🥣JC Vegetarian Restaurant & Tuk-Tuk Service 🛺 Phnom Penh, Cambodia 🌇
On our last full day in Phnom Penh we went to a new (to us) vegetarian restaurant and stopped by Piaggio RMA for a small tuk-tuk repair and service.
JC Vegetarian Restaurant 👩🍳
The girls were both demanding bowl of sup kiev bonlae, so we searched and found JC Vegetarian Restaurant on Google Maps and decided to give it a try. The dish I previously mentioned is basically a Khmer dish similar-ish to Chinese won-ton soup, but that was the previous day, this is actually our second trip for some fried rice and fried dumplings. The place is fairly affordable and the dishes seem to be made hygienically and with care. The menu is full of mock meat dishes in Vietnamese style, but not actually sure if the place is Khmer or Vietnamese.
Piaggio RMA 🚜🛺
Here in Cambodia John Deere and Piaggio are combined into a congolomerate called RMA, and that is where we purchased our tuk-tuk, right alongside John Deere tractors, a familiar site from my hometown back in the USA. The service center is now located in a different location from the sales site, but there were some new fully built tuk-tuks there. The above model is the mid-sized one, the Piaggio Ape City+, very similar to ours, but no diesel engine and a little shorter.
In recent months I had noticed a small oil leak from a gasket under the rocker arms cover. It's not an area under pressure like other parts of the engine, so it barely leaked, but because oil is sprayed in the area it did nee to be fixed. It is frustrating because they have no parts in stock for our model and won't order them from India, so instead of replacing with a new gasket, they trimmed a gasket from another model to fit, not the correct material or gasket, so time will tell if this repair made things worse or not.
I'm a former Vespa tuner and mechanic myself, and because I know the technical skill is very low in Cambodia, I have to watch and guide the mechanics. It's quite normal though, another guy was having his transmission rebuilt, and coaching along the mechanics, correcting when they put parts on upside down or in the wrong order, welcome to Cambodia.
I also got an oil chance while there, replaced the air filter and showed the young quasi-mechanic where it's located and how to install it because he'd never even worked on the diesel models yet. A lot of parts are UV damaged on our tuk-tuk because it sat for a few years on there lot before selling, fully exposed to the weather during this time. The taillight covers cracked after two months of driving, so I requested two new covers, and luckily they had them in stock.
The mechanic put them on, not bothering to wipe or clean any dust from inside the taillight housing, over tightened the screws, cracking a portion of one of the covers. I asked him to replace it with another new one, then he pretended it wasn't broken, then reluctantly removed it and wandered around the shop asking other mechanics for advice because he didn't want to let the boss know he'd broken a new part during installation.
After 15 minutes he gave and went to the parts desk to request a third taillight cover, got chewed out by the manager, them came back to finish the job, a little embarrassed and now working much more nervously. I have decided from now on out I will just buy whatever are tools are required as I need them, and do any future repairs by myself, of course providing the dealer will one day want to provide parts for all of the tuk-tuks they sell.
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I really like travel photos with your family
Thank you, they are a pretty fun gang to travel around with.
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It looks like the soup is very tasty, you can see it from the expression on Monkey-B's face which smiles very sweetly, plus the fried rice she is currently eating, yummy 🤤
Tuk-Tuk seems to be the favorite vehicle there, is that so justin? But isn't Tuk-Tuk in Cambodia also used as a vehicle that carries passengers? That means exactly like a passenger bus but within close range? As far as I know, this Tuk-Tuk type vehicle is very familiar in India 😄
It's a shame that the mechanics there have low mechanical skills, so of course if we want to bring a vehicle to be repaired at a garage, we also have to supervise it so they work properly. And your decision in the future to buy whatever tools are needed and as needed, and do your own repairs to your vehicle, I think it's very appropriate my brother 👍🙏
I would return to that restaurant, I really like the way they prepare mushrooms. Usually here the tuk-tuks are good for traveling short distances, much more affordable than taxis. But now they are becoming common for use as a household automobile for those like my family that can't afford to buy or maintain a car. I hope with time the mechanics will become more competent, but so far there is no training program, so I am not very hopeful. Perhaps next time I will bring a change of clothes and borrow their tools 😉.
When I can afford to buy some tools, that will be a good purchase, no need to worry about untrained mechanics doing more damage than good.
I just like the smile of the little girl there. Seems she's enjoying herself.
Anyways that tuktuk vehicle is like the one hwre in Philippines. Some used it to pick a passenger too.
And it is really better to just buy a tools and do that technical stuffs. At least, you believe more on your skills than any others and nothing will go wrong woth that. 💪✨
That is very cool you now have Indian style tuk-tuks in the Philippines. I wish they were available in the USA because I would love to have one there someday. It seems like only in Mexico they have them, so I'd have to import one, probably too expensive to do that.
I really think the tuk-tuk dealer should have a trained mechanic from India come to manage and train the mechanic staff for a year or more, it would improve customer service and the quality of work.
That's one of the reasons our dads will fix whatever they can do themselves, before going to others.
