The Little Things

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Kung-fu Hillbilly
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The Little Things

Post by Kung-fu Hillbilly »

I've come to accept annoying little things that used to niggle me about South East Asia and am mostly unaffected by them. To follow are a few of those little things that have occurred in my first week back.

1. I've stayed numerous times at the same place in Ubud over the years and had confirmed with my landlord the price and duration of my stay via email two weeks before I left. Upon arrival the agreed price had risen by fifty dollars a month because "Things more expensive now. Petrol go up, rice go up."

2. I'm a creature of habit and have eaten at the same cafe for breakfast exclusively as they know how I like my toast, omelette, coffee,...and I have developed a kind of friendship with the staff over time. Yesterday it rained a great deal and I spent the majority of the day at the cafe reading and chatting to everyone. All said, "See you tomorrow, Kung-fu." This morning I arrive to find the place closed for the day as there is a festival to be attended, no-one bothering to pass on that information and no sign out front.

3. Taxi from the airport tried to ask for five dollars more than agreed price.

4. I've asked, and it has been agreed to, that the villa I rent only be cleaned once a week. Every day two people continue to spend time cleaning it and making everything too pristine for my liking. It has always been this way no matter how often my request.

5. My scooter gets moved sometimes when parked in the main street at night to allow for more cramped parking of others. Two nights ago it had been wedged in behind other closely aligned scooters and a car, forcing me to lift and move locked scooters to create a path out.

Trivial stuff really, but uniquely Asian.
Soi Dog
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Re: The Little Things

Post by Soi Dog »

Kung-fu Hillbilly wrote: 1. I've stayed numerous times at the same place in Ubud over the years and had confirmed with my landlord the price and duration of my stay via email two weeks before I left. Upon arrival the agreed price had risen by fifty dollars a month because "Things more expensive now. Petrol go up, rice go up."
If they really quoted you a certain price just two weeks prior, I would think a reasonable response would be for you to make it very clear that you will never stay with them again, and tell them why. Explain how for the extra $50 they got from you this time, they will lose $500 (or whatever you usually spend there) for every time in the future when you visit that town and don't stay with them.

I accept gradual price inflation as a fact of life, but not after an agreement was reached. That is plain disrespectful.
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phuketrichard
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Re: The Little Things

Post by phuketrichard »

agree;
show them the email in case he "deleted" his copy
otherwise show ur upset by walking
not like their aren't 100 places just like his down the road.
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
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Kung-fu Hillbilly
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Re: The Little Things

Post by Kung-fu Hillbilly »

I've already made the decision to move on after this month, but won't let that be known until the last day - he's expecting me to stay for two months.

There aren't actually a hundred places like this. Well, there are, but not for what I'm paying.
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General Mackevili
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Re: The Little Things

Post by General Mackevili »

#1 and #2 are the ones that still make me boil. Agreed, they are little: the scheme of things, but they happen again and again, and are so easily avoided by them.

At least (and I mean very least) they told you BEFORE you had stayed for a month. That crap happens too and is even worst.

The most recent time I dealt with this was at one of the happy pizza joints in Siem Reap a few months back.

The prices for rum shots and cans of coke were clearly on the menu. We ordered several of each (I think coke was a dollar and shots were maybe $1.50).

We get the bill and it's much larger that it should be. First they pay stupid, then finally say, "This new price. We not update menu yet."

:facepalm:

We paid the menu price and left while exchanging colorful words in Khmer.
"Life is too important to take seriously."

"Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh."

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Hotdigr
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Re: The Little Things

Post by Hotdigr »

Kung-fu Hillbilly wrote:

There aren't actually a hundred places like this. Well, there are, but not for what I'm paying.
Why sweat the little things then bro? You make compromises, they make compromises, every one should be happy :beer3:
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Bitte_Kein_Lexus
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Re: The Little Things

Post by Bitte_Kein_Lexus »

General Mackevili wrote: We paid the menu price and left while exchanging colorful words in Khmer.
Good! Never yield to bullshit like that.
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Mr Curious
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Re: The Little Things

Post by Mr Curious »

I don't see how you can stop stuff like that. It's basically sneaking prices up to what they think or hear is being got in other places. If they go too far, they'll go bust. Granted they could do it a bit more like our western pals...due to rising costs in blah blah blah, etc etc etc
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Re: The Little Things

Post by Anchor Moy »

But the little things also work the other way and make life more interesting. Something weird happens almost every day.
Yesterday I went down to the local mom/pop store and bought a kilo of potatoes and after a bit of a chat, walked off home. It wasn't till I got back that I realised that I'd picked up the wrong bag and I had a kilo of pork instead. :oops:
OMG, really embarrassed, I took it back to the shop and ...nobody had even noticed - then everyone thought it was a good joke when I told them. We had a laugh, changed bags, end of story.

In the west, if you didn't get stopped leaving the shop, they would almost certainly refuse to take back the meat due to hygiene rules and make you pay and/or call the cops.

I'm sure that someone is going to tell me that is SO gross, but the meat was not refrigerated anyway, and there are probably less flies at my place. 8)
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Kung-fu Hillbilly
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Re: The Little Things

Post by Kung-fu Hillbilly »

My FWB returned this evening with take away meals from a local restaurant we are trying and was charged twenty percent less for the exact same meals purchased by myself two days ago. Nothing new here.
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