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| My adventures in Cambodia, part II |
  | If you haven't already, read the first part on how I moved to Cambodia and opened 3 business in three years.
Only 6 months have passed since I wrote this first blog and things are already outdated, Cambodia is moving fast!
The house where is located the Setsara restaurant, which belong to Jub, my girlfriend was sold about 2 month ago. We were only renting a part of the ground floor, the other part being used by the previous owner. When he moved out, we were eying on this free space with the idea of renting it to extend the restaurant which has seen a strong growth in the last year and is starting to feel a bit small.
The new owner is a powerful and rich family so getting in touch with them was a bit tricky and they nearly rented the space to someone else, with the intention of getting rid of the restaurant at the end of the lease, which was 18 month from now. Fortunately, I have a good contact with the owner of the new massage place renting the first floor and she agreed to speak to the owner for me.
It worked and they let us know that they were interested by our offer to extend our existing lease by 3 years and to make a new lease for the whole space.
Still, the street has been developing so fast since we opened that I couldn't agree for less than a 100% raise on the rent at the end of our previous lease.
The street being known as the fastest developing street in Phnom Penh and our location is perfect, so we agreed on theses terms and our little 20 coverts restaurant is probably going to jump to 50 within a couple of months!
As for the bar, it's been extended in December and there is now a new space downstairs with a semi circular bar opening directly on the street and the small painting / clothing shop from Soumey is now located between the new bar and the pool table room.
Things were doing very good and we had quite a few big parties with DJs, bbq, special drinks and all since the beginning of the year.
Unfortunately, for the last party the DJ was really too loud and a western lady staying at the hotel across the street came yelling, shouting and telling us to shut down the music.
This party had been a bit long to warm up, it was maybe 1:30am and the DJ was playing for about 1h, just getting the first people to dance, so he didn't really want to turn it down. The manager was also a bit stressed by the low motion of the night and other things happening, so he didn't exactly react with the utmost courtesy when the lady smashed a glass behind the bar and tried to punch him while yelling at him to switch the music off.
Things worsened up when a few more Cambodian ladies showed up in their pyjamas yelling as well to the manager. They finally called the police and they started to argue loudly in the street, in front of the amused customers who weren't really realizing what was going on.
A policeman eventually showed up, stopped the music and tried to calm the ongoing argument but everybody was so angry that the poor guy could only keep them from coming to hands.
During all this argument, I was watching the scene from the balcony, wondering if I should interfere with the management which was obviously getting out of line, or if I should let the manager manage. It finally came to my mind that the business was at stake and that only me could do something at this point so I went downstairs, grabbed my friend and dragged him inside the bar, then told him bluntly to shut up and stay there, which he did as I wouldn't let him go back.
People finally left and the party kept going quietly.
Followed a long discussion with my friend about how his reaction was stupid and how problems should never be dealt with anger, especially in Asia where we are just foreigners and have to learn to shut up and bend in the wind, especially when bothering the whole neighborhood in the middle of the night!
We were about to forget about the incident, one week had passed when a 9am I was woken up by a friend knocking on my door.
Marco! There are cops with AK47 in your bar, I think you should come!
WTF? I jump in my pants, take a quick look in the street, there are indeed a bunch of cops in uniform, with a civilian lady and a few other guys, a truck, a couple of workers...from this moment I know the bar is already closed, there is no negociation possible, I dress up and prepare to face theses unfriendly guys, prepare the papers, license, passport, get there, sit down and listen to them telling me what I already know, we are temporary closed, and the reopening will have to be discussed with the local police. They cut the sign down, took away the stall chairs and a couple of tables, put everything on the truck, signed the 7 copies of the closing procedure and left.
On Monday, I went to discuss with the police and they just told me they didn't care about who is the owner or the manager, that it was my problem and that I had to deal with my employees to keep my place without problem. They also told me that if they were to let me open too soon, people would accuse them of corruption so I had to wait until people forget about the incident, which would be after Khmer new year -13 to 16 april-. Sentence had fallen, 20 days off business, tough blow for us, finances are not exactly at the top, a lot of things have happened on the side and this wasn't exactly welcome.
Following this, I kept thinking about the place, what happened, why it happened, I could see myself waiting on the balcony and not moving because I wanted to let my friend do his job. Then I realized he was just exhausted, it has been a bit over 2 years that we opened this place and he has worked on it non stop since. A lot of tough things happened in his personal life also recently so altogether, it's pretty normal and was probably very predictable if you look at it from outside.
Anyway I had to do something, and for many reasons that add up to what I just wrote, I took the painful and hard decision to put him on a long term break. I don't say fire him because I just think he needs a break, he needs to get away from Cambodia and work at a normal job for a while. No big responsibilities, fixed hours, fair salary... that'd be holidays for him!
Unfortunately, he doesn't see it that way and he doesn't seem to accept my decision. Future will tell the end of the story, for now the bar is closed and I'm preparing to take over with my girlfriend for the reopening.
Add to this that I'm already working quasi full time as a free lancer to do websites, and you'll understand I'm going to go through some hard work soon !
This is my life and I love it! How is yours ?
| | Posted: 4/5/2008 at 10:04 | Read 394 times | 11 comments | Leave Comment |
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| Marco | 33 years old
Male
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Hometown: Toulouse
Last Login: 2/15/2009
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"Luxury is being able to turn down a job just because you have no pleasure doing it" |
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