come there all like to eat crap. So I ordered a big plate. And I must say, it was good shit. Recommended.

Cambodia: Sign for massage and discount mount

From a massage & spa place in Phnom Penh. 50% off every mount on the 1st. I wonder if this might give potential customers the wrong idea...or the right idea....

Cambodia: Menu offering Bopiled Port and Moodles

From a little Vietnamese café in Sihanoukville. That day I had the bopiled port and a small moodle. Wasn't that good, especially the moodle.

From a Thai restaurant in Phnom Penh. Thank goodness for photo menus.

¿Que?

From a French restaurant in Phnom Penh. I didn't have the Chocolate Mouse because I don't like their beady little chocolate eyes.

Cambodia: Spa offering a special of the rapists

Ran across this one just today. A train wreck of a brochure for a spa in Phnom Penh that managed to outdo itself by promising a "special of the rapists." That's something I think I'd care not experience, even in a "place for relaxation."

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Signs of Sihanoukville

What's wrong with this picture?...

See the big signs above, directing traffic straight ahead to Otress (sic) Beach and Poymachoav? Did you also see the tiny little 'Do not enter/One-way' sign in the background on the right side of the road. Almost needless to say, the police often work this corner, stopping and 'fining' drivers who make the mistake of following the big sign above. (23 Tola Street, one street back from Ochheuteal Beach) instead of the little sign.

I don't know who they think this 'we' is, or where they got that photo of a clean beach, but they can't be talking about Sihanoukville or the local inhabitants. Or if they are, my first reaction would be, "No you don't, the beaches and town are strewn with trash." Might as well put up a sign saying, 'We always drive safely in Cambodia' or 'Tuk-tuks: "Courtesy" is in our middle name.' But, to trying to give the sign maker the benefit of the doubt, perhaps it is a statement of an unrealized ideal to which they hope people will aspire rather than a statement of fact...maybe. Which leads me to the next sign...

Truth in advertising?

Sign at the entrance of a new condo development on O-pram road near the Otres turnoff. They are currently advertising for buyers and investors, though I find the name of the place less than confidence inspiring.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Lost in Translation

Ministry of Tourism banner, Monivong Blvd, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Cambodia

Cambodia is Srok Khmer, the 'Land of the Khmer,' the primary ethnic group in the area since at least the Neolithic and an Indian influenced civilization with origins near 2000 years old. Centered on the lower Mekong and tributaries the Khmer people have dominated the region for millennia. From 2nd century AD Khmer kingdoms rose and fell, culminating in unification and the 500 year reign of the Angkorian Empire, the builders of the temples of Angkor near Siem Reap. The Empire stretched from Burma to the ocean. But by the 1400s Cambodia fell to centuries of change and decline squeezed between the expanding Siam and Vietnam. Colonized and by the French in the 1860s, independence 90 years later in 1954, a brief post-colonial 'golden period' under Sihanouk, coup in 70, civil war, fall to the communist Khmer Rouge in 75, 3 years 8 months 20 days of madness, Vietnamese rescue in 1979, occupation, low level war and international sanctions in the 80s, the UN, ostensive democracy and an adventure party destination in the 90s and now mainstreaming, tourism, rapid development, rapacious capitalism and NGOs, missionaries and other international busybodies aplenty.

Southeast Asia

As the term implies, Southeast Asia encompasses the southeastern corner of the Asian continent, loosely speaking, the area between India, China and Australia. It is made up of two distinct regions: the mainland zone, a bulbous peninsula jutting into the Pacific Ocean, bounded by China to the north and India to the west; and the insular (island) zone in the Pacific Ocean. The name 'Southeast Asia' is a comparatively recent invention, first coming into use into the 20th century and still a bit indefinite in definition. Mainland Southeast Asia is generally considered to include Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma (Myanmar) and peninsular Malaysia. The mainland is sometimes referred to as Indo-China though Indochina (Indochine) also designates the 19th/20th century French colonial conglomerate of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Sitting south of the Tropic of Cancer, most of mainland Southeast Asia lies in the hot, humid tropics and sub-tropics with a climate dominated by a monsoon cycle which divides the year into two distinct seasons: a dry season and an extremely wet monsoon season. Much of the mainland is mountainous and thickly jungled, with large river systems and wide, low-lying, flood-prone plains, much of which is, in modern times, deforested and blanketed with geometrical rice paddies. Several major river valleys including the Mekong River, the Red, Ma and Ka rivers and the group of rivers draining to the Chao Praya Delta played host to the rise of early civilization in the area. The Mekong River is one of the world's greatest rivers, the seventh largest on the planet, and since pre-history has been closely associated with the land of the Khmer.