The long way to Cambodia
Full title: the expensive, long (both in space and time), expensive, cumbersome and expensive way to Cambodia.
My trip to Brazil in Sep was fine in general, but not convincing boy-wise. Now it’s rainy season there, so I would not go again in winter (Northern Hemisphere), but probably will go again in summer (their winter). Three other countries in Latin America are on my list: Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, but none of them convincing. Thailand is off my list for this winter after their STV epic fail (see previous post).
All of Southeast Asia is closed to foreigners unless they have a very good reason to enter. All of Southeast Asia? No! The Kingdom of Cambodia still issues business visas. ChristianPFC is a man of many talents, and I always fancied myself opening a gay gogo bar or sauna (but not a disco or host bar or massage) in Asia! Now is the time!
Comparison between Cambodia and Germany in winter:
Weather awful in Germany (worst of the year), great in Cambodia (best of the year).
Food great in Germany, awful in Cambodia.
No boys at all in Germany, plenty in Cambodia.
Stay for free (accommodation and food) in Germany, pay everything on my own in Cambodia.
That’s 2:2 Cambodia versus Germany. However money can be replaced (my bank account at end of post for donations), time cannot.
12oct2020 Decision to go to Cambodia, i.e. read extensively about immigration requirements during Corona and chat with a German friend who lives there about long time stay in Cambodia (I have only been for up to one week holiday) and chat with a Cambodian friend (arrange for invitation documents).
End of October, with visa in hand, a difficulty arises: negative Covid test not longer than 72 hours before departure. Impossible at current processing times of 3 to 5 days. But upon reading closely, the time counts from medical certificate issued, not time sample taken.
Phone calls to airline (Korean air, is one hour layover in AMS enough?), my doctor, laboratory to arrange everything.
Fri30oct2020
9 Call laboratory, samples taken this morning will most likely be processed by Monday.
10 My doctor takes sample.
A month ago (test after return from Brazil), I was the only one getting tested. Now I count 30, waiting outside in drizzling rain.
16 Call laboratory, sample has arrived, confirm result probably by Monday, surely by Tuesday.
20:20 I receive a call from public health officer: my test was positive and I’m in quarantine for 10 days (tested positive 10 days quarantine, my parents as contact persons 14 days). Neither I nor my parents have symptoms. Now we can call ourselves Covid-19-survivors!
Call two friends J and G who I recently had contact with (in Berlin and Leipzig, and I got Covid most probably there or on the way) and tell them the good news: You have won a free Covid test!
Mon2nov2020
Call KoreanAir and postpone trip (first free, second 100 EUR, cancellation 200 EUR).
I'm in the newspaper local, national, international:
377 neue Corona-Neuinfektionen in Brandenburg, 7 weitere Todesfaelle! 31. Oktober 2020 https://www.bz-berlin.de/berlin/umland/377-neue-corona-neuinfektionen-in-brandenburg-7-weitere-todesfaelle
Coronavirus in Deutschland : RKI meldet 19.059 Neuinfektionen binnen eines Tages Aktualisiert am 31.10.2020
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/gesundheit/rki-meldet-19-059-corona-neuinfektionen-in-deutschland-17029254.html
Germany Covid Map and Case Count By The New York Times Updated November 6, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/europe/germany-coronavirus-cases.html During my home quarantine in Germany, situation in Cambodia changed to the worse and situation in Thailand changed to the better.
3nov2020 A Hungarian diplomat in Cambodia was exempt from quarantine and later tested positive, causing Cambodia to tighten quarantine requirement which will cost me 700 EUR more.
7nov2020 Thailand issues tourist visas. The conditions are much less severe than for STV, and overall something I would consider. There are first reports of people applying:
https://sawatdeenetwork.com/v4/showthread.php?21698-My-quest-for-a-Visa
(And at time of posting, first have arrived and are out of quarantine.)
Under these conditions, I would go to Thailand, but I had set all my bets on Cambodia and it was not clear if the Thai Tourist Visa goes smoothly.
Wed11nov2020 Take Covid test.
Mon16nov2020 Test comes back negative, get medical certificate dated today.
Tue17nov2020 Fly from BER (Berlin new airport). BER open after 9 years!
Joke: Wouldn't it be cheaper to disassemble Berlin and resurrect it next to an operating airport?
There is a wristwatch to commemorate the delayed opening:
Flight is uneventful. Change of plane in Amsterdam (one hour time; I need less than 20 minutes from arrival to departure gate) and Seoul. My first flight with two changes of plane.
Wed18nov2020 Arrive in Phnom Penh.
That was my longest (both in space and time) flight. But BER-AMS-ICN-PNH in 22 hours, with convenient departure and arrival time, was not bad. I talked with others who had really awful connections: Mumbai-AMS-ICN-PNH in 41 hours, Bangkok-ICN-PNH.
Fasting. I wanted to do fasting for a long time, but with all the travel and boys there never was a good time. Now I have the time (two weeks in quarantine) and there are other benefits: my previous experiences with Cambodian food are negative, and the hotel charges 10 USD per meal. I would learn from others that the meals often come with delays and cold. Some quarantine hotels charge for food regardless if you consume it or not, but I was lucky and wasn’t charged. Without any previous fasting experience, I did a zero diet, only water, tea and mineral/vitamin effervescent tablets, bogeys/boogers for two weeks. I lost 9 kg and looked like a Rheinwiesenlager survivor!
In a bout of masochism, I quantified the “expensive” in title.
Costs (at time of publishing 1 EUR = 1.20 USD): visa 35 EUR= 42 USD, exchange money 100 USD*, two Covid tests each 152 EUR = 365 USD, flight 932 EUR = 1,118 USD, Forte insurance 90 USD, quarantine 1,411 USD (deposit 2,000 USD on arrival, get back 589 after quarantine), visa extension 373 USD = 3,529 USD.
*Exchanging EUR to USD in Berlin to have 2,000 USD cash for deposit at a loss of 5% against xe; whereas someone from the US can take his USD directly. Paying by credit card or exchanging money on arrival would have incurred similar losses.
I could have done, and should have done, two three-week trips to Latin America for that money?
The rest of my stay will have to be pretty awesome and my business has to run very well to justify the expenses and effort and deprivations!
Tue 2dec2020
Released, finally can go looking for staff for my gogo bar. That will be in a separate post.
On check-out, I chat with a US-American who has a Vietnamese girlfriend. He cannot go to visit her in Vietnam, and she cannot go to visit him in the USA, so they meet in Cambodia. They quarantine in different places, and now they will be together for two weeks, and then each returns to their home country. That must be love!
Copyright 2020 ChristianPFC
