Cheourk - our taxi driver.
on So Now It's Cambodia (Cambodia), 22/Apr/2010 14:18, 34 days ago
CHEOURKI realised when posting this that it's a month since the last posting. I'm sure some of you were desperately waiting for the next thrilling episode! I'm glad to say we had a lovely beach hoilday during that time and a few people we met along the way have volunteered to make my blog more interesting! - but I'll write on these later.In the mean time here's a feature on our regular taxi driver Cheourk.One of the first things I had to do when we arrived here in our placement in Mongkul Borei was to make contact with local people who could help us or work for us in a number of ways. We joked about this as getting staff! This, of course, sounds horribly colonial but the reality of our situation is that we need help due to language difficulties and having no car etc.Very few speak English or other European languages though we have bumped into the occasional French speaker. Our cleaner was handed to us by the previous volunteer who was keen we should employ her - which we were happy to do. She lost her husband in an electric pylon accident and she has 8 children to support.Unfortunately, she was“sacked” by our landlady. There was a terrific row and don’t really know what happened but it seemed our landlady wanted to do the work. So she left and we now have our landlady (Lin) and her adopted son (Sane) doing the cleaning and washing our clothes. No we don’t have a washing machine!On the whole this actually works very well and in particular, since my op, Sane has been really helpful doing some of the stuff that I used to do and with great enthusiasm.Tricia, the previous tenant advised me to locate Cheourk at the moto "car" wash in some old sheds on the corner by the bridge near the hospital. She said he had been a driver for International Red Cross Cambodia and for Medicin Sans Frontiere. He was basically retired but might be persuaded to run me around as he did some taxi work.I went to find him but he wasn’t there and the moto lads said come again tomorrow. I nearly gave up but went back. This time his daughter was there. She’s a lovely girl who is an English teacher. She phoned her dad and he came down. We had a meeting to discuss terms and he seemed interested. He did start asking for what seemed a lot of money – eg. $25 for a 10 minute journey!He gave me a plastic chair to sit on so we sat on the corner negotiating! We came to a reasonable agreement so he would take me/us to Sisophon for $5 but with no obligation to collect. The problem for him is that if he waits to collect then he can’t do a longer trip and earn around $25. That seems fair enough.We have used him a lot now and got to know him well. He’s very reliable and although his overtaking occasionally freaks me out he’s a very steady driver overall. He knows everywhere (and a lot of people) here and the brilliant thing is that his English is very good though hesitant and there are occasional frustrating misunderstandings! For example,when I phoned him to day (Thursday) to say we didn’t need him on Friday he took it to mean we wanted him to come now instead!! I feel a bit like Basil Fawlty at times!! He also speaks French which is a hangover from his days working for them.He just knows the place so well. Almost anywhere we go–eg. around a remote village Thmar Pouk (Alison’s other hospital) or a remote school, he will tell us how either he used to be based at offices there for the NGO’s or live there, or that they had been refugee camps. He knows the roads and people well as well - although we did recently find ourselves zooming off towards Siem Reap on the major Route 6 instead of going to a friend’s house in street 6! A clear misunderstanding. He has also taught us so much about the place and culture as well as giving us Khmer lessons as we go along! Invaluable.I like these pictures I took as they capture his character well– especially the 2nd. one which shows his cheeky side!The road to Thmar Pouk is a very dusty and bit bumpy though not really a dirt rutted road– it can be a bit rough at times. Other vehicles, especially lorries, churn up a lot of dust and so it’s hard to see where you’re going. It’s very African - as is the scenery - which reminds me of the bush in Botswana.Cheourk takes all this in his stride and it takes him just over an hour. Recently a visitor hired another taxi driver who didn’t know the road and it took him over 2 hours! This messed up the meetings for the day. The power of local knowledge!Most taxis here are old Toyota Camrys and Cheourk’s is no exception. On the way back from Bangkok it was playing up as the handbrake was broken and was making funny clanking noises- he drove extra slowly! We were concerned but he said “ot panya ha” (no problem) as they always do.A few days later Alison and Oly (Shipp) went to Thmar Pouk for the day and on the way back the radiator overheated! Cheourk and his lady friend got water from a nearby“pond” and fixed it. By this time it was dark and we were getting worried. A few minutes later one of the tyres shredded! However, he calmly got out and fixed it. Meanwhile Oly and Alison just waited but got back in the dark -very late, very hot and very tired.!!When he drove us to Sisophon at the weekend he said there was a serious problem with the car. This time the air con! Well the car goes but with temperatures mostly in the high 30’s these days you really need the A.C. He cut a forlorn figure when he announced he couldn’t drive this week as the car needed fixing and he had no money until he went to Phnom Penh to see family.Although it was hard to understand the scenario clearly it seems he could get it fixed on Monday in Sisophon for money he didn’t have or he could drive to Phnom Penh and borrow money and get it fixed a bit cheaper. I thought of lending him the money (or even giving it to him and had a quiet word with Alison).When we got out I was quite surprised when he asked if I could lend the money for the repair so he could get it repaired locally. Part of the reason why I was surprised is that Khmers really don’t like losing face and I thought he would be too embarrassed to ask. He cut a forlorn figure (or he’s a good actor) so I lent him the money which has duly been returned.We really missed his services on our recent beach holiday as some of the driving we encountered was very dangerous with frequent overtaking on blind bends, in spite of my protests. Hairaising.I repeat this paragaph from one of the transport blogs as it relates to Cheourk. On one trip to Seam Reap recently it took an hour to get away as he collected someone else from our village then went to Sisophon for gas, then out of town to a house to collect medicine for someone. This gave us an interesting and bumpy tour of parts of the area we hadn’t seen before. Once again he informed us of a bit of history when he pointed out a place where “Pol Pot” - as they put it here – did a lot of killing. He said that at that time he was working in Mongul Borei repairing tractors which were used to transport people there to be killed. I imagine if he hadn't done that he would have been killed himself. Chilling!Cheourk obviously needs the income from taxi driving and we really do need his services to get the most out of our time here. Cheuork came to see me the other day to discuss plans and he called me out to see his car- there were three big shattered areas across the windscreen. This time he said coconuts had fallen on the screen just down the road. The perils of tropical countries eh??!!