Phnom Penh - - - Note to self: Never ever surrender your passport to anyone but an authorized immigration officer doing their immediate duty and nothing else. As I landed in Phnom Penh, I applied for a business visa noting that I would be in the country for two more months. An immigration officer followed my passport from officer to officer until finally she took it from the final handler and called me aside telling me that my not-minutes-ago-applied-for visa would expire that very day and that I would need to give her $60 more (in addition to the $25 I already handed over to the desk) to be able to remain in the country without paying a $5 a day fine for having an expired visa.

She demanded my passport telling me she would arrange for the two month extension to my visa. She spoke Englishso poorly that I had to ask one of the Cambodian Sign Lnaugage interpreters to help me out by signing to me in Cambodian SL. Even then I could not understand what was going on. So, thinking I had no choice I left my passport with her. She promised to have my passport back today, Sunday. I have made four calls to her jpersonal cell phone, none of them except the last answered and not only did she not have my passport, but she didn't even recognize my name because she had "three passports in process."

A chat with a local travel agent revealed everything I suspected, a) that the officer was acting outside of her official duties, b) that I was being overcharged, and that I did not need to hand over the passport, and that I was at risk of losing it..... ay yay yay!