1 post tagged “kirirom”
Cambodia's streets carry clouds of dust, but it's impossible to know just how wretched those clouds are until you rent a motorbike and drive through them for five hours. I agree with this simple and highly scientific equation, which I have just formulated:
Motorbike + Speed + Time + Road = Filth.
But despite returning to Phnom Penh with blackened forearms and facial stubble, I had no regrets last Saturday after making the 230 kilometer round-trip journey to the lushly forested Kirirom National Park, southwest of the capital. All on a puny 100 cc motorbike that would make any Harley aficionado point and laugh.
My last significant experience on a two-wheeled motorized contraption was when, aged 12 or 13, I drove a dirt bike completely through a neighbor's wooden fence and then collapsed into a semi-conscious daze. (I did yard work for weeks to pay that debt off.) But how could I resist a simple fact of life here: I can put $3 and my passport on a table and get a motorbike for an entire day, no questions asked.
My lack of confidence was not helped by being pulled over by two cops 30 seconds after leaving the rental business. I impulsively followed my Dutch friend and day-trip companion Paul as he mistook a green left-turn arrow for a full-on green light. Suddenly Phnom Penh's finest/worst were hard at work flagging us down and demanding $5 or else -- what? But I paid, very aware that my "ticket" required no paperwork whatsoever, just bills placed carefully in a binder underneath a tree.
People I work with at The Cambodia Daily advise sticking to a few simple rules to evade extortion: never get off your motorbike because it signals weakness. Tell the cop you want his boss' name. And my favorite: Tell the cop you can only give him, say, $1 now, and then write down your employer's address and tell him to drop by tomorrow to pick up the money you owe him. Absurd, but apparently it has worked.
Cambodia's streets are largely lawless, but there is one notable exception. If you are white and driving a motorbike, you are more likely to be pulled over to pay off traffic cops - reverse racial profiling that's understandable given the cops' salaries. How can I complain? I had just got hold of a motorbike for $3 carrying no license. And I desperately wanted to get the hell out of Phnom Penh.
Cities suffocate everyone, eventually. Phnom Penh may be urban Asia lite and surprisingly green, but it still leaves me gasping for open space after ten days. And so we took to the road, flimsy helmets and all, zipping by the airport into the paddied countryside.
I had traveled through it before, but in buses -- so I had no idea how black exhaust can slowly built a film of pollutants on one's face, despite a helmet's pull-down face guard. Sounds bad, but it's barely noticeable when you're traveling tight-lipped down a road at 30 or 40 or 50 miles an hour, trying to steal glances at gorgeously green scenes. Never was quite sure how fast I was moving, thanks to a broken speedometer.
After collapsing into a bar chair after a dusky return to the city, I realized two things: Riding a motorbike for hours is surprisingly tiring, and terrible for postures. And I was filthy.
