November 29, 2007. Luang Prabang, Laos / Siem Reap, Cambodia
(notes from my journal)
As I exited the airport and onto actual Cambodian soil, I was overwhelmed. I had finally made it to Cambodia! After dreaming, wishing and planning to come here for a good part of 12+ years, I was finally there! I’ll never forget that moment.
We left in the morning for Siem Reap on a Lao Airlines flight. One thing I have to mention about Lao Airlines: They take the concept of “not being late” a bit too seriously and every flight that we took with them departed before time!
Our flight made a stop at Pakse airport, where we disembarked, spent about 30 minutes on the ground, while they refueled the plane (that’s how tiny the thing was!) and then were back up again. Service was excellent and for 2.5 hours of flying time we were served two meals. We just ate one. How people could eat 2 meals in 3 hours without any activity is beyond me – but they did!
We arrived in Siem Reap on schedule (2:40 pm) and immigration was a breeze since we had Cambodian E-Visa’s. I highly recommend using this service if you plan to visit Cambodia (and you must!) since there was practically no line and it beats having to fill out a lot of forms. A thousand stamps (some on our passport and many on the form that we had to fill) later proceeded to retrieve our bags.
We found the tuk-tuk driver from our guesthouse: The Two Dragons. The ride to the hotel was uneventful, but quite dusty. But I kept telling myself – I’m here! I made it! It was exciting!
We had booked Dara as our guide to the temples and arranged for a driver to come take us to see the temples today. Alas, no one came at the scheduled time and so I called Ponheary (Dara’s sister who handled the booking). There was a miscommunication and Ponheary was very apologetic. However, she lives only 2 minutes from where we were and she came by and we chatted for almost an hour about the work she does for the children through the Ponheary Ly Foundation. I really admire this lady for what she does for the kids and how committed she is. If you live in the United States and would like to donate to the foundation, please do so – it is a recognized charity and hence tax deductible. Approximately $12 allows supplies for 1 kid to go to school.
Not going to the temples today was a blessing in disguise. Remember my cold? Well I was fine now, but Heena was had it now so she took a nap which helped her tremendously. In the evening, we took a tuk-tuk to pub street and had dinner at a place called Delhi Darbar. The food was really tasty, but I think the chef thought we’re Indians so lets cook our meal spicy! I have a high tolerance for chillies, but this was beyond me! I have no idea how Heena ate any of that. But… we were hungry … and it was tasty…
We walked about a bit. Most of the area is simply restaurants, pubs and shops catering to tourists. It was nothing to admire or remember.We went back to our hotel to sleep a bit early.
Our excitement for the next day knew no bounds; we were going to see temples of Angkor with Dara…!
This post is a part of the Thailand, Laos and Cambodia 2007 itinerary
