Behind the Noodle Curtain

Taking edge off getting visa-on-arrival for Cambodia

Every country has its idiosyncracies when it comes to visas. Cambodia is no different.

 I’d visited in January, virtually unaware of the arrivals area process of entering the country other than it would cost me $20 U.S. The last time I’d visited the country was six years prior. I returned earlier this month and vowed that this time things would go smoothly. And they did. That’s because I learned my lessons from the last trip.

When I arrived in January at Phnom Penh (Pochentong) Airport, I faced a chaotic lineup. In short order I learned that I did not have the required  passport photo and I did not have the visa application paper. Somehow I managed to not spot the visa application form that came with the package of Cambodian materials handed out by Air Asia stewards before landing.

For my sins, I had to step out of the hard-won position in the arrivals lineup of a 100 or more tourists to find a visa application form and, when back in the Visa Application lineup, pay $2 U.S. “penalty” for not having the photo.

This is how to handle the arrival in Cambodia.

First, make sure you have $20 U.S. on you. Correct change is always faster. You will also need $25 later for the passenger airport fee when you depart. Since Cambodia uses both the U.S. dollar and Cambodian riel for everyday purchases, you can easily get U.S. bills from an ATM in the country before you say goodbye.

Before you leave your origin location, find  a photo shop and get the standard passport shot. Get four copies, a standard package in most Thai shops (about 200 baht). You will inevitably need passport type photos for other applications, such as a visit to Laos (1 photo) or Vietnam (2 photos). Or applying for your Thai driving/riding  licence.

On the plane, you will get a visa application form and general immigration arrivals information form for the foreigner. Fill them out then and there.

Once in the arrivals area of Phnom Penh airport, get in the first lineup on your left. It says Visa Application. The lineup involves a bit of gamesmanship, everyone trying to get through this painful process as fast as possible. Hand in your visa application with photo attached, plus passport, of course.

Immediately to the right will be another counter with six or seven  agents sitting down and an equal number standing up. You will hand over the cash ($20 for tourist visa, $25 for business or “Ordinary” or E visa) when they call out your name and you will get your passport back. Try to get close to the counter since it’s hard to hear them and they will inevitably mispronounce your name. But they also hold your passport up in the air with face page showing to help you ID the right one.  The visa sticker covers an entire page. Ugly.

(You can avoid all of this by downloading an “e-visa” from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. You fill it out and send it back to them by email with JPEG passport photo. It’s all described here http://www.mfaic.gov.kh/evisa/. When you arrive with e-visa copy in hand, you go direct to the immigration counters. You cannot get a business visa this way.)

Next, take your passport and receipt plus your immigration arrival information page to the immigration police counters nearby. This is a small airport.  Ignore the glass cages; it’s where Cambodian nationals get their thumb print scanned. Hand over your passport and arrival information page.

After the officer checks everything out and hands you back your newly stamped passport, you are then free to pick  up your baggage and walk to and out of the “Nothing to Declare” customs line, assuming you’re not bringing declarable things such as big money or firearms into the country.

The tourist visa is good for 30 days and can be extended another 30 but only at the immigration office opposite the airport. A business visa is extendable to various periods up to a year, upon paying an escalating fee. You can get any visa shop agent to handle a business visa  for you and it's totally legitimate. You don’t even have to appear before an officer. Cost averages about $250-270 for one-year visa.

Another tip or two: Right outside are mobile phone desks. Very cheap to get temporary SIM number, about $2. I kid you not. And talk time and SMS rates are very cheap.

Gone are the horrendous taxi tout gauntlets of several years ago. Public taxi lineup is so much better. It’s $7 to $9 downtown, depending on whether  tuk-tuk (which are quite pleasant actually, unlike noisy, uncomfortable Thai tuk-tuks) or car taxi.  Also, most hotels will send a driver for you free.

When leaving the country, check in at the your airline, get boarding pass, go to the windows nearby to pay your airport usage fee ($25 for international travellers). You will have to show the receipt to a guard before ascending to the departures level of Phnom Penh Airport.

Thailand doesn’t require a visa for most foreigners. You get a visa exemption, good for 30 days in the country. But it’s no reason to pass up a visit to nearby Cambodia.

 

Phnom Penh fun but Khmer New Year empties capital

I didn’t know a city could be so empty like Phnom Penh is during the Khmer New Year, which was yesterday, the 14th, with more holiday time Friday and Saturday.

