Travel Day: Kratie - Pajamas

So I guess it should go without saying that the only way to get back to Phnom Penh from Ratanakiri is by the dreaded shared taxi – something my back can’t tolerate for much longer. We’ve decided to break up the journey by stopping overnight in Kratie so that we can catch a ride on a more spacious bus from here. No matter how much we tried today, the four of us just couldn’t get comfortable in the cramped back seat of the old Camry, especially with our driver pushing the throttle to the beat of loud Cambodian electronica while barely missing oncoming trucks appearing through thick clouds of dust. Surprisingly, we got here in one piece.

If you invest any time at all watching people in Cambodia, you’ll find a large number of the womenfolk going about their daily business dressed in their pajamas:

Theory has it that up until recently, owning more than one set of clothing wasn’t a national standard here. Instead, like it or lump it, most people had to make do with, literally, the shirts on their backs (and many still do). So as the country slowly picks itself up and the standard of living improves, more people are afforded the luxury of owning more things. Things like pajamas, which are wholly frivolous, become status symbols and, if the theory holds true, by wearing them these women are showing their peers that they are moving on up in the world.

Of course all this was theorized (and applied to a completely different country) in an in flight magazine I read back in 2001 so I guess it should be taken with a grain of salt (more like a few shakers of it).