When in Cambodia… and you’re traveling with someone who has a passport from Pakistan (or Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, or North Korea, for that matter), it’s not a really brilliant idea to sit down in front of the US Embassy and take pictures for over half an hour.
In case you decide to do so…because you’re unaware that you’re actually sitting directly in front of the US Embassy…because you’re so focused in on trying to get really good pics of tuk tuks driving by… a few things may happen to you:
First, the security guard sitting in his little hide-out spot might just happen to give a little shout out to his other law enforcement friends on his shoulder-strapped-in walkie talkie.
Next, your Pakistani friend sitting right next to you might warn you that it’s time to go because maybe, just maybe, they have past experience of being instantly profiled as a possible terrorist suspect by almost every different type of security/law enforcement officer imaginable – at airport, customs, immigration, near any type of official building, museum, bank, or pick your place at random and I’m sure that counts as well…
And let’s just say that since you’re NOT from... well, one of the countries with passports that make it EXTREMELY difficult to travel...and you don’t think about these things every time you’re in public and you don’t have a growing paranoia in the back of your mind that everyone is constantly STARING at you…
well, in THAT case, it may turn out that you’re entirely, and innocently, oblivious to mr. security man talking openly into his walkie-talkie.
So, if you find yourself in this situation at any given time…
And you remain completely unaware of the, now THREE, security guards huddling together while continuing to make calls into their walkie talkies…
And if you just sit there like an ignorant dumbo, still naively attempting to get the perfect shot of that tuk tuk as the sun catches the glint of its handlebars just right…
And meanwhile, 5…6… 7 security guards have decided that “there’s an Arab guy sitting right out in front of the Embassy, just staring at us” (or something similar I’m sure)…
Don’t worry! Just nonchalantly get up from your photo spot, and start walking the other direction…
HOWEVER, IF the security guards come after you… swarm you…and detain you for, I don’t know… let’s say another half an hour…
then all you have to do is:
just answer their questions politely,
be glad that neither you, nor your travelling buddy, has their passport on them, in which case it would have been a little harder to get the guards to believe the lie that you’re both US citizens,
make sure you DO give them your correct cell phone number, which (I’m just guessing of course… just a hunch here…) they’ll probably write down in their spy notebook (along with a slew of other things, including your address, place of work, etc.) & call right in front of you to verify that it works properly and actually rings,
and if you do all of these things,
not forgetting to smile regularly, of course,
and then DELETE all of the great tuk tuk shots you oh-so-carefully spent the last who knows how long trying to capture… because the embassy police aren’t too keen on you saving any photos on your memory card that were taken near the beloved, sacred embassy building…
yes, yes, just do these things and I’m sure at some point they will let you go.
They may call you again another day to add even more information to their spy notebook, so it’s imprinted forever as they file it away in the vault,
but do not fear, you’ll be fine!
You may, however, realize at some point that it’s probably NOT a good idea to put your Pakistani travelling buddy into this kind of situation in the future,
ESPECIALLY when they’ve already had to make countless personal trips to the Cambodian immigration office; the government may make it unbelievably easy for Americans and Europeans to live & work in their country, but not-so-easy for… well, I don’t know… oh! How about Pakistanis, for example, to do the same thing.
In fact, if you’re travelling with someone who does have a passport from one of the previously mentioned countries, and they seem a bit annoyed or skeptical about your carefree “oh, it’ll be fine!” comments, after being detained, or questioned, for the umph-teenth time… you might just want to cut them some slack, and try NOT to do all of the clueless things that come quite naturally most of the time. Hehe...
Well, that, or just stop taking pictures outside of US Embassies.
