More than Transportation: An Expat's "Moto"

I loved my moto. “What is a moto?” you ask. A moto is the Cambodian name for a moped—a small two-wheeler with an engine cylinder capacity up to 125cc. The humble moto is the primary means of transportation for the majority of Cambodians. For all of the years that I lived in Cambodia, I drove a moto. Everybody drove them. They were cheap, low maintenance, and didn’t require much gas—a perfect mode of local transportation. I used my moto to access remote villages and to navigate major traffic jams in the capital city. It was the best choice for getting anywhere I wanted to go that was a relatively short distance.However, it was more than practicality that made them great. There was something about being outside. I felt an active part of the culture and the country. I loved feeling the breeze generated by driving a moto. Driving a moto put the driver in constant high alert because literally, anything could happen--a dog, a pedestrian, a cyclist, another moto, or a big truck could pull out in front of you at any time. Driving a moto is a combination of exhilaration, fear, relaxation, and pleasure. It’s a physical and emotional pleasure, combined with a layer of anxiety and adrenaline and I loved it! 

Creative Transport

When transporting lots of goods I learned how to load up my moto and achieve the perfect balancing act to avoid any loss. While transporting people I perfected the art of the human sandwich. Of course, the Cambodians were much more adept at transporting people than I was. I have seen as many as six Cambodians on a single moto at one time. Motos are used to transport just about anything from people to furniture to livestock. Whether it is precariously balancing two large pigs, a dozen chickens, or a table on the back of a moto, the lowly moto’s versatility combined with the Cambodian’s creativity was a wonder to behold indeed.Another skill I perfected was the ability to drive in close proximity to others and to judge distances and gaps with narrow precision. My daughter called it the “Cambodian eye.” I remember my first morning driving in the capital and being unprepared for the huge hordes of motos trying to access the busier roads from lesser side roads. It was moto to moto. In the throng of early morning traffic, my feet were stepped on and my mirrors clanked with other mirrors. There was no time to feel claustrophobic or agoraphobic. In order to get to your destination one had to go with the flow and possess a high-risk tolerance.

Crazy Street Encounters

All of my friends had crazy moto stories. One friend had an abnormal encounter on the congested streets of Phnom Penh. He was driving his moto on a very busy road in Phnom Penh and was stopped at a traffic light. Adjacent to him was a large truck transporting many pigs. My friend didn’t think anything of it. People transport animals all the time. While at the light one of those pigs peed on him. We all learned to respect trucks transporting live animals and to give them a wide berth from my friend’s hard-learned lesson. There is some proverb that says, “Experience is a tough teacher. She gives the test first and the lesson later.” This was certainly true for my friend and the rest of us benefitted from the lesson.

The Adrenaline Rush

Driving in Cambodia is a massive lesson in organized chaos. Offensive driving is the rule of the day. If you drive too defensively, you will cause an accident. There is a definite food chain and motos are near the bottom. Near death experiences were common on almost a daily basis. And yet, I still miss it. One of the things I miss the most about living in Cambodia is my moto. I loved driving it and I confess I miss the exhilaration and the adrenaline rush of the near-death experience. Crazy—I know.

The Sheer Pleasure of it

When I lived in Siem Reap one of my favorite things to do was to drive my moto at sunset to Angkor Wat. The temples would be empty of their usual crowds and the monkeys would be out. My guilty pleasure was to drive my moto—helmetless—around the temples. It was cooler as the sun was setting and I loved to feel the breeze generated from the moto. The temples were beautiful in the half-light and it gave me great joy to drive around them on my dusty trusty moto. It was pure pleasure.Admittedly, motos are not the perfect mode of transportation. During rainy season driving a moto was less than ideal and downright inconvenient. Driving through floods was challenging. One also had to be careful with backpacks and bags because they were targets for theft. However, in spite of the challenges and the flaws, I loved driving my moto. How about you? What is your preferred mode of transportation in your passport country and why? Do you have any crazy transportation stories that you would like to share?