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Phnom
Penh (Ah!)
Travel
Tips
- THE
WATER FESTIVAL IS
ON!!!
James Loving - National Radio Text Service
The Water Festival also known as Bon Om Tuk will be celebrated from Tuesday November 11 to Thursday November 13. During this period Cambodians flock to the city to celebrate and visit family and friends. Phnom Penh will be crowded. - TV In Cambodia the Amazing Race USA edition made a trip to Cambodia visiting Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. - NR TOP SECTIONS AND STORIES - NATIONAL RADIO IS PUBLISHED IN 5 LANGUAGES
Saturday November 1, 2008 THE WATER FESTIVAL IS HAPPENING IN PHNOM PENH November will be a busy month in Phnom Penh where the Water Festival also known as Bon Om Tuk will be celebrated from Tuesday November 11 to Thursday November 13. During this period Cambodians flock to the city to celebrate and visit family and friends. Phnom Penh will be crowded. Celebrations are mostly held along the Tonle Sap riverfront areas between the Naga Casino and Wat Phnom. Activities include boat races during the day whereas provinces compete against each other for a cash prize. Vendors are everywhere selling food. Some of the downside is that banks are closed, the road traffic ia heavy with people coming into town. Many of the foreign owned business in the area close and their owners leave town during this time citing that customers can't access their business due to the crowds and closed roads. Roads are closed usually from Norodom Boulevard to the riverfront. In the evening there are fireworks that begin at nightfall. Colorfully lit floats parade in a circular motion on the Tonle Sap River. The floats are assembled by various Provinces and compete for a cash prize. Entertainment stages are set up in the parks. There are two trains of thought on the event. Avoid it or enjoy it. For those that prefer not to watch boat races under the hot sun the festivities are also televised. PEDESTRIAN BEWARE Walking the streets of Phnom Penh is no easy task. Quite frankly IT IS DANGEROUS. The sidewalks are primarily used by businesses for auto parking or restaurants extending their business on the public sidewalks by placing chairs and tables to the extent that pedestrians must walk in to street to get through. The lining up of motorbikes forms a wall preventing pedestrian passage. Glass counters, flowerpots, beverage coolers and equipment for vehicle repair are also placed on the sidewalks and creates barriers. Once in the street you must look both ways as motorcycles and vehicles go the wrong way and on the wrong side of the street. If you're used to looking into the oncoming traffic take the time to look the opposite way for the wrong way driver. If you're injured the medical facilities in Cambodia area nightmare and not recommended. Those that can afford it travel to Thailand or Vietnam for medical treatment. If you're using a motor taxi for transport make sure that they are sober before getting on the bike. It is seldom that a motor-taxi driver takes the time to look before moving into another lane of traffic. Should you feel uncomfortable about your driver, get off and look for another. The life you save may be your own. Make sure you hold your purse or bag IN FRONT OF YOU ON YOUR CHEST. A French girl recently died after an unsuccessful snatch and grab of her purse while she was a passenger on a motorcycle. She fell into traffic and was run over by an oncoming vehicle. NOTE: BEWARE OF PICKPOCKETS.
