Being squashed into the back or front of a taxi has become quite common place now. I used to buy ‘two’ seats (which equals ‘one seat’ where I come from!) but since fares have increased (fuel prices have increased by about a third since I’ve been here) I’ve become decidedly less fussy about who I share my personal space with when travelling long distances. 8 is the number of adults I have shared a taxi with on my last few trips out of town. On route to Battambang Pam, Suzy, Corine and I bundled into the backseat, taking it in turns to sit forward and back to compensate for our Western-sized hips! At the beginning of the journey it was not too bad. We all felt quite comfy, snug even. However, after the first half hour I realised I couldn’t feel my left leg from the knee down and had no way of changing the fact.
Travelling back to Sisaphon a few days later I shared the front passenger seat of the taxi with Corine while the driver shared his seat and the gear stick with his wife! The Wife was thrilled most of the journey to be sharing such close proximity with a ‘barang’ and proceeded to stroke my arm, pull my arm hairs and stare at my nose a little too intently and a little too closely for my liking as well! I was helpless! Trapped! Caught between an overconfident Khmer lady and a petite (thankfully!) Corine and trying very hard not to squish the latter into the side of the door or stick my elbow into the former. If we had’ve had an accident, I think we would’ve been too wedged in to do ourselves much damage. We’re in Cambodia, who needs an airbag, or a seatbelt for that matter!? We engaged in some conversation with our fellow passengers and without realising how, the conversation soon turned to a fun game of ‘Guess the Animal’ whereby Corine and I made very realistic animal noise impressions for our new Khmer friends to identify (in Khmer of course!). Perhaps because we felt like animals packed in on their last trip to the market, I honestly can’t remember how it came up. It was a really funny game until we noticed that frogs in the Western world make a completely different noise to frogs in Cambodia. Everyone in the car was completely flummoxed by our frog impressions, which wasn’t helped by the fact that we couldn’t remember what the Khmer word for ‘frog’ was! This problem caused much merriment to Corine and I but caused the Khmer passengers to completely lose interest in us. They became completely engaged in a conversation and despite my very loud duck noises we spent the rest of the journey being completely ignored. It must’ve been quite some conversation to outdo my ‘quack’ and the occasional dig in the ribs from my wandering elbow!
Travelling back to Sisaphon a few days later I shared the front passenger seat of the taxi with Corine while the driver shared his seat and the gear stick with his wife! The Wife was thrilled most of the journey to be sharing such close proximity with a ‘barang’ and proceeded to stroke my arm, pull my arm hairs and stare at my nose a little too intently and a little too closely for my liking as well! I was helpless! Trapped! Caught between an overconfident Khmer lady and a petite (thankfully!) Corine and trying very hard not to squish the latter into the side of the door or stick my elbow into the former. If we had’ve had an accident, I think we would’ve been too wedged in to do ourselves much damage. We’re in Cambodia, who needs an airbag, or a seatbelt for that matter!? We engaged in some conversation with our fellow passengers and without realising how, the conversation soon turned to a fun game of ‘Guess the Animal’ whereby Corine and I made very realistic animal noise impressions for our new Khmer friends to identify (in Khmer of course!). Perhaps because we felt like animals packed in on their last trip to the market, I honestly can’t remember how it came up. It was a really funny game until we noticed that frogs in the Western world make a completely different noise to frogs in Cambodia. Everyone in the car was completely flummoxed by our frog impressions, which wasn’t helped by the fact that we couldn’t remember what the Khmer word for ‘frog’ was! This problem caused much merriment to Corine and I but caused the Khmer passengers to completely lose interest in us. They became completely engaged in a conversation and despite my very loud duck noises we spent the rest of the journey being completely ignored. It must’ve been quite some conversation to outdo my ‘quack’ and the occasional dig in the ribs from my wandering elbow!
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