'the unruly traffic has to be diciplined' ( the police)

Since about two weeks this country has traffic rules. Actually the rules were there for about a year or two, but now they get enforced. That this is a lively source of income for the patrolling policemen goes without saying and goes a long way towards explaining their ardor: according to the phnom penh post 60 000 vehicles got impounded in the first two weeks ( I did not know we had that many in this country). Needless to say retrieving an impounded vehicle is expensive, so one can either pay the boys a dollar each time one gets stopped- that gets expensive too in the long run, or one can actually comply. Needles to say that the necessity of any road rules passes most Khmer totally by. And fun activities such as speeding, drunk driving and biking without a helmet or lights will be sorely missed by all of us…

Amongst the more absurd dictates is that each motorbike has to be equipped with not one but two mirrors (they can be purchased from the police directly- as can helmets at slightly inflated prices).

Grandma next door got sick and tired of paying dollar after dollar to keep vehicle and grandson out and free. So she purchased a pair of mirrors. I found her wielding a screwdriver musing,’ the dear lord Buddha only knows why they need those and why two, surly they do not want grandson to squeeze his pimples while driving, so they should not face him- no, it is more likely’, she says, ‘it is more likely that the police will want to squeeze their pimples when they stop us, and of course there are always two of them, of course, they will want a mirror each to themselves..’ and she screws the mirrors on, facing forward towards the road. ‘That should keep ém happy’, she says….