tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289582552024-03-15T00:51:24.797+07:00Crossing CambodiaCrossing Cambodia seeks to reveal the intricacies of traffic related issues both to those living in Cambodia and those outside. This is done by informing readers of the current status of travel in Cambodia, current traffic related issues and essays on the background of how and why traffic conditions evolve as they do in Cambodia.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger395125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-76916932059305295312011-04-18T10:27:00.004+07:002011-04-18T13:26:08.127+07:00Chasing cars, shortly after Khmer New Year<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Dare I mention, that this be my last entry? Time to move on. Nearly five years (just a month short) and over 400 entries no less, so if my readers have failed to pick up the essentials of travel and traffic in Cambodia and Phnom Penh in particular ... well, more postings won't help!</span><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">To sum up, getting about here is anarchic, lawless and down right reckless. Then again, I haven't had an accident in the nearly 6 years I've been here, so driving around with caution helps. But I also know of many others less fortunate.</span>...<br /></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Oh well, the news</span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">I's have liked to start with a posting on tripadvisor concerning poor services rendered by a local bus company, but tripadvisor have deleted the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g293939-i9162-k4296970-l31722168-Tourist_Van_Deaths-Cambodia.html#31722168">thread</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. Huh.</span></li></ul></div><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">It is the time of the year for accidents to be more commonplace. More movement, more alcohol. But even before the festivities started accidents happened. </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011030647160/National-news/traffic-accident-kills-19.html">Phnom Penh Post</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> (6 March 2011) reports on a horrific accident near Sihanoukville where a container truck hits a minivan (with 25 persons, hows that possible?). Nineteen deaths. The said accident </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011030947231/National-news/road-safety-a-growing-concern-ngos.html">lead</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> to NGO's <blockquote>'expressing concern'.</blockquote></span></li></ul><ul><li><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.travelfish.org/blogs/phnompenh/2011/04/preparing-for-the-worst-traffic-accidents-in-cambodia/">Travelfish</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> have added their own entry on traffic accidents in Cambodia: </span><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;">'Getting into a </span><strong style="font-family: verdana;">traffic accident</strong><span style="font-family: verdana;"> anywhere is serious, but in Cambodia it's particularly so .... only to find out that there's generally no enforcement and no punishment ...'.</span></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> Their advice is Get insured, Be prepared, Have all kinds of emergency numbers at hand and wear a helmet.</span></div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">More air traffic. Besides the (re-) launch of Air France flights, Korean Air will deploy bigger aircraft on Cambodia, effectively increasing capacity by 50% to Seoul (</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011030947246/Business/bigger-planes-heading-to-kingdom.html">Phnom Penh Post</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, 9 March 2011). There are also </span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><blockquote>'feasiblility studies'</blockquote></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> underway for finding out whether or not direct flights can be made to the UK or Turkey (</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011032347549/Business/study-underway-for-direct-flights-to-united-kingdom.html">Phnom Penh Post</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, 23 March 2011).</span></div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">More </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011031747423/National-news/pm-warns-officials-over-traffic-accidents.html">news</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> on the fight of Hun Sen vs. the trucks: </span><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;">'“I’m very concerned about trucks loading containers. It seems that accidents would happen easily and the issues repeated again and again. Therefore, you must be cautious, and you who don’t work on this have to resign from your position,” Hun Sen said.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> The Ministry of Commerce needs to shut down some transportation companies that continue to violate the law.”</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> Hun Sen also appealed to provincial governors to stop illegal road checkpoints and ensure that roads are repaired and maintained'. </span></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Wish him luck with that. Also with his appeal to ensure all involved adhere to the traffic law, which has proven to be impossible. Not worth the paper it's printed on.</span><br /></div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">But, presto, a day later 25 trucks were <blockquote>'seized'</blockquote>(</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011031847452/National-news/overloaded-trucks-seized-in-the-capital.html">Phnom Penh Post</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, 18 March 2011).</span></li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">A first hand experince with the new Monivong parking fee collectors from </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17195">Khmer 440</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. Lots of questions.</span></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Cambodian electric vehicles? Possibly, according to </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011032247524/Business/angkor-electric-vehicle-to-hit-road.html">Phnom Penh Post</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> (March 22, 2011). A local company in conjunction with </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><blockquote>'local inventor Nhean Phaloek – who once reportedly claimed that the doors to one of his prototype vehicles opened telepathically'</blockquote></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"> will seek to produce at least 500 cars on an annual basis.</span></li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">A nice </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://ltocambodia.blogspot.com/2011/04/signs-of-sihanoukville.html">blog entry</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> on Lto Cambodia on road signs in Sihanoukville which actually encourage road users to go up the wrong way of a one way street!</span></li></ul></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-65862677087450795352011-03-22T09:27:00.006+07:002011-03-22T10:53:52.483+07:00Walking<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">The government has designated Street 130 as the number 1 street for tourists to walk along between the nearly renovated Central Market and the Mekong Riverside. The four lane road has been made less wide with broad sidewalks and a green central divider. See the picture below.</span><br /></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0B-L9QJgA8YhTRvNyrkz1RFearAZGQQHH3vIt-jyQiPGx2y_aoFafX3ID45vZpljLANZaU21WEJooYCATpNuHhnDm8Q9KXZtAUTf7sILNp_K8R5gk2KBQrn-2WK4yjIEpsPrMFQ/s1600/IMG_2985.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0B-L9QJgA8YhTRvNyrkz1RFearAZGQQHH3vIt-jyQiPGx2y_aoFafX3ID45vZpljLANZaU21WEJooYCATpNuHhnDm8Q9KXZtAUTf7sILNp_K8R5gk2KBQrn-2WK4yjIEpsPrMFQ/s320/IMG_2985.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5586726473668117106" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">A good example of the government trying to stimulate (and protect) the most vulnerable of traffic users, pedestrians.<br />Why on earth no one walks in this city is beyond CC.<br />But good intentions aren't enough, what happens then is that the wider sidewalk is used for parking of cars and motorcycles, not only by small businesses but also by the phone company <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBMQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.beeline.com.kh%2F&rct=j&q=Beeline%20cambodia&ei=zhyITcXtEYXevQPBoKDQDg&usg=AFQjCNHRZcgmgltBAEjwlN8yyCPzeLkYnA&cad=rja">Beeline</a>. Thank you.</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8vPwuaepi-vLgKWxnHQOjbHVp4z-VddQzhCBN1vO1e4CRj3gGGqWlI1-Y8ZPKmWhs5FF2BNhPjshPKr6dCAWzVsKmoSkFf_VX2JbPGFyjmnhSFc8ifw3ItuS2qd2I2rLKNr271g/s1600/IMG_2987.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8vPwuaepi-vLgKWxnHQOjbHVp4z-VddQzhCBN1vO1e4CRj3gGGqWlI1-Y8ZPKmWhs5FF2BNhPjshPKr6dCAWzVsKmoSkFf_VX2JbPGFyjmnhSFc8ifw3ItuS2qd2I2rLKNr271g/s320/IMG_2987.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5586727141840216338" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family: verdana; font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Street 130, walk if you dare. Extra space intended for public use, used by businesses and through-way clogged up by cars and moto's.</span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZKoBrOw5sZTWMVUKeoebTNH1KTHp7exOSkM9N4WEmUb1FRjDaRu9OULa0_IospXpIqNu1lD6hOfrS00xtFnKohHEzaulcYsB8aQsgfe1d6uyVr2bfwPpEzN-CcOji_7QhOWJHew/s1600/IMG_2984.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZKoBrOw5sZTWMVUKeoebTNH1KTHp7exOSkM9N4WEmUb1FRjDaRu9OULa0_IospXpIqNu1lD6hOfrS00xtFnKohHEzaulcYsB8aQsgfe1d6uyVr2bfwPpEzN-CcOji_7QhOWJHew/s320/IMG_2984.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5586726468948248386" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sihanouk Boulevard: looks nice but is at odds with function. Potentially dangerous?</span></span><br /><br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">In spite of that effort it seems the walking street will be the lower part of Sihanouk Boulevard. The past two years has slowly seen the street evolve from small shops selling everything to modern air-co shops selling high-end goods. Naturally these poor citizens can't be expected to walk and certainly not to cross the road.<br />The amount of detail shown in street 130 is completely devoid on this section where they have replaced the divider of cement blocks by a meter high fence with no gaps.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">In the light of last years Diamond Bridge catastrophe one could actually question why this sectioning of the road will not possibly result in another. The crowds which wander up and down the Boulevard during the Boat Racing period are tremendous, and one can foresee problems. But is it just me?</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsa789iyVB_4GwBW8f-hDLauwZ3s91lIcRaJWFk6W_kTLRQkVoQXQ-uKn8gxytfDyc0ZGM0YmtlRe9UJa0gyuzElXdGypuJHv94lXB1CnUAFJS76WOEQCU_8M45qC63gwE684CGA/s1600/IMG_2990.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsa789iyVB_4GwBW8f-hDLauwZ3s91lIcRaJWFk6W_kTLRQkVoQXQ-uKn8gxytfDyc0ZGM0YmtlRe9UJa0gyuzElXdGypuJHv94lXB1CnUAFJS76WOEQCU_8M45qC63gwE684CGA/s320/IMG_2990.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5586745496721526034" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-style: italic;">How to cross the road?</span></span><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-60872234906966243152011-02-24T12:54:00.003+07:002011-02-24T13:48:48.526+07:00Chasing Cars, Cambodian style, February 2011<div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Deaths on Cambodian roads only make the news if there are many. </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011022046893/National-news/5-dead-after-head-on-crash.html">Phnom Penh Post</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> (20 Feb.) reports 5 dead after a truck with musicians (!) collides with a tuk-tuk with gasoline.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Cambodia's traffic makes international headlines. An article in the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/15/letter-from-cambodia-scooter-murphy">Guardian</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> (15 Feb.) echoes the underlying flow of this blog: </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'Everything you want to know about Cambodia's city society is found in the traffic of Phnom Penh – social conformity mixed with anarchic individualism, the confidence of young Cambodian women, the indifference of the police, the motorbike as an extra limb attached to the body, the inability of old cultural ways to cope with the modern world.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> If I were a Cambodian policeman, I too would just stand and watch'.</span></blockquote><br /></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">How weird can it get? A former official (who should be have been in jail at the time) manages to create an accident in Ratanakiri province. Solution? Pay a pittance for disabling lifes (</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011012746403/National-news/night-out-costs-drink-driving-inmate.html">PPP</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, 27 Jan.).</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Lot's of flight information so much so that the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.cambodiamirror.org/2011/01/21/airlines-in-cambodia-friday-21-1-2011/">Cambodia Mirror</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> (21 Jan.) has a special on Cambodian Airlines (note that most do not operate anymore ....).<br />Other airworthy news: Cambodian Angkor Air will start breaking Bangkok Air's monopoly (though there must be considerable profits falling to Cambodia) between Siem Reap and Bangkok (</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011020446582/Business/end-to-bangkok-airs-monopoly-is-welcome.html">PPP</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, 4 Feb.). CAA will actually start to fly more flights out of Siem Reap. The article in the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011013046455/Business/flights-to-angkor-set-to-rise.html">Phnom Penh Post</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> (30 Jan.) includes the insinuation that Bangkok Air are making huge amounts of cash on this flight. A response, points out that per km Siem Reap - Phnom Penh (serviced only be CAA) is actually more expensive, while CC believes that Phnom Penh - Saigon is even more expensive (only operator is CAA's major share holder Vietnam Airlines).<br />In response the Thai are emboldend to demand their share of the spills (</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011021146745/Business/adding-airlines-thai-carriers-aim-to-land-in-siem-reap.html">PPP</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, 11 Feb).<br />Tonle Sap Airways takes off (</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011020746632/Business/tonle-sap-airline-takes-off.html">PPP</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, 7 Feb.) as will Indochina Airline.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Despite all the war like situation with the Thai, Cambodia's PM can go out of his way to lean on a freight company for </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'claiming its trucks often caused collisions on Cambodia’s roads and bridges'. (</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011012446308/National-news/hun-sen-warns-freight-firm.html">PPP</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, 24 Jan.).</span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;"> Mystified? Soi seems the company in question: </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'So Nguon Group chairman So Nguon said yesterday that the company had been upgrading its vehicles in recent months, adding “I don’t know who instigated Samdech [Hun Sen] to be angry with us like this.”</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> The firm, thought to be the biggest trucking firm in the Kingdom, had bought 60 new trucks to be used for frieght transportation in recent months, he claimed, and said it had sold most of its older vehicles'.</span></blockquote></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Tourists though take aim at busses. </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g293939-i9162-k4197167-l30871379-Don_t_travel_with_Paramount_Angkor_Express_in_Cambodia-Cambodia.html#30871379">Tripadvisor</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">'s forum includes a warning concerning Paramount: </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'We had a lot of material damage and medical costs but even after dozens of mails (and visits to their office) they don't respond. Even their insurance company, (Caminco Insurance) stopped responding.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> Almost 6 months later they are still not taking their responsibility!'</span></blockquote></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Take a boat instead. </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011020746610/Business/cruising-the-mekong-river-in-style.html">PPP</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> (7 Feb.) has an article on Compagnie Fluviale du Mekong company. It's not cheap: <blockquote>'a typical 10-day cruise can cost about US$4,000 for a double cabin'.</blockquote></span></li></ul></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-84469535835790244432011-01-21T07:30:00.006+07:002011-01-21T15:32:40.811+07:00Chasing Cars, January 20 2011<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Happy New Year. Just a couple more entries to go and I'll be drawing the curtains on this blog.</span> <ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Flights are set to take off between Cambodia and Burma, but not from Phnom Penh, according to an article in this weeks </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011011846169/Business/siem-reap-yangon-flights-set-for-takeoff.html">Phnom Penh Post</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. There's a huge market, that's for sure:<blockquote>'Cambodia received 2,614 visitors in 2010 who claimed Myanmar as their country of residence, according to Ministry of Tourism statistics'. </blockquote>Seeing how much effort is needed to get flights to countries even closeby it's a bit strange that <blockquote>'Officials also requested that Russia and Japan begin regular direct flights to the Kingdom during the ongoing ASEAN Tourism Forum in Phnom Penh.“We are hopeful that if we have direct flights with Russia and Japan, tourists will increasingly come to our country,” said Thong Khon'.</blockquote></span></li><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">More air. Two new airlines approved in Cambodia (</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010122845670/Business/two-new-companies-given-licence-to-fly-in-cambodia.html">PPP</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, 28 Dec. 2010). But only for domestic destinations, which means between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. That's what the market wants?</span></li></ul><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Victims of a plane crash (</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011011646105/National-news/court-orders-plane-crash-payout.html">PPP</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, Jan 16 2011) are waiting for insurance pay-out for 3,5 years now, how much longer? Avoid using Cambodian airline(s)? Btw, it was a domestic flight ....<br /></span></li></ul> <ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">The new Siem Reap airport will be constructed whatever anybody else thinks (</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010120745203/Business/new-siem-reap-airport-plans-gather-pace.html">PPP</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, 7 December 2010). <blockquote>'A government official has claimed work on a new US$1 billion Siem Reap airport is set to begin next year, after the project was approved by Prime Minister Hun Sen'.</blockquote> Green light by the government.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Ung Meng Hong and Kasem Choocharukul have tried to revive the idea of a Phnom Penh bus system (</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011011846165/National-news/city-residents-bullish-on-bus.html">Phnom Penh Post</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, 18-01-11). Apparently 72% of the respondents might just switch if the prices would be less than nothing. The report also noted that it would be required to see if there is economic viability...<br />One problem is that a bus system will help solve traffic conditions, but if traffic conditions require public transport then it is often too late to introduce bus service, nobody is gonna pay for sitting in a bus in a traffic jam.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Another bus station in the planning. Currently there is none and buses just drop you off wherever they feel like. A senator thinks that a bus station is just what the doctor ordered. The bus station will be 20 km from Phnom Penh. The </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010121345344/National-news/ground-transport-hub-slated-for-capital.html">Phnom Penh Post</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> (13 Dec. 2010) adds: <blockquote>'Ly Yong Phat [senator] has been involved in contentious land disputes in Oddar Meanchey and Kampong Speu provinces with villagers who claim to have been displaced by his development projects'.</blockquote> Bus companies are already well versed with the consequences. <blockquote>'Sok Chan Mony, general manager of the Rith Mony bus company, said the terminal would ease congestion in the city, though he also said that both passengers and transporters would see rising costs if all companies are forced to relocate'. </blockquote>The money going where?</span></li></ul> <ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">The </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://roadsafetyawarenesscam.blogspot.com/2011/01/road-violence.html">roadsafetyawareness</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> blog gives us another viral video. In it ,two ladies are asked to pull over, but go ballistic towards the police for the notion that they might just have done something wrong.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Road rage even in Sihanoukville, with trucks (</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011011045968/National-news/road-rage-drivers-in-traffic-cop-death-threat.html">PPP</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, Jan 10, 2011). </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'Prum Davuth, 28, and Plong Sokhen, 26, were arrested after they were accused of threatening to run over a number of traffic officers with their truck in Sihanoukville town’s commune 3, said Prum Pov, chief of the provincial traffic police. </span><span style="font-family:verdana;">“We released both of them after they made apologies for their mistake,” he said'.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;"> End of story.</span></li></ul> <ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">The curious world of Cambodia. Sihanoukville, the world's most expensive place for taking a tuk-tuk, is seeing a response. Hotels are now providing transportation to their guests, so they don't fall prey to the tuk-tukers. Makes sure they get to their hotel, and to the beach. But that's not fair cry the tuk-tukkers. And protest. </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.expat-advisory.com/forum/asia/cambodia/phnom-penh-pub-expats-expats-cambodia/protest-over-bike-rentals-foreigners">Expat Advisory Service</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> has no less than 42 posts on the issue. In general, the best advice is to stay away of the place altogether. It's a dump. Beach, just head to one of the islands. And why else come to Sihanoukville?</span></li></ul> <span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> <ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Over the holidays </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://trustbuilding.wordpress.com/2011/01/08/the-killings-roads/">just another accident</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> to add to the list. Five dead were reported, high official and his family who were overtaking on a blind corner ... Anyway over the holidays the was a controversy in Thailand when a young lady managed to rear end a van which then lost I think 8 passengers who tumbled over the edge of the 30m high road. She was 16. And after the accident needed to text. In Phnom Penh, that's not controversial at all: <blockquote>'Koeun Sotharaneth, the 16-year-old son of a general in the National Police, has been charged with manslaughter after he killed three people in a car accident in Kandal province on Friday night'.</blockquote> Since (21 Dec. 2010, </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010122145542/National-news/generals-son-charged-over-three-road-deaths.html">PPP</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">) have not heard anything on the case. </span><span style="font-family:verdana;">Personally I know two persons who were hit during the holidays while using their bicycles, a trend?</span></li></ul><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> <ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Elsewhere the metered taxi's are not doing too bad a business (</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011010945956/Business/taxis-take-on-tuk-tuks-in-capital.html">PPP</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, 9 Jan 2011). Though still not enough that you could hail a taxi, they are increasing in number and are not a bad alternative to tuk-tuks which are growing exponentially in the capital by the looks of it. The owners report slower than expected business but are making a profit.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Road construction leads to electrical problems (</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011010545870/National-news/road-mishap-electrical-cuts-spark-legal-action.html">PPP</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, 5 Jan 2011). Someone needs their wiring checked anyway. The company responsible for the damage, AZ Investment has a reputation for not paying up. <blockquote>'He [electricity company representative] did not comment on the extent of the damage, but said AZ has attempted to evade responsibility in the past'. </blockquote>Another case of not holding your breathe.