Passport Precipice

*Ring Ring* *Ring Ring*
"Hello?"
"It's Clint from the embassy"

Pretty Australian.  Clint had been in contact with a specialist team back in Australia that deal with these kinds of passport issues.  It turns out that my passport is still ok and valid (hurrah!) ..BUT.. this did not mean that some random immigration worker on some border crossing somewhere would not take issue with a torn page.  It would be something that I would have to decide on risking by myself (Clint threw in here that he would personally do it and did not think it would be an issue).

Thanks Clint!

So I am going to staple it together in a non-obvious fashion and hope for the best!
I had a devious plan though which I hoped might stave off the need for my dodgy staple job.  I was going to the Vietnamese Embassy to get my VISA.
I caught a ride on a moto with a driver wearing a hard hat to the Vietnamese embassy, but it was closed for the next half an hour, so I had to wait.

Waiting photo

After a stinking hot wait, the doors opened and I scampered into the VISA office.
After filling out the form, I asked the man at the counter if he could stick the page sized VISA sticker to the opposite side of the torn page, thus mending it with great efficiency!  To my surprise he nodded and said OK!

Then proceeded to not do it.  :(  Fail.  Back to dodgy staple fix it seems.

I would like to add at this point, that since I have arrived in Cambodia, I have been sick.  There was some slight relief from the seemingly brutal Khmer cupping and scraping I had done, however illness persisted and I even picked up some new ones to add to the pile.

Extreme Cupping

A few days ago, the friend I was initially staying with (whom was also sick), told me he had found out he caught Typhoid and that it was possible that I had it too.  Well shit.
Considering how crap I have been feeling and after reading up on Typhoid, it was certainly worth going to the doctor to make sure.
I arrive at the clinic, get assessed by the doctor and he decides on a blood test straight away.  I have it done by the nurse (by the way, the most painless injections and needle work I've ever experienced) and am told to come back at 5pm.
I return punctually for my results.  POSITIVE to Typhoid, but this is quickly dismissed by the doctor as he asked me if I was vaccinated against it which I was..... 3 weeks ago... hence the positive result.
At the risk of sounding historically insensitive, the Cambodian doctor decided to carpet bomb my body with meds, just to make sure.

"I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

While waiting for my script to be prepared I was sitting next to a Khmer girl in the waiting room.  She started talking to me and it turns out she was one of the reception girls from the Biker hotel I was staying at previously and had recognised me.  We talked a little and she told me that the hotel was dying fast... that the owner and his friends were drunk and stoned most of the time and the business was hemorrhaging.  Such a shame.

My script was declared ready so I collected it and returned to my hotel only to see what I had been prescribed.  Take your medicine, Michael....TAKE IT.

Relax guy, it's perfectly harmless!

So back to the passport.  I leave for Saigon on Monday morning on a bus that goes to Phnom Penh then across the border into Vietnam.  This is where my passport will be put to the test.  I can't imagine how amazingly annoying it will be to get turned away from the border there, have to come back into Cambodia, buy a new VISA for Cambodia, go to Phnom Penh again and organise a new passport with the Australian embassy there.

Fingers crossed eh?