Driving with Joe

It's been a while since my dogs have been out for a drive with us. Max especially loves being in a car and sticking his nose out of the car window to feel the wind. Joe, however, was the opposite. He wasn't "car-trained" unlike Max and it was a challenge to keep him at the back seat. 

Joe before the incident.

But just two weeks ago, the last time we all went out for a leisurely drive, we were surprised that Joe was sat still in his side of the backseat and was looking contentedly out the window. He has learned to behave! But out-of-the-blue, we heard a loud thud behind us and after the sound came a pair of motorcycles with laughing boys and zooming past us. Joe became nervous and started barking. A few minutes later, a uniformed traffic policeman came out of nowhere and motioned us to pull over. My husband and I were alarmed... when a foreigner in Cambodia is stopped by a local policeman it doesn't exactly give you a positive feeling. We were thinking whether what traffic rule did we violate? Is driving with dogs against the Cambodian traffic law? Did we hit someone or something unknowingly? We were already poised to call our car insurance agent to help us deal with the situation. In Cambodia, insurance agents are the go-to guys, they are very helpful especially when you encounter problems. They're the ones who talk to the people concerned, and not the car owner him/herself. So anyway, when we pulled over, our fears were unfounded. The policeman asked us whether we wanted to lodge a complaint against the youngsters who crashed our back bumper. We told him no and thanked him for his concern and, in turn, he responded curtly and motioned us to go on our merry way. Not long after we started driving again, Joe finally calmed down and went back to sightseeing.

It was reported that the number of car-owners that secure car insurance is increasing. Whilst it could be attributed to the affordable and free insurance quotes offered by the companies, it is also evident that there is a change in behaviour as more and more Cambodians have seen the benefits they could get from having their cars insured.