December 13, 2007
Visa for Cambodia: No problem
Today, our third day in Bangkok, I don't wake up at 4 a.m. but sleep like a log until 8:30, I guess I've gotten over my jet lag, and then we need time to deal with the breakfast buffet. It's 10 before we hit the pavement, and it's already steaming. Our intention is to drop by the train station which is within walking distance and check on the train schedule for our ride to Aranya Prathet on the Cambodian border.
As we approach the train station an employee from a tourist information office comes up to us and offers her help. She has all the information we need: train departure time, price and procedure for buying the tickets. Mission accomplished - with that we should be on our way.
Then she inquires if we have our visas for Cambodia yet. We don't because we intend to get them at the border. She suggests it would be much more convenient to get them here, please follow. The tourist information office is just around the corner. That was our first mistake, we followed her. And one thing led to another.
The price is okay, we are being charged the normal service fee for the job. There is just one obstacle. Unfortunately we don't have our passports with us, they're at the hotel. "No problem! My friend will show you the way back." We know the way but her friend accompanies us anyway.
"Maybe a tuk-tuk would be better, just 20 baht. I come with you, better that way," she says.
Now I'm not giving the story such a build up because there were criminal intentions involved or even a rip-off, but to show how we were caught in a cross-cultural confusion. Genuine hospitality, the rituals of polite behavior and business interests are hard for us distinguish.
The helpful friend of the tourist office employee is a well-dressed and self-assured woman of about 35. Why is she doing this? By now all three of us, drenched in sweat, are squeezed in the back seat of a tuk-tuk which is stuck in a traffic jam. We would have been happier on our own but never found the appropriate moment to tell her to scram. Well, we would have put it more politely.
I suppose it was her job to see that the tourist information office got our business for procuring the visas. And she was successful. We return with our passports, this time on foot. Our self-appointed guide cheerfully assists us across dangerous intersections and explains that walking is good exercise.
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Now it would seem that all is perfect - except I don't have a passport photo with me. No problem! Down the road a short distance is a photographer. By this time we are sure it would not only have been cheaper but also much more convenient to get our visas at the border. But the more we get involved, the more difficult we find it to say, "Hey, we changed our minds. We don't want visas after all." So we meekly trot after our guide down the road to the photographer's, known under "Lion ColourLap", a photographer I can strongly recommend. On my passport photo I look at least 20 years younger, not a wrinkle to be seen. I immediately buy enough copies for all visas in the years to come.
This did not turn out to be more convenient, but their intentions were good. We're not complaining. By 12:30 we had completed our visa applications, we had gotten a lot of exercise walking through the streets of Bangkok and I have great passport photos.
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