The harvest season in pictures

The views from Prey Veng province during the harvest season. Please enjoy.

Khiev Phirum, a Phnom Penh-based career journalist, enjoys harvesting his rice on a rice paddy field he owns in his home village in Prey Veng province during his leave. Photo courtesy: Khiev Phirum.

Oxcart is still an important transport for many farmers. In this picture, big houses can be a reflection of development in the area. Photo courtesy: Khiev Phirum.

Some farmers prefer this type of transport to oxcart because they can afford one. Photo courtesy: Khiev Phirum. 

After hard work on the paddy fields, here is your lunch. Grilled freshwater catfish - caught from ponds nearby the rice paddies - with fish sauce and green mango. Photo courtesy: Khiev Phirum

Trips between Thailand and Cambodia more affordable

Soon, trips from Phnom Penh to Bangkok and vice versa will be more affordable to ordinary Cambodian and Thai travelers.

A Bangkok bus. Credit: travelthaihotel.com

In fact, the first bus services connecting Bangkok with Siem Reap and Phnom Penh will be launched late this month.

This is according to the Thai media reports.

The first bus trip service between the two neighboring countries will kick off on Dec 29.

A one-way trip between Thailand’s Bangkok and Cambodia’s Siem Reap – approximately 400 kilometers – will cost you 25 US dollars. And it takes roughly seven hours.

The Bangkok-Phnom Penh service with a one-way ticket fare of 30 US dollars will take about eleven hours on a route of over 700 kilometers.

The Bangkok-Phnom Penh bus will run once a day while the Bangkok-Siem Reap service will provide two trips a day.

Cambodia’s Siem Reap province is home to the world famous Angkor Wat temple complex which is most popular among foreign tourists including Thais.

Cambodia has set a target to receive 7 million foreign tourists by 2020.

And the bus link between Thailand and Cambodia could well be another contributing factor that would help Cambodia achieve its target.

Cambodian PM calls for Cyclo conservation

Cyclo has been a common mode of transport in Cambodia, mainly in the Capital phnom penh, since the French colonial days.

currently, the number of cyclos is on a constant decline and they are used merely for transporting goods on short routes and by tourists.
 

the decline of the cyclo’s presence on the roads has also come to the attention of Cambodian prime minister samdech techo hun sen. The Cambodian premier has called for a conservation of cyclos in the country

Story: 

around seven hundreds. and that’s the number of cyclos in Cambodia in 2012.

according to cyclo conservation and career association, the number has declined drastically from year to year

between 2008 and 2009, there were around 1600 cyclos in the city.

due to constant decline, cambodian prime minister samdech techo hun sen expressed his concern.

the cambodian premier then called for conservation of the cyclos.

[soundbite] “Now, we are worrying about the possible loss of cyclos. as now it has become more and more modern, cyclos have been forgotten. this should also be part of conservation. we have seen that some ngos are also paying attention to this matter. tourists like to ride cyclos. in france, they use horse-carts at the parks for tourists to sit on and take photographs. now we are worrying about the loss of cyclos.”

Mr. Im Sambath is the director of cyclo conservation and career association

he said nowadays people prefer another alternative of transportation – the tuk-tuk.

(Im Sambath) [I would like to appeal to all people to turn back to use cyclos. if not, cyclos will disappear. I would also like to ask all travel agencies to help promote the use of cyclos.]

currently, cyclo drivers could only earn less than five dollars a day, making less than two dollars in profit.

although using cyclos among local people has seen a decline, cyclos have remained widely used among tourists. 

This story by Chea Makara has appeared on CNC's This Is Cambodia

Growing popularity of China’s official language, Mandarin

A company employee pores over a Chinese-language newspaper.

Intro: More and more Cambodians are learning Mandarin, China’s official language, to get a head start in life.

According to the Khmer Chinese Association, around 40 thousand Cambodians have enrolled in Chinese language schools across the country.

Story: During the French colonial period, the language of Cambodia’s elite was French. After that, English was seen as the needed language.

Currently, millions of dollars worth of investment have poured in to Cambodia from China.

As a result, it seems, more and more parents are seen sending their children to Chinese schools.

The parents who send their children to schools such as Tuon Fa Chinese School in Phnom Penh say it's an investment in the future of their children.

"I think Mandarin is so important these days especially for business and in the future China will become the world's number one economy."

Tuon Fa Chinese School first opened its doors in 1992 with 1,700 students ranging from grade 1 to 12. Now, there are nearly 6,000 students.

Sok Leang is the deputy director of Tuon Fa Chinese School.

He says the lure of future jobs in Chinese firms is what is bringing students to the school.

"I noticed that in the last 20 years, there are a lot of investors from China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore etc. and most of all of them speak Mandarin. So if students can speak Mandarin then it is easier for them to get jobs."

For those who can't go to Chinese school full time, there are still plenty of language tuition options.

This street in Phnom Penh used to be known for its English tuition classes. The shop houses were choc-a-block with schools offering language lessons.

English was popular, especially, for people aspiring to work for NGOs, businesses on in the ever-expanding tourist industry.

But now, most of these academies have switched their main language on offer to Mandarin.

"I am studying finance at university and I think that many banks need staff who can speak Mandarin and also the China economy is going to become number one in the world so I think that by studying Mandarin I have better chance to get a job," says 20-year-old university student Van Sorida.

Official data shows Chinese investment in Cambodia was 1.9 billion U.S. dollars last year

That is more than double the combined amount of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries and 10 times more than the United States.

Around 70 percent of the 330 factories manufacturing garments are Chinese-owned.

This TV story was aired on CNC's This Is Cambodia earlier this week. 

Congratulations to you, Mr. Obama – Cambodians deserve more from you

Recently, Cambodia has sent its congratulations to United States President Barack Obama for his election victory. President Obama was re-elected for a second four year term. 

Local paper front-pages featured Obama's re-election Nov 8, 2012.

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen joined the ranks of world leaders who sent congratulatory messages to the re-elected head of state.

As a Cambodian citizen, I would also like to congratulate Mr. Obama for his reelection. However, my message would be a bit different. Here it goes:

When I was at young age, my grandfather frequently told me about his big house along the Mekong River in Kampong Cham province being destroyed by the US’s B-52 bombs – though no-one was injured or killed.

My grandparents’ family was just one of the many thousands of Cambodian victims of the US bombing campaign against Cambodia before it fell into the hands of the Khmer Rouge.

To my knowledge, Cambodia at that time was neither a declared enemy of the US nor it did harm to the American people like the Taliban or Al Qaida in Afghanistan. Yet, lives and properties of innocent Cambodians were lost to the bombing. This tragedy should not necessarily have happened to the Cambodian people.

The US has never officially admitted the mistake it did to the Cambodian people during that time. And, I think, it is now time for the US government to do something humanitarian to reduce or eliminate the negative memory of the bombing.

One of the examples can be the construction of infrastructure such as roads, bridges, village ponds, schools etc. by the US government with the signboard reading “Aid from the American People” in any locations it had bombed. These infrastructures will help Cambodians of the next generations remember the generosity of the Americans, thus gradually forgetting the suffering their older generations suffered from the American bombing.