 
Teems of Khmer have gone back to countryside from where they came. And there’s probably tens of thousands of them since nearly every shop was closed Wednesday, New Year's Eve, through Friday; the massive Central and Russian markets had some shop activity,  and some major bars were shut, such as Martini's. There were far fewer moto taxi and tuk-tuk drivers shouting “hello sir” -- yes they do that here, as opposed to Bangkok, where they usually say nothing, beginning or end of trip.

I got up around, er, sometime, and walked past four of my usual coffee shops. All closed. Thank Buddha for Walkabout, which never shuts, I think. Only a handful of girls there, too, Wednesday through Friday, compared with Tuesday’s full house.

Yep, it was going to be a dull couple of days, at least till Saturday. 

     

     

 

 

Other notes:

HOTEL JUGGLING: I’m on my third hotel in my nine-day, eight-night trip. It’s not as nice as $35 US a night one I left Wednesday this week, but it’s large, quiet, clean, nicely appointed, has desk and table for laptop, has free wi-fi and breakfast, free street transport if you stay more than one night but is very central as it’s between north-south arterials Street 51 and 63 -- and has great friendly staff. All for $18 a night at Comfort Star 2 Hotel on Street 200. Takes Visa, too. My first hotel, Flamingos, was $30.

STREET CHAOS: To understand Phnom Penh traffic customs (they drive on right as in Canada), you have to expect motorcyclists and some cars to cut across your bow, whether pedestrian or oncoming traffic. It’s probably why cars and bikes go so slow and at a  consistent speed. Sudden forward acceleration will cause great chaos and probably fatalities. Expect someone to cut in front at the slimmest opportunity. What I didn’t expect, or simply forgot to add into my mental safety cocoon, a couple of times was nearly getting clipped by a cutter from behind. I crossed Norodom (wide north-south arterial), looking repeatedly left and right and forward and behind into the intersection at 178. (There are only a handful of intersections with lights -- like it matters! I hope you don’t think motorists pay attention to the few crosswalks and pedestrian signals -- hahahahaha!)

As I judged flow to be predictable enough, I started to cross, when I felt something brush my right forearm. Of course, it was a scooter with three people who cut in front of 178 traffic, headed straight against south-bound traffic flow and tried to slice in behind and between vehicles into  the proper northbound lanes.

Yesterday a friend and I were in a motorcycle tuk-tuk (bike pulling two-wheeled wagon -- comfortable, too). He cut left, as per custom, into oncoming traffic along the side but an oncoming motorbike rider whipped out from behind a vehicle to pass him on the inside right in “our lane”. The rider was not looking forward either, for some reason looking off to where he’d come from. Well, let me say both parties were “surprised”. That was the proverbial close shave. My Canadian friend had a word with our “chauffeur” along the lines of you were in the wrong and endangering our lives!

BAR WARS: I was in Phnom Penh in January, but before that it was six years since my last visit. I swear there are far more bars and expanded night life districts. Comes with a burgeoning (externally supported) economy. The place is booming, Cambodian scale. An evening walk down beautifully redesigned  riverside (Sisowath Quay) showed me just how many dining and drinking establishments have taken root. From Street 178 (near FCC) to 104, bars and restaurants (some very swank) throng the west side of the quay (no buildings or vendors allowed on the river or east side). Bars and eateries fill  some slots down each street. On 104, there are about 20 hostess (read, clip joints) bars in a very short distance of less than 200 metres. Bars line Street 51 around 172 to 154. I’ve read that 136 is another entertainment stretch. There are some stray barang (foreigner) bars: Lone Star on 13, Victoria on 172, The Gym on 178, Sharky on 130 and Martini on 95, the latter two are big pickup bars. And of course, there are loads of Khmer BBQ, karaoke and massage shops around the city.

VERY HAPPY PIZZA: I counted at least four restaurants around the riverside with “Happy xxx xxxx Pizza” in the name. There still are places -- Happy Herb’s Pizza was the original and still operating -- that serve the very special pizza topping, which will put you in a very happy state of mind above and beyond the taste of an ordinary pizza. Yes, the main ingredient would be illegal in Canada.

DRINK CANS: Have you looked at the crud and film that can accumulate on a tinned drink? I rinse and wipe off the tops of tinned drinks before cracking open the pull tab back home. In Cambodia, bar staff meticulously clean the tin tops before serving and do it right in front of the customer. They never do this in Thailand, which is why I rarely order a can of beer, for example. I’ve seen too many old, dusty, grimy cans in Thailand, too.

