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Phnom Penh's lesser known barang a jai

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 12:36 pm
by nightmare.believer
I took my beer cans down to the recycling woman with the cart, gave her the cans, and put my hand out for riel. She looked at me like I was nuts for a few seconds, then counted out 30 cans and gave me R2000. Ok, now we're moving. Come a few days later and I wandered upon the local recycling center. Went back later that day and gave them 60 cans. The ladies didnt count them, one of them just gave me R3000, to which I waved her to give me more money and she gave me another R1000. It was far and away the least amount of money that I've ever been cheated, at the second place. It was such a small amount of money, I'm surprised she bothered to cheat me at all. I don't mean the last R1000, but whatever the real going rate for the cans should be.

Re: Phnom Penh's lesser known barang a jai

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 12:50 pm
by OrangeDragon
50R per can is what the wife gets i believe. (from an a-jai, who gives less to they can make profit.)

Re: Phnom Penh's lesser known barang a jai

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 12:56 pm
by StroppyChops
We have taken to leaving our recyclables out in a separate bag alongside the bin, and the local construction workers make a game of waiting until we're sufficiently far down the street before making a bolt for it - a bit like watching two geckos dance-race around the same moth. Near our previous apartment there was a recycling 'centre' a few doors down and we'd drop the bag straight to them in exchange for big grins and happy hellos every time we walked past.

Last night Mrs Stroppy asked our tutor about the process, how much does the first person get, the centre get, what happens to the cans after that, etc.. but he was a) confused by the question, and then b) confused as to why we'd be interested. He came up with a figure of 500r for 6 cans, or somesuch, but did not know more than that.

Any further information for overly curious barang?

Re: Phnom Penh's lesser known barang a jai

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 1:22 pm
by kiwiincambodia
OrangeDragon wrote:50R per can is what the wife gets i believe. (from an a-jai, who gives less to they can make profit.)
That's the normal price. I just give the cans to the security guards at the apartment.

Re: Phnom Penh's lesser known barang a jai

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 1:48 pm
by flying chicken
Sounds like you got a good deal man. The current market rate here in 500riel per 10 cans.

Re: Phnom Penh's lesser known barang a jai

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 6:46 pm
by nightmare.believer
I'm all about the cans, man! Gonna get me the cans! Yeah!
"Ni jia barang a jai min Dtae?!"
Damn fucking skippy baa. You gonna drink that?

Re: Phnom Penh's lesser known barang a jai

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 7:40 pm
by Anchor Moy
Yep, we get 50 riel a can when cans recycled from the bar are sold - the money is split equally among the staff as a bonus. What do most bar/hotel managers do? As far as I can see there are 3 options: you sell the cans and keep the money as bar income, you sell and give the money to the staff as you see fit, or one/some of the staff organises everything and you don't have anything to do with what happens to the money.

In S'ville we had a recycling centre next door to our house so lobbed our cans over the fence - easy housekeeping and good relations with the neighbours.
Even when staying in hotels (in Cambodia), I separate the cans from the other rubbish - cans are worth money, but I don't know about the rest. What happens to the plastic water bottles for example?

Re: Phnom Penh's lesser known barang a jai

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:58 pm
by kiwiincambodia
It may have been mentioned but I missed it.

What bar do you own Anchor Moy?

Re: Phnom Penh's lesser known barang a jai

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 9:14 pm
by StroppyChops
Anchor Moy wrote:In S'ville we had a recycling centre next door to our house so lobbed our cans over the fence - easy housekeeping and good relations with the neighbours.
Not something you'd ever hear in the west! :D

Re: Phnom Penh's lesser known barang a jai

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 9:19 pm
by kiwiincambodia
We did that back in sleepy Napier.

To be fair the next door neighbor had a cat graveyard behind his house, so a couple of cans went unnoticed.

I also threw my (spam) pamphlets over there as well (first job was delivering pamphlets) and went to get my check at the end of the week. That was until I got busted.