Ridin' Dirty

Navigating the roads in Cambodia is all about finding a delicate balance between cautious-this-is-my-first-day-of-driving-school defensive driving, and I-was-Evel-Knievel-in-a-former-life-everybody-move-over aggression. If you aren't careful, you'll get run over. Literally. If you aren't aggressive, you won't get anywhere. Literally.

Things I've seen while biking in the past week:
-Cows getting in the way of traffic

-Two men transporting a fridge on a moto

-A 10 passenger van full of pineapples. Completely full. Literally, I couldn't see in any of the windows. Or the driver of the van, for that matter.

-A monkey running across telephone wire above me. Like a squirrel. 

-4 adults crammed onto one motorbike

-A 10 or 11 year old child operating a moto. 

-A mother nursing her newborn on the back of the fathers motorbike 

-People getting bag snatched 

Things I haven't seen while biking in the past week:

-Traffic signals. They took out signals on one of the busiest roads in the city.

-People obeying the few traffic signals that do exist. 

-Helmets being used 

-The moto that nicked my arm with their side mirror while zooming past. 

-Turn signals being used

-The multiple cars/motos/buses that have almost hit me 

-Any indication that the concept "yield" exists

Here are some photos of what the traffic and crazy vehicles that occupy the road here.

Just a casual commute to work with 98 other people on a truck with standing room only. If you look closely at the moto closest to the camera, there is a family of 4 piled on. The youngest is half standing/half squatting in front of the father who is driving...without a helmet. This is the Cambodian car seat. 

Chillin' on some plant life. 

A moto with 50 kites attached. 

A bike with 50 balloons attached. I've actually been bopped in the head multiple times by balloons attached to bikes. 

A bike with a small convenient store attached. 

Casual traffic in front of the royal palace. Blocks away from my apartment. 

Today, while driving in the right lane of a 3 lane road, luckily, I saw the car attempting to turn right from the left lane. This was annoying. Unfortunately, because I was paying attention to the car attempting to turn right from the left lane 5 feet before his turn came, I neglected the car driving the WRONG way down the road straight at me in my right lane. This was more annoying. I successfully avoided both cars. Narrowly. Somehow, I'm still alive.