MALL MAGNET: Phnom Penh has a new shopping centre, simply called City Mall, but locally called Lucky Mall, since the prime tenant and mall operator is Lucky Supermarket; it’s much like Foodland, Villa and TOPS in Thailand. Only far cheaper! A bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label is 680 baht versus 1100 in Bangkok. A tetrapak of Ceres-brand South African juice is 60 baht versus well over 100 baht in BKK. My Mild Seven brand cigs are $10.50 US a carton (315 baht versus 900).

The mall is far from full of tenants but it does offer a lot of small shops as well as some local fast-food outfits such as BB BBQ. There’s also a KFC but no McD. The other big mall, the first one, is Soriya Shopping Centre near the Central Market. Lucky is a more modern, long, wide open-concept place where you can see around to look for particular shops. Soriya, which also has a Lucky Supermarket, is a lot more vertical and therefore not so open to the eye. But I like both of them.

There is also modern Sovanna Mall, which opened three years ago, but I didn’t make it there.

RIEL U.S. MONEY: U.S. dollars and Cambodian riel are the standard currencies. Every cash register spits out both currency totals for whatever you buy. You can blend payments in both currencies, which is not a bad thing. Something that’s $1.25, such as an Angkor draft beer, can be paid as $1 and 1000 riel. Some shop bills will add another 100 to 300 riel to make the exchange more correct (in their favour). There are 4000 riel to the U.S. dollar. You can safely change money for U.S. dollars or riel with the traders on the street at Central Market and Russian Market. Or go to any Bureau de Change, some are on the Sisowath Quay (Riverside). A check of online rates at some major Cambodian banks says to me the street is the way to go. A Canadian friend’s Khmer wife  sticks to the street. Oddly enough, word is they want Canadian dollars for there’s a shortage.

NEW LAND OF SMILES: Thailand may use the tourist phrase but Cambodia takes over the title!  In Cambodia, the smiles never stop. When walking the streets of Phnom Penh, motorcycle taxi and tuk-tuk riders will ask if you want a ride. A polite glance and “No, thank you” will elicit an equally polite smile. Walk up to a hotel desk and the smiles light up all round. A guarantee: if you smile first, you will get an even bigger, friendlier smile. I can’t get enough of them here. I live in Bangkok. I can go for hours without seeing a Thai smile.

PICTURE NOTES: From top, light traffic during Khmer New Year on Sisowath Quay (Riverside), Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The large photo and following six small ones all show Riverside on New Year's Eve. City Mall and motorcycle parking beside the mall on Monireth Blvd., near the Olympic Stadium. No Riverside description would be complete without a "Happy Pizza" picture, this image is of one of my favourite eating places, Happy Phnom Penh Pizza. Out of the photo and to the left, is the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC). This image shows the third hotel I stayed at, on Street 200 and a scene from the same street. Last below, it's not often the Canadian flag flies amid tropical palm trees.

Reflections from Phnom Penh after dark

I’ve written many things over the past several weeks. I just never published them. I didn’t say what I meant. So they were not worthy of my thoughts, never mind worth reading.

It’s been 17 days since I wrote about Bangkok magician Michel Potts. That was an easy topic and just slid from thought to electronic paper with barely a pause.  It was simple reporting. Writing reflectively, on the other hand, takes multiple starts, rewrites and, ultimately, rejections.

What follows is usually deep disappointment and the wonder that I’ll ever write anything reflective again. The failure usually resides in rather muddy thinking. Just what is it do I want to say? Whatever it is, I need to provide a strong premise, supporting experience, anecdotes  and finally a clincher.

For the heavy stuff, well, another time. This time, I sit writing this on Street 174 in the Blue Tongue Hotel in Phnom Penh. There’s a lovely 10 km/h breeze. Good thing since at 11 o’clock it’s 30 C. It was supposed to be 37 this afternoon. Could have been. Right now here on Streets 174 (near 51), a mother and her teenage daughter are tending to things in their shophouse home, wearing their pyjamas. All visible on the street and a common sight. Stationary cyclo men, three-wheeler jockeys and motorcycle taxi guys compete on busy north-south Street 51. Nearby is Walkabout Cafe pickup bar (they’re all pickup bars . . . ), Shanghai, Heart of Darkness night club, (the new) Pontoon disco, various hostess bars, Zeppelin and Black Cat bars, 24-hour mini-marts, all-night food vendors, hookers and customers, men of no immediately discernible function (yep, you’re probably right if you check their pockets) and residents.

