Life is a highway.
On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to experience what would be my second time to ever drive in Cambodia. I've felt it has been in the best interest of everyone on the road to avoid this activity until it was deemed absolutely necessary.
Driving in Cambodia will test your mental capacities, your hand-eye coordination, reflexes, skill, agility, and other words and phrases people like to use when talking about the benefits of video games. And it is like a video game really….like Grand Theft Auto meets Mario Kart. You have your fancy Lexus SUV’s driving directly toward you in your lane (of course), and you also have your little Mario-like moto’s driving in front of you with coconuts and other random items falling directly into your lane (like a Koopa Troopa shooting a turtle shell at you...you know).
All this to say, I normally let Josh drive.
Only on Tuesday, as we were on our way home from hosting some in-town guests, Josh reached for his wallet and quickly realized that it was in his bag back at our offices. Not a big problem in and of itself. I mean, we had my ATM card should we need it, and what were the chances of us getting pulled over???
Apparently, that day, quite high.
Or, we are simply very good at beating the odds....
Either way, as we drove, abiding by all of the Cambodian driving laws (which surprisingly do exist, despite appearances), 3 policemen slowly walked out into the road and waved us over to the side.
It is quite normal to see an admittedly un-intimidating looking police officer on a street corner attempting to pull over a moto. If you can evade the red and white stick the officer will attempt to stop you with, you go free. Otherwise you pay a "fine" of sorts which we suspect doesn't quite make it past the point of that interaction with the officer.
After the officer waved at us (so friendly), Josh tried to explain to him that his wallet was back at his office. The officer told him to call the office and have someone bring it.
Of course...
So Josh called our office manager, Naret, who talked to one of the policemen (it took 3 of them to supervise shady characters such as ourselves) and told us that if we gave them 10,000 riel, we could go. This equates to exactly $2.50 US.
Normally such a small "fine" would be no problem, but in this case all my wallet held was a Crystal Light Iced Tea Drink Packet (which the officer refused), and 2,000 riel ($.50). Unfortunate.
Naret said he would bring the wallet and be there as soon as he could.
We sat for roughly 5 minutes as Josh ate a granola bar and we watched the police try to pull over others (some successfully, some not so much), and then a third officer came up asking for the $2.50 again. After a few minutes of convincing him we really didn't have it in our possession, he sighed and waved us on, not even taking my 2,000 riel.
We briefly celebrated our liberation from the law before pulling over to the side of the road so I could jump into the driver's seat :)
The drive home proved uneventful, aside from creating within me a great desire to own one of these some day. http://autodata.ibsrv.net/images/?IMG=U6TOGEI3.jpg&WIDTH=425
Driving in Cambodia will test your mental capacities, your hand-eye coordination, reflexes, skill, agility, and other words and phrases people like to use when talking about the benefits of video games. And it is like a video game really….like Grand Theft Auto meets Mario Kart. You have your fancy Lexus SUV’s driving directly toward you in your lane (of course), and you also have your little Mario-like moto’s driving in front of you with coconuts and other random items falling directly into your lane (like a Koopa Troopa shooting a turtle shell at you...you know).
All this to say, I normally let Josh drive.
Only on Tuesday, as we were on our way home from hosting some in-town guests, Josh reached for his wallet and quickly realized that it was in his bag back at our offices. Not a big problem in and of itself. I mean, we had my ATM card should we need it, and what were the chances of us getting pulled over???
Apparently, that day, quite high.
Or, we are simply very good at beating the odds....
Either way, as we drove, abiding by all of the Cambodian driving laws (which surprisingly do exist, despite appearances), 3 policemen slowly walked out into the road and waved us over to the side.
It is quite normal to see an admittedly un-intimidating looking police officer on a street corner attempting to pull over a moto. If you can evade the red and white stick the officer will attempt to stop you with, you go free. Otherwise you pay a "fine" of sorts which we suspect doesn't quite make it past the point of that interaction with the officer.
After the officer waved at us (so friendly), Josh tried to explain to him that his wallet was back at his office. The officer told him to call the office and have someone bring it.
Of course...
So Josh called our office manager, Naret, who talked to one of the policemen (it took 3 of them to supervise shady characters such as ourselves) and told us that if we gave them 10,000 riel, we could go. This equates to exactly $2.50 US.
Normally such a small "fine" would be no problem, but in this case all my wallet held was a Crystal Light Iced Tea Drink Packet (which the officer refused), and 2,000 riel ($.50). Unfortunate.
Naret said he would bring the wallet and be there as soon as he could.
We sat for roughly 5 minutes as Josh ate a granola bar and we watched the police try to pull over others (some successfully, some not so much), and then a third officer came up asking for the $2.50 again. After a few minutes of convincing him we really didn't have it in our possession, he sighed and waved us on, not even taking my 2,000 riel.
We briefly celebrated our liberation from the law before pulling over to the side of the road so I could jump into the driver's seat :)
The drive home proved uneventful, aside from creating within me a great desire to own one of these some day. http://autodata.ibsrv.net/images/?IMG=U6TOGEI3.jpg&WIDTH=425
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