2024vietnamcambodia

[2024vietnamcambodia]

Day 18 Phnom Pehn to Ho Chi Minh to Sydney

Travelling home today. We left our hotel in Phnom Penh at 10:40am heading to the airport for a 13:50 flight to Ho Chi Minh airport. All good. A 40 min flight!

Then our flight from Ho Chi Minh to Sydney wasn’t due to leave until 21:20 so quite the layover!

But wait, there’s more! Yep, a nearly 5 hour delay. Groan. Phil and I just keep changing the pace. A walk, a snack, some emails, more walking, searched for an empty gate and went horizontal on the chairs for 30 mins, a wine, some plane watching, another walk …

Eventually we were at the gate. When we booked this trip the tour company had already reserved our seats for the two main flights so Phil and I were not seated together! But when we were boarding my boarding pass beeped and the error message said “seating issue”. Long story short, we were sat together in premium, and no one beside us. I don’t think it was “real” premium as the seats were regular but we had loads of leg room which makes a huge difference.

We both watched Love Actually which goes with the time of year. 🎄🎅

Alex picked us up at the airport which was very kind of her. She said “I think I owe you” for all the pick ups you’ve done. But not only that she’d bought us milk, yogurt and bread. 🥰

Home at last. 4pm’ish. Raining outside but that’s fine.

Bags unpacked, showers, PJs, pizza ordered, wine opened, movie lined up and an early bedtime.

Tomorrow we are driving to Stanwell Park for a birthday party for a friend of Phil’s. We’ve booked an AirBnB at Stanwell Tops. No rest for the wicked.

Great holiday. Leant lots! But always lovely to be home. ❤️

The first photo has this teeny tiny little building next to a big high rise. It was the view from breakfast.

[2024vietnamcambodia]

Plane delayed

Not what you want to hear during your travels. If a 6 hour layover wasn’t bad enough, we now have a 5 hour delay. 🥴

UPDATE: Boarded 2am. 😫

[2024vietnamcambodia]

Day 17 Phnom Penh

Free day today with a final dinner tonight at the hotel with the group.

It was a fairly low key day starting with a leisurely breakfast and the six of us meeting in the lobby at 9:30am to walk to the Temple cafe for a coffee. By the way, it’s not a temple. It’s a beautiful cafe with the interior design that’s so cool.

And very large coffees.

Phil, Paul and I went back there for a lunch snack and Phil and Paul asked if they served beer. They did on the 3rd floor from 5pm onwards but not on the 1st and 2nd floors. However he said if he served it in a coffee cup it would be fine. 😉😂

After morning coffee we all continued walking to the river. Then the Hobbits and Sharon went in pursuit of a cycle shop which resulted in new cycling jerseys for the Hobbits. Satisfied, they walked back to the hotel. Meanwhile the remaining party of 3 enjoyed the a/c and ambience of the Temple cafe (and coffee cup beer).

Back to the hotel we all cooled off in the rooftop pool and then got ourselves showered for dinner.

Dinner was a bit disappointing in terms of “tasty cuisine and atmosphere” but still a fun night.

Tomorrow we start our journey back to Sydney starting with a hotel pickup at 10am for a flight from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh Airport. Then a 6 hr layover 😳🥴. Then a night (mare) flight to Sydney 😫. We arrive in Sydney on Friday AM most likely in a zombie-like state.

[2024vietnamcambodia]

Tuk tuk fun.

[2024vietnamcambodia]

Day 16 (cont’d) Phnom Penh

The river cruise.

Our tuk tuk driver waited for us and then took us back to the hotel. We were all very undecided about where to have dinner. A lot of restaurants seem to be down near the river. We took the easy route and ate at the pool in the hotel. To be fair, it has a fantastic view and it had a nice breeze. Paul and Sharon ventured out on their own tonight.

[2024vietnamcambodia]

Day 16 (cont’d) Phnom Penh

More photos of the genocide museum.

We walked back to the hotel. It was a confronting museum that has you shaking your head in disbelief that this ever happened and not that long ago really - during our lifetime.

On the way home we stopped for a cool beer. Then to the hotel for a shower.

At 4:30 we took a tuk tuk down to the river and then did a one hour river cruise for $5. It was really nice to see the sunset and the lights coming on in the city.

