Dawn in Laos, midnight in Cambodia; coffee and bananas with the chickens to Mexican tortillas in a Khmer restaurant in Phnom Penh After the quiet stillness of Laos, Phnom Phen is overwhelming.
The tuk tuk to Vientiane ‘international’ airport takes 10 minutes; there was no sign of my plane when I and about twenty others checked in at the requisite two hours-actually, I’d only allowed 90 minutes due to past experience!-but Vietnam Airways staff insisted it was ‘not delayed, just late’. Fair enough.
It duly landed 20 minutes after we were supposed to be in the air, we trundled out onto the blazing tarmac in the reverse direction to those walking off, clambered on, and we were off only 40 minutes late. Good result by Asian standards. A one hour flight with soft drink, light meal plus coffee. Beats Ryan Air.
Arriving in Phnom Phen I found the noise, traffic, sheer size, overwhelming and oddly reassuring; my first sight of a Costa Coffee for weeks. English signs. Shops with doors. Traffic lights-mind you, no one obeys them here either.
My original hotel turned out to be underneath a building site. Reception was coated in drilling dust. I had a tantrum. So a transfer was arranged to the sister hotel nearby. Also underneath a building site. Another tantrum! So I am now in on the 10th floor, overlooking the city from my balcony. This ‘frangipani living arts’ hotel rather than the smaller villa base I’d booked has a swimming pool-bliss in the city heat….I floated my tired aching bones for ages staring up at the bright blue sky.
Colin’s university friend Martin and his lovely fiancé who are teaching here gathered me up in a tuk tuk and swept me out to dinner. So wonderful to have local knowledge (the tuk tuk prices for a start!) and over a fabulous Mexican meal of real cheddar cheese tortillas in a restaurant run by friends of theirs who fled the Khmer Rouge to California, learnt to cook Mexican and then came back-we shared beers, traveller's tales and gossip.
The tuk tuk to Vientiane ‘international’ airport takes 10 minutes; there was no sign of my plane when I and about twenty others checked in at the requisite two hours-actually, I’d only allowed 90 minutes due to past experience!-but Vietnam Airways staff insisted it was ‘not delayed, just late’. Fair enough.
It duly landed 20 minutes after we were supposed to be in the air, we trundled out onto the blazing tarmac in the reverse direction to those walking off, clambered on, and we were off only 40 minutes late. Good result by Asian standards. A one hour flight with soft drink, light meal plus coffee. Beats Ryan Air.
Arriving in Phnom Phen I found the noise, traffic, sheer size, overwhelming and oddly reassuring; my first sight of a Costa Coffee for weeks. English signs. Shops with doors. Traffic lights-mind you, no one obeys them here either.
My original hotel turned out to be underneath a building site. Reception was coated in drilling dust. I had a tantrum. So a transfer was arranged to the sister hotel nearby. Also underneath a building site. Another tantrum! So I am now in on the 10th floor, overlooking the city from my balcony. This ‘frangipani living arts’ hotel rather than the smaller villa base I’d booked has a swimming pool-bliss in the city heat….I floated my tired aching bones for ages staring up at the bright blue sky.
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| View from Hotel |
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| View down to the swimming pool |
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