</span></li></ul> <ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">The Phnom Penh Post (January 5, 2011) </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011010545868/National-news/police-claim-progress-in-drunk-driving-blitz.html">reports</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> that there are really persons being apprehended for failing the breathalyzer. It also adds this police citation: <blockquote>'“At night time, if there is no presence of police, the respect of law is low,” he said'.</blockquote></span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Phnom Penh has witnessed a couple of new bridges which enable to move from one in-going traffic jam to another. But one needs to pay. That's fine (the roads are great), but </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011010545871/National-news/drivers-concerned-over-new-road-tolls.html">elsewhere</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> in the country one also needs to pay for <blockquote>'... toll along a road with numerous old bridges in Kandal province’s Sa’ang district'.</blockquote> Truck drivers incensed.</span></li></ul><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Other bridges take more time. Already in the pipeline for ages, a groundbreaking ceremony will take place for the bridge needed to cross the Mekong between Saigon and Phnom Pen, according to todays </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011012046237/National-news/mekong-bridge-to-break-ground.html">Phnom Penh Post</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Rent seeking. The old weapon of the corrupt. In Koh Kong province according to the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011010345831/National-news/koh-kong-tourist-boat-operators-up-in-arms.html">Phnom Penh Post</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> (3 Jan 2011), the eco-tourist site (Chipat?) was serviced by many smaller boats. <blockquote>'Men Sopheap, 39, a representative of 18 boat owners in Chiphat commune, said Moeng Sophea, a commune official, was set to introduce a tourist ferry service and that boatmen were informed that they would have to wind up their business this week, since their boats were “unsafe”'.</blockquote> It will only be for a few years. The site will either become a titanium mine or disappear under a hydropower lake. Progress?</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Congestion spreads to river? The </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011011146002/National-news/sunk-boat-to-be-recovered-from-river.html">Phnom Penh Post</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> (11 jan, 2011) reports that a tourist boat sunk after hitting a sand barge. No word about how that could happen.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Discussion topics. Are tuk-tuks safer? </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?t=16691&start=0">Khmer 440</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> has the answer, tuk-tuks are perceived as safer (but have their own issues) but better still take a taxi.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">For those of you wondering which street is where and whether house no. 24 is next to no. 22 or no. 543b, apparently street signs will return (</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010122745663/National-news/phnom-penh-to-revamp-street-signage.html">Phnom Penh Post</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, Dec 27). </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'City officials have announced ambitious plans to reorganise the numbers of the capital’s buildings and install street signs that will be uniform in style across the city.<br />...<br />He said the Chinese Chung Hong Company had been commissioned to manufacture the aluminum signs, but that businesses and homeowners in the capital would be required to pay US$4 each to cover the costs.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> The scheme received a mixed reaction from residents yesterday, with some expressing concern about the fee they would be required to pay'.</span></blockquote></li></ul><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> <ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Big plans not always materialize. A second flyover in Phnom Penh (</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011011446089/National-news/city-downgrades-plans-to-build-boeung-kak-flyover.html">PPP</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, 14 Jan 2011) will be downgraded, with somehow the width less than ideal. Another highlight: it will be 50m high. Mistake?</span></li></ul></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-3804200757803440642010-12-02T14:52:00.003+07:002010-12-02T16:28:50.273+07:00Chasing Cars, December 2, 2010<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It's inevitable to mention last weeks tragic bridge affair. Though traffic deaths and carnage are an increasingly familiar part of modern day life in Cambodia, it's mindboggling that a simple bridge and in-numerous amounts of people can lead to more than 350 dead. </span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">What could be have been a watershed for the country seems to have been put behind us all. No one is accounted for blame, no one to share responsibility. And certainly not the owners of the bridge. And certainly not the government. Responsible behavior is not Khmer and hoping to improve the future by learning from past mistakes seems a tactic foreign to the local culture.</span><br /></div><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>One of Phnom Pen's more peculiar traffic exhibits (and tourist attractions), Sambo the elephant, is destined to be evicted from the city. From Cambodiacalling: 'Sambo's owner Sinsorn was told on the 11 November that Sambo must leave Wat Phnom and never return because people complain Sambo disrupts traffic'. Sambo disrupts a fraction on the traffic, I bet the PP's govenor disrupts the traffic a lot more than Sambo!</li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">More past haunting Cambodia. The </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010111744795/National-news/anti-tank-mine-kills-14.html">Phnom Penh Post</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> reports that 14 persons were killed when a tractor ran over an anti-tank mine.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Despite all the romanticism concerning the soon to disappear rail norries, accidents can also be deadly. Again the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010112344899/National-news/man-run-over-by-norrie.html">Phnom Penh Post</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">: <blockquote>'Thnoat Chhrum commune police official Hong Savon said that a mix of heat and long-term use caused one of the norrie’s wheels to break. One of the passengers, Kong Tit from Kandieng district, was thrown from the norrie and fell in front of the cart. He suffered a fractured skull, a severe leg injury and several injuries to his arms. He died due to blood loss on the way to hospital'. </blockquote></span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Expat Advisory service has a couple of traffic related threads. </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.expat-advisory.com/forum/asia/cambodia/phnom-penh-pub-expats-expats-cambodia/letter-mad-bitch-driving-prado">Letter to the Mad Bitch Driving a Prado</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">.<blockquote>'Yes, you know who you are'. </blockquote>A traffic related anger management issue? Strange why the letter hasn't been sent by mail. Then </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.expat-advisory.com/forum/asia/cambodia/phnom-penh-pub-expats-expats-cambodia/bus-driver-nuts">Bus Driver is Nuts</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. It elicits quite a few reactions, though it seems that most drivers are nuts.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Over on the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?t=16362&start=0">Khmer 440 forum</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, there's no less than 4 pages on hit and runs. How common are they? A.: <blockquote>'Though disturbing ... it is standard practice in Cambodia'.</blockquote> Hot off their </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?t=16511">website</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. The police are using their speed gun on a less busy stretch of road beyond the airport. And manned by 20 cops no less.</span></li></ul></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-55942908635638811712010-11-14T10:56:00.003+07:002010-11-14T15:49:17.735+07:00Chasing Cars, November 14, 2010<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Going viral. Probably the most talked about traffic issue at the moment is an everyday occurrence on Cambodia's road. Car travels down the wrong side of the road, hits a moto, tries to evade police. The difference is that this time someone his uploaded it onto </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldV7Nm-4Dyw&feature=share">YouTube</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> and everybody has been talking about, especially on Facebook.</span><br /><br /></div><div style="font-family: verdana; text-align: center;"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ldV7Nm-4Dyw?fs=1&hl=nl_NL"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ldV7Nm-4Dyw?fs=1&hl=nl_NL" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Deaths reported: three monks in one </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010111244700/National-news/three-monks-killed-in-tractor-truck-collision.html">go</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, a professional boxer </span><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-family: verdana;">accidentally</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">.</span> Two girls by a soldier who was briefly arrested by police before letting him go because he had </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010102244223/National-news/police-release-soldier-who-killed-two-girls-in-collision.html">not intended</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> to hit the girls. </span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Then in Banteay Meanchey a dead cow was </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010111044634/National-news/cow-strikes-again.html">arrested / confiscated</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">: <span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">'</span>He [province's chief of traffic police] said the corpse was detained for two hours at the station, but the owner failed to appear and the owners of the cars decided not to wait any longer and negotiated to pay for the damage themselves.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> “They [ the aggrieved damaged car owners] took the dead cow with them,” he said. “I don’t know what they will do with that cow.”' </span></blockquote></li></ul></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">China mending bridges? No, building new ones for Cambodia's railways (</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010103144382/Business/china-to-bridge-missing-rail-link.html">Phnom Penh Post</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">). Other rail </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010102544266/Business/truckers-consider-impact-of-newly-renovated-railway.html">news</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. New reopened routes will lead to the costs going down for road transport.</span></li></ul></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">There's an upswing in tourism meaning </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010102844348/Business/extra-flights-but-not-to-the-coast.html">more flights</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, none of the aforementioned promises (Hanoi, Manila, Jakarta), but more of the same. Also no flights to Sihanoukville. Which is quite pathetic. TCambodia's national airline (CAA) should be opening up routes to here, but is in a bind as the operator of the airline is none other than the Vietnamese government which has no interest at all in opening Sihanoukville up as it competes directly with Vietnam's own plans for making Phou Coc the beach destination of the neighbourhood. Talk about a neighbourhood bully. <blockquote>'Developers and real estate agents have again emphasised the need for regular flights to Sihanoukville airport, with one party calling it “possibly the single most critical issue affecting tourism” in Cambodia',</blockquote> is just one of the lines Phnom Penh Post uses to highlight the case. The final sentence in the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010102644296/Business/coastal-flights-back-on-agenda.html">article</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">?</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> <blockquote>'Mai Xuan Long, an official at CAA, declined to comment'.</blockquote> </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010102544248/Business/caa-must-step-up-in-sihanoukville.html">Stephen Finch</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">'s comment also focuses on the situation. He asks some poignant questions. </span><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;">'Why isn’t CAA supporting these newly emerging destinations, especially given that Cambodia’s new flag carrier is understood to be partly government-run?</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> The surging prices on CAA’s route from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh amid nonexistent carrier competition is equally debilitating for Cambodian tourism</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">. Whereas the new airline offered special promotion fares between Cambodia’s two biggest tourism destinations after launching in July last year, now a round trip for foreigners usually costs more than US$200 when airport tax is factored in.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> That route across the Kingdom must rank as one of the most expensive internal flights in the region per kilometre'.</span><br /></blockquote></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">The government is planning more overhead bridges (<a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010110944589/National-news/work-to-begin-on-sky-bridge.html">Phnom Penh Post</a>) despite current ones not fitting the bill. </span><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;">'</span><span class="postbody"><span style="font-family: verdana;">is it me or are the road exits around the overpass at Chbar Ampeouv another classic piece of local planning ? It seems that if you're traveling south on Norodom and want to turn left across the Chbar Ampeouv bridge then you can only do this by turning right for a few hundred metres until you can execute an illegal u-turn around the concrete lane dividers ?</span></span><span class="postbody"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> And similarly if you're traveling north from Takmao and want to turn left onto the southern end of Monivong, it seems you now have to turn right to go across the newer Chbar Ampeouv bridge before turning round to come back over the old Chbar Ampeouv bridge'.</span></span></blockquote><span class="postbody"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> More discussion on </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?t=16130">Khmer 440</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">.</span></span><br /></li></ul><ul><li><span class="postbody"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Khmer 440 also </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?t=16135">mention</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> that there is a radar gun in Sihanoukville working ...</span></span></li></ul><span class="postbody"></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-58534631009284722922010-10-22T08:56:00.003+07:002010-10-22T10:44:50.529+07:00Chasing Cars, a month later<ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li><a href="http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2010/10/air-france-to-start-flights-to.html">Air France</a> are coming this way. Bye, bye Bangkok. (That's if there are no strikes ....).<br />More from the <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010101143887/Business/air-france-eyes-cambodian-skies.html">Phnom Penh Post</a> ( 11 October 2010) Airberlin and Bangkok Airways sign <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010101844062/Business/airberlin-bangkok-air-link-capital-to-europe.html">deal</a> to allow good connection via Bangkok.</li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>The airport in Siem Reap. To relocate? To enlargen? <blockquote>'Airport management company Société Concessionaire Des Aéroports believes Siem Reap’s existing aerodrome can cope with future traffic demand, despite recently approved plans to build an alternative US$1-billion facility'.</blockquote> <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010092642275/Business/debate-widens-on-siem-reap-airport.html">So there</a>.<br /></li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify; font-family: verdana;"><li face="verdana">Trains are riding, analysisi are written. Keeping the iron silk line on track. Quite. But things are only starting. Analysis in <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010102144176/National-news/analysis-keep-iron-silk-road-on-track.html">Phnom Penh Post</a> (21 October 2010).<br />Elsewhere <a href="http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?t=15995&sid=fcad4cb1e3650d09e03920227cf99293">Khmer 440 </a>forum has this:<blockquote> 'Went the back way to kep last weekend and crossed the new rail line at several spots.<br />I was astonished to see wagons loaded with ballast being unloaded onto the tracks.The line looked nearly finished and it actually opened yesterday.<br />The new line means that trains can now carry cement from kampot to PP which will save the roads.<br />But today we read that only hours after the first train ran it collided with a cement truck and was derailed!<br />Toll holdings say that the train did all it could to warn the oncoming truck'. </blockquote>The final word on this thread: <blockquote>'Cambodian government will solve the problem, by passing a law that requires everyone to wear a crash helmet'. </blockquote>Hilarious.<br />And <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010100342434/Business/train-to-kampot-back-on-track.html?Itemid=">here</a> a more business like article on the train going forward.<br /></li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify; font-family: verdana;"><li face="verdana">Crashes results in arrest. In <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010102144178/National-news/soldier-held-in-crash-that-killed-two-girls-in-kampong-cham.html">Kampong Cham.</a></li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li style="font-family: verdana;" face="verdana">More accidents, more expensive cars, more claims at insurance companies. <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010101844079/Business/road-claims-concern-forte.html">Progress</a>. It must be a good business:<blockquote> 'Cao Minh Son, chief executive officer of Cambodia Vietnam Insurance, has seen the firm’s premiums total $750,000 over the first nine months – while paying out less than $8,000 in claims during the period'.</blockquote></li><li style="font-family: verdana;">More car business: sales are up (<a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010100643864/Business/car-sales-rise-as-users-demand-safety-quality.html">Phnom Penh Post</a>, October 6, 2010). Quote: <blockquote>'“People are becoming more fond of new cars because they’re thinking about the quality and safety,”'. </blockquote>As opposed to the good old days when buyers were just thinking about a set of wheels ...?</li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010101944109/National-news/better-driving-needed-to-avoid-traffic-snarl-ups.html">Letter</a> to Phnom Penh Post's Editor ( 19 October 2010): <blockquote>'Nowadays, a lot of traffic lights have been set up in Phnom Penh. The traffic lights help people to avoid traffic jams. Violators are always disobeying the rules.<br />Some of the traffic lights cause traffic jams because they don’t have the left turn signal. I think the government should set up the right traffic light'.</blockquote>Get right, get left.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li style="font-family: verdana;">And the answer to those drunken drivers who drive around carefree in Phnom's streets ignoring all the rules? A SMS.<blockquote> 'Gary Foo, marketing manager for Hello, said the company began sending out anti-drunken driving messages to subscribers last week at the behest of the National Police.<br />The messages state: “If you drink, do not drive. If you drive, do not drink”'.</blockquote>More in the <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010101443998/National-news/sms-texts-warn-drunken-drivers.html">article</a>: <blockquote>'On October 1, municipal traffic police established nighttime drunken-driving checkpoints in all eight districts of the capital, and pulled over nearly 100 drivers in three days. The checkpoints were suspended, however, for the Pchum Ben festival, and Chev Hak said yesterday that this week’s flooding had prevented police from setting them up again.<br />“We planned to restart on October 11, but because the weather was not good, we decided to suspend. We will carry on from this week after there is no more rain,” he said yesterday.<br />...<br />Prach Chanthou, Kampong Speu’s traffic police chief, also said checkpoints had not been set up there, citing the weather and a “lack of street lamps”'.</blockquote></li><li style="font-family: verdana;">And <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010100342436/National-news/drink-driving-blitz.html">thus</a> prior to Pchum Ben: <blockquote>'Municipal traffic police established nighttime drunken-driving checkpoints in all eight districts of the capital over the weekend, stopping nearly 100 drivers and fining four of them.<br />...<br />The law calls for fines ranging between 6,000 riels and 25,000 riels (about US$1.50 to $6) for drunken driving, depending on vehicle type'.</blockquote></li><li style="font-family: verdana;">Another long discussion on the merits of parking guards on the <a href="http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?t=16025&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=89c6946fc5be8eb92a4393306e9316fc">khmer 440</a> forum. The starter: <blockquote>'<span class="postbody">I always hate those parking guys who put the piece of paper on the vehicle and then deamand the return of the other half when one returns.<br />I hate it when they try and demand three thousand riel for parking a car at the night market.<br />I went to meta house last night on the moto,quite a nice venue but with a crap movie on.<br />Imagine our surprise when we came out for the parking guy to demand 500 riel for each moto.<br />Why a barang business would get into charging for parking is beyond me.<br />I wont be going back'.</span></blockquote><span class="postbody"> The discussion then goes on and helps readers dealing with parking here, esp. for free.</span></li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="postbody">Big festival, big toll: </span><blockquote><span class="postbody">'</span>Preliminary figures indicate that there were more road deaths during the final three days of this year’s Pchum Ben festival than there were last year, despite the fact that fewer collisions were recorded'.</blockquote><a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010101043881/National-news/nat-story-3.html">Phnom Penh Post</a> ( 10 October 2010)</li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Prior to the festival, big prices </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010100643867/Business/taxi-drivers-ready-for-festival-fee-bonanza.html">too</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">:<blockquote> '... bus companies and taxi drivers are set to increase their fees by 25 to 100 percent during the five days of Pchum Ben, a festival in which Cambodian people commemorate and honour dead ancestors'.</blockquote> The quote: <blockquote>'But many passengers remain disgruntled over doling out extra cash. Svay Rieng University student, Phok Marady, 22, who recently came to Phnom Penh to visit his uncle, said he had been charged more than usual. “It is difficult because my mother gives me only a little money,” he said'. </blockquote>22?</span></li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify; font-family: verdana;"><li><a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010092742293/National-news/anarchically-roaming-cattle-sent-off-to-rehab.html">Anarchy</a> in the kingdom: <blockquote>'Dangkor district governor Kit Sopha said he had ordered police to arrest eight wayward cows on Saturday and another four on Sunday. The bovines are being detained at the My Chance Centre, a drug rehabilitation facility in the city’s Sen Sok district.<br />“This is not the first time we have cracked down on roaming cows,” Kit Sopha said.<br />He added that the animals had been detained in connection with the Kingdom’s Land Traffic Law, which prohibits animals from “walking in a disorderly manner on a public road”. Their owners must now write letters to City Hall in order to get their animals back, he said'.</blockquote></li><li>Advertising for free on <a href="http://www.expat-advisory.com/forum/asia/cambodia/phnom-penh-pub-expats-expats-cambodia/tuk-tuk-limo">Expat Advisory Services</a>:<blockquote> 'Just seen the tuk tuk limo,all black with a uniformed driver.<br />He has free water,face towels,masks and a small library.<br />Call mr limo on 077 33 77 01'.</blockquote> A library?</li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify; font-family: verdana;"><li>New developments: a new bridge. Old one is now off-limits to some. And the new bridge costs money. <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010092442265/National-news/city-authorities-ban-trucks-and-buses-from-japanese-bridge.html">Phnom Penh Post</a> (24 September 2010): <blockquote>'Trucks and vehicles with 25 or more seats have been prohibited from crossing the Cambodia-Japan Friendship Bridge across the Tonle Sap and must instead pay to use the newly finished Prek Phnov Bridge on the city’s outskirts, Phnom Penh municipal authorities said'.