Saturday, 28 August 2010

Why are we waiting??

August is moto-registering month. You get a little window to accomplish this. The alternative is to spend the next 11 months getting pulled over by every cop in town and paying a $1.25 fine per time. The $1.50 rego fee is a much better alternative.

The trick, tho' is to get your hands on the little sticker. You have to look for a table set up on a footpath with a good crowd of people around it. Once located, it is into battle.

Year 1 was something of a nightmare. Once I located the said table, I was part of a mob that had great skill in elbow manouvres. After 30 minutes I figured that Christmas would arrive before cracking this nut. I returned the next day. This time 30 minutes and some good elbowing got me to the front. 'Sorry, we are registering cars this morning - come back this afternoon for your moto'. I did. Unhappily, they did not. Their lunch break lasted all afternoon. I forget now, but it wasa multi-week affair of four or five attempts and some unexpected paperwork before the mission was accomplished.

Year 2 and I tried a new tactic - send out the staff. Sopheap looked slightly worried and took Bonna for backup. They were successful - but it took four hours for two staff. Hmm.

This is year 3. I spied the table. I stopped and approached. There was a worrying lack of multi-elbowed people. The nice lady smiled. I asked for a rego for both the Healing Home moto and my machine. She said '12,000 riel please'. I'm living the dream. 32.4 seconds - unbelieveable! Today, I love this country!!

Ok, so the rego says '4,500 riel' (a bit over a US$1). The extra bit is a happy service charge. Once apprehended, local advice is to cut the rego up and apply in pieces. It makes it less attractive to steal off the bike.

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