[2024vietnamcambodia]

Day 16 Phnom Penh

Some tours of main tourist sites today starting with the King’s Palace. The flag was raised which means he’s currently in the country. He’s 70 years old and single. He’s Buddhist so he does spend a lot of time meditating.

You can only peek inside the building that has his throne and he’s only allowed to sit on it once during his reign and that is on the coronation day.

We wandered around the grounds and saw the gift of the French to Cambodia which is a grey colour and looks very French compared to the surrounding gold coloured Cambodian buildings.

There are 5 stupors where kings are buried. One king had 6 wives. 🤷‍♀️

The silver pagoda has 5000 tiles made of silver. It also houses a gold Buddha with a 24 carot diamond and an emerald Buddha.

Then we went to the Central market which sells EVERYTHING! I bought a casual linen shirt (Zara 😉) for $8 and Phil bought some linen house pants/top. Nothing else but I imagine you could find some bargains if you’ve got the time and patience.

Next stop was the genocide museum which was beyond words. How can people be so cruel. Pol Pot took over a high school turning it into a prison. Over 17,000 people went through the prison and only 7 lived. All for the goal of communism. They weren’t killed in the prison, mostly interrogated and tortured. They were taken away to be killed - the killing fields.

The Khmer Rouge regime arrested and eventually executed anyone suspected of connections with the former government as well as educated people.

Nearly 1.4 million people were executed out of a population of approximately 8 million. And an additional approximately half a million from disease and starvation.

[2024vietnamcambodia]

The Temple cafe for pre-dinner drinks during our first night in Phnom Penh.

The view from our room in Phnom Penh.

Dinner at the “very local” cafe.

Another nice photo of our PDD’s at the Temple cafe.

[2024vietnamcambodia]

Day 15 Siam Reap to Phnom Penh

A travel day but by coach not plane. It means a 6 hour bus ride but it was great as you got to see so much of the country side in between the two cities. We also stopped 3 times for bathroom breaks, sights, and lunch.

The first stop was a very old bridge!

It’s the oldest bridge in Cambodia (late 12th century) and is called the Kampong Kdei bridge.

Next stop a village known for its stone carvings. The stone is sourced locally as well as over 200kms away.

I wouldn’t mind a little Buddha in the garden!

Next stop included markets selling local foods including fried tarantulas, 😳 small birds, silk worms, cockroaches, and other chips etc.

🤢 Needless to say I didn’t try any of these delicacies. The silk worms are like having peanuts with your beer. I might stick with nuts.

In Cambodia most people pay in US dollars but they also have a local currency called Reil. One US dollar is 4000 reil. A beer is typically $2.50. My plate of fried rice with chicken at lunch cost $3.50.

Next stop Phnom Penh! Definitely a bigger and busier city than Siam Reap which is expected being the capital of.

Our final destination of this trip and a nice hotel for the next three nights.

The six of us went for a city wander looking for a pre-dinner drink and then dinner. We found a cool cafe that had a roof top bar.

Then dinner was a “very local” restaurant for dinner. No air-con and about 7+ staff and us.

Big tour day tomorrow.

[2024vietnamcambodia]

Day 14 Siem Reap

Today is a free day which for us meant a slower start as Phil has reached “peak” head cold. Breakfast at 9am and then I met the Hobbits and the Worths for a walk. Siem Reap is far less crowded than the towns/cities we visited in Vietnam. There are still motorcycles and tuk tuks but fewer. The streets are cleaner and there’s a friendliness about the Cambodian people that is charming. Big smiles everywhere.

Paul and Sharon stopped for a beer and foot massage while we continued walking until we got back to the hotel around noon.

Hot, hot, hot so I decided a dip in the pool would be refreshing and it was!

It was now 2:30pm and we hadn’t had lunch and Phil was peckish. I wasn’t so much as my tum started to complain a little. We found a very eclectic cafe for Phil to have a soup and I just had plain boiled rice and a cold drink.

Back to the hotel and my tum was definitely misbehaving so I crashed out on the bed for a couple of hours.

The Hobbits and the Worths went on a bike ride with bikes hired from the hotel. Apart from getting soaked in a downpour they survived the traffic and enjoyed the experience.

We all decided dinner in the hotel was so good on the first night that we’d try it again. Excellent!

An early night as we have an early start.