</blockquote></li><li>Finally blame the messenger. According to <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010092742298/National-news/decade-sees-huge-jump-in-traffic-deaths.html">OECD</a> the past decade has seen a rise of over 300% . The government response: <blockquote>'Tin Prosoeur, deputy chief of the Traffic Department at the Interior Ministry, yesterday questioned the accuracy of the 328 percent figure. “We acknowledge that traffic fatalities are still increasing, but they have not jumped up to these high statistics,” he said'.</blockquote></li></ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-72631312452523023622010-09-22T14:30:00.005+07:002010-09-23T09:35:06.042+07:00Chasing Cars, Mooncake day 2010<div style="text-align: justify;"><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010092042126/National-news/traffic-fatality-goal-out-of-reach-official.html">Highlighting</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> Cambodia's inability in providing safety for road participants, no less than the DG of the Transport Department has explained that if Cambodia is to attain the ASEAN goal for reduction of road fatalities (in 2010), it's the international communities concern, not Cambodia's. <blockquote>'“We will not achieve the goal because our capacity is still young,” Ung Chun Huor, director general of the Transportation Department at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, said at a workshop in the capital on Friday. “We have insufficient funds and a lack of human resources to promote traffic safety.”' </blockquote>He also had no clue on how much funds were already attributed to traffic safety but rest assured, traffic safety concerns are only donor driven, so what can he do? How about enforcing the law?</span><br /></div><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>Talking of which, police are now enforcing a one way traffic sign on street 130 in Phnom Penh. It's more <a href="http://www.expat-advisory.com/forum/asia/cambodia/phnom-penh-pub-expats-expats-cambodia/new-one-way-street-warning-cops-will-be-ta">newsworthier</a> than the above.</li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>Along with the stoppage on major construction projects in the capital, Cambodia's first assembly plant is getting <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010092042129/Business/koh-kong-cars-completion-of-factory-delayed.html">a bit late</a>. <blockquote>'Camko finance director Lim Visal said yesterday that the plant would be ready to assemble cars by the end of the year, but declined to specify a date'. </blockquote>And Camko are not a real estate developer ....<br /></li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li><a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010092042146/Business/siem-reap-airport-given-green-light.html">More development</a>, a new airport in Siem Reap. Just last week <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010091642088/Business/1bn-new-airport.html">a pipe dream</a>, now awaiting construction. Logic: big airport, more and bigger planes, more tourists = more money.<br />But is it a good investment? Could be, but again Camko involved as well as another until now unknown company. Maybe it's still a pipedream ....<br />Btw, who saw that they believe that the new airport will result in a 4 or 5 fold increase in passengers? Does it mean they don't know?</li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>Again the Japanese are <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010091241962/National-news/new-bridge-to-ease-river-crossing-congestion.html">announcing</a> the construction of their bridge over the Mekong. It seems to be taking for ever.<br /></li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li><a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/images/stories/news/national/2010/100914/100914_7.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 350px; height: 288px;" src="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/images/stories/news/national/2010/100914/100914_7.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: justify; font-style: italic;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">From the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010091442005/Business/wi-fi-in-a-tuk-tuk.html">Phnom Penh Post</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> (14 September 2010) : <blockquote>'Two technologies dear to the heart of Phnom Penh’s expat community – the tuk-tuk and free Wi-Fi – have been combined. Mobile-phone provider qb has launched 15 special tuk-tuks that are set to travel around the capital offering an internet connection to “anyone in the area”. The vehicles will also act as showrooms for qb'.</blockquote></span></span></div></div></li></ul><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></span><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>Khmer440.com has a <a href="http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?t=15682&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15">discussion</a> on songteaws. Why possible in Thailand, not in Cambodia? Next week they will have a discussion on the use of old Mercedes buses. Why in Vietnam, not in Cambodia?</li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>Flight <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010092142167/Business/open-skies-cambodia-india-air-link-considered.html">information</a>. India is just another country which probably won't start flights to Cambodia even though their intentions are well-meant. In the <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010090841890/Business/caa-expands-as-flights-fill-up.html">meantime</a> Cambodia Angkor Airways (CAA) is on the way to expansion. <blockquote>'It also plans to expand operations to South Korea, China, Singapore, Bangkok and Hanoi.<br />Cambodia and Vietnam are also preparing to open a new route from Da Lat, in central Vietnam, to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, a move already approved by Cambodia’s Council of Ministers'. </blockquote>And with loads of just over 60%, a year after taking off, it's can't be deemed to be making money despite officials naming it a success. I also heard on the grapevine that CAA are still no way near to starting up flights to Sihanoukville, despite massive interest from Bangkok Air. Being a state run enterprise though means they can block that interest ...</li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">An </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=111572448901472">exposition</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> of photo's of Phnom Penh communities who until recently lived on the rails</span>.</li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">To finish off with where we began, Phnom Penh Post had a </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010090241720/National-news/no-more-stealth-tactics-by-city-police.html?Itemid=0">fine article</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> (not literally!) on the stealth tactics used by the traffic police. </span></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">'“It is important that traffic police keep safety on the road. Make sure that people respect you and the law,” Touch Naruth [Municipal Police Chief] said yesterday as he relayed a message given during his Tuesday meeting. “Don’t just stand under trees and jump out to crack down on drivers without helmets or mirrors. It’s dangerous for you and drivers on the roads.” </span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">... </span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">However, it appears not everyone agrees with the police chief’s strategy. Him Yan, director of the public order department at the Interior Ministry, said hiding behind trees is “an unavoidable strategy”.</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">“This strategy is to make people cease their bad habits,” Him Yan said. He said other countries also employ such measures to enforce the law.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">But Long Chy, a 34-year-old motorbike-taxi driver, said that he blamed police for causing traffic accidents when trying to surprise rule-breakers.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">“Police activities are much more anarchic than regular people’s,” he said'.</span></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"> Well, as trees are slowly disappearing from the city, will traffic police follow?</span><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-15445663462049019282010-09-02T12:06:00.008+07:002010-09-02T13:48:22.802+07:00Chasing cars, September 2010<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Somehow I had in mind to stop this blog after 5 years, which I believed would be soon. Just found out that I have just passed the 4 years! So no end in sight?</span><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Rail news.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> Besides the news that the railway rehab is ongoing there is the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010082741605/Business/freight-train-imports-planned.html">news item</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> on the company involved ordering carriages and loco's. It also seems that the company working in Cambodia has taken on a new investor in the form of local firm Royal, but that news seems to have eluded most.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">The </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010082041381/National-news/mekong-railway-project-to-come-another-step-closer-to-realisation.html">Phnom Penh Post</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> once more highlights the lack of interconnecting railways in Southeast Asia. </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'</span><span style="font-family:verdana;">The only missing link on that route is between Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh'.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;"> </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010082041375/Business/rail-is-key-to-getting-the-economy-back-on-the-right-track.html">Elsewhere</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> in the same newspaper is an op-ed on the same subject:<br /><blockquote>'In terms of trade the benefits are obvious. The new network would provide links to some of the Kingdom’s most important trade partners – China, Vietnam and Thailand. With Cambodia beginning to see large increases in its exports in recent years from a small base, this rail project could provide added impetus to the development of these industries. Furthermore, a new rail connection provides an additional transport link to key deepwater ports in Singapore and Cai Mep in southern Vietnam. Economic opportunities associated with completion of the project, therefore, also benefit industries like the garment sector, as most exports flow to these ports and on to Cambodia’s primary export markets in North America.<br />Given these clear benefits to the economy, why is the government not making this project an absolute priority? Instead of resorting to the type of mentality that expects others to front the capital, Cambodia needs to consider ways it could help finance the project'. </blockquote></span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Stan Kahn gives his </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010082341411/National-news/kingdom-cant-go-it-alone-on-mekong-train-project.html">own thoughts</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> on the same subject.<br /><blockquote>'... our August 20 coverage of the Mekong railway project, which included a front-page picture, an opinion column and report leave a lot to be desired. First, the opinion piece by Steve Finch lays the blame for not finishing the project solely on Cambodia, which is quite unfair considering Vietnam is also required to build new tracks. Furthermore, the huge US$1.09 billion cost of the new line, more than half of which comes from the need to construct two very expensive bridges, including one over the Mekong, is not something Cambodia could tackle on its own.<br />... it would be clear why the cost is so high. That new line starts just north of the capital, heads east and a bit north to Kampong Cham, then east all the way to Snoul, where it then makes a sharp right turn and heads south to connect with a short line in Vietnam, which should also be on the map, which comes due north from Ho Chi Minh City. <br />The connection between the two major cities would be much faster and shorter if it were routed generally along Highway 1. In that case, Vietnam would be responsible for close to half the cost. The present, less-desirable routing places about 95 percent of the cost onto Cambodia, which is much less capable of shouldering the burden'.</blockquote> Maybe the Vietnamese are just smarter.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">New rail, new roads. Not always so easy to undertake. Phnom Penh's road to the north was to be widened but after that virtually knocked down all that needed to enable the widening, PM has </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010082641551/National-news/road-expansion-to-be-scaled-back.html">stepped in</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> and said that the widening was a bit optimistic. A new problem? <blockquote>'It would now appear, however, that at least some of these families were forced to tear down their homes unnecessarily'.</blockquote></span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Bridges galore. The bridge over the Mekong to make the road to Saigon seamless is to be </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010082441438/Business/kingdom-tenders-for-new-bridge.html">tendered</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. The bridge has been waiting for ever to move forward. Scheduled date of completion 2015. Don't hold your breath.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">New roads open, others are being blocked. <blockquote>'Around 300 villagers embroiled in a land dispute with a sugar company owned by a prominent senator blocked National Road 52 in Kampong Speu province yesterday in an effort to prevent the company’s employees from tearing down villagers’ homes'.</blockquote> With frustration with the near </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010082441456/National-news/road-blocked-over-dispute.html">daily reports</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> on land conflicts increasing, expect more of this. </span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Air transport. The national carrier has </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010082341419/Business/kingdoms-angkor-air-accredited.html">received</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> it's own country license only a year after operation. </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010081941343/Business/long-sought-air-link-to-open-between-kingdom-indonesia.html">Furthermore</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> an as yet unidentified airline will seek to fly between Indonesia and Cambodia. Not direct but via Singapore, so that's no better than Silk Air, Tiger, Jetstar or Air Asia ...</span></li></ul><span style="font-family:verdana;">Now we are moving into the more whacky part of Cambodia's traffic.</span><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">First of all a sorry </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010082041388/National-news/innocent-victim-cafe-guard-injured-in-suv-smash.html">tale</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">: </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'23-year-old security guard has been seriously injured after he was crushed by a luxury SUV in front of a popular city cafe, according to the man’s family.<br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> Mom Chamroeun, who worked as a security guard in front of Gloria Jean’s coffee house in Chamkarmon district, was hospitalised after the Wednesday incident.<br />“His left leg is seriously broken and has to be amputated,” said Sam Sokla, the man’s sister. “His kidney, liver and intestines are also damaged.”<br />Ney Sokhay, a security guard nearby who saw the incident, said Mom Chamroeun was sitting in front of the cafe when a van collided with a Lexus. The crash sent the Lexus veering into the guard, he said.<br />Gloria Jean’s Managing Director Michael Albert said the business is soliciting customer donations, which will be matched then handed to Mom Chamroeun’s family'.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Bricks thrown from vehicles (see also </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.expat-advisory.com/forum/asia/cambodia/phnom-penh-pub-expats-expats-cambodia/westerners-target-brick-assaults">here</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">). Police will drop the case(s) according to their own </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010082541479/National-news/police-drop-brick-attack-case.html">logic</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">: </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'</span><span style="font-family:verdana;">“We have not found the suspect.... We are not in the process of investigation,” he said. “There is no case anymore.”'</span></blockquote></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Finally there is </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.cambodiapocketguide.com/pdfs/ppoa18/index.html">Cambodia's Pocket Guide Out&About</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> for Phnom Penh which has a section on cycling on page 50. In it besides finding out where you can buy a cycle and what to do without ending up as roadkill it mentions <blockquote>'there are plans to transform whole swathes of the capital's streets into tourist-friendly, pedestrianized areas with narrow cycle lanes'.</blockquote> Funny, it as least takes a more serious look at the advantages cycling have. Further along on page 66 a piece on staying alive which is an essential article of how to survive on Phnom Penh's roads. It involves great one-liners such as: <blockquote>'... as a foreigner you're not supposed to be here and, if you weren't then the accident would never happened'.<br /></blockquote></span></li></ul></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-56743640614619162662010-08-17T10:40:00.003+07:002010-08-17T14:22:14.626+07:00Chasing Cars, August 16, 2010<span style="font-family:verdana;">Really not much to mention over the past few months, only quirky press messages. Or not?</span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Are crash / fatality rates going up or down? No one seems to </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010070940380/National-news/crashes-fall-fatalities-level-out.html">know</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. All they do know is:</span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;"> 'If traffic police continue to enforce the law, I think fatalities will decrease'. However a recent report </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2010/08/government-unveils-traffic-safety.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FbmaW+%28KI+Media%29">suggest</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> a rise which has lead to a government initiated new traffic safety action plan. In writing the plan looks excellent: 'The plan, devised by a multi-agency road safety committee, calls for increased funding and the development of expertise in order to improve road safety.<br />Improved safety will require better infrastructure, better trained drivers and speed and traffic flow management, according to the plan, released earlier this week.<br />The plan also calls for improved major national roads and the training of engineers for road safety audits and other oversight. It will target major risks, including speeding, driving without a helmet, seatbelt or child restraint and drunk driving. It will also target overloaded vehicles and improve the reaction time for first responders.<br />Other strategies include public education, road safety curriculum in schools and universities and peer-to-peer education. Education campaigns will be linked to law enforcement initiatives.<br />Under the plan, the Ministry of Health hopes to strengthen national emergency medical services, including first aid, transport, capacity of hospitals, mechanisms to manage the system and integrated information systems. Physical rehabilitation of the victim post-crash will also become a feature in the plan.<br />Traffic legislation will also need updated for modern traffic conditions, and the laws must be better enforced, according to the plan. This will include better drivers licensing in a database linked between police and the judiciary'.</span></blockquote> <span style="font-family:verdana;">But how will this translate in reality ...</span><br /></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Reality check 1. From the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010081141148/National-news/ambulance-in-accident.html">Phnom Penh Post</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">: <blockquote>'A customs officer based at the Bavet international border crossing in Svay Rieng province crashed into an ambulance on Sunday in Romduol district, officials said. Sao Sokun, chief of the provincial traffic police, said the crash injured eight people including the customs officer, but declined to divulge who was at fault in the case. “According to the traffic law, if anyone wounds or disables another, he or she will be caught,” he said. “In this case, [the officer] is not in police custody. In practice, we don’t do like the law says.”'</blockquote></span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Reality check 2. Phnom Penh Post </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010080941082/National-news/police-round-up-gangsters-in-siem-reap.html">report</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> on what it takes to become a gangster in Cambodia: <blockquote>'45 men and eight women between the ages of 16 and 22 were arrested before daybreak yesterday while riding motorbikes, and that they had been accused of violations including speeding, failing to wear a helmet and using drugs'.</blockquote> Anyone failing to wear a helmet in the middle of the night (which covers roughly 95% of all road users at that hour!).</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Somehow the nations airliner (Cambodia Angkor Air) is going to (over?) </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010072040589/National-news/angkor-air-set-for-big-take-off.html">expand</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. <blockquote>'The carrier, set up last July in a joint venture between the Cambodian government and Vietnam Airlines, plans to purchase two 168-seat Airbus 321s – which according to a price list compiled by the French maker cost about US$95.5 million each'.</blockquote> Where does the money come from? Confidential. It apparently is making <span style="font-style: italic;">modest initial profits</span> despite the following: <blockquote>'President of World Express Tours and Travel Ho Vandy, who is also co-chairman of the government-private sector forum on tourism, emphasised that CAA must be competitive.<br />“On behalf of the tourism private sector, we’d like to suggest that the CAA should set competitive prices to encourage more passengers to use it,” he said. “We also see that service and hospitality on board is still limited. There should be an improvement, and flight attendants’ uniforms should reflect Khmer national identification.”'</blockquote> So what do they reflect now? Modernity? Vietnam?</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">What are SUV's good for? Throwing bricks at pedestrians! A rash of incidents on Phnom Penh's riverfront, most of which are as follows: <blockquote>'“I began to cross the road and a car turned down, and a brick hit me in the back.”' Not only SUVs but also pickups. The official response to this rash of incidents? 'Hun Sothy, the police chief in Daun Penh district, said he did not believe the victims’ accounts because he had yet to receive any reports detailing their cases. “I deploy police officers along the street at night to protect tourists, so I don’t think they have happened,” he said. “If there is a victim, they should file a complaint to a police official that is close to them.”'</blockquote>More about this on expatadvisory.com's </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.expat-advisory.com/forum/asia/cambodia/phnom-penh-pub-expats-expats-cambodia/westerners-target-brick-assaults">forum</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Cambodia's first fly over has opened. Though it allows most traffic (incl. the PM) going from north to south pass well, east-west is little more tougher. And willing to take a turn? Impossible. </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.expat-advisory.com/forum/asia/cambodia/phnom-penh-pub-expats-expats-cambodia/new-sky-bridge-wtf">Read</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> and try to understand what the architects have done. Courtesy of the Khmer 440 </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?t=14941&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15&sid=26bf284d92a8dab77726289b13518eeb">forum</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> came the link to this photo:</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://khmerbird.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/S-0089.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 305px; height: 228px;" src="http://khmerbird.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/S-0089.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:verdana;">Caption to the accredited to dap-news.com photo:</span><blockquote style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;font-size:85%;" >'The second case happened in the next morning, the crazy container’s driver want to test how strong will highway could maintain?'</span><span style="font-style: italic;"></span> </blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">Ripped from </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://khmerbird.com/entertainment/funny/what-is-the-highest-vehicle-in-cambodia.html">Khmerbird.com</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">.</span><br /></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Another photo of the same object from '</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.parish-without-borders.net/cditt/cambodia/dailylife/2010/dailylife10.htm">Life in Cambodia</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">':</span><div style="text-align: center;"><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.parish-without-borders.net/cditt/cambodia/dailylife/2010/graphics/flyover.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 550px; height: 227px;" src="http://www.parish-without-borders.net/cditt/cambodia/dailylife/2010/graphics/flyover.