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A week in Cambodia

Traipsing about Cambodia was exciting and hot..seriously HOT... it didn’t rain once during my stay!

Day 1: 29th Dec - Setting off. Flight 3K 593, SIN to PNP.
Lugged along my luggage to work and charged off to Changi right after the Year-end party wrapped up. Checking in at the JetStar queue was rather messy, reason being we’re weren’t sure which snaking line to join. Eventually we were all checked-in, got seats in the same row and no one lost any luggage. Verdict: Pass but Barely...

The Phnom Penh airport though tiny by international standards was very nice, clean and new. Clearance took forever though, attributed to the ‘New Computer System’. Travelling by budget air means we don’t get an aerobridge, gotta walk across the tarmac. Thankfully there was no rain!

The real Phnom Penh became apparent after we stepped out from the airport. The free pick-up from our guest house turned out to be neither a van nor a car … (Moi was still rather hopeful after crossing the airport carpark --> ‘Oh, the guesthouse save money don’t park at airport!’)

… Only to be greeted by 2 Tuk Tuks.. *Gulp*… so 3 of us squeezed into each Tuk Tuk hugging our belongings. Traffic in Phnom Penh is quite amazing.. or rather it is the way drivers somehow manage to get by with like almost non-existant traffic lights, motorbikes with a whole family on them, zippy Tuks Tuks which we discovered can swerve like bikes when turning fast enough…and oh there are no restrictions on whether the steering wheel is on the left or right. Anything goes.. Despite how messy it sounds, its somehow quite orderly. talk about order among the chaos.

Btw, the ubiquitious rich man car is not the SLK or BMW but the Lexus SUV - figured its Mighty enuf for the hazardous traffic. The Lexus drivers are every inch as snotty as our local SLKs’!
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Onward to Happy Guesthouse for the nite. Unlike its name, it wasn’t a very cheery place. Firstly, there wasn’t enuf rooms for us, and after a rather tense half hr or so, we settled down in a triple room for the 4gers and the guys shared a double.

Next, the boss told us ‘No more bus ticket to Siem Reap’. We had placed orders for the Mekong Express Company. But well, expect the unexpected. So he booked another company which cost USD$6 instead of 12. Half price so wat's not to love? And after spending the night in a so-so room where Kexin caught a roach, we had breakfast by the river and made our way to the bus pick-up.
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Day 2: 30th Dec
Now the USD$6 ride was another surprise.
1. Aircon which hardly coughed out any air.
2. Mosquitos – whipped out insect repellant
3. Almost non-existant suspension which ensured a super bumpy ride.
4. The half hour stopovers at like 3 pick-up spots.
5. Overbooking!!! This one was quite scary. Folks were made to sit on little plastic stools along the aisle. Moi started scribbling our seat numbers onto the tics cos some tics apparently came with numbers and some without. It din help one bit since the driver cum ticketer cum seat assigner tore off the portion I wrote on…But thankfully non of us were evicted from our seats.
6. The little ger in front of me decided to open the window for ventilation. Ventilation’s good but wind gusting against your left cheek with loads of dust is no good. Its like blackhead heaven...

Anyway we reached Siem Reap at 230 instead of the promised 1230. Since our free pick-up was waiting for us at the Mekong Express Bus terminal, we had no transport, which meant we were in rip-off heaven for the Tuk Tuk drivers.

To be continued ... still 'optimising' the pics. Part 2 will be pic heavy.

posted by 33 @ 1:14 AM