The tuk-tuk game
Friday, September 26th, 2008Hassle from Tuk-tuk drivers is near obligatory in SE Asia, more so in Cambodia than Vietnam, and more so in Vietnam than Thailand, (as far as I remember, Laos has the best memories for being hassle free.)
It has taken 4 countries, but I’ve developed the tuk-tuk game for Lauren and I to play to help numb the raging anger that occurs when they begin their ‘Hello Sir!’ patter.
Similar to the people who email back the ‘African prince’s who must escape their country and so need your bank account to deposit $10000000000000000000, a percentage of which you can keep’ and try and get a good, if entirely imaginary, relationship going, so now do we.
The game is to see how many places you can get your would be tuk-tuk driver to try and entice you into his tuk-tuk with, you are not allowed to stop walking at any point, you must keep smiling. Lauren has averaged a good 2 while I’ve managed a whopping 5 from a plucky tuk-tuk driver who wanted to follow us down the road.
It may sound slightly cruel, but the amount of road I’ve been followed down by these pests could pave the way to London and back. At least now I’m smiling at them.
mikeloken