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >'An unintended (but not surprising) result of the new overpass is the creation of a new tourist attraction in Phnom Penh. Although there is no shoulder or pedestrian walkway on it, the new overpass has been swarmed by gawkers who ride their motorbikes to the middle, stop to view the traffic below, and take photos of family members. One traffic hazard has been traded for another. The interest in seeing a bird's eye view of traffic is understandable realizing that the large majority of Cambodian people have never even ridden in a car'.</span></div></li></ul></div><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Another khmer 440</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?t=14864"> forum</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> item discusses whether it's customary or not for Cambodian officials to pilfer accident victims. The fact alone that this is in questions already raises serious doubts ...</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">From Details are Sketchy (so are recent postings) another </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://detailsaresketchy.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/days-are-numbered-for-neak-loeung-ferry/">news item</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> on the impending bridge to Vietnam road saga.</span></li></ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-21951593437139945622010-06-17T07:55:00.007+07:002010-06-17T10:19:01.366+07:00Chasing Cars, mid-June 2010<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">There we are thinking life had changed and traffic was not more on the (press) list and along come a number of interesting developments.<br />Prominent among them of course are the proposals to change Cambodia's traffic law. </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010061139777/National-news/update-to-road-law-set-to-raise-penalties.html">Press</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> focus on the increase on fines, the most obvious tactic to get traffic offenders to heel. But is it?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Some extracts of what the law can change:</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'calls for the addition of two new articles and amendments to 24 of 95 pre-existing articles</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">...</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">If the new draft is approved, that fine will be increased to 21,000 riels (about $5), and will also be applied to passengers'.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">Basically what the law is saying is that the height of the fine is the maximum amount traffic police can extort from offenders. What's more, the change leads to big discrepancies between offenses, how are the public to know what is the correct fee? As long as it's not transparen<span style="font-family:verdana;">t.</span>...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">It also focuses on the cosmetic enforcement. If everybody has a helmet then does that make traffic law abided by? If anything far from it.<br />Law enforcement is mostly restricted to daylight, at nite nobody has a helmet. What's more certain officials are above the law or too poor to afford a helmet. Then the current traffic law has so much body, there's already so much to be done without changing the law. Wearing helmets the focus of current law enforcement protects current traffic users from themselves, what about the characters dodging red lights which is common more and more standard practice? Or using the phone while taking part in traffic. Or driving down the worng side of the road. Surely we would expect these enfringements of the current law to be tackled before adding another layer of rules which at best will be enforced haphazardly?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">The HIB (Handicap International Belgium) are happy nonetheless, their focus is totally on helmets. Quote: </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'"We would like the fines to be increased because, based on our experience and regional comparisons, higher fines mean people have more respect for the law, and this leads to fewer fatalities,” she said.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">She added that high fines and strong enforcement in Vietnam have led to almost 100 percent compliance with helmet laws'.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">So what about the strong enforcement? In Vietnam they drive like crazy, but not in the wrong direction nor do they dodge traffic lights.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">And the existing law was mostly drawn up by NGO's ,the new amendments not. What to think of <blockquote>'One of the two new articles included in the draft would require that drivers only operate vehicles registered in their own names ...'.</blockquote> A lot of drivers and rental companies will be out of work!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Elsewhere a great article was </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/10/asia-pollution-emissions">published</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> on the Guardian by Melody Kemp entitled </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'</span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-weight: normal;">Asia's silent victims of pollution and emissions'.</span></span></blockquote><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">Focusing on Vientiane, Lao, she sets out to describe that traffic is becoming the number 1 life threatening source. </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'Despite Harvard and the World Health Organisation (WHO) both insisting that road and occupational accidents look to outstrip infectious disease as the major causes of death and disability in the south, there is little evidence that donor agencies have shifted their priorities accordingly. Trauma medicine and rehabilitation centres remain rarities. Road and occupational deaths remain like wallpaper on the modernisation agenda: striking when first noticed, then increasingly invisible.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">...</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Visiting experts advocate rational and linear solutions. But in Asia, the cause and effect relationship is often non-rational. A Thai or Lao surviving a crash is more likely to erect a spirit house than reflect on the use of wing mirrors, or make merit at the temple rather than look before entering a stream of traffic. Passers-by may be reluctant to help a bleeding victim in case they "catch the lousy luck". These are factors that cannot be changed simply with asphalted roads or traffic lights. And infrastructure solutions, such as the new poorly designed major arterial through Vientiane, may actually raise accident rates by enabling greater speed. Systematic corruption, such as enabling a proxy to buy a driving licence, undermines progress. New wealth also enables new drivers to drive powerful cars such as a Maserati (along with Humvees, and Mercedes sports, which are increasingly popular) they are ill-equipped to handle'. </span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">This and more, however as some commentators note the article is a little void of solutions. One comment does though look at Taipei: <blockquote>'It can be reversed - Taipei, while still a polluted city, is vastly better than it was, mainly through actions designed to curb polluting engines and an emphasis on public transport. They've just finished a fantasic network of cycle paths to try to encourage people to get back to the bike - they even have TV ads encouraging people to cycle. <br />...<br />But the idea (possibly with some justification) that pollution and road deaths is just a price you pay to catch up with the west is very deeply embedded in the minds of most Asian policymakers. Maybe it doesn't have to be that way - but sadly nobody seems willing to take the risk of trying an alternative'.</blockquote> An interesting read.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">More mundane:</span><br /></div><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>A <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010060339460/National-news/roads-need-to-be-clear-for-emergency-services.html">Letter to the Editor</a> of Phnom Penh Post earlier this month. A reader complains about the segmenting of Phnom Penhs roads which he believes impedes emergency vehicles.<br /></li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>More <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010061539837/National-news/concrete-barriers-not-helping-traffic-chaos.html">complaints</a> on the same situation.<br /><blockquote>'These [concrete barriers] seem to be aimed at ensuring Khmer drivers stay on the correct side of the road (which they should be doing by law anyway). However, in effect, they introduce a whole new range of problems.<br />Emergency vehicles can get locked into these one-way “chutes”; In some cases they have blocked former cross streets, and now motor scooter drivers are coming down the wrong side of the barriers toward oncoming traffic.<br />These barriers have only made already bad traffic far worse. When will town planners in Phnom Penh wake up, and where did they actually get these ideas from?<br />If the police are going to fine people for anything, why not start with the basics of failing to stop at red lights, travelling on the wrong side of the road and not staying within your own lane'.</blockquote></li><li>Then later a <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010061539838/National-news/parking-fees-good-to-clean-up-streets.html">Letter</a> on parking fees.<br /><blockquote>'I regret that some people are affected by this measure, but they should be conscious that the space is for public, and not for personal use or business. The businesses and parking on the streets frequently create chaos and traffic jams'.</blockquote> Elsewhere the Post gives <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010060839576/National-news/parking-fees-spark-complaints.html">voice</a> to the business community which are vehemently opposed. It will effect their biznesses. Yeah so that justifies stealing public property? Me, me, me ... Probably the whole episode is to placate the Japanese so they'll cough up more money for some bridge or another ...<br /></li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://media.nzherald.co.nz/webcontent/image/jpg/Side_220x14713180.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 220px; height: 147px;" src="http://media.nzherald.co.nz/webcontent/image/jpg/Side_220x14713180.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family:verdana;">Picture </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sideswipe/news/article.cfm?c_id=702&objectid=10652307&ref=rss">apparently</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> taken in Hoi An, Vietnam.</span></span><br /></div><br /></div><ul><li style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010061039628/National-news/road-collisions-increased-in-may.html">Statistics</a> are still all over the place. Some say accidents went down, now they are back up. HIB imply that speeding is major cause of accidents but helmets need to be worn ....</li></ul><ul><li style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;">Phnom Penh Post has an <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010060839559/Lifestyle/cyclo-drivers-seek-to-save-their-occupation.html">article</a> on cyclo's. <blockquote>'“I think that within 20 years cyclos will completely disappear. There are fewer and fewer, and profits are dropping,” he said. Pao Phearum said the challenges of being a cyclo driver include fatigue, competing with more modern forms of transportation like motorbike taxis and tuk-tuks, and having to pay money to security personnel or police to pick up customers'.</blockquote>True as it may seem, focusing on tourists may extend that lifeline. See many western cities now with cyclo services ...</li></ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-4145691098056415962010-06-03T10:44:00.007+07:002010-06-03T13:23:48.645+07:00Chasing Cars, more than 1 month later ....<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">I could start of this posting by offering my apologies for not posting for such a long time. But I'm not. Traffic wise there's simply so little to report on. It's been hot so not so much traffic. Everybody is being wearing helmets so no wacky government / law instructions on that. And it seems like everybody is content.</span><br /></div><ul style="text-align: justify;font-family:verdana;"><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Starting with content. The</span><blockquote> <span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:100%;" >'Bangkok/Siem Reap Overland <a href="http://www.talesofasia.com/cambodia-overland-bkksr.htm">Guide</a>'<br /></span></blockquote> <span style="font-family: verdana;">has once more reinvented itself. Hardly any problems anymore with the road just with bus company rip offs and border problems. Why the bus companies and border officials can't solve this a la going to Vietnam is beyond me.</span></li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>An aircraft has been <a href="http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?t=14610">sighted</a> at Sihanoukville airport. That's a huge increase over the past years 0 aircraft.</li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>Phnom Penh City is <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010052839366/National-news/parking-charges-levied-in-city.html">experimenting</a> (on advice of the Japanese) with charging drivers for parking. Currently you are allowed to park virtually anywhere even to the extent of blocking traffic, who cares. The 'experiment' lasts a full week on a short stretch of inner city road. Wow! <blockquote>'...the point of the exercise, which runs through June 2, is to reduce the number of vehicles along Charles de Gaulle and discourage “anarchic parking”. Fees are being collected by Sky Security Service.<br />Masato Koto, an urban planning consultant for the city who dreamed up the scheme, said his long-term vision was to restrict roadside parking along major thoroughfares to designated areas while imposing charges to drive down demand. By doing so, he said, officials could make Phnom Penh more pedestrian-friendly.<br />“In other countries, sidewalks are only for pedestrians,” he said. “But Cambodia is different. Here sidewalks are for parking cars, so we have to change this characteristic.”'</blockquote> But the Cambodian side is already whining. Charges are too high. '<blockquote>Masato acknowledged that the charges had drawn criticism, but said they needed to be high in order to effectively deter parking.<br />“If the cost is high, then people will no longer want to park here. That’s the point,” he said.<br />“The number of cars is increasing every day, but the land in the city is limited, so we have to control the demand for parking.”'</blockquote> Yes, but now the rich dudes end up paying for something which was free. Where's the justice in this?</li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>An <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010060139427/National-news/new-lorries-set-for-exercises.html">article</a> in the Phnom Penh Post presumably about a new bridge north of Phnom Penh across the Tonle Sap river. Content of the article is about the more than 200 lorries Cambodia gets from China packed with 50,000 free military uniforms. This in exchange for kicking out a couple of asylum seekers, it seems.</li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/images/stories/news/national/2010/100428/100428_6b.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 350px; height: 233px;" src="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/images/stories/news/national/2010/100428/100428_6b.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><div style="text-align: center;"><blockquote style="font-style: italic;"><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >'A weighty </span><span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010042838259/Multimedia/a-weighty-issue.html">issue</a></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >. A motodop driver and a security guard try to help a tuk-tuk laden with boxes of bottled water get back on its wheels at the intersection of Norodom Boulevard and Street 214 last week'.</span></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Phnom Penh Post April 28, 2010.</span></span></span></div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li style="font-family: verdana;">A huge <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010050638788/Business/restoring-the-kingdoms-rails.html">piece</a> in the Phnom Penh Post concerning the history of Cambodia's rail network. Saturady 5 June will see the <a href="http://www.chinesehouse.asia/">Chinese House Express</a>, a 3 hour (or longer) trip north of Phnom Penh with a jazz concert in a rice paddy.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li style="font-family: verdana;">What's <a href="http://www.expat-advisory.com/forum/asia/cambodia/phnom-penh-pub-expats-expats-cambodia/bus-companies">wrong</a> with bus companies? They all suck?</li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li style="font-family: verdana;">A new piece of the Phnom Penh city has been <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010052539260/National-news/city-hall-approves-bk-roads.html">revealed</a>. Three of the 12 roads have been approved of this 'secretive' city expansion. Part of the plan will be a flyover for which some city citizens <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010052739336/National-news/flyover-plan-revealed.html">will have to move</a>. </li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">A miscreant in Siem Reap wants to </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010051439074/National-news/traffic-police-ordered-to-court.html">sue the police</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> because he failed to stop when required to do so by police. He was consequently hit on the head by traffic police with a walkie-talkie device so as to enforce the stop signal. It worked. He stopped and needed stitches. Miscreant claims expenses plus <blockquote>'$1,500 for mental illness compensation'.</blockquote> But arguably he was already mentally deranged before incident ....</span></li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Finally <a href="http://www.monument-books.com/">Monument Books</a> have nearly sold out of he Wall & Kemp Carrying Cambodia photo book. One can though still order from others such as <a href="http://www.borders.com.au/book/carrying-cambodia/8063573/">Borders</a> or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Carrying-Cambodia-Hans-Kemp/dp/9628563785/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275546061&sr=8-1">Amazon</a>. Or simply open up the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.parish-without-borders.net/cditt/cambodia/dailylife/2010/dailylife10.htm">Life in Cambodia</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> website with arguably more interesting photo's. </span><br /></li></ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-74368142544041313272010-04-27T13:22:00.003+07:002010-04-27T14:10:26.602+07:00Chasing Cars, Cambo stylo, 26 April 2010<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Absolutely nothing seems to be going on, traffic wise in Cambodia. One would have expected a lament of the many deaths and injured during the past Khmer new year celebration but nada. Well not technically, I believe the Phnom Penh Post ran a smallish </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010041937545/National-news/new-year-road-crashes-increase.html">article</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> on the drop of deaths in Phnom Penh, though if you were here during the holidays it's surprising that an accident took place at all, technically the town had turned into Ghost Town as the city had emptied.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The holidays have come and gone and everybody still needs to get into the groove somehow. </span><br /></div><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>A <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010040536866/National-news/study-tallies-costs-of-crashes.html">study</a> so says the Phnom Penh Post. A calculation of the cost of accidents. No less than an annual cost of $248 million for 2009, a doubling since 2003. That seems a conservative estimate and considering the number of new traffickers (can I say this?) has risen three / four fold in the same time, it means that the costs are proportionally dropping, good news eh? Funny this estimating the cost. The administrative part cost $43 million, while deaths and injuries $73 million. Life is cheap? the police finally add that it's because the public are ignorant and fail to comply. What about the role of the police in this? </li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>Though we had been hoping for boats to be leaving from Kep for Phu Quoc asap. apparently someone has decided to throw a spanner in the works. The Japanese company has objected to the intended harbor being placed 5 km from the agreed on place (a year before!), according to the <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010032934441/Business/kep-tourist-port-under-threat-developer-says.html">Phnom Penh Post</a>: <blockquote>'Authorities instead proposed a port location in the forest area of Poun Mountain, 5 kilometres from the centre of the town in Damnak Chang Er district, a site the company official said was shallow and choked with seaweed'.</blockquote> The local government are (literally?) standing firm ...</li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>This morning I picked up the <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g297390-i9163-k3467838-Warning_New_Siem_Reap_to_Bangkok_SCAM_BUS-Siem_Reap.html">newest scam</a> on the road Siem Reap to Bangkok involving bus breaking downs and extending waits so as to get other buses full. Good advertisement. Anyway, who wants to go to BKK?</li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>Bamboo trains are disappearing laments none other than the <a href="http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2010/04/end-of-line-for-cambodias-bamboo-trains.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FbmaW+%28KI+Media%29&utm_content=Netvibes">LA Times</a>. Never understood why this would anyone would be passionate for this, it's about the same as wishing you could only get to Siem Reap by moto ...</li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>Last week a downpour providing relief by distress to road users as the streets went under. <a href="http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?t=14284">KI Media</a> reports. Despite multi-million drainage system which was clogged up and blamed on the local rubbish collectors ...</li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>Sokha to open a second hotel in Sihanoukville. Newsworthy? Funny they have enough space to develop on at their first site, but to keep land in cambodia you have to build something to really claim it, preferably a wall. Anyways in the <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010042337898/Business/new-sokha-hotel-set-for-sville-beachfront.html">Phnom Penh Post</a> article they mention that Cambodia Angkor Airways might start to fly from Siem Reap:<br /><blockquote>'News of the hotel build follows reports, published in Cambodian press Thursday, that Cambodia Angkor Air (CAA) is to offer domestic charter flights to Sihanouk International Airport this year.<br />The Post met with blank responses when it contacted officials to verify the claims Thursday.<br />Mai Xuan Long, deputy director of CAA, said that he didn’t know exactly what was happening with the company’s flights to Sihanoukville International Airport.<br />Kao Sivorn, Operation Director Department of Secretariat of State of Civil Aviation, said that so far he has not received proposals from CAA to start operations to the new airport.<br />He added that the company does not have enough ability to begin regular flights to Sihanouk International Airport yet.<br />He added: “If [CAA] begin operation there, it will boost the tourism sector for Sihanouk province, as the airport can link it to Siem Reap International Airport.”<br />Tith Chantha, director of Sihanouk International Airport, said that he has not yet heard when CAA would begin flights to the airport.<br />“I have not received any official letter from CAA,” he said'.</blockquote></li></ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-54697497829371568342010-04-05T09:01:00.003+07:002010-04-06T09:58:08.373+07:00Chasing Cars, pre-Khmer New Year '10<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Yesterdays <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010040536866/National-news/study-tallies-costs-of-crashes.html">Phnom Penh Post</a> (April 5) has put up an article based on calculations by Handicap International Belgium about what the costs are to the the nation of poor driving (and consequent accidents).<br /></span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.voanews.com/khmer/2010-04-02-voa2.cfm">VOA Khmer</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> had already reported on this earlier. Both though delved in the press release by </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.roadsafetycambodia.info/doku.php?id=press_conf_april_10">Road Safety Cambodia</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">.<br /></span> <span style="font-family:verdana;">The press release mentions amongst others the relative numbers (deaths per 10,000 registered vehicles) are dropping which is partially blamed by more congestion which means lower speeds = less deaths. However they are still way above regional standards. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;">Though no doubt putting a price tag on this is all part of the pressure the government package but the reality is that putting a price on tragedy doesn't mean that it will compile the government to take action. Tragedies happen. The odd part is that the cost to humans matches the cost to properties, surely that can't be correct.<br />Why did they they choose blood Friday for the presentation?<br /></span> <ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Talking about safety, the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?t=14041&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30&sid=446134af7a93c381b063192c8b3d0e34">Khmer 440</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> forum has a thread on the safety of Phnom Penh's streets. The mostly male crowd who inhabit this forum seem to be OK with safety issues though they mostly focus on muggings ...