Cambodia

40 minute  flight from Bangkok took me to Siem Reap in Cambodia. On arrival you need to buy a tourist visa. The "system" is clear to anyone who has arrived there in the past but most people, including me, got part of the process wrong. Without much English spoken, you just end up watching someone else try, follow those that are successful and not those being shouted at in Khymer. What you should do (for anyone who might be going there) is:

- queue in first line then
- give that person your passport, form and money and
- ignore the six other people to the right of him - but your passport goes through their hands to
- the guy on the far right who gives it back to you and you then
- walk to the immigration desk where another guy checks your passport and
- then go through an unmanned customs

Not sure if all of the six checkers have different jobs or whether they just all need to be happy that you are an acceptable tourist?

Siem Reap used to be a fairly quiet town, but has grown over last 15 years or so following war as more and more tourists arrive. It is now home to 150 hotels, of differing size/quality but still has a small town feel to it. Here for 3 nights.

ps be warned photos are now surfacing on my google+/picasa site - not much editing has taken place so there may be some (a lot) of duplicates