👮 Worst Cambodian Security Guards Ever 🤦♂️ Damaged Tuk-Tuk, Washing Machine, & Zero Apologies 👎
Even though we've frequented the Phkar Chhouk Tep Hotel for years, we will never be staying there again because of some serious incompetence.
An Unwelcome Departing Gift 😡
This hotel has always been our go-to place for years when visiting Phnom Penh, mostly because the place has security guards, it's conveniently located, and although the rooms are not that clean, they're affordable and not disgusting. I carefully parked tuk-tuk with the rear-end facing in to keep our washing machine and motorbike out of the rain because we couldn't fully close all the rain flaps.
When I walked downstairs to begin preparing the tuk-tuk for our 360km trip back home, I discovered that my tuk-tuk was missing. After wandering around thinking it might've been stolen under the noses of 4 security guards, one guy pointed for me to walk across the street towards a parking garage where I found my tuk-tuk parked in the open, something that could've been a problem had there been a rainstorm during the night.
Rage Beginning To Build 🌋
I was very upset that the security guards moved my tuk-tuk without permission or reason, especially because of the massive amount of parking spaces available. I was going to forget about it until I noticed my mirrors were bent and one of the welds cracked on my driver's side mirror mount. Obviously the guards had moved my 1/2 ton tuk-tuk by using pushing on the weakest possible part. This would now be the second time the driver's side mirror needed to be rewelded, so my morning was quickly getting a bit red.
When I looked inside I noticed the washing machine was tipped over and laying on its glass door, and to avoid rage I tried to convince myself a dog had gotten into the tuk-tuk and done this, and my mirrors were bent because a drunk guy must've clipped them while walking past at night. After 5 minutes I realized I wasn't going to be able to trick myself and that my plans to depart at 5am had been dashed. I now had a serious problem on my hands, and perhaps several hundred dollars worth of damage.
Plans Dashed 😠
I began taking photos and documenting everything for potential legal reasons, and I called over the security guards to ask how many of them had taken part in this bonehead move. None of them took responsibility, refused to contact any of the previous shift's employees, and and also began whispering among themselves and laughing about my situation. This pissed me off beyond belief, so I went back to the hotel to report the incident.
Living In Idiocracy 😞
I should mention I was already running low on sleep after being in a crash the previous night, where a moto food delivery attempted to pass us between on the righthand side in the 8-inch space of road between the sidewalk and our tuk-tuk. He clipped my passenger mirror, got off balance, and hit a raised stormdrain outcropping, motorbike did some dramatic spins, driver went down, etc. I looked at Pov knowing that stopping would involve the driver demanding money from me, but I wanted to make sure he was injury-free.
As soon as I arrived on the scene after pulling over and the guy saw I was a "whitey," he wanted $200 for his $30 smartphone that he smashed in the crash. He had already flagged down another couple on a motorbike who also claimed I hit him. He also walked to the store on the corner and began telling the shop owner about the foreigner that just crashed him. I immediately regretted stopping, the guy was clearly going to use cheap tricks to try and get his way. I let the whole thing play out until I lost my patience and cussed him out.
I let him know even though I am a stupid foreigner, I know the rules of the road like the back of my hand because we stupid foreigners have to take actual driving tests. I reminded him that he came from behind, passed without signaling, passed on the wrong side, and veered back in too early without signaling. I let him know that if we're gonna play this game for hours, and I demanded $30 for the paint damage done to my tuk-tuk, and let him know I'm ready to get the police involved.
The police would almost certainly take his side, but I made it clear I was going to my grave without giving him a cent, even if lawyers need to get involved, etc. Of course I was bluffing, at least about the lawyer/court crap, but that whole mess was a solid hour of arguing and shouting at multiple being extremely racist and just generally sh*tty humans.
Escalate If They Don't De-escelate 📈
Anyhow, back to his hot mess at the hotel that happened only 8 hours later. I just gave you some background to make you understand how exponentially enraged I was at this whole new morning problem. We knew it would take a full day of driving to get home if we left at 5am, and these security guards ruined our plans entirely. The hotel houses hundreds of guests, so I backed up my tuk-tuk the main doors, partially blocking the entrance as if to challenge the security guards, and I began unloading all of my tuk-tuk's contents into the lobby of the hotel, of course while loudly shouting about the details of the incident for all guests to hear.
I was escalating the situation because the management and employees refused to take responsibility nor provide me the appropriate necks to choke. They began to get disturbed and tell me they had a policy about bringing motorbikes into the lobby. I put the kickstand down and let them know I have a policy about people breaking my sh*t without my consent. I then ripped my washing machine out and cartwheeled it over the nearest power socket to see if it was broken or not. After some tense moments I eventually determined the machine was still functional, albeit full of dents. We then spent an hour reloading the tuk-tuk while blocking the main doors of the hotel with our parking location.
The Universe Still Has A Sense Of Humor 🌌
After getting the tuk-tuk reloaded with zero help from the hotel staff or security guards who were mysteriously all missing while I was causing a scene in the lobby, I let them all know my years of patronage were over, and I will never recommend anyone stay there ever again. After an hour on the road my "check oil" light came on and I had to unload all of the tuk-tuk's contents one more time to access the hatch and oil filler. In the process of reloading the tuk-tuk after our unplanned picnic stop, I hurt my back, drenched my third change of clothes, then put on a shirt I was previously using to blow my nose with, then drove 12 hours back to Steung Kach while in major pain.
I did get to enjoy this strange James Bond mobile, apparently with 007 written backwards so the driver can read it while reversing into a giant mirror. At least the universe still has a sense of humor....
