Arrival in Siem Reap
Trip Start
Jul 02, 2009
1
104
118
Trip End
Nov 18, 2009
Siem Reap,
Cambodia
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
The journey to the airport took only ten minutes, and I arrived about 4.35am, almost two hours before my flight was due to depart at 6.30am. I had factored in time for finding transport and thought the journey would be longer, so was now wishing I could have had longer in bed, as I was knackered. The airport was tiny. The check-in desks for Lao Airlines were in a small room, and there was no conveyor belt for baggage, you simply placed it on some electric scales, then it was deposited in a corner to be loaded onto the plane. There was a big tour group of American pensioners, and not only were they all almost without exception peculiarly-dressed, but also loud and annoying. I tried to ignore their gormless squawking, thoroughly unwanted at such an unearthly hour, so as they were milling around the main hall, I went straight through to customs, where I encountered a bloke who literally didn't give a toss about his job - I left my water in my bag and he didn't even bat an eyelid. I had some awful coffee in the departure lounge cafe in an attempt to wake myself up, then soon the flight was called and we headed out to the plane. It was a small plane, a twin prop ATR-72, with only two seats on either side of the aisle. I had heard rumours of Lao Airlines being unsafe, so was a bit sceptical, but there was no need for this. Takeoff and landing were absolutely fine. The first stop was at Pakxe, further south. We had to disembark, then head into the terminal, go through immigration and get our exit stamp, then customs. It was only after sitting down in the departure lounge bored and looking in my wallet that I spotted that I still had £10 worth of kip, and I remembered reading that kip was not exchangeable outside of Laos. Bollocks. I asked the guys in customs if I could go back through to the main area, and looked around for a money exchange place. There were none. I asked one rather toothless old codger in a baseball cap and he just smiled, shook his head and said I'd have to head into town. Not an option. I vainly looked around, and a friendly looking younger bloke seemed approachable, so I asked him. He nodded, and took me to see another woman twenty metres away at the other end of the hall. She then led me to her office, a small travel company, and kindly changed my kip into dollars. Lovely. I walked back through immigration, arousing suspicion until they recognised me, had my bag scanned, again, presumably in case I'd used my five minute absence to load it full of banned items, then took a seat once more. A few minutes later the flight was called, and we were once again on the plane. Another hour, and we were at Siem Reap airport.
Straight into the terminal, after filling out a visa form I handed it to an official, along with $20 and a passport photo, and within a few minutes had a shiny new Cambodian visa. I headed down the corridor then outside, where Thuer, a tuk-tuk driver from my hostel, was waiting, holding a board adorned with my name. I hopped into his vehicle, and, delighted by the cool box on the floor containing some fizzy refreshments, I selected a 7Up. Airport pick-up had been exactly the same price quoted in my RG as a normal tuk-tuk price, so I had arranged this in advance. Soon we were whizzing south east down the road into Siem Reap, in and out of traffic, over smooth and also incredibly pot-holed and bumpy roads, until after twenty minutes we arrived at the hostel. I dumped my bag and went to do some much-needed blogging for a few hours, as it was only 10am and my room was not ready till midday. The hostel was totally pimped out, with a bar and large seating area downstairs, plus an indoor pool!
Shortly after midday I went up to my room, a large dorm with three bunk beds, plus an immaculate bathroom and large separate shower room. Bloody lovely. In my room was a bloke from London called Richard, and he had just arrived too. We got chatting, so after I'd sorted my stuff and we'd both had showers, we decided to head into town. The walk took about ten minutes, and after heading west over the river we settled on an attractive-looking restaurant selling both Western and Cambodian fare. I got a vegetable curry, which was very tasty. After this, we walked north with the river to our right and headed to the Royal Gardens. We were both surprised by how developed the area was, with art galleries, shopping centres and and restaurants all over. That said, the places in between were rather scratty at times, but that's only to be expected and kind of adds to the overall charm. After a wander in the gardens we headed south to get back to the hostel, but managed to get lost twice; our bearings were rendered rather uncertain as it was now after 6pm and the sun had set. Eventually we found the right street, and were soon back at the dorm.
Shortly afterwards, we headed downstairs and got some beers - Anchor beer is bloody nice and we had far too much of it over the course of the evening! We ordered some food from the restaurant too, and I was impressed by how nice it was; I had a very tasty burger. We got chatting to some other people staying at the hostel, and soon found ourselves playing a bowling game on the hostel's Wii on the big projector screen by the bar. I was as shit at fake bowling as I had been at normal bowling in Luang Prabang! Once it got to 10.30pm I was absolutely wrecked, having slept for under four hours, so I went to bed.
