The two hour flight from Kuala Lumpur to Siem Reap had more empty seats than occupied, a cricket team of twenty-something farm boys from Pakistan providing all the in-flight entertainment one could ask for. We debarked across a baking tarmac into sleepy Siem Reap International Airport where a single serious-looking customs and immigration official reviewed paperwork and stamped things furiously. Despite this age of supposed globalisation, the visa and entry process from one country to the next still varies considerably.
Malaysia’s visa and entry process is admirably electronic. Not a scrap of paper changed hands except the passport itself, and even that was only so it could be swiped through the electronic reader. All they wanted was electronic index-finger prints, and off we went.
Cambodia’s visa application process was conveniently online, making its paper-intensive entry process (passport, arrival card, departure card, arrival visa, departure visa, contagious disease declaration, customs declaration, each a different scrap of paper with much the same details to be filled in by hand) something of a disappointment. Then they wanted all ten of my finger prints. Continue reading 03. Spiritual Me