Alone in the Darkness...Again and Again...
Shianoukville, 9th
June 2002 (Part 2)
But when I turn up at the agreed time, my moto driver isn't to be
found. Of course, once I've been standing there for longer than 3
milliseconds, other moto drivers start questioning me. After 5
milliseconds their questions & suggestions were becoming quite
insistent. So after waiting for 5 minutes, I took one of the drivers
who was handy...oh well, tough luck for the other driver! You
snooze, you loose!
`This should be a quick & easy trip', I wrongly told myself. We took
off along the dusty road in the direction of the now setting sun.
Without any problems we wound along the simple roads, slowly
climbing in altitude.
After about 15 minutes on the road, we drove slowly past a dark-blue
pickup truck overloaded with dozens of people looking a bit frantic.
I quickly realised that the truck had turned into a massive muddy
puddle on one side of the road, and was stuck fast. The driver kept
hitting the gas pedal in an effort to escape, but the wheels just
span nonchalantly and the truck adamantly refused to move. We were
driving quite slowly, and just as we got past them, half the people
in the back jumped out and started trying to push the truck out.
''Splutter, splutter'', I heard another failing engine, but quickly
realised that it was the bike I was on. My driver looked down at the
bike anxiously, and after kicking it without any success, he
stopped the bike. He jumped off and made me do likewise. A quick
investigation showed that there was no petrol left. Ahhh.
A small problem when trying to drive. My driver managed to explain
in broken English that he would glide back down to the nearest
petrol place, and that I should wait here. He said he'd be back in 5
minutes. Hmmmmmm, ok...
As my driver disappeared into the now growing darkness, I noticed
that the stuck pickup still hadn't managed to escape. I wandered over
to see if I could help, but just as I did, they seemed to have a
moment of inspiration, and everyone (all 15 of them) got out of the
pickup truck, and the stronger looking half then tried pushing
again. As the truck still refused to move, I came over to add an
extra bit of manpower. Eventually, the truck did start to budge, and
after a couple of minutes, with black smoke pouring out of the
exhaust, the truck was back on tarmaced road. All the passengers
then quickly piled onto the back, some of them thanking me in
English & Khmer, before they sped off into the distance.
Now I was left alone on the side of a quiet country road, and it was
quickly getting dark. Not an ideal situation by any means.
After waiting nervously for about 6 minutes, assuming that every
person that drove by was going to mug me, he finally came. My driver
that it, not a mugger.
By now it was quite dark and I told my driver that if we didn't get
there by sunset, he'd only get half he money, because that was the
main reason I came out here. He insisted that we'd get there in
time, and lo & behold, we soon reached the mountain top, just
before the sun disappeared behind the horizon.
Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy, so the sun was partially hidden
and I couldn't see very much.
Still, I did manage to get some good photos of the view from the
hilltop.
The photo-shoot over and done with, I jumped back on the bike,
looking forward to some dinner when I got back to town. But the fun
wasn't over yet...
About half-way back, I started to notice this flopping noise.
Flop-flop-flop. The driver obviously noticed it too, and he slowed
down, and drove carefully to a small service station. He'd managed
to get a flat tyre. What fun this journey was turning out to be!
Again, he told me he'd be back in a minute, and disappeared off into
the darkness. After another dramatic pause waiting on my own by the
side of the road in the dark, he returned, and we were off again.
We managed to get back to town without any more problems. After
paying my driver for tonight's entertainment, I grabbed dinner at a
nearby restaurant. The rest of the evening was uneventful. I just
watched the footie on TV, then read a bit before bed.
Night night!
Next Diary Entry >>
|
