Ratanakiri

Poling a dugout ferry across the river in ratanakiri

Ferry – កាណូត ឆ្លង ទន្លេ សេសាន

Dugout canoes act as ferrys across this section of the Sesan river. Note the guy sitting on his motorbike on the boat. 50 cents gets you across. Occasionally, something will go wrong and it’ll capsize, gracefully depositing the motorcycles on the river bottom. I’ve known a couple of people who it’s happened to; in fact, […]

highland minority man smokes a pipe

Organic pipe tobacco

I chatted idly with this older gentleman while were waiting at the hospital to transport a patient back home, his pipe dangling laconically from his mouth. Every year, he told me, he plants a few tobacco plants at his dryland rice farm, to supply him for the year. “It’s much cheaper than buying tobacco from […]

Red cashew fruit from an orchard in northeast cambodia

Cashews – ស្វាយ ចន្ទី នៅ រតនគីរី

Cashew fruit in Ratanakiri, Cambodia. The fruit tastes pretty astringent. I remember liking it and eating it often as a kid, but now that my tast buds have developed, I’m not a big fan. The actual cashew is that seed that’s hanging down below the fruit. In a way, cashews have transformed the lives of […]

a cambodian itinerant seller of baskets, on a motorcycle

The Basket Man – Redux

I’ve done something similar to this before, a couple of times (this one from a very long time ago, before the days of DSLR’s; i shot this with a Canon IXY Digital point-and-shoot). These guys just never ceases to amaze me—with their work ethic, their packing ability, their capitalistic business acumen. And they must have […]

taking apart an engine by the side of the road in ratanakiri.

What Roadside Assistance?

s This is what you do if you blow an engine in the middle of nowhere. I asked the owner if he had ever taken an engine apart before. “No, I’m learning by doing.” (loose translation) Pretty sure I’d call AAA. Cambodians are the ultimate in resource and creativity. Please feel free to share my […]

reflection off the river in North Ratanakiri

The Sesan river in the morning

I’ve been uploading a lot of photos of the Sesan River recently, for no reason other than my job has taken me up there quite a bit. The Se San is way up in the Northeast Corner of Ratanakiri, near the Virachey National Park and the Dragon’s Tail (that’s what the remote upper Northeast corner […]

two buddhist monks driving a boat in Cambodia

A Holy Vessel?

Two Buddhist monks riding a boat in Vensai, Ratanakiri. I’d never seen this before; I didn’t know that monks were allow to drive anything. But then, I guess a boat doesn’t require much actual work to pilot. Who knew! I’d imagine that boat has loads of good karma…. Please feel free to share my images—they […]

An indigenous Brao highlander throwing a net.

Taken on the Se San river in Northeast Cambodia. He stands on the bow of the dugout, keeping a sharp lookout for fish just under the surface of the water. Then he casts his net to try his luck. So originally there was a hydroelectric dam slated to be built upstream, which would have displaced […]

indigenous minority Kreung man in Ratanakiri province, cambodia

អ៊ុំ ជន ជាតិ ក្រឹង

It’s been over a week since I posted last (so much for being a daily photoblog). So our DSL internet kept having problems; it would load all websites except WordPress, Twitter, Soundcloud, and a few others. There was some problem with the DNS servers, for you brainy people who know about such things. I finally […]