Day 1: The voyage to Cambodia

Day 1: The voyage to Cambodia

Monday, November 25, 2013

The Logistics - we traveled through Vancouver, where we had a 5-hour layover, then a short stop in Hong Kong, then we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Monday morning.  Nicole's status was a God-send, as we were able to use the Cathay Pacific lounge at both Vancouver and Hong Kong.  I really took advantage of the free food and drinks, and in Hong Kong we were able to shower and everything...which makes for a world of difference in a 2-day trip.  Because of this, we felt pretty good when we arrived in Vietnam.



Banh Mi



Streets of Saigon

With about 5 hours to connect, we checked in for the flight and just took our carry-ons to the same part of town we stayed in back in 2010.  Had a 333 at the airport and another beer at the familiar bar "GO2" in town, ate a Banh Mi sandwich from the street vendor, looked at some beautiful oil paintings and clothes...then went back to the airport. 

We were both pretty happy to break up the travel with a little visit to a familiar, and fun, part of Vietnam.

The scenery on the flight was pretty amazing (over the lake between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap), and the airport was gorgeous Khmer architecture.  Vietnam immigration had been a little intimidating...but Cambodia was different.  EVERYONE needed a visa, and it was a well-oiled machine:  You give them the form and $20 USD and there are about 15 of them lined up and they just pass your passport down then call your name at the end.  There were about 100 people in line and we were done in 10 minutes tops!  Pretty amazing.

The Alley

Siem Reap is surprisingly clean, safe, and full of gorgeous buildings.  The hotels are all magnificent, even our "mid-range" spot caught my attention before I knew it was our hotel.  The hospitality was great--everyone has a BIG smile.  The downside is their English is limited which makes it hard to say "could you throw in a tour at half-price like we saw online" or that sort of thing.  But hey, lets consider it part of the charm.  It was reasonably late arrival at say 7:30pm so we went to the rooftop pool happy hour and had a local beer and Travis slowly began to fade.  We searched high and low for this place called Chamkar, a vegetarian Cambodian restaurant recommended in Lonely Planet.  We found it on "the Alley" which was in the Pub Street area.  Pub street is lined overhead with upside-down yellow umbrellas and huge neon "Pub Street" signs.   Bars and restaurants everywhere.  We didn't expect this type of nightlife, but it's a blast.  Being pretty tired after a long trip we ate some decent-but-not-amazing food, went and saw the cool night market then went home. Tomorrow we have a long day of temples!