Expats 2.0 vs 1.0
- Miguelito
- Ordinary Schmo
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Izhar has nostalgic memories from the ‘60’s here:
http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/view ... 5&p=927741
http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/view ... 5&p=927741
- Lucky Lucan
- K440 Knight Captain
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Here's a local man reminiscing about 1960s-70s Phnom Penh
More here: http://phnompenhplaces.blogspot.com/201 ... 1970s.html
Those shots over Psah Olympic brought back so many memories. My house is on the bottom left corner, a 3-storied block my dad built in 1965. At the time much of the area behind the apartment blocks was sparsely built on; there were knee-deep ponds here and there, criss-crossed by muddy dirt roads, and lined with houses on stilts. In those days the roads you could drive a car on were the one that linked Wat Moha Montrey with the Chinese Embassy, and the one that runs from the Psah to the Tuol Svay Prey school. The latter flooded regularly too anyway. I used to fish for Trey Kranh behind my house (Tip: when fishing in Cambodian lakes use pieces of prahok for bait). The area behind Wat Moha Montrey crossed by that black sewer was a large swathe of grassy land where kids used to fly kites early in the year. Street lighting was unknown and it was pitch-black everywhere at night except over the roads immediately around the Psah and along Sihanouk Boulevard. Under the street lights, we kids liked to fool flying bats by throwing them stones which they mistake for prey. Blind as a bat as they say.
In those days the Psah itself was just getting established. Much of the Psah was enclosed by a metal fence. Until 1970, the dirt road was covered with red gravel. In a good northerly wind a fine red dust would get blown into the houses. Guess who got the job to sweep it all back to the street? The wide asphalted area at the top of the photos is where the bus station was. Buses that came there were from the southern part of the country bringing in farm produce. By the late 60’s at around 11 am the area was so busy that buses had to park all around the Psah wherever they could drop their cargo off. Smaller passenger cars (usually the trusty Peugeot 404 station wagons) also plied the routes from there. Country folk would come and ask to use our bathroom because they simply didn’t know where to go when nature called urgently.
Under the tiled roofed area on the left were the meat sellers. Next to them in the open air were the fish mongers. The vegetable sellers occupied the bottom left of the photo (opposite to where I lived). From there and over to the right of the picture there were sellers of dried fish, eggs and live ducklings, then the noodle stalls, and the Vietnamese food and dessert stalls. Finally it’s the bric a brac traders on the bottom right corner. In the early 1970's they sold anything from denim jackets to pilfered US army rations, backpacks, hammocks, uniforms - that's from where I got my first taste of tinned peanut butter and cream cheese. A Chinese circus used to provide entertainment in the grassy open air north of the roofed area. As it was impossible to charge a fee for the show, the astute performers would first draw up a crowd with a crazy round of drums and cymbals, followed by promises of a great spectacle on offer. After more drumming and even more hear-ye’s they would suddenly start to spruik vials of health tonics, packets of cure-alls, and the inevitable remedies for piles. Cambodians, including the fearsome Pol Pot, were especially terrified of hemorrhoids or reuss daung baht as known in Khmer. The real show begins only when the crowd has been sufficiently supportive of the marketing drive. The little white oblong structure on the left hand side of the bus station was where the military police were based. In the early 70’s, now and then they would catch some deserter, burglar or whatever, strip him to his underwear and bring him there. Now and then someone would throw a grenade in there too.
A bunker was set up in 1971 north of the Psah, abutting the iron fence of the Stadium. Many of us from the area around the Psah who were drafted into the militia to patrol the area at night, were also ordered to take turns guarding it. A seventeen year old by then, I had a choice between a M1 rifle, an M16 and an AK47. The AK was of course weapon of choice, but being junior I was only allowed the rifle. And so I would straddle the M1 over my bike’s handle bar, and set off for my 4-hour duty to “bamreur cheat” (serve the Nation). Instead of watching for the KR however I took the opportunity to while away with either some Emile Zola, or a translation of William Shearer's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" borrowed from the Alliance Francaise. Poorly trained as I was, I would have “bamreur cheat” poorly anyway had the KR decided to attack the Stadium which by then had become a recruitment-cum-training centre for the Republican army.
More here: http://phnompenhplaces.blogspot.com/201 ... 1970s.html
Romantic Cambodia is dead and gone. It's with McKinley in the grave.
- Wayward Woods
- I live above an internet cafe
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No offense, but the 1.0s seem like a batch of cunts.
I get that we all don’t respect the man bun gap year/telework-for-a-year crowd, but the rest of the hate is pretty funny.
I get that we all don’t respect the man bun gap year/telework-for-a-year crowd, but the rest of the hate is pretty funny.
Scobienz 3.0
- Gaijin Forever
- 440 newbie - handle with care
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Wasn't 1.0 the boozy mongering crowd? Kill a hooker/torch a hotel crowd?Wayward Woods wrote: ↑Sat Apr 13, 2019 8:33 pmNo offense, but the 1.0s seem like a batch of cunts.
I get that we all don’t respect the man bun gap year/telework-for-a-year crowd, but the rest of the hate is pretty funny.
Sounds way more fun than the digital avocado set.
- Lucky Lucan
- K440 Knight Captain
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To be fair I don't think he asked her to piss in his eye, he just got too close.
Romantic Cambodia is dead and gone. It's with McKinley in the grave.
- Sonic1
- I need professional help
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An Aussie Ginger. Genetically speaking, is it really his fault?
Freedom is not a state. It is an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau.. Freedom is a continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society.-John Lewis
Shortly after I had some STD tests, a nurse rang to tell me I had chlamydia in the eye. I asked her how it got there and she said you probably got a little squirt during sexual activity.
Didn't require bondage though.
Didn't require bondage though.
"Not my circus, not my monkeys" - KiR
- horace
- I can not turn my computer off ...
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I had a dose in the eye back in the early days, nearly went fucking blind, had it for about a month , tried every antibiotic and eye drops on the market. Only cured when Gloria , yes Gloria realised that it was gonarria ( I have no idea how to spell that. I would ask RobW but we are on different continents ) and got the correct medication eyedrops.
k440, something to do when you're pissed.
I remember how many streets were still unsealed in 2005-2006, even in the centre of the city. And I went to that awful Casa place once and The Rock.
Is the Bayon Pearnik still going, that's amazing. And that odd half French half English magazine?
I really only miss the beach in Cambodia and the cheap beer.
Is the Bayon Pearnik still going, that's amazing. And that odd half French half English magazine?
I really only miss the beach in Cambodia and the cheap beer.
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