[2024vietnamcambodia]

Day 13 Angkor Wat (cont’d)

When we finished wandering around Angkor Wat the coach took some of the group back to the hotel and others including us opted to walk up to another temple on a hilltop to see the sunset. However, I think you could spend much more time at Angkor Wat just soaking it all in. As Katherine said “it would be nice to have some time to just sit and contemplate”.

Dinner tonight was also part of the tour and included a Cambodian dance show. It was great!

Dinner menu tonight.

[2024vietnamcambodia]

Day 13 Angkor Wat (cont’d)

[2024vietnamcambodia]

Day 13 Angkor Wat (cont’d)

After spending the morning at Angkor Thom and then Ta Prohm, the coach drove us back to a restaurant for lunch which was part of the tour. It was a lovely 4-course meal and even though it was light, it felt like a lot of food. But we’ve certainly walked a lot so far and Angkor Wat is this afternoon.

It is just mind blowing. How on earth they built these temples. Many of the large stones we walk on have holes in them. They apparently make a small hole in the stone, push wood through it, wet the wood so it expands, and then use the wood like a handle to drag/pull the large stone piece. The pics with the trees trying to engulf the building is Ta Prohm.

[2024vietnamcambodia]

Day 13 Angkor Wat (cont’d)

[2024vietnamcambodia]

Day 13 Angkor Wat!

Apologies in advance for the photo overload. Wow! Firstly though, excellent hotel breakfast, possibly the best so far.

Early pick up to collect our tickets for the day. We are visiting Angkor Thom before lunch and Angkor Wat after lunch. They are located close to the town so it wasn’t a long drive.

Angkor Thom was established in the 12th century and was the last capital city of the Khmer. It covers an area of about 9 square kilometres.

You could spend hours there wandering around and taking in the enormity of it all.

[2024vietnamcambodia]

Day 12 Vietnam to Cambodia (Siem Reap)

Today we are flying to Cambodia however our flight isn’t until 4:30pm. Coach pick up is 2pm and checkout is noon. We decided to checkout earlier so we could wander about without needing to be back at noon.

Another hot day with the temperature over 30 degrees C. Our first plan was to find coffee and Phil had found a cafe to checkout called The Workshop.

It was very hipster with an almost hidden entrance and then up 3 flights of stairs. You then emerged onto a lovely warehouse style cafe space. While the space was nice, the coffee was average as we’ve become accustomed to the delicious caramel flavour of strong Vietnamese coffee.

Our next stop was the Ho Chi Minh Museum. On the way we saw the very cool apartment block building filled with restaurants.

The walk to the museum was across a bridge and along the river.

Unfortunately when we got there we had about 5 mins to look before they announced they were closing and not reopening until 1:30pm which was too late for us.

On the way back we passed what looked like a bride and groom but I think it was a wedding shoot for wedding outfits.

We walked through the markets to get back to the hotel but didn’t stop. They are like Istanbul markets - huge, hot, and very easy to get completely lost.

We found some lunch in an air-con restaurant and then the coach was there to take us to the airport. It was a short drive to the airport but not as quick as the flight which was 40 mins.

Our new guide is Cambodian and his name is Bute. He’s 54 yo and you couldn’t meet a more gentle and beautiful person. He lived through the Pol Pot era and said he’ll share more of his personal stories with us.

Siam Reap has 1 million population but only about 30% in the town. It seemed dark ie not many street lights but apparently that’s because they buy their electricity from Thailand and it’s expensive.

Oh, I forgot to mention that on our walk today we went up to the 49th floor of the Bitexco Financial Tower to the Skydeck. Fabulous views!

Our hotel is really nice and has a pool which I’m sure we’ll have a cooling off swim in. Dinner tonight in the hotel which was fresh, friendly and tasty.

[2024vietnamcambodia]

The sampan took us to our lunch location which was a lush location. A table for six surrounded by coconut trees, vines, and other tropical plants. We were served rice, two whole fish, schrimp, soup and fruit. All of it was delicious.

Then the long trip back to our hotel (nearly two hours) in the minivan.

Some monsoon rain just as we were nearly home just before 6pm. Dinner tonight we decided to try the Street Food Markets which are less than a kilometre from our hotel. They were pretty flash! Lots of food and drink stalls, music, open air roof that automatically closed when rain started.

A big day again today. Tomorrow we say goodbye to Vietnam and hello to Cambodia.