newkidontheblock wrote: ↑Fri Jul 17, 2020 9:52 am

samrong01 wrote:Selling in Psar Chas to foreign tourists is a real pain. They walk around taking pictures and if they buy something (rarely) they will haggle over every small thing. I once had a European tourist who wanted a bag which was $1.50. She haggled for ages to buy for $1 saying that she only had dollars and did not want to take riel in change. In the end I said that if she did not want riel in change then the price was $2. She did not buy the bag.

Even in buying a car in the West, it’s difficult to know the real price. So many options are added into the car to inflate the book price. Then there’s trade in value for the old car, and financing deal.

samrong01 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 16, 2020 6:10 pm Having had some experience of selling products in Psar Chas I can say there is some truth in what you say. Some Khmers are reluctant to buy from foreigners. There can be many factors involved such as shyness about their English, a belief that a foreigner might cheat them, a feeling of intimidation when the foreigner is much larger than them. Even so I found it was mostly older people who were reluctant to buy - young people seemed perfectly confident to buy from me. I think also that this phenomenon is not unique to Cambodia but is fairly common in many parts of the world.

There is also the fact that many foreign businesses are designed to sell to foreigners and located in areas where mostly foreigners go. For example last month I went to Koh Rong and ALL the staff in the hotel/restaurant where I stayed were foreigners - mostly Russian. There were some Khmer guests who did not seem to have a problem with them. Although the Russians looked like pretty tough guys they were very friendly.

Selling in Psar Chas to foreign tourists is a real pain. They walk around taking pictures and if they buy something (rarely) they will haggle over every small thing. I once had a European tourist who wanted a bag which was $1.50. She haggled for ages to buy for $1 saying that she only had dollars and did not want to take riel in change. In the end I said that if she did not want riel in change then the price was $2. She did not buy the bag.

numacsys wrote: ↑Fri Jul 17, 2020 10:09 am I once returned from Europe with fruits, cakes ("Lebkuchen") and an assortment of chocolates as gifts. Offered some to my landlord and his wife and apart from the fruits, I was constantly told "ort che nham" which seems to translate to "don't know how to eat that". Really disconcerting and, I would also say, rude.

Went to Japan with them (and their kids). Food was almost always criticized or commented with ប្រៃ (too salty) or too sweet or lacking something. Always made me feel like anything from outside Cambodia wasn't good enough or that Cambodian food is THE best on this planet.

Anchor Moy wrote: ↑Fri Jul 17, 2020 11:31 am

numacsys wrote: ↑Fri Jul 17, 2020 10:09 am I once returned from Europe with fruits, cakes ("Lebkuchen") and an assortment of chocolates as gifts. Offered some to my landlord and his wife and apart from the fruits, I was constantly told "ort che nham" which seems to translate to "don't know how to eat that". Really disconcerting and, I would also say, rude.

Went to Japan with them (and their kids). Food was almost always criticized or commented with ប្រៃ (too salty) or too sweet or lacking something. Always made me feel like anything from outside Cambodia wasn't good enough or that Cambodian food is THE best on this planet.

This is a country where the rice from a different province than that of your home village will never taste as good.
Don't be offended when people turn up their noses at your offerings. A lot of Cambodians just have very restricted tastes in food.
But I know how you feel. IME of bringing food from overseas as gifts for Cambodians, factory-made chocolate chip biscuits were a hit, whereas good chocolate was not. Cheese was not a hit either but any kind of dried sausage or ham was enjoyed.