Visa Troubles

Posted by Stuart at 10:17 AM on October 09, 2002

So far my trip has been fairly smooth and hassle free, at least from a bureaucratic standpoint (food posioning not included). I have stayed even-keeled and balanced and my emotions have mostly all been of the positive kind. This all changed this past week, however. Now that I am making life-changing decisions on jobs and housing, the stress level has risen dramatically and more negative emotions have broken the surface a few times.

My first episode happened as I was looking for apartments with Mag and our American friend Kary. I'll leave that story for another day.

I am living through the second episode now. My 90-day tourist visa expires tomorrow, so I am in Singapore trying to get an extension. Actually, I am trying to get a Non-Immigrant Visa so that I can start working on the 24th. I came here armed with my offer letter from he university and false hopes of it being a smooth process.

The trouble started in the Bangkok airport. Unknown to me, my 90-day visa was only good for "single entry". In other words, when I went to Angkor Wat in Cambodia 3 days after I arrived in Thailand, I used up / nullified my visa and was granted the normal 30-day tourist visa when I returned. So when I tried to leave yesterday, I was informed that I had overstayed that visa by 30 days and I had to pay a 200 baht (US$5) fine for every day. Doing the math I now owed Thailand $150 because I didn't read the fine print somewhere.

Don't forget that 6000 baht is a heck of a lot of money (especially when dinners can be had for under 100). Needless to say I was furious. It was all I could do to not throw an American temper tantrum. But I keep my cool and fumed to myself most of the 2 hour flight to Singapore. I finally calmed myself down by telling myself that it will be worth it once I get my proper visa. Fine. Lesson learned.

So I get to the Thai Consulate today and present my offer letter. "Sorry," they say. "The letter must be addressed to the Consulate, not to you. You can have them fax it to us today and we can get the visa to you tomorrow." Well, that's fine except that the university is on break this week and no one is in the office. That means that I will return to Thailand tomorrow empty-handed and be granted another 30-day tourist visa that prohibits employment. Next week I will have to try to straighten things out from there.

If I step back and view these struggles from an intellectual standpoint, I am learning that there is a big difference between Thai and American culture with regards to handling difficulties. The Thai way seems to be to say "no problem." If its a really big difficulty (in my mind) they say "small problem". Several times this week Mag has told me that I am being too emotional. My friends in Singapore tell me that I am too impatient. This strikes me as ironic since most Americans would say that I am not emotional enough. (One good friend in particular would get angry with me because he said that I *NEVER* show emotion!)

So let's look on the bright side of things. While I'm here I hope to visit some friends who I haven't seen since I was here last November. I think I will also make a trip to IKEA to see if there is anything I can pick up for my new apartment in Bangkok. I will also continue to try to see my world in a more balanced, less stressful, more Asian way.

No Problem.

Shifting Perspectives

Posted by Stuart at 09:54 AM on October 10, 2002

After the visa fiascos of the past two days, I decided that since I was in Singapore, I might as well enjoy it. The rest of the day yesterday I did exactly that. I met up with my good friend Gary (who I knew from San Francisco) and hung out with him and some of his friends for the rest of the day.

I've been to Singapore a few times now and every time I visit I have a different impression of the small city-nation. The first time I visited was the first time I had ever been to Asia. A combination of jet lag and being in a new location made me think that Singapore was the most exotic place I had ever been. I marveled at all of the languages I heard, the Hindu and Buddhist and Christian temples that I saw, the new food that I ate.

The second time I visited Singapore, I had just spent time in Bangkok. All of a sudden this place seemed boring, quiet, structured, overbearing, repressed. There was nothing exciting or exotic compared to the chaos that is Bangkok.

My third visit (this one) comes after living in Thailand for two months. Now I see Singapore as a very clean, very nice, very relaxing place: most people speak English, public transportation is efficient, prices aren't too high, internet connections are fast, food is tasty, all the buildings are air conditioned, the streets are clean, there aren't any homeless people begging for change or asking me to buy something.

In other words, I've made three trips here and walked away with three different impressions. My mind wanders and spins as I think about my inability to find "truth". I want to be able to say "Singapore is ___." It doesn't matter what goes in the blank as long as something does. But the blank stays empty because it is dependent on my perspective and my perspective is always changing. In a safer, more controlled, more static time in America I could say with certainty, "Life is ___."

But now I can't. New experiences change me and challenge my perspective. And that doesn't even take into account the fact that the world in which I live is transforming and developing even as I try to understand what I am seeing.