Thursday, July 21, 2011

Day 11 ... On to Cambodia

Last night’s little episode with the bill and the exchange rate was just the start of a god-awful night.  The problems we’d had with the rock-hard and lumpy mattress seemed to rear their ugly heads again and we probably managed about 2 hours of very broken sleep by the time we had to get up at 3.45am.  The cab we booked for 4.30 arrived on time and we passed about 5 cars on the 10 min drive to the airport.  Because the flight was going via Pakse it was considered a domestic – god if we’d known that we’d have tried an extra  45minutes of sleep.  

Checked in and looked about for somewhere to get something to eat.  Asked if we were OK to go over to the international terminal but the little man just pointed to the just opening ‘restaurant’ at the domestic terminal.  Grotty does’t come close but there seemed little option so we ordered a ham sandwich and a coffee.  Both were OK till I noticed a rat running across the ice-cream case just behind where Tony was sitting.  We paid & left pretty smartly.

The flight itself was fine – hardly to cruising altitude and finished our ‘breakfast’ and we were descending to Pakse, and the same on the flight from there to Siem Reap.  Lao airlines idea of breakfast is novel!  Served in a little box, a hamburger & chips, piece of cake and some apple slices – all cold!

Arrived half an hour early in Siem Reap hoping to see Suwan there to pick us up.  Turns out I had managed to email him the wrong dates, and when we bought a SIM card and phoned him, he was at Banteay Sri with a guest.  Never mind, grabbed another tuk tuk to the hotel and checked in.

We asked about balconies & smoking and soon the manager came back and offered us an uprade (free of charge) to a poolside Cabana Room.  Whooo hoo!  Very nice indeed.  This is a really nice place, staff are very friendly and all we’ve had contact with peak excellent  English. 

Had a sleep to try and catch up on some of what we missed last night then went into town for dinner.  Ate at the little streetside places near Pub St and then off to the Night Market for a foot massage.  I could not believe my eyes, when sitting there waiting for her next customer was the very same girl I’d had half a dozen massages from in April last year.  Not sure if she recognised me or was reacting to my recognising her but she greeted me like an old friend and I had the best massage!  Probably in response to all the competition, the price has actually gone down  from $3 to $2 for 15 minutes.  Just what the doctor ordered!

Running the gauntlet of “massage Sir” was a bit like Bukit Bintang in KL and is more than mildly annoying after the 7th time of saying ‘No thanks” especially when 5 of them are standing shoulder to shoulder and working for the same place!  This both on the way into the night market and on the way out.

Got a coffee at the Blue Pumpkin and a tuk tuk home for what I hope will be a full and good night’s sleep!

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