The main form of transportation in Siem Reap is tuk-tuks attached to the back of motorbikes, and we took them into town every night to have dinner. The standard rate was $3 USD for a one-way trip into town or back to the hotel from town. One night we came back, and my dad handed the guy $3. He told us that no, this hotel was further than he thought, and that we owed him $4. My dad only had three $1 bills, and none of us had anything smaller than a $20 besides those three $1s. The driver didn’t have any change, so my dad went to the front desk to ask for change. I stayed outside and waited with the driver, and complained to my mom about why my dad didn’t agree to the price before we got in the tuk-tuk as we had every other time. She told me that indeed they had agreed upon $3 USD and I thought, then why are we having this argument. We were all tired and it was late and still hot out, and I was annoyed that the driver was trying to get more than agreed upon (this goes back to my feelings that the people of Siem Reap feel like they are owed something by westerners) and that my dad was running all over the hotel trying to find someone that could break his $20.
So I told the driver that no, we would not be paying $4 since we agreed to $3, and it was not our fault that he didn’t know how far the hotel was (and by far, I mean about 3 miles outside of the center of town). I tried to hand him the $3 and he wouldn’t take it, so I set it on the ground in front of him and walked into the hotel, grabbing my mom and pulling her with me. The driver screamed that he was going to call the police, and I told him to go ahead. I half expected for the tuk-tuk driver to be waiting for us in front of the hotel the next morning, but he wasn’t there, and as expected the police never came.
Picture: Mom and dad in a tuk-tuk on our way to dinner one night.
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