Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Siem Reap here we come! (8 Jan 2011)
Tot i got air tix and guide settled months ahead. Got a morning email from the supposed guide - couldn't meet us for the tour as his grandma is ill. Was very disturbed by this. But sigh, he has a valid reason...
Rushed to the airport, only to be told by Silkair that I need to show the original credit card that I bought the ticket. I told them American Express upgraded the card to chip-based and sent me a new one, i already cut the old card into 2, how am I going to show her the original card, tickets being booked more than 3 months ago? As I was frantically calling American Express and explain the situation, the Silkair lady reluctantly handed me a form that request for change of card. I was like: must you do that only when we were already standing at the counter for 15 mins? She didn't even tell me the flight was delayed for 2 hours. I discovered that only when I was through the immigration and looked at the FIDS. Great. And I have no way to inform the driver at Siem Reap as well now that the guide has cabut. Grudgingly, we walked to the airport cafeteria to take some food, I haven't had any solid food from morning till now. The cafeteria changed so much ever since i left airport 5 years ago. Then again, it is understandable. Changi this is.
The gatehold room finally opened. Is this really Silk Air flight?? It carries more angmos and japs than the locals. This is the first time when SQ or MI flight has more foreigners than the locals. Guess Siem Reap doesn't rank high on locals' to do list, especially now that skool hol is over.
From the window, you can slowly make out the Indo-China landscape as it is nearing Cambodia. The village houses glowed under the sunset of Siem Reap. Airport turned out to be one of the best place of watching sunset in Siem Reap haha.
The driver was already waiting for us at the arrival hall of Siem Reap airport. Many guides were waiting for their customers with the black long pants and yellow long-sleeve. Our driver was in plain clothes, which means he is not a guide. No guide for us sigh. He must have the longest wait in his life. He spoke little English and most of the time we were trying to guess what he was saying. The van seemed to big for just the two of us. He always have difficulty in starting the van, battery problem i think? It happened for the subsequent days and everytime when he start his van, I have this feeling that we might need to push his van haha.
It was a 10 min drive from the airport to hotel. Dropped our luggage in hotel before we head out for dinner.
We let him drove us to a restaurant but the restaurant was dead quiet. Beside us, there was only another table with guests. The price of the food wasn't cheap. We then later discovered that the food in Pub Street is so much nicer and cheaper. Thanks to the driver. He really knew how to make the already bad day worse.
The hotel is some small distance from the city but very cheap. The room is spacious, with one double bed and one single. EK has generously left the masterbed to me. Given my size, I am contented just with the single bed. Free wifi at the lobby.
We didn't go to the town that night as we have a early morning tomorrow - 430am tomorrow for sun rise at Angkor Wat. So we decided to sleep early. There were some disco music suddenly blasting in the distant during mid night tho. Annoying. Couldnt really get it out of the head. Dunno where it came from and it never happen again for subsequent night. Strange heh?
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