Advertisement
Published: March 13th 2012
Edit Blog Post
Here’s a little story you may enjoy.
When we were in Cambodia, the hotel we stayed in had a shop and in the shop was a fantastic panoramic picture of the temple Angkor Wat (ssh, pardon). I wanted to get it but didn’t want to lug it round the world, so figured I would be able to get it on the Internet.
Well, I have looked, but can’t find it, so recently I decided I would ring the hotel in Cambodia and see if they would let me buy it over the phone and they ship it to the UK. The conversation went a little like this:
(Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Answered) C: Some Cambodian words by way of greeting . . . CONVERSATION 1 START:
J: Hello, do you speak English?
C: Yees.
J: Is that the Tara Angkor hotel ?
C: Yees.
J: I stayed at your hotel recently and I noticed in your shop you have a wonderful panoramic picture of Angkor Wat.
C: Yees, Angkor Wat.
J: Well, I was wondering if it would be possible for me to buy it over the phone and you ship it to my address in the UK.
C:
(Pause) Hello?
J: Er . . . I was wondering if it would be possible for me to buy it over the phone and you ship it to my address in the UK.
C: Please can wait a minneet.
(Pause) C: Hello ?
( New voice ). GOTO:
CONVERSATION 1 START AND REPEAT FOUR MORE TIMES
Eventually, I got through to someone with pretty good English who understood what I wanted and suggested I put it all in an email and send it to them. He gave me his email address as:
fom@taraangkorhotel.com.
So, I wrote, he replied, and I noticed he also copied in someone else –
afom@taraangkorhotel.com, so I wrote back and forth to both of them. They kindly sent me an iPhone photograph of the picture to check it was the right one, which is was, and it came to the issue of payment. They wanted me to send my details by email but I said I would prefer to do it over the phone and would ring them again. Fine, no problem (nice people the Cambodians).
So, I rang again.
(Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Answered) C: Some Cambodian words by way of greeting . . . CONVERSATION 2 START:
J: Hello, do you speak English?
C: Yees.
J: Is that the Tara Angkor hotel ?
C: Yees.
J: Can I speak to Fom please ?
C: Hello?
J: Can I speak to Fom please?
C: Who you want to speak to?
J: Fom – F – O – M – Fom.
C: Som?
J: No – Fom. F for Foxtrot, O for Oscar, M for Mike.
C: Fom?
J: Yes please, can I speak to him.
C: I sorry, there is no-one call Fom here.
J:
(Pause) Yes there is. I’ve just been talking to him. Fom. I’ve been getting emails from him.
C: Hello?
J: OK, OK. What about Afom ?
C: Asom?
J: No, no. Afom. A for Alpha F for Foxtrot, O for Oscar, M for Mike.
C: I sorry, there is no-one call Afom here.
J: Oh this is ridiculous. Of course there is. I’ve been writing to him.
C: Please can wait a minneet.
(Pause) C: Hello ?
( New voice ). GOTO:
CONVERSATION 2 START AND REPEAT FOUR MORE TIMES
The conversation ended with them saying perhaps I should ring back on Monday when their Front Office Manager would be in and perhaps they would be able to help.
F-ront O-ffice M-anager.
And of course, if they couldn’t help, then the Assistant Front Office Manager may be able to help.
Oh - how I laughed!
The story has a happy ending as Fom ( or Marot as she is really called ) has sorted it all out and it is winging its way to the UK as I speak.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.067s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 10; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0363s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb