Taxis, Cambodia Style!

We were looking forward to the luxury of a Taxi from Phnom Penh to Kampot, since no buses travel in that direction. Our Tuk-Tuk driver dropped us off at the departure point, and we quickly negotiated what we thought was a good deal ($10 for us both, as opposed to the $40 for the whole cab that other drivers were offering). 'Nice job!' we thought as we set off, thinking we'd just be squishing in alongside the many parcels another guy was bringing with him. Then, just round the corner, we collected a lady and her granddaughter, who both fitted in snugly next to us on the back seat. 2 minutes later, another chap got in,  and sat on the lap of parcel man on the passenger seat. To top even that, we pulled over to get some petrol next, and a new guy got in the driver's seat, and the driver quite confidently climbed upon his lap! We hoped that either the car was an automatic or the driver had extra-long legs. All of this didn't prevent him from overtaking on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic, of course! Here's the front seat - the driver is second on the left:

And this is the back seat.

Hazel's thought bubble would have to read: 'One is not amused!'

Two and a half hours later we arrived in Kampot, still a little shaken but glad to be alive. We got a Tuk Tuk for the shortish ride over to Bhodi Villa, which was recommended to us by Mat and Sky (nice work guys!). More on that in the next post, but it's worth mentioning that just by the bar they had up on the wall a blackboard with a chalk drawing of a "Typical Cambodian Taxi Ride" which pretty accurately defined our experience. Too late to forewarn us, but funny nonetheless.

Anyway, the moral of the story is: always remember that Cambodian Taxis seat up to 8 people - it's up to you to buy as many seats as you feel safe and comfortable with!