Cambodia Installment 1 - getting there, getting around, getting home.

In my current state of exhaustion it seems that writing a bit at a time about my 5 days in Cambodia is the best answer. So here is part one.

I left Thursday night for Siem Reap, Cambodia by way of Bangkok. The flight seemed absolutely perfect at first; i left at 12 am and arrived in Siem Reap at 8am, thinking i'd sleep all night on the plane and have a full day to do whatever. Unfortunately i'd forgotten about the 3 hour layover in Bangkok and the meal and drink service on the flight which left only about 2 to 3 hours of sleep before my arrival. Luckily the flight to Bangkok (like all the flights i took on this trip actually) was pretty empty and i had 3 seats all to myself. I'd forgotten how fabulous Thai Airways is - really good blankets and pillows, nice (and of course beautiful) staff, good food, free alcohol, choice of green tea, black tea, and regular or decaf coffee, and more. Plus the hot towels... fabulous. And who doesn't love an airline whose color is purple? On the first flight, about 5 and a half hours, they fed us two meals, which just seems ridiculous. Especially given that in the states if you fly domestic from LA to New York you don't necessarily even get a free soda anymore. How Thai Airways makes it with a half-full flight I don't know. On the flight back they even offered cognac after dinner.

I also had no idea how great Bangkok airport was. Or maybe its been recently updated or i was in a different part of the airport. But for my layover I had the option of 'retiring' to the Thai Airways or Bangkok Airways lounge for a few hours, and with plush couches and the blanket and pillow from the airplane I had a good nap. At about 5 in the morning there wasn't much open for shopping or eating, but the couches were phenomenal.

Then we had a like 30 second flight from Bangkok to Siem Reap where they again served us food on Bangkok Airways "Asia's boutique airline." Never figured out what that was meant to mean except maybe small - on the way out to our plane every one we passed was basically a prop plane and i was terrified we'd be on a puddle-jumper with propellers instead of proper engines. Eeek. Somehow lucked out and had a regular plane 3x3 seats (747? i dont know my plane lingo).

So now that i'm done with my rant on planes, i'll move on to tuk tuks. While in Siem Reap and going around to the temples the most common mode of transportation is in a tuk tuk, a small roughly 4-seater cart pulled behind a motorcycle. For about 50 cents you can get a ride from your guesthouse into the main part of town or to a market or restaurant. For $10 the tuktuk will drive you around the temples all day. Given the climate of Siem Reap, especiallly now with rainy season picking up, the tuk tuk was great. It was breazy and kept me cool, and when it sprinkled protected me from getting wet. When it was raining really hard there were rain flaps with plastic windows to keep me dry. It was ideal. I will admit to feeling a little strange riding around alone in a tuk tuk... most tourists had 2 or 3 people in each tuk tuk. When i saw Cambodians in one there were usually whole families of 6 or so people. But it was always just me.

It was even just me when i was riding around the back of a tuk tuk and we got a flat tire. We had to pull off the road and push the tuk tuk to a small repair place a bit down the way. There i was all alone with the family of the tire repair-man who was helping the tuk tuk driver, as it was raining and i was instructed to go inside and stay dry with the family of 5 kids (two of whom were naked) and the mother. They spoke precisely three words of english, and i one of khmer. This made for lively conversation in which they said "hello" and "bye bye" about a million times, and i thanked them repeatedly.

Then i was all alone in the back of a tuktuk when the same tire went flat later and we spent an hour on the side of a fairly busy road trying to fix it before giving up, driving it flat to the nearest shop to buy a new one.

My final discussion of transportation leads me to trains. Today i got into Kansai Airport at 5:30am. I generally assume it takes about 2 and a half hours to get from Shiga to KIX, so figured i'd be back home by about 9. Unfortunately that early in the morning, and through rush hour, the trains weren't really running the way i expected. Plus there is the inevitable frusteration of catching a bus that leaves once per hour. I finally made it back to my apartment 3 trains, a bus, 4500 yen, and almost 5 hours later! Thank god i didn't try to go into work for half the day today.