Tale of Two Countries

[rsc]

Compare and contrast:

To get a visa to visit Myanmar, one has to fill out several paper forms and send them, along with one's passport, two photographs, and a postal money order, to the embassy in Washington, and wait over two weeks for it to be processed and returned (as mentioned here).

To get a visa to visit Cambodia, one has to go to the country's website, fill in an online form (into which one pastes an online photograph), authorize a credit-card payment, and submit online, and then wait about 9 hours for the visa to be emailed back. (Well, the site said to expect it to take up to three days, but did in fact take only 9 hours.)

Comments

[chrishansenhome.livejournal.com]

You may recall my post of 4 years ago about the Cambodian e-visa. I was quite impressed. When the immigration officer saw that I had an e-visa, he exclaimed "E-visa!" and entered my details. He then turned his computer screen toward me to show his copy of my visa. I was through immigration (with a visa) long before my friends from Singapore (who did not need visas) were.

I hope you enjoy Myanmar and Cambodia. Bring lots of US dollars. You can't buy anything useful in the local currency except for bottled water. I really need to hunker down and get my Cambodian photos in order and online. Four years is too long.

[maxauburn.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's a rather involved process!

You'd think you were traveling to another sector of the galaxy!

[rsc.livejournal.com]

We do our best. Oddly enough, with all the far=flung places we've visited, we've never been to Wisconsin.

[bitty.livejournal.com]

You know what's near Wisconsin?

Michigan.