Chasing Cars, March 24, 2010

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.

'While trying to retrieve the URL: http://ki-media.blogspot.com/ The following error was encountered:

• Access Denied. Access control configuration prevents your request from being allowed at this time. Please contact your service provider if you feel this is incorrect [sic]'.

Anyway on Cambodia's traffic front. Yesterday's (23 March 2010) Phnom Penh Post provided an opposition parliamentarian a couple of columns 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.

' “... 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,”...'

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?

• How the law sometimes 'works':

  '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'.

• 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. reviews on his blog his recent trip with paramount to Siem Reap: '

  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'.

  After receiving a comment praising the same company he adjusts his views:

  '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'.

• A small article (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.

• The Australian company hoping to earn a buck off Cambodia's railroads has found out that the going will be tough:

  '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'.

  Should have thought that before signing up ...

• 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 thread on Khmer 440 seems to suggest that it's not such a bad thing ...

  '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 ...'

• Promises? That's what they hope what will get the Sihanouk airport up and running.

  '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.
  Still, not a single airline has agreed to flights to the airport despite the offer of zero percent airport tax.
  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.
  “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'.

  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?

• More tourist related info. As in the previous editions of CC the ... 'boat cartel' ... 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:

  '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'.

• Talking about boats. Why all the fuss about tourist boats?

  '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'.

• Tourism helps? After visiting Cambodia in 2007 (by bicycle) Dan Austin decided to get help in, by donating cycles to children. In Cambodia of course, in Uganda, in Peru. The organisation 88 Bikes, gets a (very positive) roll call on CBS News. 88 is the cost of donating a bicycle.
  

• Has someone picked up on this? Phnom Penh is to become clean? Cambodian Beginnings has a short blog entry.

  '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'.

• Elsewhere in the city the officials are trying to prevent anarchy from amorous bulls.

  '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'.

  This even made the international press. Or better said the Malaysian press.
  

• A clinic in Phnom Penh was closed down due to complaints following a traffic accident. Or not?

  '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.
  ...
  “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.”'

Just outside Phnom Penh

• And did I mention that Phnom Penh once more slipped up an opportunity to join in with WNBR? As Byron Bay, Melbourne, Canberra, Lima, Adelaide, Golden Bay, Sydney, Sao Paulo.
  This (northern hemisphere) summer then?
  

Chasing Cars, 29 June 2009

Not much to mention, everyone (in the english press) is on holiday.

• There's always the Khmer press to entertain you. Road safety blog dilengently jots down every Khmer and traffic related article. Pictures tell you most, what about this picture of a leg?

• Did anyone notice this article from Phnom Pehn Post's Police blotter?

  'Two bodyguards of a highranking official, Chhel Chhein, 28, and Chea Chantha, 27, were taken to the Dangkor district police station for hitting a man with a gun in a motorbike incident. The accident was caused by the two bodyguards, who were speeding up on their motorbike and ignored the traffic lights at a juncture. They nearly crashed into the victim, who shouted at them for violating the traffic law. At the police station, the victim demanded a compensation of US$700. The bodyguards paid him only $100, which he had no choice but to accept'.

  Typical only in Cambodia?

• Another typical only in Cambodia article:

  'Tuk-tuk crackdown targets Wat Phnom'

  (Phnom Penh Post (18 June 2009). Wat Phnom is one of Phnom Penh's main tourist area's. Tuk-tuks are one of the main modes of transport for tourists. The article mentions that Tuk-tuks are to stay away from this area. Why?

  'The police told me that I was parked in a disorderly manner'.

  The real reason?

  '... they [tuk-tuk drivers] believed the latest crackdown followed a recent near collision between Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema's car and a tuk-tuk in the Wat Phnom area'.

• A general message from the ADB:

  'without immediate action, the transport sectors of developing countries will account for the overwhelming share of increased carbon dioxide emissions by 2030'.

  Great news, but not really. Anyway, with the economic slowdown this prospect will also disappear.

• ADB, though finances the alternatives:

  'the new [railway] station would be funded by a US$20 million loan from the ADB'.

  The alternative however is

  'expected to displace 200 families in Dangkor district should be completed by 2012'.

  The good news is that something is happening. Lot's of hot air has passed on the revamping of the national railway, but little substance. This seems concrete at least.

