"I don't understand why they allowed you to leave the airport to go to an ATM machine when you haven't cleared immigration. What safeguard did they have that you would return?"
Great question. Didn't make any sense to me either. The other people who were getting jerked around by these officials were at the ATM outside the airport too. Airport staff saw me doing it and didn't complain after I said "pay for visa" so I go the idea this was a common thing, as weird
as it felt doing it..
I considered running away when I realized I had everything I needed except my passport, which would (maybe) cost less than
$170 to replace, but gave up the idea when I had a vision of my face being broadcast on local TV as fugitive of the week. There is very little English spoken in this airport,and the clerks are aggressive, so most people want to just pay up and keep out of trouble..