| Making
the Visa Run: Doing it the Thai Way |
| by Scott
Hipsher |
| Sometimes it's Part of
the ABCs of Living Overseas |
| One of
the unique aspects of ex-pat life is the visa run. Visa runs are common
enough throughout the world but are especially a part of life for foreigners
living in Thailand. Visa runs are usually required because of some
archaic law that requires foreigners to leave the county in order to get
the proper visa, which allows them to return and work in the country they
just left.
I recently
changed jobs in Bangkok, and since there was a gap between when my
old visa ran out and when I was to start my new position, I had to leave
the country to get a new non-immigrant “B” visa so I could get a new work
permit and continue to legally live in the land of smiles. |
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| I have previously
made three visa runs to Penang, Malaysia, which involved a nearly 24
hour train ride each way. Now Penang isn’t the worst place to spend
a couple of days, but since I’d already been there and done that and really
didn’t have the time for a time consuming journey, I ruled out Penang as
a destination. I have also previously done a visa run to Vientiane, Laos,
which was an interesting trip but I thought, since I don’t have as many
opportunities to travel these days as I used to, I might as well go someplace
I have never been before and may not have the chance to see again. I
chose to make this visa run to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
I only had
a few days to make the trip, and I’m getting to the age where making long
bus journeys over unpaved roads no longer seems very exotic, so I chose
to fly. It is possible to make the overland journey for the more adventurous,
or cost conscience, by traveling to Aranyaprathet, Thailand, crossing
the border over to Poipet, and traveling to Phnom Penh from there.
I flew on Bangkok
Airways for a round trip cost of under $150; tickets are available at all
travel agencies throughout Thailand. |
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| The actual
flight took less time than it took to get through Bangkok traffic and go
from my house to the airport. I didn’t bother getting a Cambodian
visa before leaving Thailand since it is an easy affair to get a
visa upon arrival in Phnom Pehn for a fee of $20. The Phnom Penh airport
is very small and to get your visa and passport stamped, your paperwork
has to go through the “line.” The line consisted of six uniformed men each
performing a single task.
The first one
would place the visa sticker in your passport, the second would look at
it and then sign it, followed by a third who would check it to make sure
it was correct. The other three did a similar procedure in order
to give an arrival stamp in my passport. A month previous, I did a border
hop to Poipet, since my visa had expired and this was cheaper than having
to pay 200 Baht a day for a month’s overstay, so this was my second trip
to Cambodia, if you want to count the 10 minutes I stayed in Poipet. |
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Offshore Resources Gallery
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| In Poipet,
the differences on the two sides of the border were extreme. Thailand
may seem by western standards to be very poor, but the children in Thailand
are clean, well fed, and have the opportunity to go to school for at
the very least a few years. This is not the case in Poipet where
the visitor is greeted by poor, obviously undernourished children, amputee
beggars, and other equally depressing sights next to a multitude of garishly
decorated casinos where rich Thais can come and lose some money. After
this first experience into Cambodia, I was expecting Phnom Penh to be a
city where extreme poverty was rampant. But this was not really the
case.
While there
certainly is poverty, and some cases extreme poverty in Phnom Pehn,
the thing that most struck me was how normal life seemed to be. Most
people seemed to have a place to go and things to do. While the pace of
life is much slower than in Bangkok or New York, it didn’t appear (on the
surface) to be very much different from a Thai provincal capitol.
Outside
the airport I was told would be a multitude of motorcycle taxis to take
me into town. |
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| But when I
arrived in the evening, the only transportation that was available was
a regular taxi with a standard fare of $7. There are number of guesthouses
and hotels throughout the city with a variety of prices. There are a number
of cheaper places down by the Tonle Sap River, which seems to be the center
for western budget travelers. I ended up staying at a place called the
Paris Hotel near the Central Market, which was clean, had very large rooms
and about 60 channels on cable for $20 a night. Whether this is a
good deal for Phnom Penn or not I can’t really say but I was satisfied.
The hotel had a restaurant downstairs, a snooker room on the second floor,
and a massage parlor on the third floor. I don’t play snooker so
I stayed off the second floor.
I used motorcycle
taxis to get around. There are regular taxis available, but they aren’t
always easy to find, and bus service is extremely limited. |
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Offshore
Resources Gallery
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| I always paid
a buck (US$ 1) for a trip; I’m sure old hands in the country pay less,
but it seemed reasonable enough, and for that price the taxis would wait
for you for the return trip. Interesting use of money, the US dollar was
the most commonly used currency and the local currency, the Riel, was used
as the ”change.” The exchange rate was roughly 4000 to the dollar,
so a thousand Riel note was used as a quarter would be used in the states.