</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Sihanoukville airport back in the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010032534254/Business/sca-looks-for-takeoff-at-sihanoukville.html">news</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">: </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'[The airport operators] determined to convince airlines to start providing scheduled flights through Preah Sihanouk province’s fully operational airport ...' then the article harks back on the national flag carrier: 'SCA and the government want the new national carrier, Cambodia Angkor Air (CAA), to begin scheduled flights to Preah Sihanouk, but the CAA is apprehensive.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> Cambodia Angkor Airlines’ vice CEO Lim Kao told the Post Wednesday the carrier’s three planes are already burdened with their runs, at a time when tourism has slowed. He added that CAA is reluctant to open up a new flight path without knowing if there is sufficient demand'. </span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">If the CAA isn't willing to take a risk in promoting Sihanoukville as Asia's newest beach destination who will? Surely that's why you have designated a national carrier in the first place?</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Much in the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010032634301/Business/ground-handling-assessed-in-siem-reap.html">same vein</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, a conference on ground handling in Asian airports concluded that liberalization of both handling and awarding flight rights are lagging...</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">And then there is the Cambodia Daily. On March 27-28 ('Airline Industry set for Recovery as Prices mount') they mention how things are looking up for the aviation industry in Cambodia, but not for the consumers? Witness new routes an/or expended capacity (Siem Reap - Shanghai; Guangzhou - Phnom Penh; KL - Phnom Penh).<br />They also mention that a comeback of Siem Reap Airways is in the final stages.<br />One funny thing mentioned is that since CAA have started fares between SR and HCM have risen. Flights between HCM and PP are some of Asia's most overpriced, CAA is certainly not competing ....</span></li></ul><ul><li><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010032634296/National-news/another-boat-tragedy-claims-three-in-mekong.html">More boasts are sinking</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. Luckily the water levels are dropping drastically ... </span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Talking about rivers and boats. The annual </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://mekongriverswim.blogspot.com/">Mekong River Swim</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> is off. In the Asialife April edition besides a lack of volunteers they also mention that due to the newly formed Boat 'Association' prices for renting a boat have become prohibitive ...</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Next up? </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010033034529/National-news/another-step-towards-transparency.html">Cars with tinted windows</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">.<br /></span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'Police have begun a crackdown on cars with tinted windows, as ordered by Prime Minister Hun Sen in a meeting Friday at the Council of Ministers.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said Monday that police were taking a hard line with owners of cars with tinted windows, forcing them to remove the window tinting “to ensure security and order for the Cambodian people”.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;">“Police will eliminate cars with tinted windows from the road,” Khieu Sopheak said, ...'.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;"> </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?t=14059&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15">More</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> on Khmer 440. Probably it's Khmer New Year soon ...</span> </li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Odd </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010033134635/National-news/road-rage-general-in-court-over-shooting.html">news</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. A general takes revenge on an ice seller for damaging his .... car. According to his own sense of justice, a neck shot was required, the ice seller still lives. Is this odd? No the odd thing is that the general will be prosecuted, at least that's what they are saying ...</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Then there is mob rule. Reported on in various </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2010/03/no-sentencing-outside-courtroom.html">media</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, no less than 400 'residents' killed two motorbike robbers and left another for dead (CD reports: 'regained consciousness just before his body was to be cremated'!) after intervening with police. Gruesome </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2010/03/cambodian-vigilante-mob-kills-two.html">footage</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> with Khmer media. </span></li></ul><ul><li><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2010/04/taxi-driver-tells-20-passengers-pay.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FbmaW+%28KI+Media%29&utm_content=Netvibes">More</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> odd news. </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'A Cambodian taxi driver was arrested after he ramped up an inter-city fare, then threatened to kill his passengers by driving into a lake unless they paid, local media reported Monday.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> The driver had initially agreed to take 20 passengers to the eastern province of Prey Veng for 2 dollars a head, the Phnom Penh Post newspaper said.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> However, halfway there, he stopped the taxi and announced the fare had increased to 5 dollars each.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> When the passengers refused to hand over the extra money and began arguing with the driver, he threatened to drown them by driving into a nearby lake.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> A passenger then called the police who arrested the driver.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> Cambodia lacks public transport, and privately operated minibus taxis, which are often overcrowded, are a common way to travel around the country'. </span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">Source according to KI Media is dpa, though the <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010040536880/National-news/police-blotter-5-apr-2010.html">PPP</a> also runs this story .... </span> </li></ul><ul><li><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?t=13005">Info</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> on a new bus service to Pakse. Elsewhere there's a thread on </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g297390-i9163-k3526617-l25379777-Bus_from_Siem_Reap_to_Phnom_Penh_Mekong_Express-Siem_Reap.html#25379777">Tripadvisor</a>.</li></ul></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-78241825448303434032010-03-24T09:49:00.011+07:002010-03-24T11:41:54.042+07:00Chasing Cars, March 24, 2010<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">On a non traffic related matter I recently signed up to Smart internet, they offering some of the cheapest internet on mobile phones. Cheap is definitely not good. Needed just 3 visits to their customer service and now it's working, but soooooo slooooooow. And they have blocked access to KI Media, a seemingly unendless amount of news stories.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> <blockquote style="font-family: verdana;">'While trying to retrieve the URL: <a href="http://ki-media.blogspot.com/">http://ki-media.blogspot.com/</a> The following error was encountered: <ul><li> <strong> Access Denied. </strong> Access control configuration prevents your request from being allowed at this time. Please contact your service provider if you feel this is incorrect [sic]'. </li></ul></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Anyway on Cambodia's traffic front. Yesterday's (23 March 2010) Phnom Penh Post provided an opposition parliamentarian </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010032334081/National-news/rainsy-party-mp-seeks-justice-in-sons-killing.html">a couple of columns</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> to allow him to publicly complain about the lack of redress within the Cambodian legal system. Remember his son was shot after a traffic dispute in Phnom Penh's center. Though at the time it was a bit ambiguous about the cause of the dispute, it is tellingly that the police have been unable to arrest the killer despite having his name. <blockquote>' “... the police have not got any clue about the suspect’s whereabouts. I request that the police speed up their work in this case so that justice can be brought to my son,”...'</blockquote> However it does seem weird that a parliamentarian thinks he can jump the line. Injustice is common within the country and the legal system is only working for the rich and well-connected. If anything this parliamentarian should know this. Or not?</span> </div><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>How the law sometimes <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010031533593/National-news/police-blotter-15-mar-2010.html">'works'</a>: <blockquote>'A 33-year-old man is facing prosecution after he was accused of involvement in a Wednesday traffic accident in Phnom Penh that killed a 30-year-old garment worker and a 13-year-old boy. However, authorities speculated that the man might not be sent to court if he agrees to pay US$4,500 in compensation to the victim’s family. By law, accused perpetrators still face court action even if they agree to out-of-court monetary compensation. But another driver who was allegedly involved in the same accident was not sentenced after he paid up'.</blockquote> </li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>In and on forums on Cambodia one of the most often asked questions regards transportation and if buses run between x and y, and how are they? Andy B. <a href="http://www.andybrouwer.co.uk/blog/labels/Paramount%20Angkor%20Express.html">reviews</a> on his blog his recent trip with paramount to Siem Reap: '<blockquote>If you want to do the bus trip between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap then don't choose Paramount Angkor Express, as their bus that carried me between the two, leaving the capital at 6pm, was one of the most uncomfortable I've ever been on. And believe me I've been on some crap buses'.</blockquote> After receiving a comment praising the same company he adjusts his views: <blockquote>'the bus he [bus driver] was in charge of had seen better days and needed some new screws fitted. By comparison the Mekong Express bus to PP was considerably better'.</blockquote></li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>A <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010032234000/National-news/road-collisions-rose-in-february-officials-say.html">small article</a> (22 March 2010) in the Phnom Penh Post on how the number of accidents is up. As usual the article is full of statistic wonders.</li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>The Australian company <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010031833813/Business/railways-need-support-to-profit-toll-ceo-says.html">hoping</a> to earn a buck off Cambodia's railroads has found out that the going will be tough: <blockquote>'David Kerr, CEO of Toll Holdings Group Cambodia (THGC), asked the government to put regulations and infrastructure in place, which are needed to fix the country’s railways'. </blockquote>Should have thought that before signing up ...</li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>A promise is what? Cebu Pacific had promised to start to fly to Cambo land this April, but nothing seems to be in the pipeline. This <a href="http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?t=13164">thread</a> on Khmer 440 seems to suggest that it's not such a bad thing ... <blockquote>'<span class="postbody">Cebu Pacific Air is the worst airline I have ever flown--huge delays, booking hassles, canceled flights with no advance notice, refunds that never arrive, and horrible service ...'</span></blockquote><span class="postbody"></span></li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>Promises? That's what they <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010031733767/Business/travel-dip-means-no-planes-at-sihanoukville.html">hope</a> what will get the Sihanouk airport up and running. <blockquote>'Sihanoukville airport is still struggling to attract airlines due to the enduring slump in the regional travel industry, according to an official at Societe Concessionaire des Aeroports (SCA), the French firm that manages the Kingdom’s airports.<br />Still, not a single airline has agreed to flights to the airport despite the offer of zero percent airport tax.<br />SCA’s Chief Planning Officer Tanguy Bertolus said Tuesday that new national carrier Cambodia Angkor Air (CAA), a joint venture between the government and Vietnam Airlines, was showing reluctance to fly to the recently renovated airport due to the difficult economic climate.<br />“Cambodia Angkor is a subsidiary of Vietnam Airlines and the Cambodian government, and they are not really keen right now to take risks and open new lines,” he said'.</blockquote> That's goobledigook. The company has only been existing for 12 months and the situation when they started was probably worse than now. So why are they backtracking? </li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>More tourist related info. As in the previous editions of CC the ... <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010031833810/National-news/words-fly-over-boating-cartel.html">'boat cartel'</a> ... Though they call themselves a Water Transport Association, they have been trying to cream off the boat owners by imposing themselves and getting the tourists to foot the bill. The way it works: <blockquote>'Ly Puthy, association president, said a letter thumbprinted by all members would be sent to the Tourism, Interior, Public Works and Transport ministries, and to Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema, requesting that Rin Naran – owner of the Chamkar Sne boat – immediately join the association'.</blockquote></li><li>Talking about boats. Why all the <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010031633669/National-news/prey-veng-drownings-highlight-unsafe-boats.html">fuss</a> about tourist boats? <blockquote>'Two women died when a boat sank on the Mekong River in Prey Veng province on Friday, police said, the most recent of a string of such incidents throughout the Kingdom prompting officials to issue warnings about the dangers of overloading passenger boats and other vessels'.</blockquote></li><li>Tourism helps? After visiting Cambodia in 2007 (by bicycle) Dan Austin decided to get help in, by donating cycles to children. In <a href="http://www.88bikes.org/cambodia/index.php">Cambodia</a> of course, in Uganda, in Peru. The organisation <a href="http://www.88bikes.org/home/index.php">88 Bikes</a>, gets a (very positive) roll call on <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/13/eveningnews/main6296231.shtml">CBS News</a>. 88 is the cost of donating a bicycle.<br /></li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>Has someone picked up on this? Phnom Penh is to become clean?<a href="http://cambodianbeginnings.blogspot.com/2010/03/load-of-rubbish-in-phnom-penh.html"> Cambodian Beginnings</a> has a short blog entry. <blockquote>'However, as of next month Phnom Penh City Hall intends to rectify the state of it's streets. 5000 riel fines (US $1.20) will be administered to anyone seen discarding rubbish in public places. The boulevards are wide, tree-lined and quite beautiful in some places. Perhaps this fine will go some way in returning Phnom Penh to it's hayday of being the 'Paris of the East' in the 1950's'.</blockquote></li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>Elsewhere in the city the officials are <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010031533596/National-news/bovine-breeding-time-leads-to-traffic-snarls.html">trying</a> to prevent anarchy from amorous bulls. <blockquote>'Police in the capital’s Dangkor district have seized 15 wayward cows and bulls after a recent spate of incidents in which lustful bulls have vigorously pursued potential mates, disrupting traffic and endangering passersby, officials said'.</blockquote> This even made the international press. Or better said the <a href="http://www.thesundaily.com/article.cfm?id=44347">Malaysian press</a>.<br /></li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>A clinic in Phnom Penh was closed down <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010031533598/National-news/clinic-closed-by-govt-after-traffic-death.html">due</a> to complaints following a traffic accident. Or not? <blockquote>'The Health Ministry has opted to shut down a medical clinic that was accused of negligence in its treatment of a man who succumbed to injuries sustained in a traffic accident last week, the director of the Phnom Penh Municipal Health Department said Sunday.<br />...<br />“The association ran a health-care business without approval from the Ministry of Health and was shut down,” Sok Sokun, the municipal Health Department director, said Sunday. “It will be allowed to reopen only after it receives an official license to operate from the ministry.”'</blockquote></li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkVfTm-HwJRvjORUZ-hhW9X2hkoiVlSwGtNtgVGUCkNhtt7blTIHljpulpQ3wC_rCF3An2nVUqCvAYU8opCCW446KFViPXwei-AmLeT9pEXlkDM4PCBYSuxvY3RYfvPtCN5G9WAw/s1600-h/R0014679.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkVfTm-HwJRvjORUZ-hhW9X2hkoiVlSwGtNtgVGUCkNhtt7blTIHljpulpQ3wC_rCF3An2nVUqCvAYU8opCCW446KFViPXwei-AmLeT9pEXlkDM4PCBYSuxvY3RYfvPtCN5G9WAw/s320/R0014679.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452046971073226578" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >Just outside Phnom Penh</span></span><br /><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">And did I mention that Phnom Penh once more slipped up an opportunity to join in with WNBR? As </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.offmyfacebook.com.au/">Byron Bay</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.asbareasyoudare.com/">Melbourne</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://the-riotact.com/?p=19482">Canberra</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/03/14/2845313.htm">Lima</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/nude-bike-ride-not-so-nude/story-e6frea83-1225840355864">Adelaide</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/3451906/Bare-biking-a-real-sea-change">Golden Bay</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/photo-gallery/gallery-e6frf94x-1225840624729?page=1">Sydney</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://wiki.worldnakedbikeride.org/index.php?title=3%C2%B0_Pedalada_Pelada_-_S%C3%A3o_Paulo_2010">Sao Paulo</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">.<br />This (northern hemisphere) summer then?</span><br /></li></ul></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-4354923337162354032010-03-16T10:51:00.003+07:002010-03-16T13:04:02.321+07:00Phnom Penh: Streetwise<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTxnX-WzP4fefF37s93VXH07Q2Stu6_rTONGBK23YRG-QMP55vH2P2qrIcqTkxlwkbVTVR2g1Nki73AI3W5dTJrvFuBlaoNlYXGWjBpSPoERn3CGeN2bgLyfgZEgVt25TQZ8Ysmg/s1600-h/scan.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: left; cursor: pointer; width: 232px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTxnX-WzP4fefF37s93VXH07Q2Stu6_rTONGBK23YRG-QMP55vH2P2qrIcqTkxlwkbVTVR2g1Nki73AI3W5dTJrvFuBlaoNlYXGWjBpSPoERn3CGeN2bgLyfgZEgVt25TQZ8Ysmg/s320/scan.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449077239001206690" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Out since February 2010 is the Streetwise Phnom Penh street directory produced by </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.cambodiapocketguide.com/pdfs/ppsw1/index.html">Cambodia Pocket Guides</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. On sale at various points in the city (amongst others Monument Books and Lucky's supermarket) it costs are $5. For this price one gets a compact 80+ pages street guide as well as extensive description of how one should navigate Cambodia's capital. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The publishers themselves </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.expat-advisory.com/forum/asia/cambodia/-phnom-penh-pub-expats-expats-cambodia/phnom-penh-streetwise">mention</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> on Expat Advisory Services: </span><blockquote style="font-family: verdana;">'We believe the guide should prove indispensable for anyone seeking help and advice as to how to navigate Phnom Penh’s increasingly congested streets, especially the newer business and residential areas outside the centre of the city'.</blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;">But is it any good? Worth it's value?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;">What others say</span><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://cambodianbeginnings.blogspot.com/2010/02/phnom-penhs-streets-uncovered.html">Cambodia Beginnings</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> believe's so: </span><blockquote style="font-family: verdana;">'this map-nut is excited to have another navigational aid at her disposal; I'll now point with a lot more confidence; and the motodops can just drive'. </blockquote><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.andybrouwer.co.uk/blog/2010/02/wise-up.html">Andy B</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, Phnom Penh's premier expat blogger:</span><blockquote style="font-family: verdana;">'I'm not sure how often I will look at the directory, but it's a good addition to the 'city map scene' and exceptionally well presented. Though I must take issue with the spellings of Wat Onalom and Wat Botumwatdei - I have never seen those spellings before for two of the city's main pagodas. Well done those Pocket Guide folks'.</blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;">But's that about the extent of the online reviews, so let's get this expert to look at this....</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;">The maps</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">Format</span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">First of all, the format is great; the cheap, free, folding maps of town are quite cumbersome, prone to flying away and come with invitations to visit girlie bars. And yes half of the city is off the map anyway. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">Coverage</span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">But then, how often does one need to travel off these folding maps anyway? And how does Streetwise Phnom Penh help? </span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">For example I play football a lot and sometimes need to find places such as Khemera field (north of town), Mekong field (behind Northbridge) or the 'over the bridge' places. Streetwise Phnom Penh does cover these areas but though it can mention every one of the exponentially expanding number of Phnom Penh's minimarts, these football fields are still out there somewhere, waiting to be found and correctly identified. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Furthermore with the main part of town shifting west, it seems an omission to miss covering the area uptil and beyond the airport. </span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Possibly another mapping suggestion to improve on, would be to include a wider overview map; apparently a ring road (with toll) is under construction (see bridge construction site north of PP towards Pursat) but this is outside of the coverage of Streetwise.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">Detail</span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The degree of detail depicting the center of Phnom Penh city is great and much info is provided. This is certainly a boon to local residents seeking something specific and already comfortable with Phnom Penh's lay out. However tourists (and with them the moto drivers) will probably be overwhelmed with the many details and have failure tracking the right street. </span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Then the advantage of much detail will also result in the disadvantage as changes in the city are so quick; such that they will quickly render the map out of date, at least if you need to find Phamrmacy Y, Restaurant X.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">Layout</span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The layout of side by side maps can be advantageous over folding maps but one needs to beware of the jump between the facing pages, the maps are made to overlap each other, meaning traveling from facing page 1 to another means a slight readjustment is required.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;">The information</span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Besides the maps there are another 20 pages of information included, which covers the history of the city, tips for getting around, places of interest, Cambodia's road rules and what the future of Phnom Penh might look like. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">History</span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Certainly adding to most expats knowledge on town, though the section on street names is only for aficionados. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">Getting around</span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Getting around is certainly in too much detail; as always sites of traffic jams change by the hour, day, season or vintage. And traffic lights are cropping up on the alternatives as fast as a crew can set up a wedding tent.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">In depth knowledge</span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">This section mentions amongst others that the British ambassador's residence is 'splendid' (cheers to him/her). Covering no less than 4 pages, this is a waste of money. Who is interested in this?