Why You Should Always Check Your Visas

Day 30 of Vietnam and we were so ready to leave. Another example of how over-planning can cause problems, I had pre-booked all our visas so that we were in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand for 30 days each without any room to change that plan. Things had continuously not gone our way in Vietnam and ideally we would have moved on weeks before but had to wait, we had a good time but it wasn’t where we wanted to be, and felt like we were stuck due to my prescribed planning. NEVER AGAIN!

Our last night in Vietnam, Ev calls me goose so kindly acquired this label for me

So we awoke nice and early and left the Halo hotel, in Ho Chi Minh District 1, and headed to catch our bus to Phnom Penh. Surprisingly, we found it easily, and before we knew it were on our way. 30 days had felt like a long time, we had done so much and completely let go of all stresses from home, and realising it had all been within the boundaries of one country was a really odd feeling but also made us eager for what the next country would bring. We were beyond excited. Although we had cut into Cambodia’s budget already we had worked out a plan that we felt was achievable and would mean leaving Cambodia on-track money-wise, so that we wouldn’t have to cut into any other budgets; we had travel cards loaded with different currencies set aside for when we reached each country. 

The bus was long but thankfully fairly comfortable. We met an English couple and their toddler on the bus and chatted for a while. Everything was going well. That is until we actually reached the border.

We lined up as instructed, handing our passports and visas to the bus attendant and she gave them to the man in the checking booth. One by one all of the passengers were called, all except me. The attendant made her way down the line holding only my passport, handed it back to me, and said,  “you cannot go through.”  Stunned speechless I probably just gawped at her, luckily Ev reacted and she explained that I had overstayed my visa by 20 days. Impossible! I had applied for both mine and Ev’s at the same time. Besides, why would I have made that large of an error? As requested she retrieved my visa and showed us. Clear as day the dates were wrong. We tried explaining that the start date didn’t match our entry date in our passports and that it had been a mistake on someone else’s part, but no one cared, they were not there to do us any favors.

The rules are if you overstay you are charged $20 a day, multiply that by 20 and just like that, I owed $400. The attendant suggested trying to get back to Ho Chi Minh and getting to an embassy tomorrow, or whenever they could see me. This option wasn’t considered we wanted to leave and by staying we would have to spend more money here, plus be fined daily with no promise of any resolution. However, we didn’t have any cash. Our friends from the bus had $100 and Ev tried to give that to the man in the checking booth but there was no luck, not like the movies.

The bus attendant gave us another option, her “friend” would take us on the back of his motorbike to a cash machine 5km into Cambodia on an unmade road and without our belongings. That too was less than desirable. We were stuck between two countries with no money to move and angry faces glowering at us. Now was a time to panic, and that I did. Obviously so much that we looked like we needed saving as the attendant rushed off and came back with the cash; the bus driver would pay and then stop in Cambodia for reimbursement. Without much choice, we gratefully accepted and soon enough we were back on the bus bouncing down the unmade road. Feeling deflated and stupid for not realising the mistake sooner we sat quietly for a while, but after all, we were still away and it's only money, so we soon perked up again.

Lesson learnt: check all details on important documents!! We had a misprint on our Turkey visas a few years before but as there were no repercussions so I guess the lesson wasn’t learnt.

I was able to check my visa application and I had entered the correct dates so the mistake wasn’t mine but I should have noticed sooner. I tried contacting the agency I had, had my visa supplied from but didn’t receive any replies.  Possibly if I had continued pressing them I may have got some money back but I doubt it, besides it was just days after that, that we were on the islands where the internet wasn’t great so it was soon forgotten.

The Cambodia-Thailand border wasn’t quite as disastrous but still eventful, I’ll save that story for another day.