A new day

When you want to marry a girl in Cambodia first you must take her and get your birth dates checked for compatibility. If you fail to pass this astrological test you should pass up the marriage and move on (although I have discovered not all Cambodians do this). If you pass the test you are permitted to marry. First the male must pay the bride to be’s parents about $4000 US, which can take even those with a decent income about 7 years to save (so as soon as you start earning you start saving with the hopes of finding the perfect match). The bride’s family then uses this money for the wedding, an extravagant celebration. We have seen so many weddings going on since arriving in Cambodia and my friend, Sarath gets married here in a couple of weeks also. 

We rented a moto again a couple of days ago. I had read that you have to have a Cambodian drivers licence to ride here now. But when we rented we asked the guy and he said no, and that an NZ one was ok. So we hit the road. About 2 minutes later we hit the first of three police checks of the afternoon. In his limited English the policeman demanded a bribe of $10 and showed up a booklet which says Cambodian or International licences. Spike, being one not so keen on bribes, told the cops that he had been here before and ridden and was not paying a bribe. After they were frustrated enough they finally told us to go. The upside to all this was that at the following police stops we could say we had been stopped already and paid the money (as we knew the amount being demanded) and luckily enough they didn’t want to fight and let us pass. I wondered why I didn’t see many foreigners on motos. And the ones we did see today at check points had their money out. Makes the cheap $5 for 24 hour rental a bit more expensive when you add on the bribes. 

Crusing

Chilling out

After cruising around, some great beaches and off roading on our way back through downtown on a six lane road (three/three) a girls cap fell off from a moto in front of us. Without thinking Spike put out his foot towards the ground, to which the hat got stuck (amazingly, at about 30kms per hour) and he lifted it up as we rode past the girls and they grabbed it off his foot. Needless to say there were a lot of impressed people and a few claps and thumbs up. The girls (and us) were cracking up too.

The next day we headed back to pick up the moto to find the boss had taken it (complete with all our gas!). After a lot of arguing and wasted time (and anger) the bike was returned. Empty. After more anger we took off to the markets. Upon return we were reimbursed $1 for the gas we put it. A disappointing experience. As with any experience where we get ripped off solely for being white. 

The afternoon continued with more rip offs. An afternoon beach massage and an overcharged/taken advantage of situation again.

I forgot to mention. The power went off everywhere at about 2pm yesterday and came on at some hour during the night. The hostel used it’s generator to power their empty restaurant, while we sweated, fanless in the room.

Then this morning I logged on to find that my cat (which is really mums cat, as it has lived with her for the last 6 years) was hit by a car. 

Off to Phnom Phen today. A new city and a fresh slate.