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">How to get around</span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Here though pedestrians get a little coverage, the guidance seems to be steering readers to motorized transport options.<br />Cyclists are seen as crazy so it seems, requiring <blockquote>'optional knee and elbow pads'</blockquote> and <blockquote>'vital face masks'.</blockquote> Having cycled up and town for four and a half years I've yet to have a scratch. And why would you need a face mask?<br />Funny though if you see how many motocyclists end getting cut up (and that's the real picture I am getting) that they are not advised to use the optional knee / elbow pads ...<br />And why to cyclists require a sturdy lock and the motorised version not? I can't even count how many of my (temporary) friends who have had their motocycles stolen ...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">Law and Order</span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">No less than 2 pages explaining the difficulties of getting by the Cambodian law. Considering what's included on this blog on this subject 2 pages might be a let off. The publisher could have kept it short, i.e. like the traffic jams, the interpretation of the law changes hourly, daily, seasonally , etc., etc. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: verdana;">The future</span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Two pages on Phnom Penh's new tomorrow no less. It presents a rather rosy picture of the future. And much info on non-transport issues. It even claims that the <blockquote>'city fathers'</blockquote> are busy planning the new city layout, which I seriously doubt. Since 2000 not much activity has been seen other than paving the dirt and accepting the odd gift of a bridge here and there.<br />There is serious talk of a mass transit system? Define serious. Again these are donors giving advice and hoping the government chooses their option using a soft loan to pay-off the donor's host country companies ...<br />Bicycle lanes? Dream on, if anything the officials are closer to outlawing pedestrians and cyclists. Anything to prevent your Lexus from scratching ...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;">Overall call</span><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">I like it, it certainly adds info not yet available. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">It's shelf life I'm afraid will remain limited and no doubt other publishers will copycat the issue less the 'schmuck' which I'm afraid adds little to the maps. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Possibly a bit too expensive ...<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Then again I'm a map freak...</span></li></ul></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-5166124475796785842010-03-11T11:22:00.005+07:002010-03-11T15:14:26.439+07:00Chasing Cars, mid March 2010<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">During the past month steps have been </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010030533121/National-news/road-rules-discussed.html">announced</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> to get the general public to comply to a couple of paragraphs of the traffic law as well as suggestions being made to expand the law. Helmet fines would rise 6-fold. </span><blockquote style="font-family: verdana;">'The fine has been set too low, which means drivers have not stopped their bad habits. They seem to look down on the traffic law,” he [Him Yan, director of the Department of Public Order at the Interior Ministry] said'.</blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;"> The idea actually comes from Handicap International. The </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010030333015/National-news/govt-may-raise-helmet-fine.html">article</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> also suggests that higher fines will lead to more unreasonable police.</span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Note also in this article the photo with caption implying the offender is paying for a mirror offense. That despite the photo showing that the offender does have a mirror. An editorial mistake?</span><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: verdana;">However some problems are overlooked. Poor compliance is due to poor law implementation. Go anywhere outside the capital and you'll soon see compliance to the law drops to single figures, even police don't care. Nor is there any law enforcement once the sun drops, even in Phnom Penh.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: verdana;">Additionally, much is made of visible law enforcement. Probably one of the biggest dangers is running red lights about which nothing is done ...<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: verdana;">The <a href="http://cambodiamirror.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/the-law-and-the-environment-of-the-law-sunday-21-2-2010/">Cambodia Mirror</a> argues the same point of poor law enforcement in Cambodia in general. It uses the recent license plate drama as reference.<br /></div><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010021932357/Multimedia/fined-and-signed.html">Anyway</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> the police are positive:</span><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: verdana;"><blockquote> '.... 10,859 motorbike drivers had been stopped during the first two weeks of February because they lacked mirrors or helmets'.</blockquote></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">That said Khmer 440 </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?t=13848">forum</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> once more adds some real life detail. A forum poster describes how to nail a culprit. Then follows more experiences with law enforcement.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010031133442/National-news/changes-to-traffic-laws-to-be-delayed-govt-says.html">BTW</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">: </span><blockquote style="font-family: verdana;">'officials have delayed a decision on a long list of proposed amendments to the Kingdom’s traffic laws'. </blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;">Officials need more time ...</span><br /><ul style="text-align: justify; font-family: verdana;"><li>In a never ending list for regulating everything, the government would like suits for moto drivers in <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010021932358/National-news/city-moots-uniforms-for-moto-taxi-drivers.html">Phnom Penh</a>. Not a three piece though. '<blockquote>“We want to give safety to the tourists and make the city look good,” Chreang Sophan said, in explanation of the motivation for creating the uniform'.</blockquote> Siem Reap already has experience with $10 suits: <blockquote>' ... uniforms had identification numbers on them, and that no moto or tuk-tuk driver had committed crimes against passengers since the uniforms were introduced [in 2002]'.</blockquote> That's no reported crimes ...</li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify; font-family: verdana;"><li>The national airline buys a new aircraft, it's <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010021932384/Business/cambodia-angkor-air-purchases-first-aircraft.html">first</a>. No price is mentioned nor who the seller is. Hence, CC believes that the price is too expensive and that the seller is closely involved. Funny though as CC would like to check some recent info, the airlines site is in <a href="http://cambodiaangkorair.com/Default.aspx?tabid=244&error=Arithmetic+operation+resulted+in+an+overflow.&content=0">error</a> (mid day March 11, 2010).</li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify; font-family: verdana;"><li>KI Media has a link to a strange <a href="http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2010/02/korea-expressway-signs-construction.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FbmaW+%28KI+Media%29&utm_content=Netvibes">article</a>. Apparently a Korean company has been awarded a contract to <blockquote>'design and supervise the improvement of two national highways and one local road and the construction of a detour'.</blockquote> The former shouldn't be too hard.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify; font-family: verdana;"><li>Construction of the road to Pailin is not going according to plan. A Chinese company somehow isn't coughing up the money required according to a Phnom Penh Post <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010022632724/National-news/pailin-road-builders-complain-of-pay-delay.html">article</a>.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify; font-family: verdana;"><li>Stan is <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010022632721/National-news/paved-land-caused-kampot-flooding.html">writing again</a> on Kampot. This time he blames paving for flooding after rains. Though the authorities blame clogged drains. Whatever, it's probably due to the local government.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify; font-family: verdana;"><li>How many times can you make the news with the same project? A signing ceremony was <a href="http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2010/03/cambodia-rebuilds-railway-with.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FbmaW+%28KI+Media%29&utm_content=Netvibes">held</a> in March 2010 for a project begun in 2007! A project to improve Cambodia's railways, but that we knew already.<br />Bigger news though is that something is really happening. I've seen new sleepers in Takeo and disappearing rails between Takeo and Kampot. </li></ul><div style="text-align: center; font-family: verdana;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijIPv-gxii51_eyPLDR5mFdJKEe7ObEhlOsGapBW0nj7yGJJo2tbmrdLbZpgYBEVHPhkRJAsYpzawPhyphenhyphenCmEetgqi6Lw6r1otyX7wi3Mk9A_7vr-dcLaGOIJllSuvjiOQOs10r06A/s1600-h/IMG_0224.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijIPv-gxii51_eyPLDR5mFdJKEe7ObEhlOsGapBW0nj7yGJJo2tbmrdLbZpgYBEVHPhkRJAsYpzawPhyphenhyphenCmEetgqi6Lw6r1otyX7wi3Mk9A_7vr-dcLaGOIJllSuvjiOQOs10r06A/s320/IMG_0224.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447230273028512386" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Kep station</span><br /></span></div><ul style="text-align: justify; font-family: verdana;"><li>Possible real <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/china-to-build-highspeed-rail-link-to-europe-20100309-pvuf.html">news</a> on the rail front for Cambodia comes from China via SMH ( 10-03-10). They know somehow that<blockquote> 'A third network [of high spped trains] would extend south through Vietnam, Thailand, Burma and Malaysia'.</blockquote> Is Cambodia missing the train?</li></ul><ul style="text-align: justify; font-family: verdana;"><li>Phnom Penh's tourism boats are another recently regulated category. The Association of Phnom Penh Water Tourist Transport (essentially a government organisation) believes in <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010022432617/National-news/president-of-tourism-boat-group-defends-central-booking-system.html">order</a>, not in competition. This contradicted by the Phnom Penh's port director. The Ministry now also wants the boats to be licensed (how much will that cost? All extra costs will be charged to the users ...).<br />Anyway a few days later 5 members of the association were quitting. There complaint, surprise, surprise: <blockquote>'business went down'.</blockquote> The associations reply? Clear off!<br />Now the government will be stepping in or so <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010030433062/National-news/five-tour-boat-captains-decide-to-quit-association-go-it-alone.html">says</a> the Phnom Penh Post (4 March 2010).</li></ul><ul style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><li>A spike in car registration? Would the <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010031133437/National-news/2009-saw-spike-in-car-registrations.html">Phnom Penh Post</a> have expected a decrease? Now only 1.13 million vehicles were registered.<br /></li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Finally, we all know how whacky Cambodia's transportation system is. A photography book by Conor Wall and Hans Kemp gives examples of moto's and their freight. The issuing is accompanied by </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.fcccambodia.com/newsletter/0310/cambodia.php">an exhibition</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> in the FCC.</span><br /></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">More examples of whacky moto's are available from </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.parish-without-borders.net/cditt/cambodia/dailylife/2010/dailylife10.htm">Life in Cambodia</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">.</span><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-88145816899601350812010-02-18T21:42:00.006+07:002010-02-19T08:46:01.611+07:00Chasing Cars, mid-Feb 10<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd0DZkykekeFyZyCe_qAVUMY5vwzIex2z5X-a5GKCBe0sX_rsRNUGbZz_2-Ki_aHgaSwarJAWbvrbe90_yQisi9pvi-4igfa7Ss993hPIH3UMGrw_OORccO0BMvFLAA3z1NGg_bg/s1600-h/IMG_7714.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd0DZkykekeFyZyCe_qAVUMY5vwzIex2z5X-a5GKCBe0sX_rsRNUGbZz_2-Ki_aHgaSwarJAWbvrbe90_yQisi9pvi-4igfa7Ss993hPIH3UMGrw_OORccO0BMvFLAA3z1NGg_bg/s320/IMG_7714.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439764649497902498" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ferry cross the Mekong. Phnom Penh in the background.</span></span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">After a longer hiatus waiting for inspiration, a run of the mill entry. Or so it would seem.</span><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">How the government </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010012831200/National-news/mapping-mishap-pm-calls-out-minister-for-route-66.html">works</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> (or not). PM calls minister 'gang minister' Why?<blockquote> '... the senior official changed the number of National Road 67 to 66, creating cartographic confusion.<br />...<br />I beg you, stop changing the road numbers,” Hun Sen said, adding that the minister was behaving like a gangster by changing numbers without consulting the proper authorities. “I announce today to cancel this and keep 67 as its number,” Hun Sen [Cambo PM] said'.</blockquote></span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">More on the government machine. PM calls for action. Province promises. Sets date. Finds out they are too busy. Postpones and starts </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010021532033/National-news/siem-reap-police-focus-on-overloaded-trucks.html">just in time</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> for the Chinese New Year when Crossing Cambodia believes there are neither police nor trucks driving around to apprehend. That's the easy part, but the main part is to apprehend trucks carrying too much. So how they do it? <blockquote>'Officials have not identified a specific weight limit for trucks, saying instead that individual police officers would be tasked with determining which ones were overloaded and could potentially damage roads'.</blockquote> So arbitrarily imposing non specific limits means .... </span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">What about pedestrians? They need clear paths, preferably shaded. In Kampot the one means none of the other, i.e. they cut down the trees to remove the obstacles. Stan writes a </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010021231978/National-news/kampot-upgrades-need-community-discussion.html">letter</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> to the editor of the Phnom Penh Post: </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'</span><span style="font-family:verdana;">While I support the improvements to the sidewalks on the business side of Kampot River Road for safety and aesthetics, I believe authorities should go to great lengths to save every tree possible.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />The shade and beauty they provide are far more important than the slight obstacle to walking they might cause.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />Furthermore, it’s ironic that they would put so much effort into making the walk along the riverfront safe at the same time as they are widening streets in another part of town adjacent to the market and nearly eliminating sidewalks in the process; there will be no possibility of avoiding walking in traffic there. It’s not just tourists who deserve safe places to walk. The streets in question are now far wider than traffic flows would ever warrant for a small town, and cost a lot more than necessary.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />One was already paved and functional. Meanwhile, River Road north of the new bridge, the road to my house, is a very rough dirt track with immense holes in it and desperately needs improvement. Even just grading would be an important benefit to users. The authorities have their priorities askew. There needs to be a way to solicit input before such projects are undertaken'.</span></blockquote></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">And more government. Build an airport and the passengers will come. But that would be a success and success needs a celebration, so we postpone the inauguration until then, meaning that an airport is built but not opened. </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010021532021/Business/still-no-opening-date-chosen-for-renovated-sihanoukville-airport.html">Understood</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">?</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> Even weirder is this:<br /><blockquote>'It is hoped that new national carrier Cambodia Angkor Air will run the first flights at the new airport, said Tith Chantha, adding that he would like SIA to become Cambodia’s primary international airport'.</blockquote> So even the government can not force it's own airline to behave it self and do as it's told?</span><br /></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Well, the government wants to </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010012931245/Business/dealers-oppose-toyota-monopoly.html">approve</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> a monopoly for a single Toyota dealer. But this is what Toyota want, so as to better control their produce and ease of calling back ... So why the fuss?</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">More monopoly business. Find an idea (cutting out 'anarchy') and get it done. And the money will </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010021732130/National-news/tonle-sap-boat-owners-protest-change-in-tour-booking-system.html">flow freely</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">: <blockquote>'A group of boat owners is preparing to lodge a complaint against a new association that was created to streamline the booking of trips on the Tonle Sap, accusing it of cutting off direct access to customers and charging unnecessarily high fees'.</blockquote> Let the passengers pay for ..., well for nothing. </span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Meanwhile in an unassumingly unrelated </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010021832289/National-news/overcrowded-boat-in-koh-kong-sinks-killing-seven-officials-report.html">incident</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> an overcrowded boat sinks and kills seven. Now shouldn't anything be done about that? The Ministry of Water Resources washes it's hands off the case: </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'He [MoWR spokesperson] said that the ministry would resume a public-awareness campaign about water safety and urged people to follow the advice given.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />“The ministry often used to inform people and publicise warnings for all boat drivers along the Mekong River and the sea to be equipped with life vests to protect their lives from disasters, but people have ignored these warnings,” he said'.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;"> Warnings and implementing the law.</span><br /></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">More than 14,000 were fined for not wearing a helmet in January </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010020431672/National-news/helmet-law-crackdown-ensnares-thousands-interior-ministry-says.html">according</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> to official sources. That must have resulted in quite a windfall. And then there's the unofficial fines ..., so no doubt the traffic police have got something to celebrate. </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'But road safety advocates say the effectiveness of the law has been hindered by spotty enforcement, a problem that persists in part because Traffic Police rarely work at night.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />...<br />“Ninety percent of people use helmets during the day, but only around 40 percent wear helmets at night,” Him Yan [director of the ministry’s Department of Public Order!] said. “People are afraid that police will fine them, but they don’t wear them at night because Traffic Police do not work then.”'</span></blockquote></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Chinese New Year means more accidents, so it </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010020831728/National-news/police-brace-for-rise-in-crashes-over-chinese-new-year-holiday.html">seems</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. The solution: <blockquote>'“I have informed all Traffic Police in the different provinces to reinforce the law during Chinese New Year because many people leave the city to travel to the provinces,” he [director of the Ministry’s Department of Public Order!] said'. </blockquote>But now the Chinese New Year has passed (Phnom Penh Post, 18 Feb 2010) the police are </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010021832285/National-news/traffic-toll-road-deaths-held-steady-over-holiday.html">celebrating</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">: <blockquote>'the number of people who died on the road over the period matched last year’s figure, the overall number of accidents saw a decline'.</blockquote> Funny though, that the first article refers to HIB statistics which mention five times as many deaths as the police. So will the after Chinese New Year figures also be adjusted?</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Flights </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2010/01/cambodia-angkor-increases-services/">increase</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> between PPN and SRP from 4 to 5 daily.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Finally let's end with an article on how the government works. There's a law. But who cares? The opposition do. Cars with military license are </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010021832282/National-news/rcaf-plates-issued-to-400-drivers-officials.html">not allowed</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'He [MoD spokesperson] added that opposition lawmakers were not objecting to the use of military or police number plates by those entitled to apply for them and suggested that legitimate plate holders should paint their vehicles in military colours to help people determine which licences were legal and which ones were not.<br />Chhum Socheat [opposition spokesperson] said that the 2007 law does include such a provision but that it was rarely implemented or enforced.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> “It is not a problem if legitimate plate owners do not spray [their vehicles] with military colours,” he said'. </span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">Despite the MoD defense, the Cambodia Mirror </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://cambodiamirror.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/the-ministry-of-defense-rejected-a-parliamentarians-request-to-remove-royal-cambodian-armed-forces-number-plates-wednesday-17-2-2010/">adds</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">: </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'“Though there is such a claim from the Ministry of Defense, many citizens said that many cars of powerful officials are parked illegally and they do not obey the traffic law.”'</span></blockquote></li></ul></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-76189521461806951912010-01-27T11:37:00.006+07:002010-01-27T14:45:51.373+07:00Chasing cars, January 27, 2010<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUjaWdrUGdlcSLo1OQWP7h3N-u-OHUMRtMlnnfTfP0-SoDoJwPxvYelqKSxI51c6X7JgjHF-kzQ6_qX9saiE9gbsJG52HcS_RyTkMPj2KYKhKnE2-gpKcpron75XYwB5aJYJLkdA/s1600-h/IMG_7696.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUjaWdrUGdlcSLo1OQWP7h3N-u-OHUMRtMlnnfTfP0-SoDoJwPxvYelqKSxI51c6X7JgjHF-kzQ6_qX9saiE9gbsJG52HcS_RyTkMPj2KYKhKnE2-gpKcpron75XYwB5aJYJLkdA/s320/IMG_7696.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431322075749451874" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Helmet or not?</span><br /><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">As reported on many prior occasions in this blog, the Phnom Penh Post (20 Jan. 2010) managed to get on the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010012030955/National-news/helmet-use-spotty-at-best-experts.html">message</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> that the helmet law enforcement is far from perfect: <blockquote>'Despite the heavy publicity campaigns that were tied to the amendment’s adoption, compliance has been lacklustre, and it has failed to reduce the number of traffic fatalities over the past 12 months, according to government statistics'.</blockquote> Well, let's just say that </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2010/01/cambodias-roads-claim-over-1600-lives.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FbmaW+%28KI+Media%29&utm_content=Netvibes">those statistics</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> are good enough to spot trends. HIB, the NGO leading traffic safety in Cambodia, now says that change can take years, though Crossing Cambodia suspect that the failure to grasp law and law implementation are more immediate issues.<br />Increasingly over the last years judiciary and judicial systems have been used to enforce power to the rulers rather than something impartial backed up with law and jurisdiction.