• More general world news:

  'Nearly half of the 1.2 million people killed in traffic accidents around the world each year are not in cars. They are on motorcycles and bicycles or walking along roadsides.
  ...
  Traffic accidents were the 10th-leading cause of death in the world in 2004, behind lung cancer and ahead of diabetes, and they are on track to become the fifth-leading cause by 2030'.

  Surprisingly the report then neglects this highlight and recommends the following action:

  'The report identified five risk factors for injury on the road, each of which can be lessened by well-enforced laws: speed, drunken driving, helmets, seat belts and child restraints'.

  As if this were unknown. Though this article shows what's needed:

  'the focus should shift to what it calls "vulnerable road users" -- i.e. pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
  Naked cyclists [the World Naked Bike Ride took place on the 14th of June] who braved the elements last weekend couldn't agree more. Some people have a hard time understanding what being in your birthday suit has to do with bicycle advocacy. Cyclists themselves, especially those braving city streets, totally get it'.

  Now let's hope the Cambodian traffic authorities get it ....

Phnom Penh waterfront

Chasing cars, 10 June 2009

Quite a lot to mention:

• A number of bigwigs were in town, time for a city clean up:
  

  'Police say the roundup was part of a campaign to clear the streets of drivers who sleep in their tuk-tuks'.

  Phnom Penh Post 26-05.
  It 'angers' the tuk-tuk drivers:

  'The majority of the 34 tuk-tuks confiscated during the street sweeps ahead of last month's ASEAN-EU meeting have been returned, but drivers claim unfair restrictions have been placed on them by Phnom Penh police, which, they say, put their livelihoods in jeopardy'.

  But in order to have their vehicles returned to them, tuk-tuk drivers say they have been forced to sign a contract saying they will not drive on Daun Penh district's three main roads - the popular tourist streets of Sisowath Quay and Norodom and Sothearos boulevards'.

  A tuk-tuk driver

  'had to pay US$55 to the police in order to retrieve his vehicle'.

  Law enforcement Cambo-style: No offence committed!'

• How to build a tuk-tuk? The PPP interviews an entrepreneur:

  ' "I noticed in 1998 that my country was not making any tuk-tuks.
  ...
  The factory builds about 10 units per month, which sell for between $500 and $550. Each tuk-tuk takes 3-4 days to finish, and most of the raw materials are imported from Vietnam, including welding machines, dying machines, metal cutters, cast iron machines and chisels.
  But even Tuk Tuk Craft is not immune to a global financial meltdown that started thousands of miles away, and Loun Vanna estimates sales have dropped 30 to 40 percent since late 2008'.

• Harking back on the last issue of 'Chasing cars', a letter to the editor of the Phnom Penh Post (26 May 2009):

  'Regarding the article "PM presses for bike seizures" (May 21, 2009), the police could be empowered to seize and confiscate motorbikes without side mirrors and drivers without helmets under a Land Traffic Law amendment proposed by Prime Minister Hun Sen.At the moment, we can see that officials at police posts on our streets and boulevards don't all have their proper identity numbers or uniforms. Rather, they seem more intent on pulling over motorbikes and collecting "fines". Perhaps officials think that these "guilty" fines from motorbike drivers will enhance the national income in some positive way.
  ...
  Another inequity committed by traffic police is their attempts to fine foreigners at a much more exorbitant rate. My foreign friends say traffic police regularly attempt to extract fines of between US$5 and $20. But Cambodia's traffic laws do not establish one rate for Cambodians and another for foreigners. All drivers, regardless of nationality, are legally obligated to pay only between 3,000 riels and 6,000 riels for motorbike infractions'.

• More law enforcement issues:

  'A municipal order that went into effect Monday requires motorbike passengers to wear helmets, although the Land Traffic Law does not stipulate that helmetless passengers can be fined.
  ...
  Ty Nath, a 40-year-old motorbike driver, said Monday that he was forced to pay 50,000 riels (about $12) after officers caught him driving without a helmet near Central Market. His two passengers weren't wearing helmets either. He said the police did not bother to explain the specifics of the law or the municipal order. "They just told me the fine was a compromise," he said before the officers returned and interrupted an interview'.

  Funny, though despite all this noise, still less than 2/3 of all drivers wear helmets. Personally Crossing Cambodia believes that it is a heavy core group of traffic offenders: most people driving up the wrong way on a one-way street are exactly those without helmets!

