The only thing in Phnom Penh more common than massage parlors and traffic cops on the take is cell phone vendors. Here in my neighborhood in the short distance of one block there are seven different cell phone vendors. The only business on the street that isn't a cell phone vendor is the pharmacy under the white and blue cross. Because of Cambodia's unique entry into the modern world after having been dragged into the dark ages during Pol Pot's regime there were very few landline telephones in the '90's. So the cell phone industry took a flying leap over all that infra structure and landed in Phnom Penh with a vengeance. There are at least seven or eight cell phone numbers for every landline number. In fact, businesses will advertise their cell number long before they advertise their landline because it is cheaper to call a cell line froma cell phone. DDP's business manager has three cell phones so he can keep in touch with his girlfriend and family each of whom uses a different cell company. When I came in December there were three or four cell companies now there are seven or eight.

There's a lot you can tell about a business by its signs. The cell phone companies have their English language name and ads more prominently displayed than their Khmer versions. That's because they want to impress people with the idea that they are a modern business. This laundry has its Khmer name on the awning and under the awning in the permanent sign is its name, its service line and phone number all in Khmer but the one foreign language line is in French. That means this business was established before Pol Pot's time (1975-1979) and that the owners abandoned the place when Pol Pot forced everyone out of the city and into communal farms far away. They came back to the very same business afterwards and survive today!




This bookstore is very different than other businesses. First notice that there is no foreign language on its sign. Business and organizational signs in Phnom Penh all have some foreign language on them (usually English.) But this one doesn't. Other bookstores have mostly English language books for sale, this one has only Khmer language books. What gives?
The only organizations that don't have at least a word or two in English in their signs are the Buddhist wat or temples. This bookstore follows that same line of thinking.

Other bookstores sell the most available product, English language books. Remember that Pol Pot wanted to drag Cambodia back to "year zero." He destroyed almost all the Khmer language books available making it impossible to study today without resorting ot English or French texts. But what did survive were Buddhist texts. The monks buried copies for safekeeping and succeeded in saving a culture. The monks did not survive (They were either murdered or they abandoned their vocation) but their books did. This bookstore stocks only Khmer language texts on Buddhism. On this day, only a Buddhist monk was in the store.