<br />Naturally this attitude is picked up even at the lowest levels of government enforcers. Last Saturday a motorcyclist was apprehended despite wearing a helmet and having mirrors while just a few seconds later a helmet less soldier slowly passed unobstructed the same checkpoint. Moral of this story? Become untouchable.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">Anyway the focus of law implementation has briefly changed to:<br /></span><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">- </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010012231014/National-news/drivers-ed-schools-to-be-driven-off-the-road.html">unlicensed driving schools</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> (what happened to the more the merrier?),</span></li><li>- <a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010011430843/National-news/roadside-vendors-forced-out-by-phnom-penh-police.html">street vendors on Sisowath</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">('</span><span style="font-family:verdana;">“I will move my stall back from the street, closer in to the building, but many vendors will not comply,” he said. “They paid money to the police to keep their businesses open as usual tomorrow.”')</span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></li><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">- and </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010011230772/National-news/police-plan-crackdown-on-trucks-in-siem-reap.html"><span style="font-family:verdana;">tru</span>cks in Siem Reap</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> <blockquote>('He [ the deputy director of the provincial Department of Public Works and Transport] did not specify a specific weight limit for trucks, saying that individual police officers would be tasked with determining which ones were overloaded and could potentially damage the roads'.)</blockquote></span></li> </ul><span style="font-family:verdana;">Meanwhile,<br /></span><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Vietnam Airline </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=467992">hopes</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> Hanoi will become a hub for tourists from / to Cambodia. Odd this ambition, if the airline doesn't even fly direct between the capitals of these neighbouring countries ...</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Hot on the heels of the Poipet bus terminal which means passengers need to pay an entrance fee, the already very uncompetitive boats believe that </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://talesofasia.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1287">this is the future</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">: <blockquote>'It is hoped a new 15-by-35 square-metre hub will clean up the look of the port serving the roughly 70 to 80 passengers a day that use the existing terminal. Foreigners will be charged $1 to use the facility, he said.<br />...<br />This decline [in tourist traffic in the port] was steeper than the overall decline in air arrivals to Cambodia – which fell just under 12 percent in the first 11 months – suggesting that tourists were increasingly choosing not to travel by boat, instead opting for more cost-effective modes of transport'.</blockquote></span></li></ul></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-32874602102616603062010-01-13T08:01:00.010+07:002010-01-13T13:33:13.142+07:00Chasing Cars, first of the last<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0GchqpRu12oT0LvG1hScH0bqdDp7IUfpOE_WfScx4SpqGB-jM4PNVVkMWBVG56LsRAQvPaDIu_Q-EldyPjqNuiqxW5YCLsk5RRqak-LE2Ahw6BDVR1ovA-w6-cB5T55ola0039g/s1600-h/PC250051.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0GchqpRu12oT0LvG1hScH0bqdDp7IUfpOE_WfScx4SpqGB-jM4PNVVkMWBVG56LsRAQvPaDIu_Q-EldyPjqNuiqxW5YCLsk5RRqak-LE2Ahw6BDVR1ovA-w6-cB5T55ola0039g/s320/PC250051.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426072001747670050" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Spent New Year in Thailand. As part of the combat to protect their own, they had a really large road safety campaign. Fail yet again. In Bangkok everyone sticks to the rules but outside it's as if no rules exist. Many drunk driving and almost all motorcycles without helmets.</span><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">There's quite a bit of news from Siem Reap.<blockquote>'The days of dodging potholes and clinging onto motos for dear life in Siem Reap may finally be a distant memory. The streets around town have improved drastically in the past few weeks after a decree from Hun Sen, the prime minister'.</blockquote> The </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009122530442/Siem-Reap-Insider/all-roads-finally-lead-to-siem-reap.html">Phnom Penh Post </a><a> <span style="font-family:verdana;"> (25-12-09) is a bit mystified as to how the town first is turned into a quagmire with no future and then within 6 weeks achieves the unimaginable:</span></a><blockquote style="font-family: verdana;"><a>'it’s unclear who exactly is in charge of the rapid roadwork, but — as per usual in Cambodia — when Hun Sen gives an order it gets done fast'.</a></blockquote><a style="font-family: verdana;">Then going full circle Hun Sen </a><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009122930512/National-news/pm-blames-hotels-for-siem-reap-floods.html">claims</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> that flooding in Siem Reap is due to hotels constructing roads. And there I was thinking it was water that's the cause of flooding.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Hun Sen <a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009122930494/Business/pm-to-void-7ng-bridge-contract.html">also</a> has something against a bridge from his namesake's park to the other side of the rive<span style="font-family: verdana;">r:</span></span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> '</span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday he would cancel a major bridge contract and slammed senior officials for negligence in the awarding of build-operate-transfer, or BOT, contracts'.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">On the Expat Advisory Services </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.expat-advisory.com/forum/asia/cambodia/-phnom-penh-pub-expats-expats-cambodia/mean-streets-phnom-penh-staring-down-bull">forum</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> a discussion of a daily occurrence on Phnom Penh's street: <blockquote>'The passenger feigned shooting at me-wow was i shitting-NOT'.</blockquote> The advice part:<blockquote> 'Unless you are in a Humvee adn well equipped , you do not want to get caught on the streets after midnight with all the drunk rich kids and bodyguards behind the wheel'.</blockquote></span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">For those of you </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.expat-advisory.com/forum/asia/cambodia/-phnom-penh-pub-expats-expats-cambodia/bokor-mountain-road">concerned</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> with driving up Bokor: <blockquote>'it turns out bokor opened for a day and a half at new year. a quarter of it has already been widened but not tar mac finished. the rest is still fairly rough. great fun on a dirt bike'. </blockquote>That said the road to Kampot (at the foot of Bokor) is also worth a miss as the tarmac has disappeared and huge amounts of dirt are being dunked at random.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Airline news: the Sydney Morning Herald manages to </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/worlds-airlines-stuck-in-time-warp-20100108-lz03.html">announce</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> Cambodia Angkor Air's demise, coming shortly after their opening party:<br /><blockquote>'just 14 have gone bust in the last year – including Queensland's SkyAirWorld, Fiji Air and Cambodia's Angkor Airway'.</blockquote> Odd that, seeing it was no news here and they were still flying yesterday ... The same </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/aussie-jetstar-workers-held-in-vietnam-20100108-lyk4.html">source</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> has a report on how the industry is not always as clear-cut as you would have thought. Jetstar invests in Vietnamese carrier. It makes huge losses. Management get arrested. Doubt whether the Cambodian authorities would have the same leverage over their Vietnamese managers in Cambodia Angkor Airways ...</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Anyway with possible links to I believe Kuwait and Oman on the cards, who knows an airlink to Russia is also </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009122830471/Business/air-link-to-russia-likely.html">in the pipeline</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. <blockquote>'Direct lights between Russia and Cambodia are set to begin next year or 2011 at the latest, a Russian embassy official said Friday'. </blockquote>It's a wonder actually how poorly Cambodia is served by long distance carriers for Europe. Going to North America, one can book with Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean and Japanese carriers so with 1 stop you can get where you want. Going to Europe one needs to take a short hop first before flying long distance. With the Arab nations vying for customers it's a wonder that neither Qatar, Emirates or Etihad have opened shop here. The first would have the market for itself ...</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Those flying can tack heart from the fact that Cambodian control over the air traffic control has been </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2010/01/cambodian-govt-returns-air-traffic-firm.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FbmaW+%28KI+Media%29">returned</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> to the Thai management.</span></li></ul><ul><li><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010010130577/Business/siem-reap-air-arrivals-drop-again.html">Then </a><span style="font-family: verdana;">again there are less of us flying to Siem Reap.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Handicap International Belgium </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://roadsafetyawarenesscam.blogspot.com/2010/01/helmet-wearing-rate-increases-in-phnom.html">commend</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> themselves for getting helmets on. <blockquote>'Latest figures from the Road Crash and Victim Information System show that the helmet wearing increase has led to a nationwide 3% drop in motorcycle crash fatalities due to head injuries'. </blockquote> A three percent drop? Can this be significant? Especially as the system of recording this seems highly flexible. Elsewhere the same press communique seems a bit confusing:<blockquote> 'The law was strictly enforced, resulting in the current helmet rate of 85%'. </blockquote>Strict enforcement means 15% still get away with violating the law? O sorry, this is Cambodia.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Another Cambodia curiosity. Apparently authorities have let a company build a terminal for people leaving overland to Thailand. Unfortunately it's 5 k's from the border and you actually need to pay to get in. </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://talesofasia.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1280">Tales of Asia</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> has more comments and future predictions.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">A slightly older </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2009/10/local-solar-bicycle-finds-limited.html">link</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. Solar power driven bicycle fails to find market. Local supplier spends 5 years developing bicycle and is amazed that it doesn't sell. Despite that <blockquote>'it can help save energy'</blockquote>(how does that work with a bicycle?) it's expensive and difficult to use ...</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">The Christian Science Monitor (8-1-10) looks at the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0108/Cambodia-As-rickshaws-get-cycled-out-some-look-back">disppearing act</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> of cyclo's: </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'</span><span style="font-family:verdana;">In Cambodia a decade ago, some 10,000 cyclo drivers – as rickshaws are called here – wheeled along Phnom Penh streets. Today there are fewer than 1,500'.</span></blockquote></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Under the heading <blockquote>'Road safety'</blockquote> the police have proudly </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010010430603/National-news/road-safety-200000-cited-for-violating-traffic-laws.html">declared</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> that they have apprehended more than 200,000 vehicles last year. 95% of those were motorcycles, 95% of the car drivers were apprehended for not wearing seat belts. Major causes for accidents in Cambodia: drunk driving and poor driving. 60 were cited for failing to adhere to traffic signs, none for drunk driving ... Anyway that's the official statistics.</span></li></ul></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-6404505968905923622009-12-23T07:18:00.003+07:002009-12-23T08:33:42.452+07:00Chasing Cars, two days before Christmas, 2009<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Nearly 2 weeks have passed since the latest edition and I'm yet again sorry to say hardly anything has happened. That said I mean on the traffic front. Elsewhere the Cambodian government has been staking it's claims by forming the Thai opposition, pussy footing the Vietnamese, getting more from the Chinese than even the rest of the world managed during the Climate talks (well, actually selling a dozen Uigers and their criminal kids) and slagging Bangladesh's efforts to control battery acid as undoable. So if you are waiting for miracles for next year, they just might well happen ...</span><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Public transport is on the cards. Cambodia can do all the above but fails to even set up a system under which private enterprise may well do all the public transportation. Within the city, it relies on a load a free-wheeling cowboys who's mass transport is literally that; motorcycles with a slightly extending sitting area which will either take you, your family and their neighbour's daughters school class or anything smaller than a container. Can we call this public transport?<br />Outside of town we use mini-buses which have been deliberately not changed to facilitate passengers, which are subsequently overloaded and decrepit. Or we use saloon cars, beyond their purchase by date, stuff as many people as possible (10 or more), plus a number in the (open boot) and thus we travel up and down the country.<br />But that's set to </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009121130148/National-news/public-transport-on-the-way-city.html">change</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">:</span><blockquote style="font-family: verdana;">'Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema has pledged to create a public transport service within five years in a bid to ease traffic congestion in the capital'.</blockquote> <span style="font-family:verdana;">So public traffic is not for the public but it's there to allow hot shots to keep easing through the city. Five years? Ambitious. </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'</span><span style="font-family:verdana;">“Now, we are thinking that if we create a bus system, people will travel by bus,” Kep Chuktema said, adding, however, that “Cambodian people do not like to walk, and they like to use their own vehicles to travel quickly to their destinations. This is an obstacle to creating a public bus system”'.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> The biggest obstacle to public transport in Phnom Penh is the lack of forward thinking and common sense.</span><br /></li></ul><ul><li><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/29467/one-in-three-pillion-riders-flout-crash-helmet-law">Thailand</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> will start cracking down on pillion riders without helmets. </span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">More </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://roadsafetyawarenesscam.blogspot.com/2009/12/helmet-wearing-rises-in-cambodian.html">back slapping yourself</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. Helmet wearing triples due to the efforts of: <blockquote>'The primary reason for the increase in helmet wearing rates is the multi-stakeholder helmet awareness campaign'.</blockquote>And law enforcement. And more law enforcement. And more law enforcement. And ..., well you get the idea.<br />The fact of the matter is that the organization involved has been propagating helmets for years and only once the police started to see the point, the system kick in. The result? <blockquote>'The latest figures from Cambodia's Road Crash and Victim Information System (RCVIS), meanwhile, show that the helmet wearing increase has led to a nationwide 3-percent drop in motorcycle crash fatalities due to head injuries'.</blockquote>Three percent. My thoughts are that the drop may well be related to the economic slump ...</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Anyway the RCVIS has no back-up data on this, they have been wrong in the past. Just looking at most recent data. Fatalities are up (and the number of hospitals reporting to them is especially here in Phnom Penh is low), on average this year 25% were hit and run cases, more than half reported speeding as cause and 1 in eight of the cars involved had the steering wheel on the wrong side ... Do I hear the government ?</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">How many times can you get in the press? ADB </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2009/12/adb-provides-further-funds-for-rail.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FbmaW+%28KI+Media%29">congratulates itself</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> yet again for reviving the national railways. Let's just wait till it's happened.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Trade with Vietnam can go up, </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2009/12/battered-border-road-looks-for-revamp.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FbmaW+%28KI+Media%29&utm_content=Netvibes">if only</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> there were good roads.</span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'Locals, government officials and economists say </span><span style="font-family:verdana;">the ill repair of Kampot’s Road 33 does more than slow motorcycles: it slows trade and economic growth'.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;"> Road 33 is slated for an upgrade next year it seems as ADB and Australia match Cambodia's 3.7 $ million with 4 times as much ...</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Fighting the law? A </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.expat-advisory.com/forum/asia/cambodia/-phnom-penh-pub-expats-expats-cambodia/i-fought-law-and-law-won">first hand account</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> of being crashed and seeking redemption. Not. <blockquote>'So my friend catches up with them and says "You know you just hit someone back there?" and in true "off the rails" fashion the passenger who incidentally is a uniformed policeman reaches behind him and pulls a pistol on my good Samaritan friend, saying "i think you should leave this alone"'.</blockquote> Elsewhere on the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.expat-advisory.com/forum/asia/cambodia/-phnom-penh-pub-expats-expats-cambodia/gunpoint-robbery-bkk1">EAS forum</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> I read that police are concerned about getting bad press ... Now why would any one slag the police? Or the countryf or that matter?</span></li></ul></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-15373050879886954182009-12-10T14:07:00.004+07:002009-12-10T14:54:28.045+07:00Chasing Cars, December the tenth 2009<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Two whopping weeks have passed and I haven't hardly got anything to elaborate on. Boring, boring. Police are out doing their job. The dodgers are out dodging the police and no improvement seems to be happening.</span><br /></div><div style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009120930080/National-news/responsibility-for-corruption.html">Phnom Penh Post</a> looks at corruption yesterday (9 December 2009). The visual example is as follows with subtext:</li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/images/stories/news/national/2009/091209/091209_06.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 350px; height: 233px;" src="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/images/stories/news/national/2009/091209/091209_06.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style=";font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Photo by Tracey Shelton. </span></span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style=";font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;"><blockquote>'Police refuse to issue a traffic fine to a driver on Sihanouk Boulevard earlier this year, saying they do not have the paperwork for official fines and can only accept bribes'.</blockquote></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">New tax </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://cambodiamirror.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/the-government-explains-land-and-house-taxes-and-the-road-taxes-increas-tuesday-1-12-2009/">proposal</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> accepted by the Cambodian parliament: </span></li></ul></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">' “The budget law for 2010 foresees also an increase of taxes on means transportation including automobiles (road taxes):</span></div><ol style="font-family: verdana; text-align: justify;" type="1"><li>Vehicles with a power over 12 HP to 17 HP, within 5 years from their production date, have to pay Riel 500,000 [approx. US$125] each year, and after the 5th years, it is Riel 360,000 [approx. US$90].</li><li>Cars with a power over 17 HP to 24 HP, within 5 years from their production date, have to pay Riel 1,600,000 [approx. US$400], and after the 5th year, it is Riel 1,200,000 [approx. US$300]. </li><li>Cars with a power over 24 HP, like Lexus’ and Land Cruisers, had to pay only Riel 1,000,000 [approx. US$250] for road tax in the previous year, but next year, they will be charged Riel 2,000,000 [approx. US$500]. </li><li>As for passengers’, general transportation, and tourists’ cars with a power of 12 HP, and small motorbikes, their taxes are kept at the same level'.</li></ol></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Boating in Cambodia. A </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://talesofasia.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=434">talesofasia</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> forum entry has all the answers.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">The airport ready but still not opened (Sihanoukville) is pleased to </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009112729821/Business/malaysian-korean-airlines-mull-sville-routes.html">mention</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> that it just mite receive regular flights from neighbouring countries Malaysia and Korea. No wrong, our neighbours are Thailand and Vietnam. Wouldn't that be more logic, flights from Saigon and Bangkok? Rather than an A320 from Seoul?</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Economy getting back into shape. I mean economic indicators pointing to more money being made in the country but collectively we're getting poorer at least psychological, why need money? To buy .... </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009113029856/Business/motorcycle-sales-gain-traction-after-slow-year.html">motorcycles</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">!</span><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">'</span><strong style="font-family: verdana; font-weight: normal;">Dealers say new Honda models are driving recent rebound' </strong></blockquote><strong style="font-family: verdana; font-weight: normal;"></strong><strong style="font-family: verdana; font-weight: normal;">They drive themselves?</strong></li></ul><ul><li><strong style="font-family: verdana; font-weight: normal;">Yet <a href="http://talesofasia.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=440">again</a> suckers trying to bus themselves to/from Bangkok, this time via Koh Kong.</strong><blockquote><strong style="font-family: verdana; font-weight: normal;"></strong><strong style="font-family: verdana; font-weight: normal;">'</strong><span style="font-family: verdana;">The </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Combined tickets F*ck us travellers. And Koh Kong is not a quick way to Bangkok....The companies don't think we will spread the word.....do it! We are not collectively STUPID'.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Is that a question?</span> <span style="font-family: verdana;">Do you really want me to answer that? </span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">More on buses to/from Sihanoukville. From </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?t=13305">Khmer 440</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">: </span><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;">'</span><span style="font-family: verdana;" class="postbody">Be aware that if you are doing this trip with Kampuchea Angkor Express, they do not stop in PP city area, but continue straight across the Jap. Friendship bridge to their new office on the other side of the Tonle Sap. All that inspite of me asking where they stop, before buying my ticket. Their answer was at the Old Market. Maybe this is the first stage of relocating all buses outside the city center'. </span></blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana;" class="postbody">Interesting that, spend an extra hour in the bus so as to be dropped off at some kind of out of town shelter, jam packed with creamers (moto's / tuktuks). Great system. What about the government open up bus stations for the diverse directions, i.e. a southern, western, northern and Vietnamese bus station? They could ex-expropriate some poor souls, get some git to do all the work for free, lease it out for 100+ years (that's the theory) and sit on top of the cash and do the public a favour in the process. City Hall reads this blog? Nah, they have no dosh for a internet connection ...