Day 81

Friday 21st January 2011

This is NOT morning. 4.30am is NOT morning! We get up in the middle of the night to head to Wattay international airport for our flight to the land of custard and rice pudding… Cambooooooodia (think warped sense of humour and Ambrosia advert)!

The airport in Laos’ capital city really does not deserve status as an international airport – it’s more like a bus terminal. We sit and wait to board on tiny plastic chairs. Franky is bemoaning the fact that we only have 24 000 kip left and everything on the menu in the restaurant is at least 25 000 kip so he has to make do with a fag and water for breakfast.

We also learn that our flight to Siem Reap is going via Pakse in Southern Laos where we will have to get off to clear immigration. We’re not sure why you can’t officially leave Laos from the capital city but it seems this is not an option.

We board another little propeller plane and depart ontime at 6.30am. It is now light but I still think this is the middle of the night and so curl up to try and get some sleep. Franky on the other hand is now reading ‘The Marching Powder’ (book about San Pedro prison in La Paz) as I have just finished it and he is devouring it at an alarming rate.

Fortunately our flight includes meals so we are served 2 slices of apple, a slice of cake and a weird pastry thing that is a bit like a doughnut but with ham and cheese in the middle instead of jam! Beggars can’t be choosers so we eat it!

After an hour onboard we arrive in Pakse which has an even more primitive airport than Vientiane but we can clear immigration here. I am half asleep and shuffle off the plane in my socks and sandals looking particularly stunning! We are on the ground an hour before reboarding the same plane to Siem Reap which takes a further hour.

We pay for our visas – yet again we have to pay an extra dollar for not having photographs to give them. I don’t really understand this as they don’t take the photos we pay for, it just seems that if you bribe the officials a dollar they overlook the fact that you haven’t brought any!!

We are met by a tuk tuk transfer arranged by the hotel and head off to central Siem Reap. We arrive at about 10.30am and are told we can’t check into our room until 12 noon. It is absolutely baking outside already and the sun cream if buried in my backpack so we opt to wait it out in the hotel lobby. I am delighted to discover a book on the exchange shelf, ‘Survival in the Killing Fields’ which is recommended as ‘ The best book on Cambodia that has ever been published’ so I get stuck into that. I am keen to learn about the atrocities here in the 1970s under the Khymer Rouge regime and this book seems to fit the bill.

We check in as promised at 12 noon and after throwing the bags in the room head out for food and cash. The currency situation in Cambodia is weird. You can only withdraw US dollars from the cash machines and the majority of prices are quoted in US dollars. However, they only have $1 bills as the minimum denomination and no coins or cents. The local currency is Riels so you will get change in a combination of US dollars and Riels for anything less than $1 – or if they don’t have enough dollars, or just of that’s what they feel like!



Local Chemist shop we passed on our way to the bank - how far removed from Boots?!

 Just by the ATM machine Franky spies a KFC and declares that that is what he wants for lunch so in we go. After perusing the menu and not seeing what he wants he asks for his favourite – a fillet tower meal. Which they don’t do! He is offered a fillet burger instead and goes for that. I ask for BBQ sauce only to be told that my Zinger meal does not come with BBQ sauce. I agree to pay extra for the sauce to then be told that they don’t have any! Suffice to say the ordering process took a while!

We sit down and the food is prepared and brought over. Franky opens his burger…, ‘What is that?’ he asks incredulously looking at his burger which is slightly larger than a 50p piece!!!! He devours it in 2 bites and goes back to the counter to order more food. After a fillet burger, a zinger burger, 2 pieces of chicken and large fries he is satiated and we can leave!

It is back to the hotel for the comfort of an air conditioned room and a much needed sleep. We spend a lazy afternoon sleeping, reading and catching up with the blog – only to discover the internet isn’t good enough for us to publish the posts.

After a tepid shower we are feeling refreshed and head out to see what Siem Reap has to offer us. We are about 10 mins walk from the centre or ‘Pub Street’. I think we’re going to like it here! Pub Street is bustling with tourists and filled with restaurants and bars and even a club!

We opt for Mexican food tonight and a jug of Angkor beer. Franky is annoyed that his main meal arrives before his starter and lets the poor Cambodian waitress know it. They just don’t seem to adhere to a western order of dining. It is completely normal for us both to be served separately and for food to arrive in whatever random order it is ready. However, the food is good and plentiful and we leave stuffed to the gills. This is also on account of the huge quantities of water and beer we have consumed in an attempt to rehydrate.

We’re not feeling much like another drink so go for a wander and come across a night market with a Cambodian dancing show on offer.

After checking out the stalls I spy a crammed area at the back advertising  ‘ Foot scrub and massage, 1 hr, $6’. Franky has been moaning about his dry feet since we commenced the trip and this sounds perfect. I convince him to book in and book myself in for a foot massage, manicure and pedicure to keep him company.

Franky is sat next to an Australian lad who had also been bullied into it by his girlfriend. The conversation went something like this:

Franky: First time?

Aussie: Yup, you?

Franky: Yeah – wife (points at me)

Aussie: Girlfriend (points at girl sat next to me)

Then they resumed their uncomfortable silence - that was the sum total of their conversation for the whole hour. Had they met at a urinal I think they’d have had more of a conversation!!!!

After our pampering it was getting late and we still weren’t really in the mood to party so we headed back to the hotel. I had a heavy day of sightseeing planned for the following day!