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As someone who is ridiculously afraid of rats(truth be told mice just as much) it surprises me I love Phnom Penh so much and keep returning. Before landing in PP, looking out the airplane window my thoughts always go something like "well no turning back now, here we go down there into rat city" lol. Strangely, even though I'm totally freaked out by them I also have always had a strange fascination with them. I like to go to Riverside at sunset and watch them scurrying between the vegetation....while simultaneously being terrified and screaming like a little girl if one gets near me. Just curious of the old timers here...are there more rats now? or less than in the past? I can't imagine being more but I was also told there used to be a lot more trash sitting around in the streets for longer say, 10 years ago...which would make think it's possible there were even more back in the day...

There are a lot of rats in the Riverside area, they live in the drains and sewers and thrive on the garbage. Outside of the city center and away from swamps or fetid ditches they aren't such an issue.

There are lots of cats roaming around Phnom Penh in general. I thought a hungry cat makes an excellent mouser. What are the Cambodian cats doing?

I hate rats & there is a-lot in Cambodia.
2017 in Sihanoukville Cozy resort i had huge rat two times in my toilet. I did slighty jump & made bitch like noise when I saw two red eyes behind my toilet seat.
I did plug pipe on the wall after first one, second was mystery. I guess it came trough the toilet seat.

I think Cambodia should have new national Sport :
Rat hunting with air rifle.

Last week I had a snake in my garage, a serious one, about 1.90 m long. We hunted and killed it (OK, my neighbor killed it and had it as a snack, not me), and within 24 hours rats were back in the garage. I am not kidding.

One day chasing the snake, the next day chasing the rats. I found a playful dog is better rat killer then a cat. Even a puppy isn't scared o a rat half its' size.

Kuala Lumpur had its own rat issues. We used to visit a local Vietnamese mom and pop restaurant that we christened the rat house. The rats would run along the perimeter walls between what was ‘nearly jungle’ and the street drains.
Walking in one day, we noticed one rat had been a little slow, and got caught by a car as it tried to exit a drain cover. Cartoon like, frozen in it’s last position for days.

The entire crew used to congregate at this restaurant quite often. On one occasion, two of our younger cabin crew went off to the washroom, as only girls do. Some minutes later, there was an almighty scream, and one of the girls came running out (no mean feat with her knickers around her ankles) and started jumping up and down, crying.
The other girl came out, barely able to stand up, also crying- she was laughing so much.

Apparently, the first girl had just settled in for a pee when a rat crawled out, between her legs!

My last visit to KL, I met up with an old friend from Glasgow and his other half.

As we wondered around Bukit Bintang late one evening, the rats were out in strength, sorting the garbage, and a strange surreal conversation ensued between the four of us, something like this-

Friend: bloody hell, the rats are huge.
Me (indicating a larger, as yet unnoticed rat): about average size, really.
Friend’s other half: Fuck!
Oh, fuck!
(Scream) Oh fuck, fuck...

Quite amusing given that she’s normally quite restrained.
My other half just didn’t understand- ‘don’t you have rats in UK?’

newkidontheblock wrote: ↑Thu Jan 30, 2020 1:15 am I thought a hungry cat makes an excellent mouser. What are the Cambodian cats doing?

Waiting to see if they get nationalized along with a Cintri?

Lol..........

I got woken up by something heavy on my face in a hotel in Vinh. It was a huge rat. A horrible experience.