Chanthy the Tuk-Tuk driver and a little bit of Western intervention Chanthy is a lovely middle aged Khmer man with a wife and two children. His survival and the survival of his family is protected through the money he earns driving a Tuk-Tuk1. It is customers such as Westerners or Asian holidaymakers eg, Koreans, Singaporeans etc that generate most of his income. It’s a tough way to eek out a living as competition for fares is high amongst the 100’s of Tuk-Tuks in Phnom Penh. Plus they have further competition in the form of Motodops (motorbike taxis, which are nimbler and quicker through the heavy traffic)

Most drivers just play the sit, wait and hope game, occasionally asking the passing foot traffic if “you want Tuk-Tuk”. Sickness is something most Khmer families cannot afford to budget for and in Chanthy’s case his Tuk-Tuk was already in bad repair and his motorbike running on a wing and a prey when his son became ill. He tried local medicine which comprised of feeding his son ash and only seemed to be making his son worse.

Around this time Lydia and Mike had moved to Phnom Penh for volunteer work and started to use Chanthy’s services to transport them about. One of Chanthy’s best advantages is his good command of English and over a period of a few weeks Lydia and Mike came to know and like Chanthy very well. The story of his son was eventually uncovered and by this time Chanthy had already been to a loan-shark to obtain the $40 required to repair the engine on his motorbike and keep his only form of livelihood running (literally). Lydia and Mike are just normal, honest and caring people but what they’ve done has been monumental in Chanthy and his families life’s. Small things like passing on sparkplugs from Mikes bike, to Lydia printing up signs for the Tuk-Tuk to promote Chanthy’s services which include day trips and translation. To remarkable things (at least in Chanthy’s eyes) like loaning him the money to assist him to tidy up his Tuk-Tuk with new upholstery and paint, pay his son’s doctors bills and actually buy a new motorbike. (The old one’s engine having given up the ghost two weeks after being fixed by the money from the loan-shark) Lydia and Mike also wanted to provide a constructive way that Chanthy’s wife; (Chantoo) could supplement the family income. Chantoo previously had a job at a garment factory earning 5c for each shirt and trouser outfit she completed but had to relinquish it on the birth of their second child due to a lack of child care. The factories in the recent past had been outsourcing sewing to those with machines at home but this has stopped with the economic downturn. So instead they have bought her a sugar cane machine, something that will have a very positive effect on Chanthy and his family and an investment out of the reach of many locals. Chanthy is now becoming very busy, through word of mouth and repeat business, so much so that Lydia and Mike now have to book him in advance, of which they couldn’t be happier! So that plus his wife’s income, through the sale of sugar cane juice, means that Chanthy was able to make his first repayment to them within 6 weeks. Not only was he able to pay almost 5 times the kind repayment fee Lydia and Mike had set, he was also able to repay his loan sharks, buy new shoes, register his new bike, and take his family out to dinner (probably for the first time ever!). All this from a lovely Cambodian who couldn't afford a new inner tube a month and a half ago. I thought this was just such a positive, encouraging story of people’s good will and the ability of a smart man to turn his life around given the opportunity.

Thanks to Lydia and Mike for letting me retell their story. I hope myself and all other westerners living or visiting here can have their own such positive stories. 1 A Tuk-Tuk is a two wheeled carriage motorized by a motorbike which is fixed in place where the motorbikes backseat is . It has a roof but exposed sides, and has two bench seats facing each other. You can easily fit 10 Cambodians inside, but only about 4 westerners.

Photo of Chanthy, Mike and the new sugar cane machine.