• A big event: the opening of a bridge. The city was locked off to the south-west just for a ceremony; the lock off was more than 12 hours. People failed to show up at work, my maid couldn't make it to a funeral. Anyway, commuters there who thought their worries were over, at nearly the exact same place, the ground work has started for a fly-over. Though the PM stated that the fly-over is:

  'to ease traffic congestion in the capital'.

  The city govenor associates the fly-over with the need to:

  'help to eliminate poverty'.

  Huh?

Veunxay, Ratanakiri: no bridge here!

• Despite all the hoopla for the bridge, another first goes unnoticed:

  'Cambodia will have its first taxiway next month in Phnom Penh International Airport, a path that connects the runway to where airplanes park to increase the flight capacity of the airport, local media reported on Friday'.

  More curiously the Phnom Penh airport officials see the light at the end of the tunnel:

  'Currently, only 10 passenger planes can land or take off in an hour from the airfield at Phnom Penh's airport, said Sok Puth Thoeun, director of the airport's engineering department. That will jump to at least 16 planes with the planned taxiway'.

• More in-flight information. In the never ending saga of a flag carrier, Vietnam Airlines are taking over the Cambodian skies. Beware however they are just servicing Sihanoukville. Is that's what expected of a flag carrier? Anyway it's all top-secret according to the Phnom Penh Post:

  'Ownership of the national carrier is a closely guarded secret. Aom Chenda, an information official at the Council of Ministers, told the Post Tuesday that Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An told a Vietnamese oil company delegation Monday that a new national carrier would make its maiden flight July 18.
  He repeated the comment to reporters following the meeting but did not disclose who owned the airline, saying only that it was a local company. He also told the reporters the maiden flight would be July 17, contradicting the earlier statement.
  Meanwhile, Mau Havannal, secretary of state at the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA), said Tuesday said that an "anonymous private local company" was preparing documents to apply to run flights out of Kang Keng Airport but that no official application had been received. "We do not know who owns the national carrier because it has not been named yet," he said. Chea Aun, director general of the SSCA, confirmed that the "private local company" would use French-made ATR planes'.

  Pity for the Indonesians who had been awarded the possibilty to undertake this. And for their Cambo henchmen!
  

• Anyway it's going to be a difficult start. Air arrivals dip 16% in the first four months of this year. An article in yet again the PPP with an unintentional (?) shot of Vietnam Airlines aircraft. Citation of the week:

  "We think that the decrease is not only a problem in Cambodia but it is a worldwide concern, and we hope that the problem will improve soon," he [Ang Kim Eang, president of the Cambodian Association of Travel Agents] said'.

  So do we, so do we .... Let's all hope together, then it might just go away!
  

• Why the new flag carrier would fly PP - Sihanoukville beats Crossing Cambodia: it's such a short distance and you'll face considerable inconvenience once in Sihanoukville. Anyway, despite the airport there being inconvenienced for a couple years there seems to be an urgency to get their act together. Unfortunately at the cost of villagers surrounding the airport.

  'families facing eviction said they haven't been offered any compensation since the airport expansion plans were announced in 2006'.

  The current urgency:

  'The airport expansion may become more pressing as progress is made towards a new national carrier. According to Mau Havannal, secretary of state at the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation, an "anonymous private local company" was preparing documents to apply to run flights out of Kang Keng Airport'.

• A pleasant surprise on the Phnom Penh roads has been the disappearance of police and army license plates. Police are behind this:

  'Chao Phirun [army spokesperson] said Hun Sen's April 30 speech and subsequent warnings had prompted 90 percent of violators to remove their unauthorised military plates'.

  Now they just ride around without license plates.

• Accidents are going down, apparently. PPP:

  'The number of people involved in road accidents in Phnom Penh fell by 32 percent in February compared with the previous month, the Cambodia Road Traffic Accident and Victim Information System (RTAVIS) said in its most recent report'.

  Cambo Daily:

  'The number of traffic casualties in February the most recent month for which data are available dropped 10 percent around the country compared to the same period last year'.

  Now the why? Cambo Daily again:

  'attributed the drop to Chinese New Year celebrations taking place in January and not February this year'.

• The Road Safety Awareness in Cambodia blog is slowly becoming someone's daily (paid) job. Though it echo's this blog to some degree, it fails to note the context. Lately it's been including lots of pics of accidents swiped from Cambodian language web sites. Have fun!
  

