As a truck crashed into a utility pole on the way to Siem Reap from our neighboring country, Thailand last evening, and whole of the city has a blackout for all day. It is very hard for people who live in developed countries to believe this kind of incident happens in reality. Just two years ago, the similar incident happed as well, and the electricity of the whole city (it actually expanded four states in Cambodia) was out over four days. Since we couldn’t take a shower, not to speak of a toilet because there was no power to draw the groundwater up, we were forced to move one resort hotel to another in Siem Reap for a while. Well, let me introduce some unexpected events in Cambodia I have ever had here.

When I put my four-wheel drive JEEP with a stick shift out for repair, it came back to me as a two-wheel drive automatic car. Moreover, they were supposed to repair it in a week, but it actually took more than three months for repair.

I purchased a bulldozer with a driver. The driver said to me, “I haven’t got full-payment yet from the previous owner, so please pay that money to me”. Moreover, He took the important parts of the bulldozer out and run away with them, and demand a ransom later.

Since the neighboring farmers did the burn off the dead grass, the mountain fires happened and my farm land was burned over tens of thousands square meters (it actually happened two years in a row). When I reported in to the police, they said, “Take the criminals here, then we will arrest them”.

When I visited my farm unexpectedly, a whole people of the neighboring village came to the farm by a dump truck to steal the potatoes. The manager, who was a living-in worker of our farm at that time, probably planned and let the people, I guess.

The portable safety box, which was located inside the locked drawer, was stolen in a daytime. Of course, one of our employee stole it and she said to me, “Let me borrow your money because I don’t have any money to give the money I’ve taken with the safe back to you”.

The police arrested the other employee and we brought the guy to a court for a criminal trial. While the defendant statement was going on, the cell phone of the judge went off for three times and the judge answered it and said, “Hello, I am kind of busy right now”. Of course, the court workers told all of us were to turn our cell phone off during the trial.

When one of my friends was doing some processes to obtain a visa at Phnom Penh International Airport, the worker gave my friend’s passport away to a guy who didn’t have any relation to the visa process. The guy used my friend’s passport to enter Cambodia without any problem. The immigrant let my friend enter to Cambodia without his passport because they said, “ok, you can enter because it can’t be helped”. My friend somehow was able to contact the guy who took his passport and the passport came back to him. Well, my friend is the age of late thirties and the guy who took his passport is the age of sixties. We have no idea how the immigrant was able to miss this age difference.

When I was going to put my car for repair in order to fix the brake, the only break part they had found was a second-hand. Meanwhile I was telling them that I didn’t want any Cambodia’s second-hands, there was a call from the repair service, which said, “We have found one brand new part”. So, I asked them to change the parts immediately, but they couldn’t because the model of my car was year 2009, but the parts was year 2010. They disassembled and alternated it, and tried to put it onto the break part somehow, but it failed. Even though they didn’t fix my car, they sent a bill to charge me the fee of the parts.

Fortune-telling is very important for Cambodians, especially for the marriage. When I was going to marry my wife, the wife’s parents said to me, “The Chinese year of our daughter is the rooster and the fortune-telling is saying if she didn’t marry this year, she won’t be able to marry next four years”. Of course I wanted to show my respect to the Cambodian culture as much as possible and I didn’t have any disagreement, but the only problem was that her Chinese year was the dog, not the rooster.

Well, I am enjoying my Cambodian life with the events with a little giggle and the serious events, which are not even funny. Be honest with you, only a few times in a year, I ask myself, “Hey, what the hell I am doing here with such troubles?” But…, I don’t think I am able to quit this inspiring life once I have experienced…