The Passport Lottery

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Whilst cycling through many countries I have often thought about how one's passport can decide your fate. The British Passport is considered one of the best passports to have to travel freely around the world. I am lucky. My partner on the the other hand has an Iranian Passport. Travelling freely to other countries is for her a complete different story.

We had already read on the internet that entering Cambodia was going to be problematical for my partner. In Laos when we went to the Cambodian embassy, as soon as I handed over Noushin's passport to the administrative official, her expression on her face changed and she simply stated that Iranian nationals would not be issued a visa.

We accepted our fate, but decided that we would try again in the Cambodian Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam.

As we entered the Embassy in the capital of Vietnam we were greeted with a smile from the Ambassador's Third Official and we explained our predicament. He said that he could issue a visa but at a cost. We accepted his offer and paid the inflated price. At this stage I still knew that a visa in your passport does not mean a guaranteed entry to a country.

As our time in Vietnam came to a close, I scribbled down the telephone number of the Cambodian Embassy's Official in anticipation of problems crossing the border and we opted to take a bus from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to Phnom Penh, Cambodia rather than turn up on the border with our bicycles.

The representative on the bus collected in our passports prior to us arriving at the border. So far so good. As we queued at the Vietnamese Border Control, Noushin's passport was singled out and she was beckoned over and told by the Vietnamese Border Officer that she would be refused entry. We showed him the Cambodian visas in the passport and were taken on the back of a scooter to the Cambodian side of the border where several officials were sat outside.

As soon as they were informed that Noushin was an Iranian citizen they waved us away back to the Vietnamese side of the border. I tried to show the officials the visas in both our passports and again they waved us away and ignored us refusing to speak to us. I looked around to find somebody who could speak English and soon we found somebody. At first he seemed friendly and helpful, but as soon as the other Border representatives nodded at him he shut up and told us that he couldn't help us and that we were to find somebody inside the Passport Control Building who could speak English. When we asked him to take us to this person he bluntly refused.

I went back to the first Passport Officer and showed him the telephone number of the Ambassador in Hanoi. He didn't acknowledge me and never once looked me in the face. As our bus approached the barrier we were ordered to take off our luggage and our bikes.

In all my time travelling I had never experienced this discourtesy and unfriendliness by any border officials and I started to think about contingency plans to get us back to Laos via Vietnam, a horrendous journey by all accounts.

After we removed our bikes and panniers and started to reassemble them to go back to Vietnam, the original official beckoned us to sit down at the Cambodian Passport Office and all of a sudden he began speaking in perfect English. He asked me how much money I had in my bank account, how much money I had in my possession, how the two of us could afford to visit Cambodia and where we were going. I was beginning to imagine that he wanted some form of payment to let us continue on our way. Eventually after making several phone calls he reluctantly allowed my partner 2 weeks to visit Cambodia instead of the usual 4 weeks given to everybody else. Luckily no additional money was asked for.

Our plan of cycling around the country was shelved as we were desperate to see all the highlights, but at least we were allowed to visit the country. We both sighed in relief. I believe that we were extremely lucky on this occasion as there are a couple of stories of Iranians who have been turned around on the border at airports and sent back home on the next available flight. The fact that I had the telephone number of the Cambodian Embassy Official in my notebook and stated that I had paid a considerable amount of money above and beyond the normal amount, may have swayed his decision.

Go back 40 years and the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Pol Pot had just gained power in Cambodia. Under this regime, all the nations'citizens were sent out from the cities to work on the land, often working up to 15-18 hours per day with minimal food and in horrific conditions. Any intellectuals, teachers, politicians and people in power were rounded up by the young and impressionable soldiers working for Pol Pot and taken to converted school prisons where they were interrogated, forced to sign confessions under duress, tortured and then taken to the 'Killing Fields' where they were bludgeoned to death with farming tools to save on the cost of bullets.

In just under 4 years, Pol Pot and his regime systematically executed between 2-3 million people, including men, women and children. Quotes such as "Better to kill an innocent by mistake than spare an enemy by mistake" and "To keep you is no benefit and to destroy you is no loss" meant that millions of innocent people lost their lives purely because they grew up in Cambodia and had a Cambodian passport. As I wondered through the S21 torture prison in Phnom Penh where 20000 people were sent to their death between 1975-1979 and saw 2 of the 7 survivors selling their books it really dawned on me that your passport can really decide your fate.

Our original reception entering the country of Cambodia was not what we had anticipated , but meeting the Cambodian people later on throughout our trip restored our faith in humanity. Having been witness to several people trying to rip us off in Vietnam, Cambodia was refreshingly honest and welcoming outside of border control.

Our original destination was Phnom Penh from where we explored the S21 prison and the 'Killing Fields'. Gruesome and extremely sad its simply one of those places you have to visit to make you think about the terrors committed by mankind. The 'Killing Fields' holds no bars and when you hear the commentary about the execution tree, where the last thing that the prisoners heard before they were executed was the sound of the generator providing electricity for lighting and for the music blaring out propaganda tunes from the loudspeakers to disguise the atrocities being committed in the death camp, it stops you in your tracks and makes you think how lucky you are to have grown up in a civilised society.

From Phnom Penh our next destination was Siem Reap to visit the ancient Khmer Temples of Angkor Wat, and Angkor Thom. Stopping off halfway on our route to Siem Reap to have a bite to eat, we came across our first market selling tarantulas, scorpions and cockroaches for snacks. The Tarantulas were decorated with chillies and herbs to make them look a little more appetising, but I declined. In Seam Reap there is even a Bug restaurant where you "Buy one cocktail and get one spider for free"

Our 120 KMH drive to Seam Reap in a mini-van along bumpy dust strewn roads was an horrific ordeal which we luckily survived with the driver stating that "The brakes aren't working so well, otherwise I would have driven faster"

The temples around Angkor Wat as featured in Lara Croft's Tomb Raider are truly amazing and other than the Taj Mahal are some of the most beautiful buildings/temples I have ever visited.

New Year's Eve was spent down 'Pub Street' in Siem Reap which took me back a few years as the music blared out techno in front of thousands of revellers.

From Siem Reap we continued to the old French colonial town of Battenbang where we enjoyed the thrill of bombing down the 'Nory' rickety railway track on a bamboo carriage, at times thinking that we would derail but luckily making it one piece. Another fascinating spectacle was witnessing 8 million bats (according to the locals) exiting a cave at sunset which was truly amazing.

Returning to the Backpacker area of Phnom Penh, with the 'Go-Go' girls looking bored out of their wits as they waited for prospective punters to enter their clubs, we booked a further bus journey to Otres1 Beach Sihanoukville on the south coast. Here we spent a couple of days chilling on quite seriously some of the most splendid beaches I have visited, before diverting to Kampot, a city close to the border of Vietnam where black pepper is exported all around the world. Here we again witnessed the legacy left behind by the French as we visited a Hill Station and then settled down to a $5 boat cruise including one free beer to watch 'sundowners'.

I pondered as I relived the last two weeks of visiting this beautiful country, seeing the ancient temples, chilling on the beaches and meeting wonderful local people along the way and then remembered their past and realised how lucky I am to be British. The journey now continues on our bicycles from northern Thailand to Singapore (…...assuming Noushin can cross the Singaporean border with her passport!)

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Photos

Sunset near Kampot, Cambodia
City which produces black pepper for all around the world

The Killing Fields
It is estimated that 2-3 million Cambodians were killed by the Khmer Rouge between 1975-1979

Execution Tree
Used for killing children

Killing Tools
Bullets weren't used as they were considered too expensive to waste