Sit back, relax, and enjoy the TukTuk!
It is the most ridden ride in Khmertown.
How TukTuks in Cambodia came to be called as TukTuk?
The Internet just won’t spit it out as it usually does with my homework and all where it would give me all the answers straight up, not up in here as I try to research a bit about how TukTuks in Cambodia came to be called as TukTuk. The name “TukTuk” might have originated from Thailand, that is what I reckon after having read a bit on Wikipedia.
Bottomline, Word of mouth of the tourists, must be.
The Technical Part Of It.
Our tuktuk is different from others everywhere or other tuktuks everywhere else are different from our tuktuk. Wikipedia calls ours an “exception”, but I think it’s just one extra wheel, that is all. Also, others all around the world are usually factory-made, but ours is more of a locally customized and a by-product. A motorbike and a “Romork” (a Khmer term of a carriage), hooked up into one and we ride on that and that’s about it.
Value
To the locals. it’s more of a breadwinner. I mean we rarely take our own tuktuks. It is only when we have like a family of more than what a motorbike can carry and we also do not have car that we call for a tuktuk.
Whereas, to the expats, our tuktuk is, most of the time, the first Khmer experience. Tourists’ journey are always affected or influenced by the our tuktuk. From the airport to the city, from the market to the guest house, throughout their trip here in Cambodia, our tuktuk give the tourists its all. The first impression that our tuktuk (driver) makes will be the first impression of us to the tourists and I overheard elders say that first impression lasts long.
It could be cheating or helpful, well-humored or disrespectful, friendly or irritating, understanding or cunning; our tuktuk says it all how we all are. Most of the time, most of the tourists would not see it like I see it, but our tuktuk makes their journey complete; without it, there is no way tourists will be traveling as conveniently like they usually do.
The fact that our tuktuk would learn to speak English language is an obvious sign of how tourists also influence us, an exchange of what I would call culture and experience. In the end, there is only one thing the tourists and our tutuk care or should care to gain; Trust, nothing else besides it, and it’s priceless.
More than anything else, we need each other’s trust. If trust was Just A Thing, then, it wouldn’t have been taught again and again from generations to generations. Trust has been sewed into our hearts by nature itself. It’s just that most of us won’t open it up and use it. Even if we open up and use it, some of us tend to break it carelessly without knowing that without trust, World War III could have been a part of our history too. I would say that Trust makes the world works as it is today.
Our tuktuk would or may sometimes, hype up the fare a bit, maybe trick the tourists a bit and do all the other things that might or will make us look bad but deep down there, I know and believe that we are good people because my mom tells me that i am a good person with a good heart and that everyone is good too and that I should have faith in all and more in myself.
I’m not saying all of it because I’m a Khmer and I’m on their side, nooo! it’s never like that. The fact that I’m Khmer makes me want to expose how it actually is like, our tuktuk have no intention of doing any harm, and I will blame it to something called Lust that we all somehow have.
I would like to take this article to apologize on behalf of our tutktuk out there for any inconvenience we might have caused to any tourist.
I would also like to request the respective people or organisations to work harder in making the lives of our tuktuk better.
No comments:
Post a Comment