500 Riel richer

Why is this woman so pleased to see us? Is it a typically happy, smiling face of a Ratanakiri resident during my recent visit in the northeast province? Or have I just cracked my favourite "soksabai-saisabok" joke? No, it's because we have just given her 500 Riel per moto to pass through her makeshift road-block/toll about ten kilometres outside Ban Lung. We were returning from a visit to the O'Sinlair 7-step waterfall and Bey Srok gem-mining town and had encountered no less than ten such small money-making enterprises on our route. Where the 'public' track is either waterlogged or impassable, land-owners allow motos to use an alternative route across their property for the price of 500 Riel per moto (in UK money terms, that's 9 pence). Hence her happy disposition when she saw us arriving, mud-splattered from our day's adventure. And yes, she's wearing teddy bear pyjamas.