Inakamono

The Cambodian Visa

Following the advice of Lonely Planet Cambodia I brought with me four happy snaps I had taken at a booth in Kansai and approached the Visa Application desk. A simple process. Hand over four photos. Bored airport staff wield scissors and take one photo and my passport. Wait with twenty others until staff further along the counter, in lieu of calling out names, hold up passports until the owner recognises his or her own face and claims it. See my passport being held up, hand over $US20 and I'm done. Holiday in Cambodia here I come.

Flying to Cambodia

After breakfast with Jeremy at another local restaurant I jumped in a taxi and headed to Don Muang International to catch my 1:30 flight. Soi 23 is close to the expressway so 30 minutes and 210 baht later I was there. No queues at the Bangkok Airways counter but I was asked to place a small aeroplane-shaped sticker on my t-shirt to identify me.

I was carrying US dollars but I wanted a whole bunch of ones so I tried my luck at the Siam Industrial Bank Exchange counter.

"Can you change a US20 into smaller notes?"

"No sir - I do not have"

"But there is a draw full of ones right there!" I smiled.  The woman looked down at the drawer full of US one dollar notes and then back at me.

"Sorry I cannot do"

I tried the Thai Military Bank with the same result and gave up.

My flight took off from a dinky little gate in a remote corner of the airport. I was herded onto a bus along with numerous suited Thai men, some Italians in shirtsleeves and several backpackers, and we were driven out to a small aircraft. The exerable beef noodle mass designated as lunch sent me to sleep and I woke to find myself above plains brown with floodwater and spotted with dwellings. The plains gave way to suburbs - terracotta roofs reminding me of Sydney - and then we were descending into Phnom Penh airport. Total flight time 55 minutes