Messy Phnom Penh Street

Messy Phnom Penh Street - Chris Coles

Shoddy construction, too much rain, no maintenance, lack of civic pride, no one really knows exactly why the Phnom Penh streets are such a mess......

Neon Garbage Truck Phnom Penh Night

Neon Garbage Truck Phnom Penh Night - Chris Coles

Working its way slowly through the trash-filled streets, the neon lit garbage truck grinds along, the garbage men carefully sorting through everything, looking for plastic, metal, anything of possible value......leaving behind as much as they take.......

Phnom Penh Night Market Street

Phnom Penh Night Market Street - Chris Coles

It's after midnight, the street market's finally closed, leaving behind a few scavengers, a couple of street dogs, some stray cats, lots of rats and in every direction random piles of garbage and trash......

Trash and Shuttered Shop Houses

Trash and Shuttered Shop Houses - Chris Coles

One day the French style detailing on the shop houses on either side might somehow be restored, maybe a beautiful new shop house will rise in the vacant lot and the pile of garbage, trash and rotting cement will disappear.........

Phnom Penh Night Market

Phnom Penh Night Market - Chris Coles

It's late but the night market's still open, at least some of it....piles of Cambodia fruits...a few rats scuttling through the trash.....

Phnom Penh Street

Phnom Penh Street - Chris Coles

A ratty tuk tuk parked on a ratty Phnom Penh Street, the driver reading a newspaper while he waits for a customer...........

"I Love U" Tuk Tuk Phnom Penh

"I Love U" Tuk Tuk Phnom Penh - Chris Coles

Freshly painted and full of hope, if only someone cared as much about the street.....

Trash Cart Street Phnom Penh

Trash Cart Street Phnom Penh - Chris Coles

So much garbage and trash in Phnom Penh, even when it's cleaned up, there's always more........

Trash in Phnom Penh Night

Trash in Phnom Penh Night - Chris Coles

Someone put the trash and garbage in big plastic bags but a few hours later re-cycling scavengers, streets dogs, stray cats and rats had torn most of them open and all the garbage and trash is flowing back onto the street.....

Phnom Penh Sidewalk Garbage

Phnom Penh Sidewalk Garbage - Chris Coles

Already falling apart, the sidewalk is littered with trash while a gooey liquid oozes slowly forward.....safer to walk in the street..........

Night River Traffic Phnom Penh

Night River Traffic Phnom Penh - Chris Coles

The Tonle Sap River flows thru central Phnom Penh, joining the Mekong to form a vast river basin....there's always a few fishermen, barges, tugboats, dredging boats, cargo ships going to and fro...along each bank, tons of plastic trash and garbage mixed in with the mud, sewage, broken branches and vegetation......

Bicycle Pick Up Truck Phnom Penh Night

Bicycle Pick-Up Truck Phnom Penh Night - Chris Coles

The drivers of the bicycle pick-up trucks silently pedal around the Phnom Penh night, burrowing through piles of trash and garbage, looking for things to re-cycle, no matter how small the value.......if they can find even a few dollars worth, it means they and their families survive one more day.......

Stray Cat in Phnom Penh Night

Stray Cat in Phnom Penh Night - Chris Coles

Moving with stealth, hunting rats amongst the piles of garbage and trash, living everyday on a darwinist edge of survival.........

Night Garbage Truck Phnom Penh

Night Garbage Truck Phnom Penh - Chris Coles

Phnom Penh's night garbage men have a hopeless task, to clean up a city that's impossible to clean up, to cart away a mountain of garbage and trash that never ends, to find enough stuff that can be re-cycled and sold to feed themselves and their familes..

Bicycle Pick-Up Truck Phnom Penh

Bicycle Pick-Up Truck Phnom Penh - Chris Coles

The bicycle "pick-up truck" driver pedals around the Phnom Penh night rifling through garbage and trash, looking for anything of value........