The guesthouse night shift guy, whose name is Thear, has a moto. It’s a ~2004 Suzuki Viva or something – approx 100cc, and very common here. There is a bit of an ongoing saga about this moto.
It all started when I noticed he would arrive in the evenings on a moto-taxi, and leave on another one the next day. Asking how much this cost, the answer was 10,000 riel per day, or about $75 per month (all the guesthouse guys and gals work 7 days a week). When you compare this to the average monthly salary of under $100 / month, there is not a lot left. He tells me the rest goes to his mother for family expenses.
About a month and a half ago he was at work looking quite wobbly, and when I asked him if he was sick he showed me some unpleasant injuries from where the moto taxi was in an accident a previous day – some nice deep scrapes and some largeish burns on the back of a leg, where the moto exhaust had landed on him. He also showed me his scars from previous moto accidents.
A day or two after that he is looking even worse, and tells me he has a fever and can’t sleep. He’s not gone to the doctor because he has no money, and I’m thinking infection from the cuts, so I gave him a few bucks and told him to go to the doc. He does, gets some drugs as well, and heals up.
Sometime after this, I asked him how much it would cost to get to work and back if he had a moto – about 4000 riel in fuel (1L), or in other words $30 per month. This is a substantial income gain ($45 per month, or about ½ his salary), so I ask if he has a moto – turns out he does, but after a previous crash (he is somewhat accident prone it seems) it was not rideable and so was sitting unused at home. There is no money for repairs, as most of his salary goes on moto taxis to work, and the rest towards bills – their power bill back home is large as their house floods every time it rains, and they have to pump it out. The required repairs would allegedly cost $50.
So then I say, what if I lend you $50, you fix your moto, ride it to work instead of the moto taxi, and then in one month you will have saved $50 in taxi costs and can pay me back. He likes the maths and we do the deal. In the following days as the moto is fixed, it turns out the repairs will cost another $20, so the loan is extended.
It takes a week to fix his moto, and then it appears at the guesthouse. What also appears is that it has no tail light (more accident damage, $15 to replace), no instrument cluster (just some black plastic covering the hole where it should be, $25 to replace), and no license plate or registration ($35). He is afraid of riding it to work, as he could get pulled over and fined – rightly so too – the police fairly often set up little roadside checks and pull over suspect bikes.
In the end, I shouted him a tail light, but still no instruments (needed for rego) or rego itself. He did indeed get pulled over too, so there was a $30 fine. The fines are on the spot, so he got to stay with the nice policeman until his mother arrived with the $30.
The current situation is that, while the family does get some benefit from the moto by using it instead of moto taxis around where they live (no police checks there – outskirts of town), Thear is still getting moto taxis to work. Am not too sure if I’ll get paid back, but that’s not really too important.
Amusingly, he also tells me he doesn’t like the moto because it is too old and he has had lots of accidents on it. I told him that it’s fine (a lot newer than my 28-year old car), he should learn how to ride better, and he complains too much. He rejects this assertion.
If anyone wants to contribute to the Thear’s moto fund, let me know:-)
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