A Little Rant

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I am going to indulge myself in a little rant, the subject of which is a moto driver I encountered the other day in Siem Riep. After my little cycling mishap on day one, I agreed to hire the tuk-tuk guy who gave me a lift back to my hostal. I needed a motorbike for the next day, to get to Beng Mealea and the other more distant temples. It’s illegal for foreigners to hire their own motorbikes in Siem Riep because too many tourists broke themselves, so I had to have a driver.

This guy proved to be a bad choice. I didn’t notice at the time, because it was dark, but it turns out he was only nineteen. Mistake! Never hire a teenager.

I don’t know if this kid was only a moto driver as his summer job or what, but he really lacked the work ethic that the elder generation of Cambodians seem to display. In fact, he had a serious attitude problem. He was rude and obnoxious and constantly complaining.

"Can we go yet?"
"You eat here now"

And his tragic tale of poverty was that he couldn’t afford a camera phone. In fact, at first he told me with great sadness that he didn’t own a mobile, then when I caught him answering it later he dismissively explained that this one ‘can’t play music or take photos…’. Such hardship! I’ll inform Amnesty International.

And the kid just brazenly lied to me, about everything. How long it would take to get from one place to another, how much it should cost, and so on. He was constantly trying to change the price we’d agreed, or get out of going somewhere. Even though we’d already decided on an itinerary and a fee, he WHINED INCESSANTLY about everything, trying to charge extra at every available opportunity. Now this is Cambodia, and I shouldn’t be surprised that people want to get money out of me, but mostly it is good natured banter not constant whinging or rudeness. Anyway, what I was paying him was more than fair.

I don’t mind mildly overpaying tuk-tuk and moto drivers, so long as they don’t try to scam me, because I find that generally, at least outside Siem Riep, they are exceptionally friendly and helpful, often to the point of doing themselves out of a fare. For example -

"I can’t take you there lady, it’s closed"
"You can’t go dressed like that, you need long sleeves"

Most English speaking drivers will also act as informal guides, telling you what they know about the sights. The guy I had the next day was fantastic at this. Not so Boy Racer, who despite speaking very good English refused to even answer basic questions.

"Where are we?"
"Don’t know"

"What time does the sun set?"
"Don’t know"

"What is this place like?"
"Don’t know"

Now I see why people complain about teenagers being monosybolic. He was also a terrible driver. I don’t have much experience with motorbikes but I have at least passed my CBT, so I know, for example, not to ride off with the kickstand up. And despite his total inability to ride a bike he was a massive poser, with totally unsuitable brand new white trainers and extensively gelled hair which had to be carefully repaired every time he took his helmet off.

He spent the whole day looking through a mobile phone catalogue and asking me how much everything I own costs, then tried buy my mobile phone off me, explaining that he wouldn’t pay very much because it wasn’t touch screen. All the other tourists have touch screen phones, apparently.

I realise, of course, that teenagers are teenagers the world over, and the fact that he is Cambodian does not preclude him from moodiness and phone envy, especially when living somewhere so Westernised as Siem Riep, dealing with foreign tourists all the time.

This in no way lessened my desire to punch him in the back of the head.

On the way back we were stopped by a police roadblock, probably in an attempt to extort some kind of bribe, probably because I wasn’t wearing a helmet (despite Boy Racer having promised to bring me one as a condition of me hiring him... sigh). Just as we were pulling over a timely distraction occurred in the form of a motorbike carrying four people, non of them wearing helmets, running over a nearby police officer. I jumped off to try and help, which infuriated Boy Racer as he was clearly hoping to use this distraction to make a sneaky getaway. The unfortunate Cambodian copper went over the top of the motorbike and landed on the four passengers, then everything collapsed into an undignified sweary heap of limbs in the middle of the road. Once everyone was disentangled, the condition of the victims could be best described as upright but pissed off. The police officer was bleeding through one of his white gloves, but he completely refused to take it off and let me have a look. I didn’t know how to tell him, in Khmer, that I am 2/3rds of a doctor and able to offer medical assistance. I asked Boy Racer to translate for me but he refused, still furiously insisting that I shut up and get back on the bike before they have chance to fine us for anything. Not really knowing what else to do, I shut up and got back on the bike. Probably for the best anyway, I mean I didn’t even have a first aid kit with me, what was I planning to do? Magically fix his hand with my doctorly powers of healing? No, well then.

So, rant concluded.

I’m getting behind on this blog again, because internet access is a rare and precious thing in Kampong Thom. On Wednesday a thunderstorm took out the electricity for a night and seemingly disabled all internet access for several days. As well as the intermittant power supply, there are only three internet places in town that I’m aware of. Non of them are exactly what you’d call a net café. The one I am sat in now is a chemist with two aging PCs in the back behind a medicine cabinet. These places open and close completely at random with no regard for time or date. So bear with me. I am trying.

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Photos

templeview
Can't even remember which one this is