Day 44 - Bangkok to Phnom Penh

  Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Tuesday, October 16, 2007

After a decent night's sleep we were up at a reasonable time with a simple plan to grab some brekkie and do a bit of internetting (if that's a verb ?) and get our behinds to the airport for our 2:50pm Air Asia flight.

The road outside looked rather different without all the neon loneliness (thanks Manics), in fact it was almost, dare I say, quiet...





All went to plan and after just missing the airport bus we jumped in an uncharacteristically friendly taxi and sped off to the new Bangkok airport.

We'd only ever arrived in BGK airport, so we didn't realise what a fantastic airport it was as we'd never seen the shops etc.

Obviously most of my last 10 years has been spent working in airport retail, so I tend to notice when airports are really well laid out, but even Katie approved of this one ! Great shopping, great food, great infrastructure, it was a pleasure to fly out of there, and how often can you say that these days ?!

We had lunch in a Japanese place, which whilst not cheap, was excellent. I had my old favourite of Katsu Don (pork cutlet with egg & onions on bowl of rice) and some Gyoza (Japanese pork dumplings served with vinegar - yum !), while Katie had some really nice spicy noodle soup.

We both had green tea for once, and felt suitably refreshed for the 3.5 hr flight to the capital of Cambodia.

The flight left a bit late but our first Air Asia experience (low cost Thai carrier) was excellent. New(ish) planes, no horendous colour schemes outside or inside the planes, and no ridiculous uniforms for the staff.

As we came into land we could see just how green and undeveloped Cambodia was from the sky, it looked like Laos without the mountains, which boded well because we both LOVED Laos...

At the airport we filled in our visa forms and handed them over, a very efficient operation which produced them in a couple of minutes - very impressive for Asia - and they cost $20 each. Katie was gutted that her visa was stuck in poorly that it crunched up her passport, but you'll be pleased to read that they took better care with mine ;)

Ok, after clearing Cambodian customs we were soon picking up our bags and jumping in a taxi for the 40 min ride into the centre.

En route we selected a couple of guest-houses, which our AMAZINGLY FRIENDLY taxi driver helped critique while suggesting alternatives. After the somewhat brusque characters we've become used to so far, he was a real breath of fresh air. He also seemed to be genuinely helpful rather than trying to sell us somewhere for his commission...

We decided to try one of his recommendations, right on the riverside. It looked ok from the outside, and after the usual haggling we'd secured a nice double room on the first floor, with balcony, nice big bath, and satellite tv. The last point is VERY important because I need to be able to watch Russia v England in the Euro qualifier tomorrow night, especially as I think it's on at about 2am over here ! COME ON BOYS !

We were both knackered after spending about 2 days in the air, staying in a rather dodgy room last night, so we chilled on the bed and watched a movie, the football movie "Goal" which even Katie seemed to enjoy.

It's been a day of surprises, and the film was also a pleasant one, it was better than I'd expected, even if the last game/last second climax did see Newcastle beating my heroes Liverpool to dump them out of the Champions League qualification place. YEAH RIGHT ;)

After the film we put on our glad rags and strolled down the river to find somewhere to eat, and after a few red herrings (i.e. Katie taking us to somewhere that didn't exist !) we settled on a very pleasant place for some Cambodian cuisuine.

Katie went for some weird kind of dry curried fish thing, and I plumped for the fish cakes with pork, which were very interesting.

The "Ankor" beer is very quaffable, and Katie loved her glass of Cab Sauv', and the not unattractive waiting staff were decked out in tight red outfits (all girls), so all in all it was exceedingly pleasant !

Tomorrow we'll either walk around the city or hire a taxi to take us to the Killing Fields north-west of the city, which are supposed to be very harrowing but essential to visit. It depends on the weather, so we'll decide tomorrow over breakfast...

Until then, I bid you all a fond adieu, especially if you're French and enjoyed the rugby on Saturday !!! ;) ALLEZ LES BLANCHES !!!!!

Lots of love,


Al & Katie xx