Thursday, April 29, 2010

Moto ride in Phnom Penh

I was shopping near the central market and needed to take a moto (motor scooter) back to the guest house. I asked the price. It started at 4,000 real ($1.00) way too much, we finally settled on 2,500 real ($0.62).

I hopped on and we started off. The moto was quite old, the needles on the speedometer and gas gauge were gone. We were headed to a street that had a divider down the middle. I knew that the driver would go left, that means that he will go the wrong way in lunch hour traffic. That is quite normal here.

We went about half a block against traffic and the driver turned off into a pagoda. Yes, we could use a blessing in this traffic. The reason he turned left was he saw a police vehicle just ahead. We bumped through the pagoda; the suspension on the moto was just like the needles, gone. Several sharp turns and large bumps over sidewalks and broken up cement and we were back onto a street. We ended up again on the divided street, going the wrong way. What a surprise (NOT). We came to where the divided street crossed another street. The driver moved next to the divider and then skillfully maneuvered into traffic going our way.

It is quite a site, seeing three lanes of motos and two lanes of cars coming at you.

I wish I would have had my camera with me.

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