Off to Cambodia

Olivia woke early and left with Brett, Joanne, Anastasia and Claudine. The 5 of them were also meeting a few other people and making a group before continuing on to Cambodia. I had almost done that part of the trip, but the dates weren't perfect for me and I was missing one whole free day in Siem Reap. On one hand I regret not going because they first went to Phnom Pehn and I would have liked to see that, but at the same time I so enjoyed my time in Siem Reap. But more on that later. So that part of the group left quite early. I had told Ryan and Katie I would have breakfast with them and we would meet Jenn and Leigh, but then we were all running late and then I double checked my flight and it was an hour earlier than I was expecting! I had to pass on the breakfast and grab a taxi to the airport. I said bye to Bac and a few others down in the lobby and I was off!

The HCMC airport confused me SO much! I wandered around trying to figure out how to get to the check-in counter for a good 15 minutes. It was frustrating. Then once inside, I wasn't able to find my counter for a few minutes either. It was because my flight was operating under another airline so it was a little bit confusing. I wasn't pressed for time at all which was nice and found my gate and waited to board. We had to take a shuttle to our airplane and then a surprising thing is that the airplane had two doors open for boarding! I was in the back, the last row, and it was a pretty empty flight so I had the row all to myself. It was a short flight, only an hour and we were given a bottle of water but no snacks or food.

After landing in Siem Reap, I waited to get my Visa. It wasn't very complicated and didn't take long. After passing through customs, I went outside to find my driver. My hostel had a free airport pickup which was really great. After about a 20 minute ride on the tuktuk I arrived at my hostel. I was able to check in and settle in. There was another young woman in the room, her name was Vivi and she was from China. We chatted briefly and she headed out to get lunch. As for me, I wanted to sign up for a sunset tour at one of the temples and check out Siem Reap a little bit.

Around 4:30 I met at the desk to go with another couple to see the sunset. We all needed to buy tickets for the temples and waited in line to get them. After that, it was on to Phnom Bakheng to see the sunset. This is a temple up on a mountain. The Canadian couple I shared a tuktuk with to the temple were not wearing proper clothing for the temple. They said they didn't want to go to the temple but just see the sunset but they made them wait until the temple closed before making the 10 minute walk. So we split up and I headed to the temple. I waited in a fairly long line to go up the steep steps of the temple. When I made it to the top it was a bit crowded with people sitting all over to watch the sunset. There were also a lot of people running around and taking selfies. It made me a little bit sad watching them as they angled the camera to show off their best self, rather than to stop and take in the beauty of the nature around us and the hundreds of years old temple we were on. The sunset itself was just okay. It set over the horizon so it could have been a sunset anywhere. For me, I enjoyed watching the light on the temple itself, the way it lit up the stone creating an almost golden glow and looking at the shadows that appeared from the carvings on the stone. After the sun set, the temple closed and the guards ushered people down off the temple. I made my way down the path and found the couple and our driver waiting for me. It was dark by the time we returned to the hostel only 20 minutes later.

I returned to my room and saw some new faces there. I said I was going to get dinner and asked if anyone wanted to join me. The girl in the bunk below me, Ellie from England, Vivi and the newest arrival Kat all wanted to come along so the 4 of us went in search of somewhere to eat. We wandered around and finally settled on a restaurant called Karo. The manager/owner was really helpful and his English was impeccable. He ran out to grab items to make drinks if it was not already on hand-great service! We asked for his suggestion on menu items and picked 4 dishes for the 4 of us to share. Food was incredibly cheap, I think our total bill came to $20 with everyone also ordering a drink or two! After dinner we walked around and looked for ice cream. Kat and Ellie tried "magic ice cream" which looks like something in Korea-ice cream in a candy cane shaped cone. Vivi and I went to a convenience store and got cones there. We walked through the markets a bit before making our way back to the guesthouse.