It was weird for me to be an American who had to change Thai Baht into
US Dollars to go to yet another country. A loaf of French bread or
a glass, yes a glass not a cup, of coffee was 500 Riels or roughly 12 and
a half cents, to give you some idea of prices. Unlike Thailand,
they drive on the right in Cambodia, but since many of the cars are left
hand drive seeing where you are going while driving seems to be more than
a bit of a problem. Like in most SE Asian countries venturing out on to
the roads is always an adventure. One very interesting thing I saw when
I made a couple of trips around 11 kilometers outside of town was the use
of homemade wagons where up to 20 people could sit attached to a common
motorcycle as a crude bus service.
Getting
my visa wasn’t much of a problem, dropped it off one day and picked
it up the next. There was a delay, probably because I didn’t have
one official document that was required but used a photocopy of a brochure
instead, on the second day, and I had to wait around the Thai Embassy for
the better part of an hour. While waiting I did watch a guy who made
two cardinal mistakes of doing things in SE Asia and the difficulties he
was encountering.
The guy,
who was British, claimed to be a journalist for some obscure French organization
and clearly his paperwork wasn’t exactly in order. First mistake,
he showed up wearing the typical backpacker’s uniform of shabby looking
worn-out clothes with lots of pockets, and he needed to borrow a pen to
fill out the application form. (A journalist without a pen?) Now, showing
up claiming to be a journalist looking like this may impress on Khao San
Rd. (the center for backpackers in Bangkok) but it surely will not
help your cause when dealing with an individual who comes from a country
where journalists wear suits and ties. When dealing with SE Asian bureaucrats
leave the torn jeans, bandannas and tie-dyed T-shirts at the guesthouse.
Second, he
told the clerk that the clerk was wrong and demanded to see the Consulate
General. The clerk smugly agreed, and refused to further discuss the matter
with him and said that the Consulate General would see him, when she (The
Consulate General) found the time to talk to him. My guess is that
wouldn’t be until after it was too late to get your application in for
the day, but I didn’t wait around to find out. Don’t lose your cool and
make demands. No one likes confrontation, but it is especially disliked
in SE Asia. Dress respectably and avoid raising your voice when dealing
with bureaucrats, especially if your paperwork is a bit dodgy.
Food there
was ok, but didn’t see a McDonald's or any other western chain restaurants.
Some
of the guesthouses supply good western food at affordable prices, and there
are a number of Khmer restaurants, also. The Khmer people are very friendly
and don’t worry, you can always just point at things that look good.
There was a fast-food type place there called lucky burger, it was ok and
the prices were low but it’s only for real fast-food addicts who need their
fix.
There are
not a great variety of typical tourist attractions. I did go
to the national museum, which is worth an hour of two of your time, as
is the Royal Palace. I decided not to visit the “attractions” associated
with the Khmer Rouge regime; I didn’t want to spend my few days there looking
over morbid sights. The Khmer people seem to have for the most part
put that part of their history behind them and are now getting on with
their lives.
I decided to
check out the nightlife, and some of the places where a lonely traveler
can find some companionship, strictly for research purposes mind you.
Sharkey’s Bar was an interesting place where a traveler can find a variety
of ways to quench a thirst while playing some pool or chatting with individuals
from a multitude of nations. Strange thing, there seems to be an
unusually large number of Khmer or Vietnamese women that appear to be very
friendly to the weary traveler. Martini’s Disco is another interesting
place, but I didn’t see a lot of dancing going on there, and many of the
ladies would have been way too young to get into an American disco.
For the most part I found Cambodia to be a fairly normally place with isolated
pockets of outlandish decadence.
One of my favorite
things to do in a new place is to take long walks without really having
a plan on seeing anything in particular, and I often did this in Phnom
Penh. This was a great way to see how the average citizen of Phnom Penh
lives. However the Khmer people think this is crazy. Why, do
they ask, would anyone with money in their pocket choose to walk in the
heat when they can ride ataxi or motorcycle to get where they want to go?
So every motorcycle taxi, and there are countless numbers of them, has
to stop and ask if you need a ride.
One of the
joys of taking a walk is to have some time to think while getting a bit
of exercise, but this constant appeal for use of their services by the
motorcycle taxis makes continuing any train of thought for over a few
moments next to impossible which is a bit annoying. I never felt
unsafe during my time there.
The biggest
problem the country has is obviously a lack of jobs, but there sure
isn’t a lack of NGO officials driving around in Land Cruisers. I wish I
had the Land Cruiser dealership there. The country would be better
off if all the NGOs sold off all their Land Cruisers and used the money
to open factories that would actually employ some common people. Investors
with the resources for some foreign direct investment could do some serious
good for the people and would be most welcome.
All in all
it was a successful visa run, I got the visa with a minimum of hassle,
I went someplace new, meet interesting people, saw new things, didn’t spend
too much and basically enjoyed myself. If you have to make a visa
run, or happening to be visiting SE Asia, you should consider making a
short trip to Cambodia.
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