After nearly three months our packages have arrived from the USA, only two months and two weeks later than the freight forwarding shipper guaranteed.
On two prior occasions I've used a Cambodian freight forwarding company in Long Beach, California, to send items from the USA to my family and I here in Cambodia, and the two prior shipments went as planned, roughly 2 to 4 weeks door-to-door. This shipment was due to arrive around Christmas time last year, so needless to say it's a little late.
I have stayed in touch with the company, but one excuse after another provided reasons that our packages weren't in the skies and bound for Cambodia. First it was Chinese New Year, then the excuses got lazier and lazier until I more or less gave up contacting the freight forwarder.
I was actually surprised to receive a phone call notifying me the packages arrived in Phnom Penh. I ordered the stuff online in November of last year, and by now I'd actually forgotten what I ordered. It's quite disappointing to pay for air freight and know that container ships completed this California-Cambodia roundtrip journey twice within this timespan.
To add a little insult to injury, when I went to pick up the packages in the nearest town after having them shipped from Phnom Penh, the local shipper misplaced one of the boxes, so I came home with only 2 of the 3 packages that were sent from Phnom Penh, and I hate to admit this is quite typical in Cambodia, customer service is almost non-existent.
The upside to this long unintended wait is that it really was almost like a Christmas of sorts because I had no idea what I purchased nearly a half a year ago. There was an electric tuner and case for Srey-Yuu's ukulele, and also a new raincoat and ballcap, all in her favorite color, black.
Monkey-B got a few things too, but I suspect most of her stuff was in the third package misplaced at the shipper's house in the town. Srey-Yuu also got a die to cut her own guitar picks, so I expect her musical career to take off very soon 😄.
Monkey-B got a Lite-Brite, a toy I enjoyed playing with in the 1980s, but a more updated version with LED lighting, and not nearly as heavy as my childhood Lite-Brite which was an occasional weapon to fight off bigger brothers and sisters.
I'm sure the girls will detail all their goods in future posts, so I won't go into great detail about their stuff. I am super happy to have a new water bottle and a hiking water filter. Now I have everything needed to climb the mountain behind our house, so that will be happening soon, perhaps before I travel to the USA in a month or so. That's all for now folks, stay tuned for package #3.........
Oh my! That's been too long before you received it. Aside from receiving too long, the sad part is receiving incomplete.
I think it's common anywhere.
I also remember a long time ago that there's someone who sent me cards but I didn't received it until now. But, I received some other cards that was sent to me.
Cambodia is notoriously bad with shipping, lost items, etc. Items sent through the regular post go missing around 60% of the time, so almost nobody uses the postal system. It's a mess because there are no addresses here and the post office doesn't deliver, so it's up to you to know you've got a package despite not having a tracking number. For this reason I always go with freight forwarders and bus companies to get my packages to me, and even in these cases, as you've seen, things rarely go smoothly.
Oh that's so sad to know sir @justinparke.
Wow, what a surprise! It looks like Srey-Yuu and Monkey-B enjoyed unboxing it, and I saw the excitement in there eyes while waiting too. Despite not getting much from the two packages, I can still see the happiness in Monkey-B. Anyway, I hope she gets more of hers in the next package!
Monkey-B enjoys unboxing more than actually playing with the stuff inside, so even if it's just watching big sis open a package, she gets equally excited.
@srey-yuu and @sakana are lucky to have a good grandmother like your mom. I also getting a lucky to have you in my life, I feel blessed.
Thank you, it's nice to know we have people that care about us beyond our home, but the greatest gift of all would be for my family to fly to Cambodia to meet my wife and kids.
I had a Lite Brite when I was a kid as well. I remember that thing being massive. What a great late Christmas surprise!
Funny how toys get smaller and more plastic-based with time. If you drop this new LiteBrite it will shatter into a million pieces, but I remember using my LiteBrite as a solid weapon occasionally.
haha... yeah the old light bright was just a plastic something or other with a single light bulb in it. You could use that as cover in a firefight if necessary and while you wait for your attacker to need to reload make a punch stick jack-o-lantern to pass the time!
Wow, Congratulations dear friend very nice and amazing gift you are receiving. Enjoy it
It was a very happy day for these two girls. Seeing them so happy makes my day too.
🙏🙏🙏🙏
Yay! 🤗
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