Well, it all began in an office/classroom in the back blocks of Siem Reap about two weeks ago.
I was eavesdropping on a conversation my Director was having with a freight forwarding company, UPS whose office if based in Phnom Penh. Being the helpful person I am I mentioned that I would be in Phnom Penh in a week or so and would happily assist to retrieve the cameras that had been stopped by customs in Phnom Penh. After all, its not like you would need to be superwomen to get your hands on these items, you’d only need a few pieces of paper and a tuk tuk driver… Boy was I wrong!
One of my lovely friends, Vijay in Phnom Penh offered to collect some documents for me. We needed them to be collected on a weekday because their offices are supposedly closed on the weekends. His ever-trusty moto broke down during the trip, whilst he was in the middle of a dodgems game with the police (this is not unusual, it’s actually the best course of action due to corruption!), therefore ruining his lunchbreak and rendering his trip to the other side of town futile. UPS kindly offered to deliver these documents to Vijay and they promptly arrived on his desk the next morning.
Step One – Achieved, tick!
I’ll fast-forward a few days to Saturday, a beautiful sparkly morning in the Penh. A relaxing start to the day with the gorgeous Irena and my favourite type of breakfast – Pork & Rice… A tuk tuk ride to Vijay’s house to collect the documents, a dusty ride to the airport, and a very competent tuk tuk driver who dropped me right out the front of the customs collection point… Well, well, well – this was turning out to be much easier than what I had anticipated. I thought to myself ‘I’ll be in and out of here, 3.64kg heavier in just a few moments!’ – WRONG!
The Customs Officer explained that I was required to have a letter with a special stamp on it. He then mentioned that the man with the special stamp didn’t work Saturdays and he wasn’t based at the airport – I could find him the middle of Phnom Penh at the Ministry of Customs and Excise. Of course, I didn’t give up here, I did the very Australian thing of ‘Can I please speak to your boss?’. The Officer was petrified that I would bad mouth him to his boss because he started to exclaim ‘But I haven’t done anything wrong’. I tried to explain to him that I simply wanted to speak to his boss to see if we could get around this little dilemma as I live in Siem Reap, a good five hour drive from the airport. After he had been in to see his boss, who refused to speak to me, I left on my merry way, no cameras in hand and $16 lighter – it turns out that my lovely tuk tuk driver was a bit of a rip off merchant (He’d wanted $20 at the end of my trip!!)!
My Director was kind enough to give me permission to stay in Phnom Penh an extra night and see what happened on Monday. I was pretty happy about this, it meant dinner with friends at Friends, and it also meant that I got to pay a visit to Flicks, the local cinema!
On Monday, I woke early to go to Pork and Rice with Bek and Morgan. Feeling the need for coffee I made a quick pit stop at Java before making my way to the bus company, to swap my ticket and get two tickets for my breakfast partners, who are due to visit Siem Reap this weekend. This went very smoothly, as did my visit to the local printing store (they are everywhere, it appears that individuals and organisations alike don’t own printers/photocopiers). I left the printing shop with my letter, drafted from a template that the Customs Officer gave me on Saturday. This letter was my ticket to the cameras and a successful day – or so I thought!
I hopped in a tuk tuk, who literally drove me around the corner. I hadn’t realised how close I was, this day was just getting better and better! I wondered into the Ministry of Customs and Excise and there was an ‘office’ located on the balcony of the front building. Not quite sure where to go, I made my way to this ‘office’ and found out that it was exactly where I needed to be. The man grabbed my letter, stamped it, wrote some information in an official looking ledger and I was on my way… Off to the airport I go! I was definitely going to be done in time for my noon lunch appointment!
WRONG! Just I was about to wander off I realised my letter looked different to the template, ooops… the lovely customs man had forgotten to put the special stamp on it – silly billy!
Me: ‘Ummm… Som to (sorry) but I think you forgot to put the other stamp on my letter?’
Him: ‘No no, you go to other building, second floor, he stamp for you’
Me: ‘Oh ok’
The office was really easy to find, I stepped across the entrance way and realised that there was already some people in there. I stood in line and saw the man in the navy coloured uniform stamping and signing their forms with vigour!! I thought to myself ‘YES! This is my day! Everything is going so smoothly – I will be in and out of here in no time!’. When he was done with the girls, he turned to me and signalled for my forms. He then exclaimed, ‘How many cameras?’. I was unsure and told him so. I said, ‘All I know is that there are 3.64kgs of cameras’. He said ‘not good enough, you find out’. Now the problem with this, is that these cameras are a one off donation and the lady lives in the USA. If I were to call her, we would have woken her up from what I presume would be a peaceful slumber. Therefore, my Director and I took a wild punt and decided to guess that I would be collecting ten cameras. Now all I needed to do was change the form and take it back to the man in the navy coloured uniform! EASY!
I went back to another printing house, changed the form and made my way back to the Ministry of Customs and Excise. Went through the procedure of getting the original stamp and then made my way up to the man in the navy coloured uniform. He briefly looked over my forms and then asked who I was. I told him my name and he said, ‘So what are you doing here? Your name isn’t on the package nor is it on the Memorandum of Understanding – outlining that we can ‘import’ goods duty free because we are an NGO. I explained that I worked for the organisation and that I happened to be in Phnom Penh, therefore I was asked to collect the cameras. At this point, he decided that he needed the form to be signed by the Director of my organisation, to whom the goods had been sent and he also wanted an organisational chart to prove who I was. EASY!
I went to Blue Pumpkin, a café on the waterfront with wifi and received the letter from Sam with his signature. I also updated the organisational chart. I made my way to the printing shop (AGAIN) and printed off the copies of everything that I needed and made my way back to the Ministry of Customs and Excise. They weren’t going to beat me with their outlandish demands!!
When I arrived, just after 11am it turns out that everyone had gone to lunch. Oh well, a good excuse for me to make my way to Vego’s for lunch with Bek and Morgan. If I was back just after 2pm, they should be back from lunch (Yes that’s right, this type of lunchtime is ‘normal’ especially with government departments). I left Bek and Morgan’s house at about 1.15pm and about 5 minutes into the trip it started pouring down with rain! I was carrying my bags from the weekend and everything started to get drenched. The lovely tuk tuk driver ran around to pull down the awnings to ensure that I didn’t get too wet. He did this before he even put on his own rain coat, I did try to tell him to put on his rain coat first in my broken Khmer.
It was bucketing down, which wouldn’t have mattered too much BUT the tuk tuk driver informed me that he wasn’t allowed to drive on Norodom (even though every other vehicle is allowed to!), the street that the Ministry is located on and so, he dropped me at the closest corner and left me there, with my bags, in the rain! I walked to the ministry when the rain eased slightly. The man in the navy coloured uniform wasn’t there. So I waited… and waited… and waited… By the time it got to 3pm there were at least 15 people like me, standing there, waiting to get that all important, special stamp. I had to leave at that point because otherwise I would have missed my bus home.
I LOST….
Man in the Navy Coloured Uniform 1 def. Elysse 0
Life Lesson – avoid eavesdropping on conversations that may lead to visiting the Ministry of Customs and Excise!
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