Out To The Border

Visa run again today. I like Express Visa Runs for one reason and one reason alone: They are always the first visa run service to arrive at the border, which means that they are always the first to be served at the border, which means that they are always the first to leave the border, which means that they are always the first to get back to Pattaya.

Today, the Cambodians were dedicating a new temple at the border gate, and making a hell of a racket. They were playing music that was some chaotic melody beat out on a wooden xylophone accompanied by bongos and dancing. (You can see the Cambodian flag flying over the gate on the left. I'm not sure what the striped multi-colored flags are for though.

Here is a photo of my visa run group at the pavillion outside Cambodian immigration... about 18 or 20 people. This is the crowd from just one of about 20 visa run companies that come to just this one (out of 3) border crossing. Some visa companies bring 100 or more people in a day. Probably about 300 tourists per day do visa runs to this one border crossing... about 9,000 per month. That's a lot of visa runs. And, that's just for Pattaya. This border crossing is about one tenth the size of Poi Pet, which handles all the Bangkok visa runners.

Just as an afterthought, this is what you see from where you are seated at Cambodian immigration... looking out into Cambodia proper. Off on the right is "duty free" shopping, where a carton of Marolboros costs $5, a liter of Johnny Walker Black costs $12, and narcotic pain killers are sold over the counter, 50 cents per dozen. (No... I'm not about to sample those.)

The one thing I have to laugh about is that the duty free shops sell wine. Wine that has been sitting out in 90-degree weather for the past 8 months. I'm curious as to whether or not they have ever sold a bottle. I bought a bottle of champagne for $25 from the nearby air-conditioned casino one time, thinking that it was worth risking $25 to find out if there was a place where I could buy decent champagne for $25 in Southeast Asia. Even there, in a proper indoor, cool, gift shop setting, it was vinegar.