"When one is in need of a tuk-tuk or moto driver, he is either not available because he is busy pestering someone else, he is drunk or he is asleep. When one doesn't need him, he is asking to give one a ride even though one has already told him no literally two seconds ago."
In Phnom Penh, you will find the streets lined with tuk-tuk and moto drivers ready to give you a ride to virtually anywhere you want. At first it was rather endearing. Someone is always extremely enthusiastic about getting you to where you need to be. But after living in Phnom Penh for just about two months, I've really lost my sense of humor with tul-tuk drivers. Let me try to being to explain....
The phrase "You need tuk tuk lady?" will forever haunt my dreams, as I hear it all day every day.
The drivers that sit at the end of my street have only just begun to figure out that I live on the same street and when I am walking home with keys in hand, heading in the general direction of my front gate, I do NOT in fact need a ride somewhere. "You need tuk-tuk lady?" Um...no. I am already home.
When I am stepping out of a tuk-tuk, because obviously I have reached my intended destination, I do NOT need a tuk-tuk. "You need tuk-tuk lady?" Seriously? I haven't even paid this one yet.
What really kills me is I will be running to Independence Monument, about a mile from where I live, and I am clearly exercising based solely on the fact that I am in my work out clothes, sweating and oh yeah...jogging? And yet somehow from somewhere I still hear "you need tuk-tuk lady?" Exercising of any sort is a foreign concept here so a person running is someone who needs to get somewhere quickly and time could be saved by driving.
Whether you politely or rudely decline a tuk-tuk ride, you will be asked again not five seconds later, just in case you have changed your mind within the two and a half steps you've taken. Then be prepared to be asked yet again by a different tuk-tuk driver driving next to the first one, even though he clearly heard you say no the first time you were asked. It's a vicious battle.
Also ignoring tuk-tuk drivers is not really an option as they take your no answer as contemplating whether or not you need a ride. The best way to answer is with a simple "Maybe later," as this implies that at some point or another you will in fact need their services, just not at this very moment. Either that or "eff off." That usually gets the point across.
"You need tuk-tuk lady?" ...to anyone living in Phnom Penh, or has visited here, you understand my pain.
Note: And of course when Murphy's law is applied to this situation, when one is caught on a sketchy back alley street in desperate need of a ride, there is not a tuk-tuk in sight. It's as if the universe is working against you.