• Innovative ideas from around the world. We've had the sponsored pothole patches. This time in Canada, a slightly different twist of the same theme:

  'People in a small town in Western Canada are so fed up with the rotten state of their main road that they came up with an unusual form of protest - a calendar that shows them posing nude in the potholes'.

  Pity people here are not so in to calenders.
  This weekend is also another good cause, pro bicycles, anti gas guzzlers. It's the World Naked Bike Ride, um ... but not in Phnom Penh. Nor anywhere else in Asia by the looks of it. Are Asians anti-bikists?

• A final note, who said there were no bus-stops in Cambodia?

  'Three men from Baliley village, Poipet commune and town, Banteay Meanchey province, were arrested for allegedly wounding and robbing a 33-year-old Belgium man of US$180 on May 26 while the victim was standing at the Poipet bus stop'.

Chasing Cars, March 16 2009

Virtually nothing to report, yawn, yawn. I hate this economic turndown! Nobody gets out and about to report on something unbelievable / normal for Cambodia.

Did you notice that somebody has donated paint to the Phnom Penh traffic department. They are painting all kinds of yellow and white lines, thick/thin, single/double. It's confusing all the traffic users! I even saw some new STOP signs! Being totally disregarded! Ha!

• Officials are now targetting parked cars. The city lacks any parking facilties, such that all sidewalks and even streets themselves are packed with parked cars. The Phnom Penh Post article though is a bit secretive:
  

  'Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Chreang Sophann said the proposed disciplinary measure, which no officials could elaborate on [because they failed to show up at work?], is designed to curb traffic congestion and would target hotels, restaurants and business centres.
  "I don't know when this would start because we are waiting for a decision from the governor," Chreang Sophann said. "It is a draft proposal and the decision depends on the governor."

  Great, more clamp downs on ghosts. But wait a minute.
  

  'Chreang Sophann said the decision to draft the proposal was reached during a March 4 meeting at which city officials discussed the problem of traffic congestion on the capital's streets'.

  A draft? Man, even if it were passed the men in blue will not enforce it over and beyond 48 hours. And man, these guys are busy:
  

  'Tin Prasoer, chief of Phnom Penh's Traffic Police, said about 100 motorists were fined for parking their cars on the street last year'.

  A resepected parking official from where I come from, does this by himself, alone in 1 day and that's his daily average!
  

  'He [the same githead] said he hoped public enthusiasm for the proposed crackdown on on-street parking would match that shown for the recent law requiring motorbike drivers to wear helmets'.

  I'm falling off my chair here. Enthusiasm? Helmets? Nowadays most (60%, down from 80/90%) drive without! My god, what a country, what a city, what a people! What a news rag to put this on paper ....
  

• [after taking medication] Meanwhile in Siem Reap, authorities are more pro-pedestrian. Or for the time-being:

  'a large group of police gave businesses a warning on Monday before enforcing the regulation Tuesday morning. "If anything, it'll make it easier and open up the area more," Alex said [pub owner], "But I dare say it won't take long before people start sneaking their furniture back out again."

• Instead the other blog mentions that the guys with cash have been financing a training for the guys in blue. What did they learn? How to enforce the learn? Nope! How to operate a speed gun. How to do an alcohol test. What happened to walking the line! Fail proof!

  "Yeah man, what this gun he like. He not shoot. Better give us big real gun. Best way to stop bad driver. White guy give us no good gun. Better him give $20. We poor guy, all day stand in sun. Him have no helmet."

• Confrontation on the high seas? No, it's just the Tonle Sap and just in Siem Reap.

  'A South-Korean company, which is operating more than 100 boats, seems to be monopolizing the local market, and by doing so, it tries to push aside its competitors, in particular those belonging to the Association of Chong Khneas Tourist Boats'.

  Considering that this association has been ripping off tourists (or overcharging) for years and years calling the other guys black reminds me of an old english proverb ...

• On a lighter note down under New Zealand's answer to the economic woes is to ... create

  'a 3000km national cycleway
  ...
  Mr Key [NZ PM] said the cycleway was "a long-term thing that New Zealanders will look back on and be proud that they've got".

