🍜 New Restaurants & Tuk-Tuk Repairs 🛺 Misadventures In Phnom Penh 🤷♂️
While getting a few small repairs done to the tuk-tuk, we decided to see if there were any restaurants nearby with some tempting vegan options.
First, Some Sub-Par Mechanic Work 👨🔧
After exiting one of the government ministries, I went to start the tuk-tuk and snapped the starter cable. I was able to get it started by having my wife trigger the mechanism on the engine while I activated the starter motor, but because I already had another cable in a poor state, I decided we should pop over to the Piaggio dealer for some spare parts.
Every time these guys do work they always screw something up, so I prefer to order parts by mail and work on my tuk-tuk at home. However, when we are at the dealer they always insist to install the items because labor is free there. Well, every time I do this I regret it, and this day was no different. The guy immediately yanked my old cable out without taping the new one to to the end of it so that the new cable can follow the path of the old one.
When I saw this I bit my lip and walked away because I know it's almost impossible to weave a cable through all that sheet metal in the same path as the original because the spaces are too tight. After viewing a brand new tuk-tuk left to take rainwater directly into the uncovered engine, I walked back to my tuk-tuk and found one of the mechanics arguing with my repair guy because he was having trouble routing the new cable because he didn't know the tape trick that any amateur home mechanic knows.
At this point, I just decided I will let them finish up and I'll try to reinstall the cables correctly when I get back home. Well, I couldn't even have imagined they would leave the tuk-tuk jack and tools laying in the corner of the shop after forgetting to place them back in their compartments. Well, I now have a cable that's so short it lifts my floormat off the ground and half my tools are missing, that is the standard of workmanship in this country, few people take any pride in their work.
Bamboo Vegetarian Restaurant 🍜
What should've been a 15-minute quick job replacing a few cables dragged on for more than an hour, and eventually the mechanics took a lunch break without telling us, extending the job by a few more hours, so we decided to leave and go to nearest vegetarian restaurant on the map. From the outside it looked like there hadn't been a customer here in years, and on the inside it felt equally abandoned. Luckily the food was fresh and tasty though, and the portions enormous.
The ladies had all been craving hot-pot, and I was happy to see this place had various noodle soup dishes, not technically a hot-pot style restaurant, but very similar in taste and flavor. I played it safe with fried rice because I had been stricken with panic attacks the previous night, and spend a good portion of my time in the bathroom hugging the toilet. I didn't expect the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ask for $1,200 USD to get married, and in all the weeks the guy coached us through the process, he failed to mention we'll need to randomly produce nearly a year's worth of life savings.
Well, luckily in the end I asked him to be 100% certain he could get me the K-Visa if we pay the bribe for a Cambodian marriage certificate, and low and behold he backtracked on everything he said before. He told us the K-Visa wasn't possible because I am not ethnically Cambodian, and of course we reminded him that we already knew that and had told him before that was our problem, but that he said he was more informed on the laws than me. I just feel lucky to have only paid him $80, the US Embassy $150, and then probably another $200 for diesel, food, and hotels.
At least we didn't pony up the $1,200 USD for the useless marriage certificate. It grants me no additional rights in Cambodia, and only serves to help us immigrate to a foreign country as a married couple, something we don't need because we already have a Suriname marriage certificate. Well, in the end the Ministry of Foreign Affairs half-apologized for not having his facts straight before inviting us to Phnom Penh, but of course didn't offer to refund the money he collected from us. He then deleted his Telegram chat history with us and stopped communication.
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Im very passionate about my work as an IT but since four years ago I basically abandon it because of that, constantly finding crapy work done at clients that are exhausted of others ppl work ethics and prices, when I jump in usually re doing everything and telling them how bad things were, that part of the culture, business owners want everything cheap, I do things one time and well done, its not cheap but they have no problems or reason to call me, its a nightmare, thx for sharing ✌️
It serves to remind me how thankful I am that I was raised to take pride in whatever work I do and do it to the best of my ability, even if it just mowing grass. This has served me well in life, but it's just not as common here in Cambodia. I understand your frustrations.
The noodles look delicious. Is it cheap? They have a big bowl loaded with noodles and stuff.
By Cambodian standards, a bit expensive, but also the place was much cheaper than a typical foreign restaurant. I think the noodle dishes were mostly $3 to $4, not bad considering the portions and ingredients.
Not that expensive and worth it. ☺️
you sure stay a lot more positive than I would with all this stuff going on. Let's just hope that there are brighter pastures somewhere in the horizon buddy!
Looks like a dead end, but ultimately I discovered the Immigration Department to not be as daunting as typical ministry visits. I think in the future I can sort my visa out in person there and save hundreds of dollars a year.
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Sounds like you got the run-around 😢
Always take screenshots of important communications if they can be altered...
This post has been manually curated by the VYB curation project
We thought about saving the Telegram history, but ultimately there is nothing one can do here because the government is untouchable and they have nobody to be accountable to. I once challenged a school for two months of backpay and found myself with a defamation lawsuit on behalf of the local immigration department. The VIPs are untouchable, best to let sleeping dogs lie.
That's sad... At least he admitted it before you paid. How much longer do you have in Cambodia?
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A bummer, but we did dodge a bullet in some sense. I've got a little over 2 months at the moment, looking for tickets to 'Merica now.
How long do you have to be gone for? It's sad that the whole family can't go. It would be like a vacation...
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According to Immigration, I could technically cross over to Thailand for an afternoon and return, but in the real working sense it's up to the discretion of whatever official checks my passport/exit stamp and decides whether or not to allow me such a quick return. I was already going to go to the USA, but I didn't want to leave with my visa in limbo. Hopefully for the next trip my family will be joining me.
I pray things go as you hope...
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Damn, at least you weren't taken for a shittonne of money, but that doesn't leave you any better off than where you were. Pretty galling that the dude was trying to fleece you. But at least the tuk tuk is kinda partially fixed!
It wasn't a total waste after all, good to know the Immigration Department might be something I can take on myself in the future and save hundreds of dollars per year.
Ah. I was just asking on the previous post how the Chinese get a Khmer waifu and stay long enough. Apparently, it's all about tea money even with a marriage certificate.
Those noodle looks very tasty, and according to your description, they are above expectation!
I'm not 100% sure how the Chinese guys in my old rental room block obtained their visas/residencies because it was never made clear if it was citizenship or a special visa. I now know there is a 3-year visa for Korean, Japanese, and Chinese citizens, so perhaps this is what the guys had, or maybe they really did get the K-Visa for several thousand dollars. Either way the road quickly closed for us, guess I'll keep pursuing other solutions.
Noodles dishes were good, I love rolling the dice on a random restaurant in the middle of nowhere, sometimes gems are found.
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