Before Phnom Penh, I was in Pattaya for four days (having only booked two that time) and not long before that I and three friends toured Isaan by car, with a wedding in Sakorn Nakhon in the middle. And there was a before-that, too. Five nights in Chiang Mai and previous to that, one night in Pattaya. These trips all took place January to April. Seems like I like to travel or stay out of Bangkok. My friend Khun Miken makes a strong case for the former. I’m seeing if he’s right.

I can think of a number of things I dislike about Bangkok: multi-lane, expressway-filled inner city with its insane heavy truck, taxi, bus, motorcycle and car traffic; millions of people; crowded, broken, smell-filled, vendor-choked streets I live on and visit; non-stop construction and repair noise; soot-filled, polluted air; and rising prices for everything; and last, a lack of sanuk (happiness of life) among locals and expats.

Things I love: my wonderful friends from all over the world; the clean, cool, quiet BTS Skytrain and MRT subway public transit system; great variety of restaurant and store foods; the you-can-buy-anything brand-name and specialty malls; the magic of the shameless nightlife venues and street bars; and last, the most beautiful (and available) girls in the world who come from all over Thailand.

I sit in my very lovely, modern hotel room in the centre of the nightlife area of Phnom Penh. The hotel is owned by an Australian who also happens to own the Walkabout Cafe bar right next door, a 24-hour freelancer market. I love this bar. It’s basic, but it has decent, cheap food, cheap booze, free pool tables and an (sometimes) impressive array of Khmer and Vietnamese girls who will look after your every need. Did I mention it’s open 24 hours?

The hotel room is $33 US a night, which is 1000 baht. Earlier this evening I met a German expat resident -- he came for six months and stayed three years, so far -- who told me I was paying too much. I thought so too and was going to look for another hotel the next day. I was happy to move to the Blue Tongue because it was so much nicer than the Flamingos on 172 and for the same price, almost. Like Flamingos, I only booked two nights, knowing or at least hoping to get a great tip on a good, cheap hotel. Presto!

  The German  said not five minutes from where we were sitting in a coffee bar on Street 51 (Pasteur) was the Na Na Hotel (no, no, not the Bangkok one and not the same spelling). Brand new. I jumped up and visited. Beautiful place, open one year. Beautiful rooms were $17 US (500 baht). I’ll be moving Monday.

I have come here for one main reason: to see if I could live here in the Cambodian capital. That requires sampling lots of prices and searching for areas I could consider for residency. Plus  comparing and contrasting the benefits and disadvantages.  Tomorrow, I meet up with a six-year resident and his Khmer wife who will give me some guidance on life in this small Southeast Asian nation, with the fairly fresh wounds of the Khmer Rouge genocide.

The early word is: some things are more expensive, some things less expensive. This is going to be a 2011-long project. Other cities under consideration are Chiang Mai, Ubon Ratchathani, Khon Kaen, Korat, all in Thailand. And Vientiane (Viangchan) in Laos.

So now you see why I was keen to do the Isaan Tour with K. Miken (only one-night stands in Chaiyaphum, Khon Kaen, Kalasin, Sakorn Nakhon, Roi Et and Korat). And why I’ve visited Chiang Mai and Phnom Penh. There’s lots more to come.

Somehow I feel in my element on this tour. I actually looked forward to heading to Bangkok airport and waiting expectantly for the takeoff and landing in somewhat familiar surroundings. I was moving. Doing the legwork is fun. And talking with Thais and farang (foreigners)  to sound out their feelings about their city is enjoyable. Made moreso when someone tells you could pay half of what you’re paying for your hotel room and get the almost identical quality.

Sitting in Bangkok gives me a restless feeling. I don’t sleep as well there either. I sleep better on the road. I feel more alive because I’m applying my somewhat rusty journalistic skills. Could be something to K Miken’s theory about the need to keep moving. Maybe it’s because I haven’t found my home. Yet.

 

PHOTO NOTES: From the top, Street 51, Phnom Penh, looking south from between Streets 154 and 172; the Blue Tongue Hotel on 174; owned by the same man who runs the Walkabout Cafe (next photo); next up are Black Cat, (new disco) Pontoon and Shanghai. Last is Na Na Hotel and another St. 51 scene at the  Golden Sorya Market near where the first photo was taken.