"Whether the weather be hot, 
  Or whether the weather be not,  We'll weather the weather,  Whatever the weather,  Whether we like it or not ." 
                  -author unknown
 
They wouldn't let me board the plane. They asked about a visa for China. I don't have one. "I am not staying in Shanghai", I said. "I am only transferring planes on my way to Cambodia."

I am talking to the agent at the ticket counter for China Airlines. Finally, they agree I do not need a visa for China if I do not leave the airport.

They check my passport for a visa for Cambodia. I tell them I have entered Cambodia twice and always get a 30 day visa on arrival. They go back to their computers and check. By now the managers are involved. They all agree I can get a 30-day visa on arrival at the Cambodian airport. 

But, there is another problem. They want to see my flight ticket out of Cambodia before I board the plane. It's called the onward flight ticket, and many countries require you to have one before entering their country by air.

I don't have one . I don't know how long I want to stay, and when I do leave, I will leave by land, not by plane.

They do not accept that. I must have an airline ticket flying out within 30 days (the length of time my visa will be for).

I say I have entered Cambodia several times and immigration never required an onward ticket. They argue the information they got from Cambodia says I do need one. It takes a while with them running back and forth and consulting a lot. 

The problem with the way I travel is that I don't know when I want to leave a country. I might leave before the visa expires, or renew the visa to stay longer. Also, traveling around southeast Asia, I usually will be traveling out of the country overland by train or bus or boat, not flying. But, the onward ticket must be an airline ticket, nothing else.

They come back with printed sheets of paper from Cambodia . They say I must have an onward ticket or show financial means to be able to leave the country once my visa expires. I have credit cards and cash. What do they want me to show, I ask. They don't ask to see either.

The supervisor leaves again and before long returns with a couple of printed forms. If I will sign these, relieving the airlines of responsibility, they will let me board. 

The deal is, if the airlines bring passengers into a country without an onward flight ticket out, the airlines can be fined and are responsible to transport the passenger back to the place they brought them from, at the airlines expense. 

So, understandably, the airlines have been enforcing the rule very strictly. When I left Hawaii flying to Japan I had to show an onward flight leaving Japan. I had that, no problem.

The thing is, though, immigration in these countries never ask for the onward flight ticket once you get there . They just give you the visa and let you through. So, the only problem you have is getting the airline to let you board the plane. 

Why do these countries make pointless laws like the onward ticket? It causes headaches for the airlines and the traveler. So, it's pointless to put this requirement on the airlines, when it is never enforced by the country.

Also, all the countries allow you to extend your visa while in their country. So why do you need an onward ticket within the time frame of the original visa? The onward flight ticket would be wasted if you got an extension to the visa. Another example of bureaucracy gone mad.

Finally, after signing the forms accepting all responsibility to enter the country, I am allowed to board the plane out of Japan.

Now they weigh my backpack. It is more than 10 kilograms in weight. I will have to check it . I have carried it all around the world and never had to check it, but with this China airlines, I will.

The layover in Shainghai was just a couple of hours. Soon I was on my way to Siem Reap, Cambodia. 

I told some of the friends I made while in Cambodia a few months ago, that I would try to be there in October to celebrate Ancestors' Day with them. It's called Pchum Ben in Cambodia. It's a Buddhist festival when people pay respect to the spirits of their ancestors and deceased relatives.

The festival lasts for 3 days, but the 15 days leading up to it is when the people practice the custom of "feeding the ancestors". 

All the Cambodians that can, go back to their place of birth during this time. This is probably the most important holiday they have. Government offices and a lot of businesses close for several days because so many people travel to their 'homeland' .

They believe the dead wander the world during this period of time. Many are believed to be in hell paying for their sins. They cannot see the sun and have no food to eat and no clothes to wear. 

Phchum Ben is the time when the spirits of the dead relatives can receive food from their living relatives, and get some relief. The people go to the pagoda on this day because they do not want their dead relatives to come for food and them not have some for them. The offering of food is to make their traveling more comfortable.

The gates of hell are believed to open on the main day of this festival. When the gates open, the dead are believed to be very active. This is the reason for the food offerings -- to help them during this busy time. 

The Cambodians gather at the temple and throw rice balls into the air and scatter rice in the open fields for their dead parents, brothers or sisters or other relatives .
 
The spirits will go to 7 different pagodas looking for their living relatives. If they cannot find them, it is believed the spirits will curse the living relatives, because they cannot eat food offered by anyone other than their living relatives.
 
Some of these ghosts can end their time in this purgatory of hell. Others are believed to leave it temporarily, but have to return to endure more suffering. The people believed to be in heaven rather than hell also benefit from the ceremonies.

The monks chant all night long on the one night the gates of hell are believed to open and release the people.

On the other days of the month of this festival, the Cambodian people take food to the monks at the temples. Each night food has to be taken to a different temple. A temple and the monks there can only receive food one night during the month.

But, I have not come for the religious part of the festival . Like many holidays in Cambodia, this one has turned into a month-long celebration with boat parades going down the river and boat races and other water activities, I am told.
 
Somnang, one of my Cambodian friends I met last time I was here, made the 4 hour trip from Battambang to Siem Reap to meet me the next day. He contacted one of his friends and we all met for dinner.

We learned his friend is to be married in one month. The three of us and his fiancee spent the next few days traveling around Siem Reap, viewing all the flooding in the streets and homes. This month is the end of the monsoon season in Asia and there has been a lot of flooding in Cambodia and Thailand.

One day we took a tuk tuk out to the dam. We bought a lot of food from the sellers on the bank at the dam, and took it with us on the ferry boat. There was some chicken and rice and vegetables, along with crickets and something that looked like grub worms.

The ferry dropped us off at some bamboo rafts in the lake . We ate on the bamboo raft and lounged the day away in the hammocks. There were a lot of these rafts tied together and by afternoon they were full of Cambodians. I was the only foreigner.

The dam turned out to be the same one my Portugese friend, Antonio, and I bicycled to the first time I was in Siem Reap earlier this year. It looks a lot different now, though, with all the high water.

For several days we all traveled by tuk tuk and motorbikes around Siem Reap. Flooding was everywhere.
 
A few days later Somnang and I made the 4 hour bus ride to Battambang.