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▶️ 3Speak
Don't piss Justin off...
This is some serious shit though and I am glad you told them what you really thought of their behaviour ;^)
I am all too accustomed to the way things work here. There is no insurance, and combined with a lack of willing to take responsibility, compensation almost never happens to poor people. So, left with circumstances like this, all one can do is document the situation and do some public naming and shaming. I have been the victim of a lawsuit when my former school refused to pay me for three months of work. I called all the parents of my students and told them, then they called the school with some very angry things to say. Within a day I was the victim of a libel lawsuit, and I learned a current/former employee is never allowed to say anything bad about a current/past employee. That's not ideal obviously, but I crushed the case by offering to work for a new school that was secretly owned by the Ministry of Labor. The shadow boss of that school got my court case transferred to Ministry of Labor as a labor dispute, then dissolved it, but I had to work for that guy for a whole year to walk away clean.
I am sorry to know about it. That's really the worst thing early in the morning. That's the worst hotel and staff ever! The hotel have worst management and staff.
I am still happy to know that your motorbike, tuk-tuk and washing machine are still functioning and not stolen.
Hope everything goes well on your way back home! 🙏
It could've gone much worse, but I wasn't happy to leave several hours late with a backache, two showers, and no clean clothes. The old expression "You can't have your cake and eat it too" is very appropriate for Cambodia. Almost nothing ever goes to plan here, but that is the price to pay for having other freedoms here that I don't have in my home country. I just do my best to use these happenings as lessons for my daughters.
so sorry that you have such an experience.
that is one unprofessional things that can be done by those security guard. They should know the tuk-tuk belongs to you and should let you know when they are about to move it.
I was more let down than angry because I have been staying at that hotel for 10+ years. Now it's time to find a new place because I'll never be staying there again.
I am very sorry to read your whole story that you had a bad experience at the hotel, the security guard has done something to your tuk-tuk and without your permission and yes you should hold the hotel accountable in this matter. But it turns out that the hotel management is hands off from problems caused by their own employees, so what we can do is boycott the hotel in the future..
The funniest part is that the hotel management said the security guards are a totally different company. Well, the hotel's name is Pkhar Chhouk Tep, and the security company's name is strangely PCT, so I think they are under the same umbrella. It was just a case of nobody wanting to take responsibility and nobody wanting to notify higher management for fear of being reprimanded. It is also the fault of Cambodian business practices, where the VIP big shots distance themselves from the workers at the bottom. This makes it very unlikely that the owner will ever hear or know anything negative of their business, and also they tend to surround themselves with "yes men."
I would have loss my cool too. It is a very stressful situation and you have a right to be angry.
When they began to whisper and laugh about my wife and I, that's when I lost my cool and parked the tuk-tuk in front of the main lobby doors.
I see your bad luck continues... damn! I hope that changes soon enough.
Arrived home to see a random tourist's car got stuck near our house and they borrowed my shovel without permission to use as a crowbar. No money or note was left to buy a new shovel, just a useless piece of bent steel to greet me.
This is very unfortunate. I don't know if I'll be able to keep my cool if this happens to me!
Living here for so long, I have gotten a bit used to things like this, but it never gets easier watching things like this happen. So many tourists have similar experiences, and it gives Cambodia a bad reputation, causing much more visitors to spend time in places like Thailand and Vietnam.
My friend used to live in Cambodia too and they also have a bad experience. Someone robbed their house and took their expensive belongings. They dont want to come back anymore.
It’s true. Cambodia is a beautiful country but the government need to do something for this things to happen. It’ll turn off more tourists to come.
Sorry to hear for the broken mirrors and the dented cotton candy maker. Good thing is, it all turned out well despite with a crooked back and a clean clothing you washed with your snorts. Most important thing, you and the girls are all safe 😁
I also noticed, you're not the first "foreigner" who speak local language with a different "voice" and pitch 🤔 you speak using way more nasal voice when doing Khmer twang. If not looking into the mirror, wouldn't know it's a tall white guy talking. In my mind, it's exactly Pu Mab talking 🤣 but soon as you switch back the deep sexy voice, and here we go, immediately changed from Rithipol back to Justin.
Oh one more thing, in the end did you pay anything to the food bike? How did you get out of trouble in the end?
Can't believe my back is still not 100% yet, but we are glad to be home and with a working machine and Super Cub. Funny you mention my voice, I really don't like hearing myself in Khmer. I had a student that used to record our Khmer language classes, and the first time I heard him play the recorder I was shocked. I must admit Khmer is not a beautiful language to listen to, and I'd much more prefer to speak in perfect Spanish with a sexy man accent. The universe will not allow that, and for whatever reason I've become fluent in an internationally useless language.
I still to this day have never once been able to use my Khmer language skills outside of Cambodia. Also funny, 50% of Khmers are amazed with my accent, tell me I sound exactly like a Cambodian, and perhaps on the phone they wouldn't notice for several minutes. The other 50% of people can barely even understand when I say things like "thank you" and "hello." I think there's a mental block for some folks.
I eventually wore the food driver's patience down, and what started as a $200 demand eventually became a $20 demand. I guess most foreigners are wealthy enough that they want to quickly get out of these situations, and pay the bribe, but I got comfortable and let the guy know it was gonna be a long night for both of us. The matter ended when I reminded him that he is the one who broke traffic rules, and even though he's produced some racist witnesses to back his story, security cameras of nearby businesses would tell a different story.
I then demanded $30 for the damaged paint on my tuk-tuk, and told him I'm not leaving until I get it. Of course I was bluffing, but he didn't like having the tables turned on him, so he gave up and we walked away.