Monday, 21 June 2010

Uphill pedal for Cambodia's shrinking pool of cyclo drivers - Feature


via Khmer NZ News Media

Posted : Sun, 20 Jun 2010
By : Robert Carmichael

Phnom Penh - At 75, Oum Sok is probably the oldest cyclo driver in Cambodia. He started pedalling passengers around Phnom Penh in his three-wheeled bicycle taxi in the 1950s, around the time the country gained its independence from France.

He still works seven days a week, rising early and going to sleep late. But much has changed over the years, he says, notably the attitude of Phnom Penh's citizens to the cyclo. These days they prefer the motorbike taxi.

The result is that the cyclo, with its bucket seat between the two front wheels for the passengers, the driver perched high above the rear wheel, is declining fast. Seventy years after it was introduced, the cyclo's gentle pace is at odds with a city that is getting faster every year.

Which is why today many of Oum Sok's passengers are tourists. It is a big change. He reels off others.

"When I was young I could earn a lot, but now everything is expensive," he says of life in the capital. "And many local people don't want to take a cyclo with an old man like me driving them."

The cyclo's decline is familiar to Im Sambath. He heads the Cyclo Conservation and Careers Association, a small membership body established to look out for the interests of cyclo drivers like Oum Sok.

For 25 cents a month, the drivers get washing facilities and education on topics such as HIV/AIDS, quitting smoking and traffic rules.

In his tiny first-floor office located on a backstreet, Im Sambath explains that the number of cyclos has dropped from 9,000 a decade ago to 1,300 today. In another five years he predicts there will be 500.

One reason is the difficulty of obtaining spare parts. But the main reason, as Oum Sok knows, is a change in the capital's transport culture.

"For the local clients, the numbers have decreased because people think cyclos are not safe - they prefer to take tuktuks and motorbike taxis," he says. "And tuktuks are quicker than cyclos."

The tuktuk, or motorized rickshaw, is also roomier.

Im Sambath predicts local demand for the cyclo will continue to wilt. That is why his organization is focused on tourism. For 10 dollars, tourists are pedalled from sight to sight for a few hours. The drivers get the bulk of the cash, plus tips.

He believes tourism could save the cyclo.

"The foreign countries don't have the cyclo, but here they can see the cyclo, which is very strange for them," he says, explaining his marketing motivation.

That strangeness certainly captivated Australian tourist Margie Edmonds. In June she was one of more than 50 tourists snaking their way through the city. She says seeing Phnom Penh by cyclo is "the only way to go."

But given what Im Sambath said about locals feeling unsafe in the cyclo - after all, Phnom Penh's streets can be a little chaotic - was she not scared?

"Not for one second. It was really, really good," she says. "I just thought it was the most amazing way to do it. It was one of the best experiences I have had in Asia. Great fun, very safe and very comfortable vehicles too."

You might assume tourists would tip better, but Oum Sok says that is not the case. In more than 50 years his best tip amounted to only five dollars.

He says some tourists give just 50 cents whereas local fares from the markets regularly tip a couple of dollars.

Oum Sok is getting on, so does he ever think about retiring? He shakes his head.

"I am still strong," he says, before admitting that at times the years are catching up. "My mind is stronger than my body."

When he finally does pack it in, Oum Sok will return to his home province of Svay Rieng in south-eastern Cambodia and work as a farmer or make fishing traps or earthenware pots.

Until then he gets home to Svay Rieng once a month to see his family.

But here in Phnom Penh, his home is his cyclo. At night Oum Sok wheels it onto the pavement with a group of other cyclo drivers, and like them, sleeps in the bucket seat recharging the old legs that tomorrow will pedal more tourists around the city's flat streets.

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