THE USA's AMAZING RACE TO CAMBODIA AND ANGKOR WAT If you care to see what Cambodia is about this is the week to take a look on TV as the Amazing Race USA edition made a trip to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. What makes the show so special are the reactions of some of the contestants and the remarks they said about the country at first glance minus politics. The show also revealed some sites that I wasn't aware of and will make it a point to visit. On a task by boat is the Tonle Sap Lake the girl team of Kelly and Christy observed the people who live in a floating village. The villagers waving and smiling were abundant which prompted them to say, "It broke my hart to see the abject poverty these people are living in but they get on with it." Ty another contestant was in last place and in a hurry to reach the next task. Haste or not he blurted out, "Man this place is beautiful." I've traveled the road to catch a boat to Phnom Penh where Ty made the remark. It is beautiful and raw. The raw is what makes it so beautiful. Though they are trying to change their image by building golf courses with the Thai's help, influence and money that is not what the real Cambodia is about. It is about the scenes on the Amazing Race. After the tasks on the lake the contestants headed off to the famous Angkor Wat to find a clue. What they all found out that other than being beautiful the grounds of Angkor are huge with many steps which are quite narrow. I wear a size 13 and had to walk up the steps with my foot sideways. Nick who is teamed with his sister Starr remarked about Angkor Wat, "It was daunting, it was huge. It seems like a world wonder." And that it is. As the show ended the pit stop was at the Bayon Temple. It was there that Ty and his girlfriend Aja were eliminated for being the last team to arrive. If there's some good news in their elimination it was they were eliminated in a place they truly enjoyed. Though we're not familiar with the shows rules if they could stay longer before returning home this was the place to relax and take in what we consider on of the wonders of the world. It is recommended that one takes at least three days to see the temples at a decent pace. There are some who take four days. It is always suggested to take in the sun rise and the sunset as it is always an appreciated site. It is advisable to have a guide who speaks GOOD ENGLISH who knows the history of the Temples to explain the history. Without knowing the history leaves a major gap in the appreciation of Angkor Wat and what it really is all about. On our trip their in 1999, we had a guide who couldn't speak English well and knew very little of the history. At that time the Temples were not visited by many tourists and there was very little training of staff. After paying the guide a fee we accidentally ran into a person of Indian heritage who professor at Bowie State University in the USA. He knew the stories and explained them in great detail. Unfortunately he was doing some research and after that lesson at the Temple where we were we were on our way to return another day more prepared. Next week the Amazing Race will be leaving from the Bayon Temple for the next leg of the race. It will be worth ones viewing time to see if they remain in Cambodia though it is doubtful. There were some lessons to be learned on the show with one being one team asked a taxi driver to take them to a specific area to do a task. The driver said he knew where it was and took them to a hotel instead. This is a problem for anyone entering the country on their own. Many of the drivers receive a commission for taking a customer to a hotel. Also some say they understand English but in reality they don't. They may speak a few words but lack English language comprehension. The Amazing Race ASIA has visited Thailand during season 2 and also this season 3. What a couple of teams experienced were drivers leaving them behind after they requested them to stay, refusing to drive some contestants and saying they know where something is only to take them elsewhere. This episode of the Amazing Race USA can be seen in Southeast Asia Saturday and Sunday at the following times in the Thailand/Cambodia time zone. Please see the schedule chart on our Video Beat column for the air times in the region or check your local listings. A new episode is telecast Monday night. SATURDAY 7:00 PM - AMAZING RACE USA - AXN - repeat 2:00 AM - AMAZING RACE USA - AXN - repeat SUNDAY 2:00 AM - AMAZING RACE USA - AXN - repeat MONDAY 8:00 PM - AMAZING RACE USA - AXN - NEW EPISODE 11:00 PM - AMAZING RACE USA - AXN - repeat NATIONAL RADIO PUBLISHED IN 5 LANGUAGES We are published in five languages, English, Thai, French, Russian and Khmer (Cambodian language). Any of our foreign language material and our Roman Wanderaugh columns are legally available ONLY on our National Radio site. NR SECTIONS MOST VISITED This month there are some changes in the sections most visited. The Phnom Penh remains at the top of the pile with American Idol moving up two positions from fourth to second. Cambodian Sports made the charts and is ranked third. The Thailand section took the fourth spot in doing so dropped one position from third. The Sports Notes section rounded off the top five.
NR TOP 5 The Top 5 most visited sections are: 1 . Phnom Penh 4. THAILAND 5. Sports Notes -- NEW Previous Top 5 most visited sections are: 1 . Phnom Penh 2. TRAVEL TIPS 3. THAILAND 5. CAMBODIA NR TOP FIVE STORIES Our July 2006 Phnom Penh column took over the number one position moving up one spot from second. To column notes Vann Molyvann the designer of Olympic Stadium - Cambodian Premiere Football League postponed AGAIN - Naga Corp no wins but goodwill in Vietnam. Naga gives players RESPECT, CARE and GOOD WAGES - Former Freshie Girl winner Vanda now given space to talk The April 2005 column also moved up one position from third to second. The story takes a look a Gold Quest a company that created frenzy and got many Khmer youth involved in what might be considered a pyramid scheme business. The March 2005 column moved up from fifth to third. The main topic is Cinema Cambodia at Pananasstra University and the French schools film festival. Cinema Cambodia has since failed and as its organizer Dr. Raymond Leos said they simply don't have the money to compete with the French school that has plenty of it. The September 2005 edition retains the fourth position with the primary focus being beauty contests in Phnom Penh and the government's destruction of weapons. A new surprise entry is the May 2004 column which takes the fifth position. That features Former US Ambassador Charles B. Salmon Jr. Addressing American Foreign Policy at the University of Cambodia. Also noted are: Changes At Phnom Penh's Riverfront - Olympic Stadium Properties For Sale - Who Is Teaching, Training and Influencing The Youth Of Cambodia? - Phnom Penh's Traffic Barriers - NR Readers Visit NR - NR Mail The oldest column to make the Top 30 was from March 2003 which features Faces & Places. It noted that DDD's TIM KELLER RETURNS TO USA. The former President of Digital Divide Data returned to the USA to continue his education. Also noted is BILL HEROD who could be called the Godfather of the Internet in Cambodia. He is responsible for bringing the Internet to the nation. At a meeting at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Cambodia (FCCC) last year, Herod told the story of how non English speaking Cambodians are using the Internet.
