Holiday in Cambodia Day 1: Siem Reap

If I only make about as many typos this time as I’ve had hours sleep today then I think I’m doing pretty good. Today has been a series of fitful, uncomfortable naps, followed by food, and repeat.

I got about 2 hours on the flight PER > SIN, followed by not the best airline breakfast. The staff were looking after me, though, as the inflight entertainment wasn’t working for my seat, so they kept checking to see if they could do anything else for me. It meant I got breakfast along with the dietary groups that normally get fed first, so I probably missed an extra 30 minutes sleep there. It was good that they did all they could to make my flight pleasant — though as it was an overnight flight I wasn’t intending to watch anything anyway.

Then Changi, where I mixed wandering around with popping into the GoldKris Lounge (thank you velocity gold status) for some food and liquid — tomato juice and water. I do love wandering around Changi, whether it’s watching the koi (some of them suckers are getting quite big) or checking out the duty free shopping, especially the whisky.

Then it was time to hop on the plane for Siem Reap, where after a passable chicken and rice I slipped into some more dozing. I was awake again by the time we crossed onto land, so I doubt I got more than an hour. I then kept my eyes glued to the window, fascinated by the new terrain unfolding below me. Aside from the obvious Vietnam bits (I think our flightpath took us over somewhere south of Ho Chi Minh), southern Cambodia does look a lot like Vietnam from the air. But as we got closer to Lake Ton Le Sap, the land changes quite a bit, as it’s mostly flood plain and swamps and mudflats around the edge of the lake.

And it’s a pretty big lake. You can go wikipedia the facts and figures for yourself, but in the wet season (and we’re about at the end of that now) it can swell to about seventy-thousand times it’s own size, going from a respectable puddle to a very large body of water (okay it really only expands around 3-5 times, but having flown over it today, it’s still a lot of water). You’ll hear more about it on Wednesday when I take a boat across bits of it.

Anyway, the world’s greatest geography lesson aside, it’s a big lake, and as we crossed it Siem Reap came into view. It’s not a tall city, not full of skyscrapers, but it does have a bit of sprawl going on. You can wikipedia all about that, too, or maybe I’ll be up to doing it for you tomorrow after a bit more sleep. And only a bit more, as just about my first act on arrival was to sign myself up for a sunrise tour of Ankor Wat, complete with a 4.30am hotel pickup.

Other highlights of the day was the hotel giving me a pandan drink on arrival, I’d forgotten how good fresh pandan is. There was the hotel tuk-tuk pickup, basically a motorbike with a metal pagoda bolted to the back, sans seatbelts. It’s the way folks get around here.

Dinner was a streetside metal bench place that was mostly populated by locals so I guessed it’d be good and it was. had a flavourful fried chicken with chili and lemongrass, and gave the weird condiment jar of small green pickled chillies a go. They are quite hot.

That’s about it from me today, it’s time to grab whatever sleep I can before viewing a wonder of the world at dawn.