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Mr Vey, our Tuc Tuc driver, not going far |
The moment I said it, I wished I had not.
She was the most timid of hotel staff, meekly submitting the bill as we prepared to leave Cambodia. Her English was poor, her features flat. But she had asked me where we were going to next, and I wanted to encourage her English by keeping the conversation going.
"We - go - to - Laos", I smiled, anticipating our 50 minute flight to the neighbouring country. "You have been there?"
The sadness of her smile was all the answer she needed to give. Cambodian hotel staff don't go abroad. I'm not sure many of them leave their city. Just as the tuc tuc driver who'd served us loyally for three days never stepped into our hotel lobby when he picked us up. I doubt he'd ever dared cross such an air-conditioned threshold in his life.
In South East Asia, as in Africa it seems, there are those who go, and those who stay; those who serve, and those who are served.
John
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