INTERNET THEFT? In researching the findings we have found that search engines Yahoo, Google and MSN are all guilty of misleading the public. They have linked our story information to other sites without our permission. Those sites include Thai Visa, Washington University in the USA and UNESCO. We have tried to contact Yahoo regarding this matter but there was no response. For our story on Digital Divide Data titled Bridging The Digital Gap Yahoo linked our information to UNESCO and Washington University web sites as noted below. Cambodia (PDF) 13 James Loving, "DDD - Bridging the Digital Gap of Have and Have. Notes," (by James Loving, National Radio Text Service, 8 April 8, ... www.unescobkk.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ict/Metasurvey/CAMBODIA.PDF - 117k - View as html The questions are: 1. Why would a company that is valued at billions of dollars employ dishonest practices? 2. Who is responsible for manipulating information that is misleading to the public? 3. Who is responsible at UNESCO in permitting the practice? Yahoo used the same story to mislead the public to the Washington University (USA) web site as noted below: Cambodia (PDF) 13 James Loving, "DDD - Bridging the Digital Gap of Have and Have. Notes," (by James Loving, National Radio Text Service, 8 April 8, ... www.com.washington.edu/ict4d/upload/2004052712430458_03760155.pdf - 117k - View as html WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY Our Roman Wanderaugh columns have been linked to other web sites by all three search engines without our permission. The most flagrant violator is Thai Visa. We have contacted them in the past but they have ignored our request to take our stories off their site. All three of the mentioned search engines have used our story information and linked it to Thai Visa without our permission. Thai Visa actually stole our story and posted it on their site. In the past they not only stole our Cambodia By Land & Sea story but also used our photo. Since that time the photo is not on our story on their site. Google provides advertising for the site. The question is why would a company that is worth billions of dollars resort to supporting a web site that steals? The information of our information page on the Google site also had the following endorsing going to the Thai Visa site. ©2007 Google - Google Home - Advertising Programs - Business Solutions - About Google FRONT PAGE WITH THAI VISA MSN did the same. They listed incorrect information and linked our work to Thai Visa as noted below: Thaivisa.com The latest updated Thai visa immigration news; work permit and residence permit in ... Friday, 15 December 2006 Cambodia visa trip "TRAVELING AROUND" by Roman Wanderaugh o www.thaivisa.com/344.0.html o ˇ¤ 7/14/2007 o ˇ¤ Cached page Cambodia visa trip "TRAVELING AROUND" by Roman Wanderaugh "AN INEXPENSIVE TRIP from BANGKOK to CAMBODIA by LAND & SEA" If you're an adventurous traveler the trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia from ... o www.thaivisa.com/border-run/page_2.html o ˇ¤ Cached page o +Show more results from www.thaivisa.com MSN also listed the headline TRAVELING AROUND on the Cambodia Land & Sea story. It raises the question why was it necessary to make two listings on the same story to link to the Thai Visa site? Roman Wanderaugh and any other National Radio columns are only legally available on the Internet on National Radio. We DO NOT GIVE PERMISSION for any other web site to use our material including soliciting our photos to the public. We negotiate directly with interested parties for use. We are published in print in five languages. We do not approve of Thai Visa using our material and all of the search engines misleading the public to other web sites using National Radio information. Isn't a search engines job to lead the public to the information they seek? It is clearly stated on our National Radio web site: © Copyright: National Radio. Any use of these materials, whole or in part, is prohibited unless authorized in writing by National Radio. Contact: nationalradio@yahoo.com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
© Copyright: National Radio. Any use of these materials, whole or in part, is prohibited unless authorized in writing by National Radio. Contact: nationalradio@yahoo.com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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