First time in Cambodia: what an experience to get a visa on arrival
The Italian passport is the most powerful in the world, which means it opens the doors of nearly 200 countries [...]
PNH
Italian passport is the most powerful in the world, this means that it opens doors in nearly 200 countries where, The lucky ones who manage to get it from Italian police headquarters., they can enter without applying for a prior visa.
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Then how you get the visa is another matter entirely. Some simply issue it with a stamp like Thailand, some how Singapore not only no longer stamps, but has also digitized everything and now you go directly from electronic controls without interacting with any human being.
Then there are those like Cambodia or Indonesia who still require to pay in order to qualify for a visa. It could easily be called a tourist tax, something similar to what has repeatedly thought of doing Thailand. Even in Bali in addition to the visa, which you pay upon arrival in Indoneisa, they also came up with the entry fee, which will apply every time you enter the island, even if you have simply gone out for a day trip.
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Upon my arrival at Phnom Penh International Airport, I disembarked after a 25-minute flight from Ho Chi Min, I followed the directions for Visa on Arrival, there was also the possibility of doing it online, but in the end I prefer to do it at the airport, sure I will lose time, but I would also miss out on little experiences like the one I am about to tell.
The scene reminded me of the one where Totò and Peppino (if you're under 40, look it up on youtube) try to rip off tourists, only no one here wanted to cheat anyone.
Behind a series of counters many uniformed military personnel and as many outside conversing with tourists. There are 3 counters: at the first one you hand over your passport with your arrival card, at the second one you should pay and at the third one you should pick up your passport with your visa.
I use the conditional because in the end it looks like a souk. You leave your important and powerful document in the hands of a stranger and are invited to get into the other queue.
You quickly begin to realize that this is going to be fun because you are not the one going to the next counters, but it is the military man on duty who calls passengers by name once their passport has passed Step 1.
Here amidst the broken English, passengers who obviously do not speak Khmer, but neither does English, and who do not understand the military's demand for money (the visa costs 30$ and is paid only in dollars)Â I witnessed hilarious skits in my 15-minute wait.
Disappearing passengers and go to the bathroom, others wandering around looking for the ATM since the only one in the area has a line longer than the visa line, others trying to haggle since there are 5 of them if it is possible to get the discount. In all this the military manhandles dollars like a Las Vegas bookies and the passport "stuffed" with money goes back behind the counter.
Final apotheosis when received his passport a Chinese tourist was sent back by immigration officers because he had shown up with a passport that was not his. Of course, the owner had not even noticed that his passport was about to leave without him.
Ah how nice to travel where humans still run everything and not machines and artificial intelligence.