The JaYmes Escape

I gaze across the muddy waiting area in front of another temple looking for Chen, my driver in Siem Reap, and his tuk-tuk. Every time we stop at one of the Angkor temples Chen patiently waits with the tuk-tuk whilst I explore the masses of towers, shrines and ornate masonary and try to avoid the coachloads of Korean and Chinese tourists. Seeing me, he waves and I run over and jump on, umbrella in hand.

“Now we go back to guest how, before big rain”, he looks at me, and I realise he is asking this as a question, “plee-uhng thom?”, I ask with a smile, this means big rain, so he laughs and says, “yes, plee-uhng thom”. Who am I to argue? It is nearing the end of another day at the temples. The rain is late and the clouds in the sky are getting bigger and blacker by the minute.

“Tomorrow, what time?”, says Chen earnestly when we arrive back at the guest house. This is a phrase I’ll always remember him for, as he says it just as earnestly at the end of every day. Tuk-tuk drivers are fiercely competitive, and I suspect he fears my defection if he is not there ready to service my every transport need.