Tuk Tuk Fix!
on So Now It's Cambodia (Cambodia), 29/Sep/2010 05:41, 34 days ago
Well - about an hour after leaving my room I am back in it with my new phone charger and the phone charging. I'm in a foreign capital city with limited linguistic skills and limited mobility so I am dependent on local knowledge and assistance more than ever.I never cease to be amazed by the helpfulness here - especially the tuk tuk drivers - they can sort most things it seems.The hotel staff got me a tuk tuk who said he knew the sony ericsson shop and took me there. I was assessing the difficulties of getting out of the tuk tuk and into the shop etc. when he said he would do it for me! He took the old pack and my phone (I had to trust him - after all - I had his tuk tuk!). He reappeared saying yes, they had one but it was expensive. I asked how expensive and he said $20 (about£12)-I'd paid £15, plus contract, for the phone a few years ago in Worthing. I thought: I need this phone working so I'll pay it.He had other ideas. He said he had a sony ericsson and showed me his phone. He knew somewhere he could get it cheaper! So off we went and stopped at a road side stall near the Russian market. He took my things to the smiling lady then returned saying he'd got it for $10! He said she'd wanted $15 (about£10) but he'd wanted to get a discount for me so it became $10 (about £6)!They double checked the one in the pack worked (which it did) and informed me that my pack was broken - because it was old!! (they just don't do "old" here!!!). Done deal - without even getting out of the tuk tuk!So we turned round and weaved our way through the traffic (couldn't help notice again how they don't don't drive in straight lines (though there are some on the road for effect!) and across the busy multi lane road where the traffic just stops to let you across (that's an interesting experience) and back to hotel.I started to ask him how much he wanted but I'd already decided on $5 which he seemed very happy with.So - I now have a personal shopper - a phone charger and total cost $10 plus $5 = $15. So that's about£9!Maybe I've paid over the odds, maybe it won't last long but at least I now have a phone that works which is really essential out here. Now try doing that in London!!!