</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">On yer bike? Tomorrow an </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://bikeben.com/?page_id=414">exhibition</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> by Bike Ben on something he did and how he landed up in the Penh. @ the living room.</span></li></ul></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-37532163090822214782009-11-23T14:04:00.004+07:002009-11-24T09:23:52.440+07:00Chasing Cars yet again<div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Under the government's search light this week are </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009111829605/National-news/tuk-tuks-gain-licence-reprieve.html">yet again</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> the tuk-tuk's: <blockquote>'City Hall has announced it will stop fining tuk-tuk drivers who lack licence plates until the end of the year, but a ban on tuk-tuks driving along Norodom Boulevard is set to remain in place.<br />...<br />Nhem Saron, director of the Municipal Department of Public Works and Transport, said drivers must all respect the Land Traffic Law. “We did allow [tuk-tuks] to drive along Norodom Boulevard, but they did not respect" the law, he said. City Hall cabinet chief Koet Chhe said the city did not allow tuk-tuks to drive along Norodom Boulevard because they wanted to keep roads clear for foreign delegations visiting Cambodia'.</blockquote> Yet, if they want the roads clear, why take all the Lexuses off, they would make a much bigger impact.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">And </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009111929639/National-news/road-safety-pm-issues-sub-decree-on-siren-use.html">more</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> under the spotlight. Now even Deputy PM's (how many?) will not be allowed to use sirens ...</span></li></ul><span style="font-family:verdana;">Air transport seems to be the most talked about, just look at the following articles: </span><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Phnom Penh just </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009111829597/Business/philippine-flights-given-go-ahead.html">might be</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> connected to the Philippines in the not so distant future, thereby avoiding an expensive flight to Saigon or backtracking to Bangkok. <blockquote>'Cebu Pacific Air, a Philippines-based airline, plans to begin direct flights between its home country and Cambodia in the spring of 2010, Minister of Tourism Thong Khon said Tuesday'.</blockquote> Funny how you are in a regional grouping striving to be one economy and not have direct flights. Next up Djakarta?</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Sihanoukville's airport has been personally declared fit to open by the Minister some time back, but the official opening </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009112029666/Business/opening-of-new-airport-delayed-until-2010.html">seems to be</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> in the phase of putting off to the future. <blockquote>'The official opening of Preah Sihanouk International Airport has been delayed until next year at the request of the French embassy, State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA) Secretary of State Mao Havannal said Thursday'.</blockquote> So minister yes, French embassy no. Some much for Cambodia being a sovereign state ...</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Sovereignty is at the heart of the following.<br />The plot:<br />Cambodia not like Thai, Thai not like Cambodia.<br />Some Thai not like Thaksin.<br />Thaksin get kicked out of country.<br />Cambodia now like Thaksin.<br />Thaksin go to Cambodia.<br />Thai in uproar.<br />Cambodia not care.<br />Apparently Cambodian skies are controlled by Thai firm Samart using CATS as the local front office. One employee hands over flight plan of Thaksin after he has landed (and traversed Thai air space) to Thai embassy official. Cambodia arrests person, kicks official out and takes over the company. </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said Cambodia’s takeover of CATS was “</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009112029680/National-news/govt-seizes-thai-airport-firm.html">temporary</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">” but necessary “to ensure national security and public safety". </span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">Which was not the case before hand?<br />What is the reality? Nine Thai are replaced by 1 Cambodian. That should be good for the confidence of all Cambodian air travellers.<br />KI Media</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2009/11/cambodia-denies-premiers-daughter.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FbmaW+%28KI+Media%29&utm_content=Netvibes"> adds</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">: <blockquote>'Cambodia rejected Monday a Thai media claim that the daughter of Prime Minister Hun Sen is to take a stake in a Thai firm at the centre of a spying row'.</blockquote> An ASEAN spying row?</span></li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi9uAa8UN3BZgge8OxDTxEKO1zfLDcYHyLrun4jA7FsD1sPyKGaY1LGTGPt63FG2FaJhU4KIE-7SBmooIvojL_VuxRAILFhHRuQg0Q_o2ok8fAV6SugDPpKFr2ckI18IqeK5s-0A/s1600/IMG_7009.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi9uAa8UN3BZgge8OxDTxEKO1zfLDcYHyLrun4jA7FsD1sPyKGaY1LGTGPt63FG2FaJhU4KIE-7SBmooIvojL_VuxRAILFhHRuQg0Q_o2ok8fAV6SugDPpKFr2ckI18IqeK5s-0A/s320/IMG_7009.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5407195324327303874" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family:verdana;">A Russian project to build a bridge to Koh Pos just off the coast of Sihanoukville.</span></span><br /><br /></div><span style="font-family:verdana;">Rail news.<br /></span><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">The railways are decrepit and so a foreign company will spruce them up. that costs money. So some things have to go. Personnel. Apparently the company's previous business plan was as follow:<br /><blockquote>'Development at the Royal Railways of Cambodia totally stopped, trains run at speeds of 40km/h down to 5km/h'.</blockquote> A train driver laments:<br /><blockquote>'At present, I only earn a salary of Riel 116,000 [approx. U$29] per month, and I have been working as a train driver for 28 years. Other workers shouted annoyingly, ‘Even nobody is promoted to new positions, and nobody knows when the salaries will be paid; if there are promotions, this happens only to their partisans.’</blockquote> The </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://cambodiamirror.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/royal-railway-workers-protest-over-salaries-after-the-royal-railways-of-cambodia-have-been-contracted-over-to-a-private-company-wednesday-18-11-2009/">Mirror</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> adds as final sentence: </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'“The under-secretary of state in charge of the Royal Railways of Cambodia, Mr. Touch Chankosal, told </span><em style="font-family: verdana;">Deum Ampil</em><span style="font-family:verdana;">, ‘I did not know that the workers had protested" '.<br /></span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></li></ul><ul><li><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.andybrouwer.co.uk/blog/2009/11/anorak-wearers-only.html">Andy</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> the only train spotter Cambodia has, is now focusing on finding missing train stations as there are no trains to spot. <blockquote>'For a look at one of those destroyed stations, the shell of Koh Touch, some 16 kms west of Kampot, is worth a look if you are out that way. Some of the walls remain as do the floor tiles, but very little else, as the vegetation has a stranglehold on what's left. A group of female rice-workers in a nearby field looked at me as though I was a complete madman as I took pictures of this empty ghost of the bygone days of the southern line'.</blockquote></span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Another boat </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009112029670/National-news/boat-disaster-bodies-recovered-in-kandal.html">disaster</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. The term used seems a bit out of sync. <blockquote>'The bodies of a father and his three children who drowned after a boat carrying seven people capsized in Kandal province’s Lvea Em district on Wednesday morning have all been recovered'.</blockquote></span></li></ul><ul><li><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/international/3075529/Cambodia-what-road-rules">New Zealand</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> teaches us road rules.<blockquote>'A stint in Cambodia teaches you to appreciate road rules. Traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, the give-way rule and seat belts reveal themselves as true blessings. In my time in Cambodia I was honked at, swerved past, almost run over and driven into the path of an oncoming concrete truck by an unrepentant tuk tuk driver.<br />...<br />You certainly learn to appreciate roads rules for what they are - lifesavers'.</blockquote></span></li></ul></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-61453268252176443362009-11-09T13:42:00.002+07:002009-11-09T14:23:04.642+07:00Chasing Cars, November 9 2009<ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">From Phnom Penh's Post </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009102629181/National-news/police-blotter-26-oct-2009.html">Police Blotter</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> (26 Oct. 2009): </span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><blockquote>'A university student was arrested in Phnom Penh on Saturday after throwing his helmet at a police officer during a traffic stop. The accused was stopped for not wearing a helmet while driving his motorbike near Royal University of Phnom Penh. He then threw his helmet, which was hung on the handle of his motorbike, at the police officer. The man’s father explained to police that his son suffers from a mental illness as a result of a traffic accident'.</blockquote></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> Guy is mental for not wearing a helmet and having an accident. What does he do, continues his previous lifestyle. Symptomatic for Cambodia's (lack of) education?</span></div></li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">And a day later the</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009102729204/National-news/police-blotter-27-oct-2009.html"> Police Blotter</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> (27 Oct. 2009) reports: '<blockquote>A woman who fled from traffic police on Saturday fell off her motorbike on Russian Boulevard in the Sen Sok district of Phnom Penh. The fall rendered the woman unconscious, said witnesses, who added that the bike was equipped with a licence plate and side mirrors, but that the woman had been driving without a helmet. Bystanders complained that police had caused the accident by chasing the woman, who was subsequently brought to an area hospital for treatment'.</blockquote> It's quite a common occurrence, police being more vigilant. Over the past weekend I was in Sihanoukville and along the way were a few surprise police check points one which had just then resulted in a minor accident.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Old story, woman has an accident and goes beserk. She received instant justice: </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009102929277/National-news/court-rejects-drivers-gun-conviction-appeal.html">1,5 year</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. Then PM wades in and finds</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009102829242/National-news/rein-in-relatives-pm-warns.html"> sentence too lenient</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> and presto, authorities are now pushing for a harsher sentence. so much for independence of justice. The new charges: trepassing [you never know how long you can go in the lock up for that, in Cambodia] and intent to kill, despite the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009110529347/National-news/new-charges-for-traffic-gunwoman.html">artic<span style="font-family: verdana;">le</span></a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> claiming <blockquote>'she fired a gun into the air'.</blockquote> Aiming at who?</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Another ongoing story with so many twists and turns it's hard to understand what's it about. Well, umm it's about dominance of Cambodia's internal skies with </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009102629177/Business/siem-reap-air-tries-to-calm-fears-over-jobs.html">two companies vying</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> and despite both failing to adhere to Cambodia's aviation standards which in itself is also </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009110529353/Business/cambodia-likely-to-fall-short-on-aviation-audit-says-senior-official.html">lacking competency</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g297390-i9163-k3200659-l22729624-Cambodia_Angkor_Air-Siem_Reap.html#22729624">Tripadvisor</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> has the following:<blockquote> 'I've flown VN air (company running flag carrier Cambodia Angkor Airways) turbo-prop planes HCMC-Nha Trang-HCMC - all fine except return leg was delayed'.</blockquote> So not so fine ...</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">More on the ongoing projects of the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009110429317/Education-and-Career/cyclo-centre-teaches-drivers-street-smarts.html">Cyclo Center</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">.</span></li></ul><ul><li><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.khmer440.com/article.php?id=1144">Khmer 440</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> has pointers on moto-dups.</span></li></ul><ul><li><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/images/stories/news/national/2009/091026/091026_04.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 233px; height: 167px;" src="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/images/stories/news/national/2009/091026/091026_04.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009102629172/Multimedia/flagged-for-safetyred-cross.html">Story</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> to picture above: </span></li></ul><blockquote style="font-family: verdana;">'Volunteers [paid and forced kids] educate an unhappy motorist about road safety laws on Sunday as part of a regular education campaign by the nonprofit organisation aimed at reducing the number of road casualties in the Kingdom'.</blockquote></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28958255.post-49317144050575322132009-10-26T12:58:00.005+07:002009-10-26T14:06:00.386+07:00Chasing cars, October 26 2009<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Again a lot nonsensical news on Cambodia's roads and traffic in general:</span><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Probably the most extensive coverage is reserved for who is allowed to fly within the country. The government seems intent on allowing their own airline (um, actually the airline of Vietnam Airlines)</span> <span style="font-family:verdana;">to be the sole operator by throwing up all kind regulations to which it's competitors fail to comply, only for the same to apply for it's own airline! The tourist is left stranded, but who cares? the headlines: </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'Tourism head </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009102129101/Business/tourism-head-calls-for-govt-to-support-airlines.html">calls</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> for government to support airlines' (21 Oct.), 'Regulator to </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009102229122/Business/regulator-to-write-for-sra-permit.html">write</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> for SRA permit' (22 Oct.) and<br />'International aviation to </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009102329158/Business/international-aviation-to-review-cambodia.html">review</a>' <span style="font-family:verdana;">(23 Oct).</span></blockquote></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">More airline info: <blockquote>'New routes to be added'.</blockquote> All new routes </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009102229118/Business/airport-operator-upbeat-for-2010-with-new-routes-added.html">are</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> from Siem Reap to Korea.<br />Then the Airport in Sihanoukville is scheduled to open according to </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2009/10/sihanouk-international-airport-on-track.html">KI Media</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. In the report the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA) Secretary of State Mao Havannal had the following to add on the subject above: </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'</span><span class="fullpost" style="font-family:verdana;">According to Mao Havannal, Siem Reap Airways may be unable to fly from the airport as it has not registered any planes in Cambodia, a requirement for domestic operators to receive an Air Operator Certificate (AOC).</span><span class="fullpost" style="font-family:verdana;"> “I don’t know for sure if Siem Reap Airways will be able to fly or not” said Mao Havannal.</span><span class="fullpost" style="font-family:verdana;"> “It depends on the airline because we have already confirmed with them that if they want to resume their operations, they need to register an airplane [in Cambodia].</span><span class="fullpost" style="font-family:verdana;"> “It already completely complies with SSCA requirements and has satisfied concerns over its operations.”</span><span style="font-family:verdana;">' </span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">Weird that the Cambodia Angkor Airways can fly while it also has failed to comply with this regulation.</span><br /></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">Good </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.vientianetimes.org.la/FreeContent/Free_Lao.htm">news</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> for the bus masochists, Laos is planning buses to ply from Pakse to Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. </span><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'According to officials, the Pakxe Public Bus Association has been given permission by the Lao government to provide a bus service to Cambodia . The association planned to provide buses from Vientiane to the southern Lao province of Champassak , and on to Siem Reap and Phnom Penh in Cambodia , they said.'</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;"> That means you will soon be able to take the bus to Jinghong, China with just two changes of bus, in Pakse and in Vientiane. Time 3 days and nites?</span><br /></li></ul></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipxpiB1vaL-MDqNNHmWAi7DFkOUjxWXxqIain0C23-nlKlsmj5DjUjoIbCbDGOPhDhE6uQCxvQwfuzRKbJhRkdOlWSDAIL1h6g0bCHZGhXntRLWavAsjRWv6toroCEqrkn1KYWlQ/s1600-h/PA220002.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipxpiB1vaL-MDqNNHmWAi7DFkOUjxWXxqIain0C23-nlKlsmj5DjUjoIbCbDGOPhDhE6uQCxvQwfuzRKbJhRkdOlWSDAIL1h6g0bCHZGhXntRLWavAsjRWv6toroCEqrkn1KYWlQ/s320/PA220002.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396785727239927986" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >What's wrong here? Cambo authorities are lacking funds to have simpel signboards.<br />So they get them sponsored. But then the signboards turn into advertising bill boards.<br />Then if you click on the photo for detail you see how poorly the directions are given.<br />No design standard is used and even the opposing traffic lanes are to be used.<br />Going straight can on the lanes left and right<br />while the center lane (of a 2 lane road) is to be used to turn right.</span><br /></div><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">In Cambodia though buses are to be </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009101929025/National-news/proposed-rules-for-buses-draw-criticism.html">regulated</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">: <blockquote>'would require that companies hire two drivers per bus, and that the drivers switch off every 150 kilometres to avoid fatigue-related accidents'.</blockquote> The bus company replies: </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'Chan Sophanna, general manager of Phnom Penh Sorya Transportation, said he welcomed the effort to improve road safety but said the cost of two drivers would be too high.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> He went on to defend bus drivers who had been involved in road accidents, blaming them on “careless pedestrians” who walked into traffic without looking. The drivers, he added, needed to flee the scene in many cases to avoid retribution at the hands of onlookers'.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;"> Blame the victims.</span><br /></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">The Phnom Penh Post has some </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009101629005/Siem-Reap-Insider/the-art-of-running-a-shoddy-bus-company.html">pointers</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> on how to establish and manage a Cambodian bus company: </span><blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">'</span><strong style="font-family: verdana;"></strong><span style="font-family:verdana;">Don’t lose sight of the small things. You can hire people to sweet-talk tourists into foregoing the money exchange booth at the border in order to rip them off at the bus station. Any day when you can convince a naïve Chinese teenager that he should change $50-worth of Thai baht into riel for an abysmal rate is a small victory.<br />...<br />Once customers have purchased their exorbitantly priced tickets and gotten on your decrepit bus, it’s time to let the good times roll. What, in theory, would be a three-hour ride should be lengthened, with a minimum of four stops at shabby restaurants so your fares can purchase plates of oily fried rice for two dollars a pop'.</span></blockquote></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">In Lao they have a </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.vientianetimes.org.la/FreeContent/Free_Brakes.htm">new solution</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> to easing higher traffic accident rates: <blockquote>'Luang Prabang province will be the second province in Laos to launch a project to prohibit secondary school students from riding motorbikes to school.<br />...<br />The project aims to help reduce road accidents and traffic, saving family expenditure and protecting the environment'.</blockquote></span></li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi45FhaE29oq8lgR1fC4i06fusmPo5gjAdd9RGf2wn2Ue5b7-Y6MilC0-EH1tB0IPXUvypQy2FwA4OvA1PNPWs1oQI39yP5CTi_eedEOCnK6mPBMPBkB4xIL-s3IK0IYxredl8Neg/s400/Flooding+2009+07+%28Reuters%29.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 235px; height: 344px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi45FhaE29oq8lgR1fC4i06fusmPo5gjAdd9RGf2wn2Ue5b7-Y6MilC0-EH1tB0IPXUvypQy2FwA4OvA1PNPWs1oQI39yP5CTi_eedEOCnK6mPBMPBkB4xIL-s3IK0IYxredl8Neg/s400/Flooding+2009+07+%28Reuters%29.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >The Cambo solution: shelve the moto and the bike.<br />Post Ketsana use the boat to get to school.<br />Original from </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2009/10/flood-in-kandal-province.html">Reuters</a></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >. </span><br /></div><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">An </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009101628999/National-news/workers-arrested-over-police-assault.html">ongoing issue</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">, are victims allowed to punch up police? <blockquote>'Kampot rovincial police have arrested four Chinese construction workers on suspicion of assaulting two Cambodian traffic police following a traffic dispute on Sunday'. </blockquote>However. <blockquote>'When contacted on Wednesday, one company representative denied that the arrests had taken place, claiming the workers had merely been summoned for questioning. “They did not arrest people. They just asked them to court for some information,” said Shu Jiang, the deputy managing director of Sinohydro'.</blockquote> The answer is if you have good backers, sure go ahead.</span></li></ul><ul><li><blockquote>'<span style="font-family:verdana;">Road deaths </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009101628995/National-news/road-deaths-rose-5pc-over-08-govt.html">rise</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> moderately'.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;"> That's according to the Ministery of Interior. Though they acknowledge that there may be some differences with other statistics, most notably the </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.roadsafetycambodia.info/action2">RTAVIS</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. This databank uses the Ministries figures and the Ministry is a partner. It begs the question why there may be a difference ....?</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:verdana;">More indepth knowledge on how the police works, thanx to </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.expat-advisory.com/forum/asia/cambodia/stuff-kids-phnom-penh-parents-help/police-cambodia">EAS</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. And revealing that the police are using their speedguns: <blockquote>'noticed the police had a new 'speed gun' and were pointing it at everyone. Well, the police 100 m onwards, they were aggressively flagging down every old vehicle (never Lexus or Land Crusers) and ours was one.<br />...<br />the police only emboldened the police to press charges against him--trumped up. They say they clocked him going 57 in a 55 km/hr speed. Then when they checked his license, they showed it was paper and not plastic (who knows what was right?). [a.: obviously the police do] ... I noticed at least 25 cars flagged down to the similar marked 'lane' where everyone simply handed out some notes and went on'. </blockquote></span></li></ul></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0