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Phnom
Penh (Ah!)
Travel
Tips
- YO
DOG...
HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!
D. J. Ken - National Radio Text Service
There is a four step process in being accommodated properly by a sales person in Cambodia: 1. They speak good English. 2. Have a good COMPREHENSION of English. 3. Have good PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE. 4. BE HONEST and serve the customers needs.
Wednesday December 31, 2008 FROM RAGS TO RICHES When a foreigner thinks of Cambodia the first thing that comes to mind is the Killing Fields, poverty and child prostitution. The poverty thing goes right out the window when you see so many people driving around in luxury vehicles. That point was brought up in May of 2005 when journalist Elizabeth Becker made a speaking engagement at at Pannasastra University. But that was then and this is now. The other day we were walking down Street 136 and some military types were riding down the middle of the street in a very large speed boat on a trailer in which the five occupants were swigging away on bottles champagne. It was as if they were a team returning from winning the World Cup. When we turned the corner on the Riverfront Drive every block had people begging for money as well as young children selling books. Obviously the donors $650 million per year didn't reach them but what about the champagne drinkers in the boat? More extravagance is to occur tonight New Years Eve as the Cambodiana Hotel is having a New Years party that costs $80 for adults and $40 for children. For that price we have to wonder what the children will be drinking. The International flavored entertainment is included in the price. The Naga Casino/hotel is also throwing an extravagant New Years bash that will also have entertainment. The entire street in front of the casino is blocked from the public's access to the riverfront. To attend the event is said to cost $75 per head for a buffet. The fee is $40 for children under 12. I haven't seen this much space taken up for a Super Bowl press event which accommodates thousands of journalists. This indicates there must be a lot of wealthy people in Phnom Penh as well as too many poor individuals who are beggars. With that kind of money floating around PP it translates that US tax payer money can now be used for rebuilding our country (USA) and stability. AHH... CHEERS... AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! TEACH THEM HOW TO THINK "My biggest job is to teach them how to think." This wasn't said in a condescending manner but a fact of life. The statement was made by Tim Keller then president of DDD (Digital Divide Data) regarding his management staff when he opened DDD's office in Phnom Penh in 2001. At the time I didn't get it (the point) but as I gained experience in the real world of Cambodia his statement took on a profound magnitude. Examples are many but this week I experienced several that brought his statement to mind. I just had two bottles of water delivered to me the cost 8000 riel. I gave the boys 10,000 and asked for 1000 riel in return. They gave me the 1000 and looked stunned. I saw they didn't realize what I was doing. They didn't compute that there was 1000 riel extra to them as a tip i.e. 500 riel each. In the past I usually have the exact change and give them $2 plus two 500 riel notes. The fact that they could see the cost ($2) and the extra and there was no problem, to compute the change and the amount paid was. Another experience was at PTC Computers on Monivong Boulevard. I was looking for a card reader that could read a mini memory card for my telephone. The problem was that much of the stock they had couldn't accommodate the small size of the memory card. The sales girl then showed me a product that she couldn't explain how it worked. Another sales girl who could not speak English then showed her how it product worked. We still weren't sure. She then said give me your card and I'll test it in the back on a computer. Two things came to mind. Several years ago in Bangkok we gave our camera memory to an employee of a computer shop to transfer to a CD. She lost or erased the pictures. Khmers and Thai's have a bad habit of rubbing their fingers on the contact points of memory cards. After the PTC employee took out memory in front of us and tried it in the slot of the phone some of the pictures were gone when turned on the phone. After searching through the device they surfaced. We decided not to purchase the reader and moved on to Sorya Shopping Center. On the 3rd floor we tried numerous shops whose sales people couldn't speak English OR comprehend it properly. Like magic UE (pronounced you-wee) a young girl at the Game World shop who spoke and comprehended English very well showed us exactly what we were looking for. Most importantly she didn't try to sell us something we didn't need. The shop is located in the far left isle as you approach the area. As you walk down the isle it is the second shop on the left. It is an open (no walls) corner shop. We then showed what we bought to a computer tech who previously did some work for us. He noted that what we bought only could accommodate the mini memory card for the phone. We pointed out that's what we need and all we needed thus saving 85% of the cost of product everyone else was trying to sell us. We had no intention to purchase memory cards to accommodate a multi-imput reader... if you know what I'm saying. The caper came when we took a look at the products available at the Kfour shop also on the 3rd floor. As we were waiting for someone to help us a foreigner came up to the counter and in somewhat of an assertive manner requested a sales person who spoke GOOD ENGLISH. We knew exactly her situation as there is a four step process in being accommodated properly by a sales person in Cambodia: 1. They speak good English. 2. Have a good COMPREHENSION of English. 3. Have good PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE. 4. BE HONEST and serve the customers needs. The serving the customer's needs issue came to light when my Japanese neighbor who speaks very good English purchased an Internet service from Camshin They first told her that she needed a telephone line thus having to pay for a telephone, a line and connection as well as the Internet installation fees and service cost. She later found that she didn't need a telephone but could receive the service by ADSL. There was another $200 Installation charge and equipment costs. The point being as a tip is careful who you gave your memory cards and business to so you can prevent theft, damage or aggravation. NATIONAL RADIO PUBLISHED IN 5 LANGUAGES We are published in five languages, English, Thai, French, Russian and Khmer (Cambodian language). Any of our foreign language material and our Roman Wanderaugh columns are legally available ONLY on our National Radio site.
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