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Published: December 16th 2023
Up before 6am on Thursday morning as Jeff was taking us to terminal 4 at Heathrow for our first flight of the day with Etihad. A smooth check in of our luggage then through passport control and security to head for breakfast at Costa.
The flight was delayed due to an unforeseen maintenance issue but we were confident we would make up time in the air. We had booked the 2 seat row at the back of the A380 cabin which meant a bit more room. The selection of films on planes these days is mind blowing and we discovered we could play each other at Yahtzee 🎲on screen so this became quite competitive 🤣The food received mixed reviews but we didn’t starve and we could order hot drinks anytime including hot chocolate which was 😋 We saw the sun setting during this flight.
We did make up time en route to Abu Dhabi where I was surprised to see WH Smith and Boots stores in the terminal. We easily made it through security and headed to the gate for our flight to Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok. A similar flight length of about 6 hours but no games to play
Onboard the first flight of the day
I’m wearing my wonderful neck pillow Luphi bough for me by Rufus and Ned on screen and sat in a row of 3 seats this time. Sun rise was seen as we headed east 👍Arrival was quick and easy, as was finding the free shuttle bus across the city to the other main airport called Don Mueang for our Air Asia flight across to Siam Reap. Unfortunately we had quite a long wait but found a Starbucks so I could drink yet more hot chocolate and Steph could have a big mug of tea. We were both beginning to flag at this point but stayed awake long enough to board the short flight into Cambodia. The only struggle was filling in the immigration and customs cards as it’s been a long time seen we’d had to do this 😉
We arrived at the recently opened Siam Reap International Airport which even smelt new! It was only opened on October 16th and was very impressive. The staff were lovely and everything went smoothly with real efficiency. Upon leaving customs we were greeted with a sign and a smile by our driver Phearom who drove us along the new airport road to Siam Reap Palace Hotel and Spa, our home for 6 nights.
We took his details as we needed to organise trips for our stay including the jewel in the crown Angkor Wat. We checked in and after having a welcome drink and a jellied coconut surprise we went up to our room. Very spacious with a rainfall shower, separate loo, large comfortable beds, a kettle and air con 👍We wandered down to a local supermarket to pick up a few bits, organised our itinerary for the next 5 days then went to bed at 8pm. We had been awake for 31 hours so sleeping was not a problem 😉 2 car journeys ; a bus ride; 3 flights and 3 foreign countries- a bit bonkers but over 3 weeks to recover ….see you next blog and don’t forget to comment if you like what you’ve seen 👍
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Vera
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First leg
Glad you had a safe journey. Great pics. Let the fun begin.