Phnom Penh–Pedro points out the national business university to his tourist passenger as he pedals past on his "cyclo," a modified three-wheeled bicycle with a padded dentist chair-style seat at the front. This is where he dreams of studying one day, he says, but the problem is money.
Since each city tour earns him only a couple of dollars – profits quickly eaten away by the cost of living in Phnom Penh – he isn't getting too far with his cyclo. But a new centre aimed at supporting these farmers-turned-tourist drivers may help change that.
The Cyclo Centre offers a place to shower, tools to fix their bikes and a place to look for medical care.They even offer English classes focusing on pointing out the sights and responding to tourist questions.
It's a way to help the cyclo drivers, who are considered the poorest of the urban poor, says Im Sambat, project officer at the centre.
Once an iconic form of transport in Cambodia, cyclos (pronounced see-cloes) have been edged out by motorized tuk-tuks.
Tuk-tuks provide quicker rides and seat more passengers, meaning more income for their drivers, but they cost more to buy and maintain and they're powered by gasoline, making them too expensive for many of the farmers who plant their crops and head to the city looking to make extra money.
No one seems to know how many men operate cyclos in the city, but the centre has more than 1,400 registered drivers, and a survey they conducted found two out of every five drivers sleep on the street.
Cambodia, a proud monarchy with deeply religious roots, is better known for the crumbling ruins of the Hindu and Buddhist temples around Siem Reap, the most famous being Angkor Wat.
But the country was decimated by a gruesome genocide carried out between 1975 and 1979, in which more than two million Cambodians were killed either by torture, death squads, forced labour or starvation.
Today, Cambodia ranks 131st of 177 countries on the United Nations Human Development Index, just above Burma and Bhutan.
Rampant corruption has crippled the country, which relies heavily on tourist tips to feed its people. The average adult earns $2,727 each year – about $7.50 a day – according to the index.
The average daily income of a cyclo driver, however, was calculated to be about $1.80 (U.S.), earned mostly by pedalling heavy parcels, awkward furniture and the occasional passenger.
That's why the centre is focusing on the tourist market: Rides booked through the centre for visitors range anywhere from $2.50 for one hour to $10 for a full day – on-street negotiations with individual drivers can move the price in either direction. The problem, according to Jane Dearden, the head of "responsible tourism" for Intrepid Travel, an Australian tour company that provides funding for the centre, is that the drivers worry time in the classroom will cut into their profits. They have to be coaxed into English classes.
So drivers like Pedro, who kept up a running commentary about the roadside cafes and his hopes for marriage, are rare.
The majority are more like my driver, who could offer only grunts and pointed fingers as we moved at a sedate pace past the city's highlights, pedalling by the ochre-coloured national museum, the sprawling royal palace with its yellow walls and intricately curved and tiled rooftops and the Foreign Correspondents' Club, favoured drinking hole of the city's expat scene.
Karen Palmer is an Australia-based freelance writer. Her trip was sponsored by Intrepid Travel.
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