So we left Otres beach with a heavy heart. However I had to admit I was also very excited. As Pat kept repeating: We’re going to fucking Borneo! It seemed a little surreal. So we took the long drive back to phnom penh, stayed one night in the place we were at before before, and in the morning took a tuk tuk to the airport.
I was aware that we were 2 weeks over our permitted stay of 1 month. At the airport I was careful to make all the staff I interacted with aware of this. Oddly, my grave admission was universally met with a shrug and being waved on.
So we got to the check in desk, and I once again said that I had overstayed by visa and probably needed to pay a fine. This yet again seemed to fall on uninterested ears. The surly looking gentleman at the desk scrutinised my documents at length. As he checked them, though, a look of horror spread across his face, like he had just seen something never before encountered in his lifetime. He hurriedly grabbed Pat’s passport as well as if to confirm something. I was starting to worry that I had committed some unspeakable crime in the country without realising.
“Over there! Over there” He said, handing us both a slip of paper. He was pointing to a desk I had passed already (and announced that I wanted to pay a fine at). Anyway we went to the desk and the slightly taller surly looking gentleman scrutinised the slip of paper we had been given, and then looked at our documents for a while. A look of horror spread across his face, like he had never seen such a thing before either.
He wrote $30 down on a bit of paper and held it out to us. That was actually quite a lot of money relatively speaking, but not to me so I was a relieved and paid the man. Well it was either that or make a run for it and become a fugitive over thirty dollars.
And with that, we left Cambodia behind us, destined for Malaysia.
I was aware that we were 2 weeks over our permitted stay of 1 month. At the airport I was careful to make all the staff I interacted with aware of this. Oddly, my grave admission was universally met with a shrug and being waved on.
So we got to the check in desk, and I once again said that I had overstayed by visa and probably needed to pay a fine. This yet again seemed to fall on uninterested ears. The surly looking gentleman at the desk scrutinised my documents at length. As he checked them, though, a look of horror spread across his face, like he had just seen something never before encountered in his lifetime. He hurriedly grabbed Pat’s passport as well as if to confirm something. I was starting to worry that I had committed some unspeakable crime in the country without realising.
“Over there! Over there” He said, handing us both a slip of paper. He was pointing to a desk I had passed already (and announced that I wanted to pay a fine at). Anyway we went to the desk and the slightly taller surly looking gentleman scrutinised the slip of paper we had been given, and then looked at our documents for a while. A look of horror spread across his face, like he had never seen such a thing before either.
He wrote $30 down on a bit of paper and held it out to us. That was actually quite a lot of money relatively speaking, but not to me so I was a relieved and paid the man. Well it was either that or make a run for it and become a fugitive over thirty dollars.
And with that, we left Cambodia behind us, destined for Malaysia.
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