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“Oui, ‘Luckee Luckee’, he is zee best in town. He rent for you no problem!”

And it was with this great recommendation from some fellow travellers that my new friends and I headed down to ‘Lucky Lucky Motorcycles’ to hire our new transport – two old clapped out Honda 250cc dirt bikes.

My three travel companions about to embark on this motorcycling adventure with me were a Canadian couple, Ryan and Jill, and our crazy dreadlocked, pot headed Norwegian friend Tommy, who was just winding out his final days of travel, terribly lovesick after having fare-welled his sweetheart back in Laos.

Tommy had been a little reluctant about this motorcycling concept, and this was totally understandable given that only a few weeks ago Tommy and his sweetheart had reversed down a rather large hill on their motorbike. Looking at Tommy’s revolting green oozy wound (which I swear I saw move) and hearing how his girlfriend had spent her entire trip to Laos hobbling around on crutches, I fully understood why motorbikes didn’t have reverse…and why Tommy didn’t seem to have the same enthusiasm for this adventure that Ryan, Jill and I clearly shared.

However, after a day's trial on the back of my moped, as we weaved our way along the busy streets of Phnom Penh’s seemingly lawless chaos, Tommy reluctantly agreed to join us by riding on the back of my dirt bike. On our trial day, I had tried to calm him with tales of my teenage years riding dirt bikes down the river, my love of super cross, and my extreme competency. I didn’t, however, feel the need to worry him about the fact that, until our trial day, I hadn’t sat on a bike in over 10 years. Tommy liked my stories and they seemed to put him at ease, as now he was joining our ride from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville.

Now as we all stood straddled over our bikes in front of ‘Lucky Lucky Motorcycles’, we all looked at one another and laughed. Ryan, Jill and I stood geared up in our jeans, joggers and helmets, each with our small day packs containing enough essentials for our 2 night stay. Then there was Tommy, wearing nothing but his shorts and helmet, a pair of flip-flops and a shirt stowed away in my day pack in case we decided to go out somewhere nice.

So, brakes checked, fuel sufficient and motorbikes revving. One final look at the map and we were off. We pulled out of ‘Lucky’s’, headed to the intersection where we pulled in next to the traffic lights on the island and awaited a gap in the traffic in order to turn left. After a short wait both bikes darted through the traffic and we were on our way to adventure…or so we thought.

As soon as we crossed the intersection we were faced with a Cambodian police officer waving at us to pull over. He and his buddy had been sitting on their bikes in the shade of a tree just waiting for a couple of tourists like us to pass. As he headed over I could see the dollar signs sparkling in his eyes and “You no see sign” was all he could say to stop himself from singing for joy. “You no see sign” he shouted. “Sorry”, said Ryan who dismounted his bike.

I got off mine and joined him along side.

“You no see sign. No left turn”

“Oh sorry, no we didn’t see it. Where is it?”

“There.” The officer looked away from the intersection as his hand pointed back towards the intersection. “There. No left turn. I impound bikes.” “Wow, really? But I don’t even see a sign” stammered Ryan, as he and I looked at each other in amazement, amazed that this officer was blatantly lying and also at our ridiculously bad luck. “Maybe I give warning if pay fine” he said, as again he never looked at us. “Ah, okay,” I said, “I get it, how much is the fine?” “Two bike… ah….twenty dollar” “Whoa, wow” reacted Ryan, who was clearly playing the game, “Ah, my friend and I don’t have so much money, we just school teachers, maybe five dollars for both bikes?” I said. The officer paused for only a second. “Okay.” And with the exchange of five dollars we paid our first ever bribe.

After a few moments we began a discussion with the words “I can’t believe…” starting each sentence; “I can’t believe we just paid our first bribe”, “I can’t believe corruption exists so openly”, “I can’t believe it was the first turn we made!” After all this we quickly continued on with our tour, which evidently remained completely uneventful from there on in. We all had a great time and we all enjoyed the ride, even Tommy, who actually removed his helmet in order to smoke his cigarette along the way. But we all remained a little bewildered by the incident that took place on that first turn, and the memory of corruption remained with us for the remainder of our time in Cambodia.

As I wrote this little story it made me giggle to remember, but the reality of it was, in fact, quite frightening. This policeman abused his power for a measly five dollars. He lied and we paid, luckily only five dollars.

No matter what some might think about the police, I have always seen them as people I could turn to; people I could ask for help; and certainly see them as people you can depend on. But with the exchange of that five dollar note, I saw that in many of these countries, where for the majority, life remains a day to day struggle. Those in a position of power often write their own truth and that you can depend on.