캄보디아 도착비자 발급시 문제점에 대한 이메일과 캄보디아 대사의 회신

Dear Mr. Ambassador:

Hello, My name is Kim, Chan-Yong. 

I write this email to tell you about the problem of the visa on arrival in Cambodia.

I've been to Siem Reap with my family(Me, my wife, 9 year-old son and 7 year-old daughter) 

from Aug. 30, 2014 to Sep. 6, 2014.

We really appreciate to share your great cultural heritage, Angkor, to visit and see.

We were all deelpy touched with your ancestor's amazing achievements.  

We came to Siem Reap through Poipet(via Aranyaprathet in Thailand).

No offence... I just want to tell you the truth.

Though we heard Cambodian Border Arthority's bad reputation for requesting small money 

regarding issuing visa, we didn't have time to get e-visa.

So, we decided to get visa on arrival. 

When we arrived Poipet border, border policeman did not ask extra 1 dollar for me and my wife. 

so, we expected our process would be smoothly. 

But the problem happened to our children's visas. 

We understood visa on arrival for child under 12 years old was free

(http://www.embassyofcambodia.org/faq.html) but the border policeman insisted us that we had to pay 

USD20.00 per each children because they had their own passports.

And there was no mention about the visa fee for under 12 year old children on the big blackboard, 

which was hung on the front wall of the reception desk, that showed information of visa and visa 

fee.

So, we could not help paying USD20.00 each for my two children.

And after that we could not trust Cambodian people and had doubts in their behaviors for a while.

But fortunately we met some good people during our trip and soothed our disappointment.

Anyway, I think your visa system needs to be improved.

I've been to many foreign countires i.e. EU(UK, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Swissland etc), 

Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and so on.

Doubtlessly Cambodia has good attractions for tourists but those sorts of things become hindrances 

to get more tourists and spoil its good impression.

As we know, in tourism, reputation and impression are very important as much as its resources

(beautiful nature, Archaeological sites like that).

If Cambodia reconsiders its tourism policy, it can get more benefits(not only financial ones but 

also invisible earnings).

Thank you for giving me your time to read this.

Regards,

Kim, Chan-Yong

2014/10/06 - [해외여행/캄보디아] - 태국에서 육로로 캄보디아 국경넘기와 도착비자 3/3

 

지난 여행에서 캄보디아로 입국하는 과정에서 12세 미만의 어린이에게 부당하게 도착비자 수수료를 내도록 한 문제에 대하여 

귀국후에 주한 캄보디아 대사관, 캄보디아 외교부 및 관광청 등에 이메일을 통해 문제 제기를 하였다.

해당 기관들이 모두 이메일을 확인했는지는 알 수 없지만, 주한 캄보디아대사로부터는 위와 같은 회신을 받았다.

통상적이고 사무적인 회신이긴 하지만... 어쨌든 사람들이 반복적으로 문제를 제기한다면 언젠가는 개선이 되리라는

막연한 기대를 해 본다.