Some curious incidents in Cambodia

Leaving the photos for a sec, let me relate a couple of stories from Cambodia (where I am at the moment). The first was in Phnom Penh. Myself, Mauri and Heather were on the back of motorbike taxis. The dude driving mine was lagging a little behind. When coming up to an inter-section of a busy road, a cop jumped onto the road and tried to stop the first two bikes. The lads just kept driving! Unfortunately, my guy wasn’t as sharp and the policeman managed to get him to stop. The driver tried to get away again but the cop was having none of it. He got hold of the keys of the bike and threw them to a mate of his. As you can imagine, I hadn’t a notion what the hell was going on. The other two drivers came back and after a 10 minute conversation/argument between the two cops and the three drivers, 2000 reel (about 50cent US) was handed over and we continued on our merry way!! I kid you not.
The other story happened yesterday while here in Siem Reap, Cambodia. I was entering one of the temples of Angkor. A policeman standing just inside said hello. I returned his salutation to then be asked in hushed whispers whether or not I’d like to purchase his badge! Before I’d a chance to say anything, he said that his salary wasn’t very high and that I could have the badge for a mere $10!!