It’s OVER and BEGINNING all at ONCE...: Project Cambodia: Siem Reap (22nd

Monday 22^nd June, 2015

I was really glad that Ephraim decided to come along with me to Cambodia, we seem pretty similar in our travelling ways and I felt that we would get on really well – and we did! It was also awesome having Nic around coz we caught up every night I was there – yeah, the whole TWO nights that I was in Cambodia.

So, early Monday morning I heard Nic moving around getting ready to leave, he was flying Thai airlines and was going to the main airport and Ephraim and I were leaving from the smaller airport – so, he left before us because his was further away. We woke up at about 6.30am to leave the whare by 7am to catch a taxi to Don Muang airport – it was lucky the gate guy helped us hail a taxi – man, talk about traffic jam in Bangkok, I guess thinking about it now of course it was going to be busy, just because I’m on holiday it doesn’t mean the rest of the world is – LoL! So, it was crawling for about 15-20minutes before Ephraim said we should’ve checked in online – thank goodness for cheap internet here in Thailand coz I was able to check in on my phone while we were in the taxi – then Ephraim checked in too – good move!

But, by the time we got on the motorway it was all good! And we arrived at 8am as expected (or, as planned really). We got through customs relatively quickly and had time to get a quick kai before getting on the plane – some good old chicken and rice, wait Krispy Kremes in Thailand?? Yes please! And off we were to our plane, you can bet as soon as I sat down I was sleeping. LoL! And before I knew it the flight was over, my buddies sitting next to me put my customs forms in the pocket in front of my seat – and it was the cutest little airport ever – kind of reminds me of the Hilo, Hawaii airport – but bigger. In any case, I was now rejuvenated and excited to explore Cambodia. We get into the airport & I remembered that I had put the passport size photo’s you need for the Cambodian visa in my blimin luggage – Then I realized that you don’t collect your luggage until AFTER customs – well, I needed that blimin photo FOR customs brought all the way to Southeast Asia for this very purpose and on that VERY morning I put it in my luggage?? Wow, really clever! So, I start getting nervous like ‘Are they going to let me in?’ and then Ephraim is like ‘Do you have USD?’ I be like, USD? I’m in Cambodia! I was going to exchange currency from Baht to Riel IN duty free/customs – NO SUCH LUCK – it was the smallest customs, you literally only go through it, no duty free, no nothing – So funny! But, at the time NOT funny – so I borrowed some doleros from Ephraim and hoped that they just charged me a little extra for them taking a photo – LUCKY they did!

Because I was having the MEKE sleep on the plane and didn’t fill in my forms I went to a “spare” table in customs, looked for a sign to see if I was or was not allowed to sit down, no sign – so I sat down, a moment later – “Lady, lady, what you want?”, I replied “Just filling forms”, I was told off for sitting there coz it was an official table and chair – LoL! Oh well… Well, there was that and the photo buzz, I was about ready to turn around and get back on the plane to Thailand – LoL!

So, we get through customs & lo and behold there’s the currency exchange place so we get all of our remaining baht exchanged to riel and felt pretty happy about that, then off to get a Cambodian sim card – taking my phone out of the very protective case $5 from Kmart & what do you know SMASH right on the concrete floor! Seriously, that’s why I have such a boofy blimin case so that it would be protected when it is dropped – as for Murphy and his dumb laws, of course it was one of the very FEW times I take it out that it smashed, the screen wouldn’t be in there if it wasn’t for the protective case – as it fell I was like, hmmm – it could be ok, then it was yay, new phone through insurance so, we’ll see – the day or so before Ephraim had booked the airport shuttle for us, but he didn’t hear back from them to confirm if it was a go or not – so we were pleasantly surprised when his name was on a paper outside the airport.

We get to our place and it’s pretty decent aye, real happy with it – we didn’t even need to go to the reception coz Mr Sokkol came to us, helped us to a comfy seat in the lobby, had refreshing face towels for us and a cold juice and he went and did everything for us as we sat there, the bags were even taken care of… it was so lovely, then we insisted that we look at our tour options for the next day and Mr Sokkol says that we should have USD… I’m like HUH??? He said everywhere in Siem Reap it is better to have USD – what a fail! But, Cambodia was setting up to be a great fail – LoL! But Mr Sokkol was so cool and friendly that helped make up for most everything else.

So, we decided on the ‘small circuit’ as opposed to the ‘grand circuit’ for our tour and opted for an English tour guide to take us around, and we were happy with our decisions.

We decided to have lunch at the hotel & relax, we went for a swim and then both had sleeps (in our separate rooms). Nic was finished earlier then expected and so he came over – Ephraim was still sleeping so we went and woke him up – dangerous, he was funny half sleeping, half awake – LoL! And off we were on my first tuk tuk ride to the night market for dinner. Before dinner though Nic followed through with his goal to eat a tarantula and I tapped right out of it when I saw what it looked like and that it was NOT tempura – so covering what it looked like it was straight deep fried spider – no thanks! But, he went for gold and ate one of each insect the guy was offering – LoL! Hearty! Then we had a feed – it was ok, the curries weren’t as strong as Thai curries.

Nic had taken a sleeping pill because he planned to go to the sunrise and had been on the go all day – so he left us, and we had our feet eaten by fish eating off the dead skin and man it was so ticklish! It was crack up! Took forever to get used to, and it was fun! Sort of like a bucket list thing and now it’s done. There was a mean as live band playing in a bar above us, so we went had one drink before heading back and tapping out for the day, we knew we had a long day ahead of us, pick up at 8am, drop off at 4.30pm and the whole day would be walking.