How to Pay Fines

I've been thinking about traffic again. This is largely spurred by my most recent traffic accident in which the moto was fine, the other guy was fine, the other guy's moto was fine, but I had the largest bruises of my life. Traffic can be fun, unless you get caught bending the rules.

After two years in Cambodia. I've only been stopped by the police five times. This means I've only had to pay five fines. It might be amusing for myself at a later date to record these instances. The flat fine for any violation $1.25 as outlined by the Royal Government. However, you must always negotiate down to this price. It's part of the experience. I live here, and I'll take the extra minute to stand there looking sad and pathetic, insisting I only have 5000 riel. Works like a charm. Just to be annoying, I always ask for a receipt, which they are loathed to issue. Ideally, if there's a receipt the fine goes to the Royal Government. I don't know if this is actually so, but inconvenience me and I'll serve it right back.

1. Three months after I arrived in-country, I did a right-on-red. I was naive and overpaid the fine by 75 cents.
2. Four months after I arrived in-country, I ran a yellow light. Running a yellow light is normally problem-free if you're in a pack and the cops can't single anyone out. Running a yellow light solo is a rookie mistake, and I paid two fines, once for the offense and secondly for driving without a licence. 
3. Around the one-year mark, friends and I were victims of a scam. When we turned into a parking lot. This parking lot is on the corner of a one-way street and a two-way street. The cops accused us of attempting to drive up the one-way street, even though we were stopped stead waiting in line to park our motos. Some angry words were exchanged, very, very angry words. Since then, I take a moto-taxi to that market to avoid this scam and because parking is awful.
4. Around 16 months in-country, I drive the wrong way up a one-way street. In my defense, the street wasn't marked. I paid the fine in 100 and 500 riel notes (2 cent and 12 cent notes).
5. After 18 months in-country, I was caught driving during the day with my headlight on. It's a stupid mistake and an even stupider rule, but there is the comforting knowledge that everyone has done it once. There is some debate why this is even a law. Personally, I'm completely convinced it's national conspiracy between cops.

There is also the "1 Jan 2012 Sihanouk U-turn." I had just pulled an illegal u-turn on a major road where the cops camp out, waiting for people to pull this very move at this very spot. On this day, there were cops and they saw me and I saw them. So I pulled another illegal u-turn to negate the first illegal u-turn. I felt very clever. I will admit this was ethically questionable. It did add a good five minutes to my drive home. I tell myself this is karma serving me justice. It taught me a valuable lesson about driving in Cambodia: if you're going to break laws, make sure cops don't see you.