Canadia Tower

Cruising in the Rain

Here in Phnom Penh, we are coming to the tail-end of Monsoon season. When it rains here, it really pours. I love it. Torrents of rain tend to last between :30-minutes and two-hours. There are two types of rain: 'Hard' and 'Real Hard'. No drizzling rain here in this country.

Real Hard + Two-Hours = Flooding. There are dozens of five square-block areas in the city that flood most frequently. My driver, Sok Phea, knows them all and simply avoids these areas when it is really coming down. After an intense deluge, it usually takes only a couple hours for the drainage system to gulp-down the onslaught of water and the flooding is gone. In the mean time, folks go on about their business as if the roads were bone dry.

In this video, a Tuk-Tuk was used to get around. A Tuk-Tuk is a four seat, two-wheel carriage pulled by a 125cc motorcycle and used extensively here. The Tuk-Tuk is the taxi of this city.

Buying and Selling Cars in Cambodia: Part Three

After successfully selling the Mercedes Benz, it was time to make a plan to select a replacement car. I learned authorized dealers here in Phnom Penh that support up-market name plates like Lexus, Mercedes Benz and Audi (no BMW here) do not stock parts. Too expensive to inventory. Boy, I understand that - last month, when I had the Mercedes Benz, the sophisticated air/gas/ fluid front suspension needed to be replaced. No way around it. Parts not in stock anywhere in Asia. Parts had to come from Germany. $4,600.00. Add another $800.00 for shipping by air (by cargo ship, $150.00 - but would take two-months +). Earlier in the year, I had another problem that generated a similar size bill. I clearly didn't want to have anything to do with these kinds of expenses again.

It was time for me to be more modest and trade-away some back-seat* comfort for something with more reasonable parts and maintenance requirements.

Hands down, the Toyota Camry is the universal car of choice in Cambodia. Parts galore and plenty of excellent independent garages. I decided the Camry was to be my replacement car.

Next, being all vehicles imported to Cambodia one way or another have serious flaws and corrupted odometer readings, I determined only vehicles from the United States were to be considered.

There is a company in the U.S. some may know called CarFax . CarFax, for a reasonable fee, provides true odometer readings for dealer service history, police involved crash/flood/insurance claim history, as well as quality of title and chain of title while in the United States. Very important.

It is common cars come to Cambodia with 175,000-miles, been flooded/repaired and then in a big wreck, sold as 'savage-only' value only to be reborn two-months later in Cambodia looking like a gem with 65,000-miles on the odometer. I must hand it to the Cambodians, they are supreme masters when it comes to putting lipstick on a pig.

To be continued.

*I do not drive in this city. I have a driver. Phnom Penh, Cambodia has the calmest calamity of wacky, anything-go's, road traffic on the planet. Bar none. If I were to sit up front it would greatly hinder my drivers field of view. Particularly being I am constantly reading newspapers that would further hinder my drivers view in a city where red lights, stop signs and double yellow lines are meaningless.

Buying and Selling Cars in Cambodia: Part Two

It took two days to sell the Mercedes as a private-party. I attribute the speed of sale to placing quarter-page display ads in the two English language newspapers in this city. Within the ad, I provided a blog folks could go drool over glam shots of the car. Having one of my best friends, Chean Long, the finest commercial photographer

in the Kingdom of Cambodia, didn't hurt. cheanlong.blogspot.com.

In the ad for the Mercedes, I gave two contact phone numbers, one for folks that wanted to speak English (you get me on the phone) and another number if you want to speak Khmer (you get my driver Sok Phea on the phone).

Over three days, we had well over 309-hits on the car blog, 45-phone enquiries, 10-follow up phone enquiries and 11-personal showings of the car. Most inquiries were from Khmer. 100% of personal showings were Khmer or Khmer/Chinese or other. The car sold to 'other', an accomplished local Singaporean businessman that I have come to respect.

While Sok Phea made himself busy with appointment after appointment, I made myself busy being a more informed replacement car buyer.

Cambodia does not make cars in the traditional sense. Every car in Cambodia is imported. For new and used cars entering the country that, 'look to be' in good condition and enter with a 'clear' title are taxed at 100% of value. Brutal.

But, if you import a damaged vehicle, the tax is lower. If 'Title' of the vehicle specifies the car is 'totaled' or of, 'salvage value', the tax is much lower still. That's where economics, practicality and labor converge making badly crashed, flooded or burned cars the perfect car to import to Cambodia.

When bad things happen to good cars in the Western world, there is a point where it is impractical to repair. One-hundred man-hours to repair at $35.00/hour often does not make economic sense to insurance companies.

Cambodia is a different animal. Take that same totaled car from the United States and place it in the hands of seven skilled guy's in Cambodia at $35.00/month and the math starts to really make sense.

In one month, Cambodians can take a five year-old disaster car and make it look nearly impeccable while big problems may surface just around the corner.

...to be continued.

Adventures Buying & Selling Cars in Cambodia.

Nearly two-years ago, when I decided to do some part-time investment work in Cambodia, I needed three things: A beautiful, safe place to live in a good location. A full-time driver. And a good car. Well, I got two out of three right. I love my penthouse apartment. My driver, Sok Phea is great. He has been with me from the start and we enjoy working together.

When it came to buying a used car here I chose a nice Mercedes sedan with great lines and back seat comfort and space. Bad decision on my part. I didn't do my homework and I should have known better. I believed the odometer reading of 75,000. When I started to have expensive problems, a car of this mileage should not have, I went to the rather sad and empty sole Mercedes Authorized Dealer in the Country. They pulled-up the World history of my car. As it turns out, this vehicle was last serviced in France with an odometer reading of 265,000 just before being exported to Cambodia.

As it turns out, only problem cars, mostly from California, arrive to the shores of Cambodia. They usually have one of three elements: Ultra-high mileage, high-impact collision or flood damage. Of the three elements my bad choice was unknown ultra-high mileage.

The blessing of this Mercedes is that for nearly two-years, it took myself and friends on long, multi-day adventures to the far reaches of this small, primitive country successfully.

Once I found the true history of this car, I knew it was time to sell.

And that is exactly what I did.

Car Wash American Style

This is for Cambodian friends that have never seen an automated car wash before.

Random Moments In Phnom Penh

A Visit to Wat Toul Tom Pong

Cambodia is predominantly Buddhist. Throughout Cambodia -- in every city and small village -- exists a "Wat". A Wat is religious hub and serves many purposes within Cambodian culture. In Western parlance, a Wat is roughly a Buddhist church. Well... somewhat. The only similarity between a church and a Wat is that it houses religion. Beyond that, a Wat lives, breaths and behaves like no church.

To begin with, a Wat is not only a place for worship, but sparse but clean communal accommodations for Monks and others.

A Cambodian in sudden dire straights, at any hour, can always find counsel, food and lodging for a day or two at a Wat, seldom longer, unless one provides valued services Monks need in exchange for bed and food, without pay.

What I really like about religion here is you don't need to go to Wat on Sunday. Instead, Monks make house calls... everyday. You make a donation of food or funds, receive a prayer. 45: seconds later you are blessed and good to go for the day.

Monks returning to the Wat from a morning of gathering resources and delivering prayers.

Some Wats are hundreds of years-old and no longer viable and need to be replaced. Quality old growth timbers of old Wats are carved into life size human interpretations to be sold or introduced to a new Wat.

When I die, I want to be cremated. As a developer, being buried seems like a bad use of real estate space to me. These are chambers where bodies are burned. Sad, but a fact of life.

How are these for stairs?