  Great idea. Or you could simply join the other's on the southern hemisphere, joining the other economy, getting on yer bike and outta of those clothes:
  '... the first ever Canberra edition of the World Naked Bike Ride came and went, without quite reaching critical mass, without altering the status quo or ending our reliance of petrochemicals'.

Chasing Cars in mid May downpours

Before launching into another non-descript overview of Cambodia's traffic related news, an apology from Crossing Cambodia: wearing helmets is out of fashion this week, we're now back to where we were a month ago, a helmet wearing rate of (just?) 20-30%.

• What does the road to Phnom Penh look like from Saigon?

  'The road is quite smooth and comfortable and there is plenty of interesting scenery to look at'.

  If you consider unendless stretches of rice fields interesting! Anyway the write-up is meant for Viet readers.
  And if not interesting enough, when leaving Saigon one can skip the drab that's Phnom Penh all together on yer way to Angkor: it's a

  'new luxury bus service'

  and

  'is expected to prove especially popular with budget travellers, the company predicted'.

  Contradictory? Luxury travel for budget travellers? EAS, whom are mostly long-term citizens of Phnom Penh give the same story more spin:

  'Budget travelers no longer need to endure the bone shuddering roads from the Vietnam border to Phnom Penh, only to have to change buses for another six hour hike to Siem Reap and the Angkor temple complex'.

  But the first link said the road is smooth! Can the two go together?
  

• More Viet-Khmer news:

  'An Giang [Vietnamese border province] Province’s Market Management Department estimated some 40,000 to 60,000 liters of fuel were trafficked out of the province daily'.

  At a profit of roughly 0,4 $US / liter, it's a lucrative trade, for sure. On a an annual basis Vietnam is giving about 7 million $US to Cambodia! But some people get greedy:

  'Sometimes they add tra catfish oil into gasoline to export'.

  No wonder so many moto's blast belching black smoke!

• Vuthasurf gives a couple of examples of a Phnom Pehn taxi station:

  'Sometimes, the arguments broke out between taxi’s owners and clients because of grabbing belongings and losing property'.

• The previously mentioned highway 48 to Koh Kong has been opened. Koh Kong will now change from a remote, pleasant and relatively undisturbed corner of Cambodia to an industrial and casino boom town! Let's hope not. However with elections nearing, Cambo's PM will not be deterred by asphalting the country and claiming it a success:

  'Hun Sen had “inaugurated some new national roads and bridges of more than 400 kilometers, during the last two weeks,” the prime minister told a crowd gathered for the opening of 152 kilometers of road and four bridges in Koh Kong province. “This is a marvel in the 21st Century, in what the Cambodia government and the people are cooperating with development partners to make for our Cambodians'.

  This marvel is also the root cause of all the traffic deaths? Well, let's admit that not much is been done to avoid traffic fatalities.

• A pleasantly sounding caption:

  'Cambodian Airways to be cleaned up'.

  Well, considering there are hardly any planes flying on national route's especially after PMT's plane crash of last year, this spring cleaning will be finished in a jiffy!

  'To maintain order and ensure security and safety, aircraft and other flight equipment which are not registered at the SSCA [State Secretariat for Civil Aviation] will be prohibited from operating anywhere in the kingdom, Mao Has Vannal, secretary of state of civil aviation, said in the announcement'.

  Ah, it's just a case of registering and .....

• This report on the (non-existent?) birth of Cambodia's flag carrier reveals that Cambodia is dubbed the 'New Thailand'. Besides handing Cambodia with an unbeatable tourist attracting slogan, the writer is clearly very positive:

  'A new national carrier is the first step for Cambodia along the road to tourism success'.

  Crossing Cambodia thought that Cambodia was already a success?

• EAS also report on a cyclo 'rally':

  '10 foreigners and 20 cyclo drivers, who took one hour shifts on 10 cyclos, cycled the 320 km round trip from Phnom Penh through Prey Veng and Kampong Cham to raise awareness for the Cyclo Centre Phnom Penh and to support “world no tobacco day”, 31st May'.

  Let's hope somebody has not forgotten the World Naked Bike Ride on June 7; so far nobody has shown the initiative, despite it's lofty challenges:

  'In March and June 2008, in cities around the world, people will be riding bikes naked to celebrate cycling and the human body. The ride demonstrates the vulnerability of cyclists on the road and is a protest against car culture'.

  Does Crossing Cambodia see any hands? Or is it a case of 'Unseen Cambodia'?