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Today we had a sleep in and then went to the airport for our flight to Siem Reap which was to depart at 3.50pm. Despite being the capital city of Vietnam Hanoi's airport was quite small and they didn’t have check-in queues for specific flights, all flights on Vietnam Airlines checked-in at the same place. We were told to go to a counter labelled "Groups" which despite the label was used to check anyone in.
We were lucky enough to be waiting behind two people who we assume were Vietnamese travelling to Thailand. The woman checking them in asked for their return ticket or proof they had booked a return flight. The guys checking in didn’t like that very much so they started making some noise and the manager turned up to sort it out. After much rummaging through bags and carrying on they were finally able to check in. While all this was going on about 20 other people who arrived after us had checked in so we decided to hedge our bets, one standing in one line and the other staying in line behind the angry Vietnamese guys. The other line moved fastest as the Vietnamese guys then had to repack their bags which caused even more delays.
We finally checked in and went through security. We were told to get rid of the water bottles we were carrying as no liquids on board, so into the bin they went. We put our bags on the belt to go through the x-ray machine and walked through the metal detector then went to collect our bags on the other side. We grabbed our bags and began to walk away when we were called back as there was liquid in the bag. It was only then that we realised we left a can of coke in the bag. We had to sit in the naughty corner and drink the coke before we could move on into the terminal.
Any hopes of some lunch before the flight was dashed as there were only two crappy, over-priced “restaurants” in the terminal. We decided to eat our last few Kit-Kats and watch the planes take off and land before heading to the boarding gate. It became apparent that the flight was almost entirely filled with Canadian and Korean package tourists. We took a seat before the Korean contingent arrived and stood our ground as they tried to drive us away using crowding tactics and inanely loud jabbering. Out of nowhere the announcement was made that boarding was commencing. The Koreans and the Canadians were caught napping as we worked our way through the Korean scrum and boarded the flight.
The flight was uneventful, other than having to fill out immigration and customs form for Cambodia which meant writing the same information on three separate forms, until we approached Siem Reap. Looking out the window every inch of Cambodia looked to be flooded. We hadn’t packed waders so we were concerned about walking around in floodwater. As we neared the airport the water disappeared and everyone’s focus turned to spotting the Angkor Temples from the air. Peoples’ heads were swinging back and forth and both sides of the plane glanced at people on the other side to see if they had seen anything. As it turns out we were all losers, no one saw jack.
We arrived in Siem Reap around 5.30pm and after much consideration about declaring our medication on the customs form we decided we would rather than risk a fine or spending some quality time in a luxurious Cambodian prison. We passed through immigration, collected our bags and then headed for customs. It was three guys having a chat and they took our forms as we went past and didn’t even look at them!
Outside we found our driver to take us to the hotel. Again, we looked around to see if we could spot Angkor Wat on the way to the hotel. Our driver made this simpler by taking the scenic route right past the south gate of the temple complex.
We arrived at the hotel which was a little way out of the city and in an area we would call semi-rural. The hotel was in some tropical gardens and consisted of a number of old colonial buildings. We checked in and then went to our room, we were on the top level overlooking the pool. The room was nice, rustic but it was supposed to be that way. The semi-rural nature of the place was highlighted by the pigs squealing from the property next door. As part of the rate at the hotel we had a dedicated tuk-tuk and driver for our stay. From sunrise until 10pm they would pick us up and take us wherever we wanted. Out driver was Seth (pronounced Set) and his first task was to take us into town for dinner.
The tuk-tuks in Cambodia are a motorbike with a covered trailer with two bench seats in the back. We had dinner in town and then called by the supermarket for some supplies before returning to the hotel for the night. We read a notice left on the bed to say that due to testing a new power supply the electricity in Siem Reap is turned off for about 5 minutes at 10pm and 5am Monday to Friday. Sure enough, at 10pm the power went out for about 5 minutes. The problem being that it turned off the air conditioning which is a place so hot and humid is a problem.
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