Haha, too true. I didn't intend to become an amateur mechanic, but the first time I had car troubles in the USA and learned I was going to pay $70 an hour for 14 hours of labor plus parts, I decided it would be cheaper to quit my $8 an hr and job and attempt to repair my car by myself. Even it had taken me a month, it still would've been cheaper than a mechanic. I quit my job, fixed my car, and was able to find another $8 an hour job a few weeks later after my repair attempt was successful, saved myself a lot of money.
Whoa $70,- is a lot of money.
Now that I'm reading this, I'm remembering why some men went and bought hair clippers, because of the cost of going to the barbers.
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Vegetarian or vegan food makes me feel healthier when I eat it because I have high cholesterol.
Yes, I agree, as long as the veggie food is healthy. There is definitely plenty of vegan junk food available too, so I try to avoid places that use a lot of oil, MSG, and sugar.
That's a Vegetarian food look so yummy almost 2:00 p.m. now and today I just have my lunch at this time it was not too late but I think is going to be so great if I can manage my time for lunch
The vegetarian place near your house is very good. I always try to eat some fried rice from there when we visit you. Very cool to see you posting on Hive, I think you would really enjoy gaming on Hive too, Splinterlands is the most popular game and represents 95% of the activity on Hive. Click this link to see all the games on Hive.
Oh it is nice to hear uncle Justin. I will searching more about this game as I have never been experience with this before. Hope to we meet again !
Perhaps you could get a parttime job as a Tuk-Tuk repairman?
Just kidding. I understand that it must be frustrating, even more with your background.
I'm not a car person myself, at all.
Sending some friendly dino hugs and don't forget to check out my latest alt account @finansaurus! ;<)
Haha, if the pay were good enough to compensate for my higher cost of living due to visa costs and other things, I'd love to do it here. I have occasionally worked on the vintage Vespas of expats, and that was a real joy. My wife showed me your new account the other day, will give it a follow.
The tuk-tuk repairs must have been somewhat stressful on you, too. I cannot imagine having to coach a mechanic, most because I do not understand one whit how to do much of anything on a vehicle other than to put air and fluids into it. Luckily for me I've found a garage I trust and, after 10 years using them, there is a lot of trust. I'd be panicking every time I needed a repair otherwise.
Well, finding a garage you can trust even in the USA can be difficult, so cheers to that. I once had a VW Diesel Rabbit Pickup Truck. After purchasing it I noticed some shudder in 2nd gear, so I checked my Haynes manual that said it might be low level of transmission fluid. I was already planning to have our local VW garage check it out and fix any small issues.
I mentioned my little book said it might be low on fluid, the guy kind of laughed at me like I was an idiot, and said he'll take care of it. 2 days later a new motor mount was installed, so I assumed this was the problem. 6 hours after leaving the garage my transmission failed due to having no oil inside, and the mechanic refused to take responsibility. He didn't even check the fluid levels before deciding it was a worn out engine mount.
So, if you're only dealing with fluids and air, apparently you are already more qualified than some trained mechanics in the USA with 40+ years experience 🤣. I still have never found a garage I trust in the USA, but at least in Cambodia the "mechanics" don't pretend to be experienced or know what they're doing, so it's harder to pull one over on customers.
Oh man, I'm so glad I was not standing there with you, I'd be losing my shit laughing at the ineptitude on display. Must be quite frustrating to be paying to provide on-the-job training.
The only way I stay cool is just to remind myself it's not my country, and I repeat this mantra as many times as needed. I think next time I will do what I've often done in the past, just park the tuk-tuk on the side of the garage, bring a bagged lunch, and pay the mechanic for a half day of access to his tools 😄. This is actually really common here, often the customer can use the mechanic's tools better than the mechanic, only in Cambodia.
It's just a general lack of education and also not wanting to get educated. Even in specialty clothing stores, my wife will ask if something is 100% cotton, the seller says yep, then I look at the tag to see it's polyester and nylon. I find it all too common that people can run a business and spend zero time getting acquainted with their products or services. Converting frustration to laughter is something I am still not zen enough to do yet, but perhaps in my 40s this will manifest in my personality 🤦♂️.
I just know that you also into engine since long time ago . At least the experience can be used to monitor them fixing the tuk tuk
I am thankful I have some experience because in my experience 50% of mechanics have no idea what they're doing. It's common to wait for the customer to leave, then the so-called mechanic calls a real mechanic to come and do the repairs, then they split the winnings 😂.
Hopefully your tutorial while there, taught someone a thing or two. Perhaps you could give lessons in exchange for future repairs.
I hate to admit I think it was a useless effort. Customer service and employee training/standards have never been something Cambodia has put efforts into. For this reason it's all too easy for any foreign company to come over with a wee bit of money and create a monopoly over any sector in a couple of years with little efforts.
A Malaysian phone cellular service company, Smart, has taken over the country in a few short years just because they keep their locations clean and train the staff to respect the customer a bit. I switched to this company after I was made to wait 15 minutes at the competitor for the sales rep to finish eating her noodles on her unofficial 2pm extra lunch break, only in Cambodia.
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