::A Geek in Korea::

May, 23rd Princess Angkor Hotel, Cambodia, 12:00 AM

We habe just arrived and have showered after our five hour, thirty minute flight from Incheon, South Korea to Siem Reap. As luck would have it, we happened to end up being seated next to a Korean tour guide. My wife got a lot of helpful information about building itineraries for the days of our stay. They chatted for about three hours total while I tried to sleep.

When departing the plane, a quick check of our belongings made us realize my wife had forgotten her hat. We had made elaborate  plans to hide our money from officials requiring bribes at the airport, but the first step off the plane and she had already lost something. She went back up and got her hat and we were back on our way.

The literal first transaction in Cambodia was a government official asking for a dollar bribe to get the visa form filled out “Bal-ly Bal-ly“, using the Korean word for “quick”. They wanted 21 US dollars for the visa. There were 12 people that worked at this visa station sitting in a long chain. Each person must have been responsible for checking a single box on the form from their boredom. They passed each passport down the line, and the man at the end announced your name. You picked up the visa and went to immigration.

My wife mentioned about how odd “$21 dollars” was for a visa fee. Then she said, “Hey wait a minute, that dollar was a bribe!” I think it was the uniform and the lack of posted prices that made her trust the person at the front asking for that dollar on top of everything. I made no comment at the time, because if people got wind of what was going on their might have been a scene.

The nice tour guide gave us a ride to our hotel, sparing us from having to haggle with anyone about a trip to town in the middle of the night. We set our wake up call for 6:00 AM. We’ll tour until noon, then go find a cheaper guest house tomorrow.