It’s funny how quickly I got used to the tangle of traffic in Cambodia (just keep walking/driving forward purposefully and you won’t get killed). But I never stopped marveling at the motorbikes.
At first, I raised an eyebrow when I saw two adults and a child crammed onto a moto, but that’s nothing. Traveling in Cambodian cities and on the dusty highways in between, I’ve seen 2 adults/2 kids, 2 adults/3 kids, and the pièce de résistance, 3 adults/2 kids (one child held aloft, since there wasn’t any room left on the seat). Most drivers wear helmets; passengers almost never do.
It turns out that just about anything can be transported on two wheels: CRT TVs, ladders, bicycles and most startlingly, live pigs in bamboo tubes and live birds hanging from their legs, their beaks inches from the ground as the moto speeds along.
Of course I have photos. These guys go by quickly, so forgive the varying quality of these photos and video screen grabs. What I managed to capture is just a fraction of what we saw.
This is amazing and quite ingenious (not the multiple people, so much, but the pigs and the buns!). Owning a moto appears be a great way for a person to be in business in Cambodia. Walking home from the store today, I saw a guy tie a single Sendik’s bag to his bike’s handlebar before he got on, and I thought that was clever. Now, of course, my expectations for efficient transport are MUCH higher.
Wow! And I thought I’d really seen something when Dan and I were in Egypt and two guys went by on a bike with a bathroom sink between them! Great pics!
Exactly! That sounds like something these guys would do. They must’ve all gone to the same driving school.
Outstanding!
hmm…. I think I like the buns one and the swirley baskets.
Good shapes, huh? I think those win for artistic expression… but it’s hard to beat the pigs overall.