Yesterday afternoon, a skinny old man with brown nubs for teeth stole 1,300 riel from me.

Krista very nearly had heat exhaustion and was dehydrated. We spent all the money on our person to get a ride on a bike carriage. We hailed the first driver we saw and an elderly Cambodian man pulled over to pick us up.

I said, "The Royal Highness Hotel, " and I showed him a 1,000 riel note.

He shook his head no and asked for 2,000 riel. I opened my wallet to show him that I didn't have any money in it and he laughed. But, I quickly remembered that I had 300 riel in my front pocket and added that to the pot and he then agreed to take us.

Krista sat on my lap and the skeleton man started pedalling very slowly. Krista was uncomfortable and bordering on dementia, but she recognized that he wasn't traveling the normal route to our hotel.

After about 5 minutes, the man just stopped and started telling us to get out. He had our money and it seemed he was too tired in the afternoon heat to take us any farther.

We got out of his carriage and became a little wiser on hiring transport in a lesser developed nation.

Lessons learned:

1. Never, ever hire a driver by paying in advance.

2. If somebody looks too old and tired to pedalling somewhere, they probably are; consider their bike and carriage a kind of alms bowl. If you hire them, pretend you are making a donation.

Luckily, 1,300 riel is about 30 cents. Krista drank a liter of water in our hotel and recovered quickly.