We started off the adventure by getting up early – almost 4 am and trudging outside in the cold towards the nearest train station. Packing for this trip was a little tricky, since it is nearly freezing in Kobe and a balmy 30 degrees in Cambodia. Any big jackets that we wear on the way to the airport will have to be lugged around southeast Asia for a week, and that’s no fun.
We made it to the airport right on time, got in line at our airline, and caught a quick flight out of Kansai airport to Shanghai. It is really a quick trip – just a little over two hours. I had decided to skip the in-flight meal since we had a big dinner the night before, but when they served up Chinese fried rice I couldn’t resist. Pretty good, too.
At Shanghai they have a strange transfer system. I guess the idea is that transfer passengers shouldn’t go through normal Chinese immigration, because normal Chinese immigration require a visa for many countries, and I think that was a confusing issue for both the authorities and the passengers. So now the transfer passengers gather in a meeting spot, and then are led through a separate immigration and security area, and then are let into the boarding gate area. We went through these odd procedures along with a woman that had sat next to Kuniko on the flight from Japan. She was friendly enough and she spoke English, so we exchanged some smiles and small talk during the ordeal.
The next flight to Bangkok left right on time, and we were surprised to see that we had the same lady sitting next to us again. This flight was a little longer – about four and a half hours – but I read a book most of the way. Once we arrived in Bangkok the heat hit us right away. Time to change out of that long underwear! Unfortunately we had to wait in a huge immigration line – it took almost 45 minutes to get through the line and get into the main airport.
By now we’re pretty familiar with the Bangkok international airport. We’ve killed lots of time there, and we know how to quickly get to all our favorite shops, bars and restaurants. This time we had just a couple hours to kill, so we had lunch/dinner at the Mango Tree, which is an above average restaurant. They make cocktails, too, but I don’t recommend them. The food, however, was excellent. We both had Thai soup and noodles – mine with a yellow coconut curry base and Kuniko’s with a spicy peanut and seafood base. Yum.
After the meal we made our way to the counter of Bangkok Airways, a budget airline that flies domestic within Thailand and some international – in our case, to Siem Reap in Cambodia. There was a little scare when they asked for us to produce the same credit card that we used online to buy our tickets, and I had completely forgot to remind Kuniko to bring it. But by chance, she had it with her, and we were able to get the tickets. Near disaster, that one.
The flight to Siem Reap was only 40 minutes – we took off and then pretty much started our descent, so piece of cake. When we landed we got off the plane using the mobile ladder system, and everybody just kind of walked across the tarmac into the main terminal. There were a few security people to make sure nobody dashed off into the jungle without going through immigration, but the whole thing felt pretty casual. The design of the airport terminal was really nice – very modern surrounded by gardens, palm trees and grass. It kind of reminded my of San Diego airport.
Inside we started the visa process. Entering Cambodia you can either buy a visa online for $25 US or on the spot at the airport for $20 US. I couldn’t really see the advantage of buying online – it seemed like even though people could skip the visa line, the immigration line itself was still pretty long. We presented our $40 for two visas in cash, a passport photo of each of us, the guy wrote out a receipt, then took our passports and passed them down a long line of office workers who processed the visa. After five minutes, the guy at the end of the line called out our names, and there was a nice new visa stamped inside. Strange system. Anyway, we got through easily, although the people around us seemed to be really stressed about the process.
The luggage took a long time to come in, so we spent about twenty anxious minutes waiting for it to show up, and then went outside to catch a cab into town. Kuniko wasn’t sure, but she said that we didn’t make arrangements with our hotel this time, so we should just take a regular taxi. There was a desk where you could arrange a cab, and as we stepped up to it, a guy to the right was holding a sign that was printed with “Kumiko Kageyama”. Although the name was not exactly correct, we were surprised. Kuniko said that maybe we did arrange for a cab, and we introduced ourselves to the friendly guy. He took us to his air conditioned car, and we were on our way.
In the back of the cab Kuniko and I discussed in Japanese about what the situation might actually be. Perhaps the hotel automatically sends a driver? Shouldn’t they have confirmed by email or something? The driver himself explained after a little bit. He said “a friend of his” at the hotel had seen that we didn’t arrange a cab, so he gave him Kuniko’s name, and he drove out to the airport in the hopes of picking us up. Clever. But he was a nice enough guy, and the end result was the same – we were getting a ride to our hotel. On the drive in he asked our plans for the trip, and offered his services as a tour guide. For $30 US he’d take us wherever we wanted to go the next day, using his car. We talked it over between us in Japanese, and decided that was a fair deal. Once we got to the hotel, we arranged for him to pick us up the next morning at 9 am, and I made a very wise decision and told him we’d pay him for the ride from the airport the next day along with the tour payment. Then we checked in and went to our room. The room was nicer than either of us expected (our expectations were pretty low). By then we were pretty wiped out, so we turned on the AC and went right to bed.
