When Life Gives You Passes: How I Turned a Challenge into a Memorable Experience

After I had visited most of the places in Cambodia, I decided to end my trip at Koh Rong, which is a place near Sihanoukville.

The day I reached Sihanoukville, I had only $30 left in my pocket. My debit card had stopped working due to some reasons and the return flight to India was scheduled to depart after 5 days. Instead of calling customer care, I decided to take a ferry ticket from Sihanoukville with a return fare of $22. I did not have any idea about what I was doing but, sometimes when I am in such sticky situations while traveling, I prefer to go with the flow until I face the worst-case scenario.

When the ferry began approaching a nearby island, the only question running in my mind was, ‘What should I be doing now?’. The first thing that came into my mind was to ask the locals the whereabouts of an ATM. I went ahead but the response wasn’t favorable. I gathered that there was no ATM’s on the island. Nevertheless, the locals suggested another way. They informed me that in order to withdraw cash, I could swipe my card at any place and I would be charged an additional 20% of the amount that I wanted to withdraw. Knowing that I could not use my card in any way, I went on to hanging around idly just to kill time.

Eventually, I came across a hostel where rooms were available at a price of $4 per night. I secured my luggage there, picked up my camera, and started along the seashore to approach different restaurants and villas in multiple ways. After a long time, I finally came across a restaurant that had a notice-board that said ‘Volunteers needed!! Looking for Western people’. I entered the restaurant and saw a girl sitting at the reception. I waved at her and said ‘Hi’ with a smile. She replied, ‘Hey, how can I help you?’. Then I asked her on a lighter note, ‘Do I look like a Western guy to you?’. She replied, ‘Ya!!’. Then I told her that I was planning on joining as a volunteer for the next 5 days and asked her about the details of the job. She began laughing the next moment and said, ‘We are looking for people to renovate this restaurant’. The job involved varnishing and cleaning. I told her then that I have had worked on similar tasks while pursuing architecture and such kinds of jobs were no big deal for me. She then replied that they didn’t pay for the work but provided with a room and food instead. She then said that I could join the next day.

The next thought in line was what else I could need for the next five days. The day had ended on a positive note and I was secured now. Then I met with a few of my travel buddies with whom I had explored some places in that country. I regaled my entire experience to them and I couldn’t make out whether they were surprised or jealous about my job offer. LOL!! While I was on my way back to the lodge, I tried to capture some pictures. A couple must have been observing me as they then asked me, ‘What exactly are you trying to do?’. I replied, ‘Even I am trying to figure out the same.’ They burst out laughing at my response. We began having a chit-chat and it went on till 11 p.m. in the night. I asked them which place did they belong to and they told me that they were from Australia. They asked me the same question. Later, as the conversation was coming to an end, they said that they had immensely enjoyed my company. I often get to hear such compliments from people whom I meet on my trips and it makes me very happy. The couple then asked me to meet them again at the same place the following evening.

The next morning, I reached the restaurant with my luggage at 8 ‘o'clock sharp. The girl, whom I had met at the reception the previous day, introduced me to others and then showed me the way to my room. After freshening up, I had a delicious breakfast and headed on to start working with my co-worker who was also from Australia. I was lucky as my supervisors were amazing. One of them was from Italy and the other one was from Turkey. During the job, if I ever felt that I was in a difficult position to paint or if I experienced pain due to bad positioning, they understood the situation and said, ‘Vetri, enough man!!’ Most of the time, I had to plead to them to let me work for some more duration but they never allowed that. Of course, they were happy with what I had accomplished, and hence, the total work time never exceeded 3 or 4 hours.

After the day’s job and a refreshing shower, I went to meet up with my Australian co- worker and discussed with him the plan for the evenings and our next trips. In other words, we used to spend the rest of our evenings chilling out with good food!! The best thing about the island was that I never had to buy any passes for any parties or events because I was a working member of the island now. This made me really happy. Then I met with the same Australian couple and had an amazing time together.

I cannot skip mentioning the following part. When it came to food, the island was in noway less. Our chef was a Cambodian girl who had amazing cooking skills and used to prepare mouth-watering Western and Thai dishes. I often asked her to cook certain customized dishes, certain complicated ones too, and she never used to fail me. A few of my favorites from her dishes were green curry with steamed rice, Thai pod, and crispy falafel with hummus and vegetables.

Sometimes I wondered that even if I had money, I wouldn’t have had such an amazing experience and wouldn’t have been so happy. For a couple of days in between, I served food to the customers in the restaurant. Sometime during the day, I also tried to learn to mix drinks by looking at a recipe book. I just had to mix the required amount of rum, whiskey, and vodka in a glass and shuffle in the end just before serving. At times I was tempted to be creative but didn’t want to spoil the customer’s mood. Haha!!

On my last day of the visit, I was left with just $3 but I needed a minimum of $15 to be able to reach the airport to catch the return flight to my home country. First I had to reach Sihanoukville, and from there I had to take a tuk-tuk for which the fare was around $6 to $8. Since I had made plenty of friends there; one of them gave me a bunch of passes for a party and asked me to sell them for a 50/50 share of the profit. This was a tough job for me as I had never before had the experience of talking people into buying stuff. Imagine the terror on my face when I was handed down the passes. The guy who handed them down to me was fluent and had easily sold 6 passes then and there. I, on the other hand, was feeling awkward to even go out with the passes. The situation was uncomfortable but I tried my level best to sell the passes out. I couldn’t sell even a single one till the evening and so, returned the whole bunch.

Later on, a couple of my other friends came along. They enquired about my situation and I narrated it to them. One of my friends then said, ‘Buddy, anyone who works on this island can sell the tickets!!’, and handed me a new bunch of the passes. I was motivated but I still was not able to sell any of the passes. Time went by and at 7 in the evening; I returned the passes saying that I could not sell any of them. Just when I was explaining the issue with still holding the tickets, a guy came to us. He then enquired about where he can get the passes for that night’s party. I started smiling at his question and looked at my friend. My friend tilted her head at the guy beckoning me to go ahead. I said to the guy, ‘You can get them here!!’ and showed him the passes. He purchased the pass and asked, ‘Where can I get a Happy cigarette?’. I answered, ‘Sorry, I don’t know where you can get that but I can get Happy biscuits for you from our restaurant.’ I said so because earlier my supervisor had mentioned that if we were to sell a box of the biscuits, we would receive a 50% share of the price. So, I convinced him to come with me to the restaurant and sold him a pack of happy biscuits; and earned more than what was required for the trip.

When I used to work at the restaurant, I used to feel great and often used to say to myself, ‘What an amazing experience this is!!’

Sometimes, even bad situations can provide us with positive experiences which we go on relishing for our life-time. We never get tired of sharing those experiences and memories with other people. The people who hear about such experiences might get motivated and if they ever get stuck in such situations, they may try approaching the problems with a similar perspective.