Cambodia - Day 1, Traveling Dubai to Phnom Penh to Siem Reap

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My next big Trekkup trip was a cycling trip to Cambodia, including a visit to Angkor Wat, one of my big bucket list items. The Far East is only now just starting to open after two years of Covid restrictions and we were amongst the first tourists to visit this lovely country. It was pretty interesting to see how happy people were to see tourists again, which I am sure I'll mention a few times throughout my blogs.

First - we had to get there. We weren't able to get our plane tickets until a couple of weeks before we left due to some restriction and flight changes. So, we wound up going through Singapore (via a vaccinated travel lane corridor, meaning you had to be vaccinated - indeed you had to be vaccinated to enter Cambodia at all). The flight was packed, but as we left just before midnight, I was actually able to catch a bit of sleep. I was a bit excited to transit through Singapore as even though I had visited the country before, I never got to tour their famously incredible airport. Unfortunately, I still did not get this chance as we had to stay within the terminal and not leave to see the "Jewel" which is just outside. Bummer. It also felt quite empty and many things were closed, confining us to a decent lounge, with only a couple of staff to take care of our group of like 16 people.

Our next flight was to Phnom Penh and not nearly as crowded as the flight from Dubai to Singapore, thankfully. The food on Singapore Airlines was absolutely delicious by the way! We landed into a small airport and made our way through customs which went fairly quickly, though lots of paperwork. Bags took a bit of time, but not too bad. But oh my god... Then it was 90 minutes of waiting to get a surprise PCR test between baggage and the exit. This was the most inefficient thing I think I have ever seen in my life! And we were not even initially told what the line was for. 90 minutes! We played cards, passed around a bottle of whiskey, and tried to not lose it. The next most infuriating part of this, was that we are the only international flight to land at this time. Another flight came in an hour after us and they were herded off to another room for PCR test with an equally frustratingly long line. Why not do everyone's PCR test for each flight so we are waiting half the time?!?! I mean, it really made zero sense. Somehow, we had some people in our group that provided a bit of entertainment.

Then we get outside to get our "free" SIM cards. By free, they mean the card itself is free, but we still have to pay for the data! HAHA! It was only $5 though, and pretty much unlimited. Then we picked up some supplies from the Circle K, like mosquito repellent and snacks. Our guides met us and they were super sweet. We were divided into two groups, mine consisted of six people who were doing the cycling tour, while the other group of like 10 people were doing 4x4 in the Jungle. Wusses.

However, first we went to dinner at a super nice hotel (where the other group were to spend a nice leisurely night and get up at 9 am). We got a nice welcome drink in the lobby, then went up to the Cloud 9 Sky Bar for a delicious dinner. One woman was gathering drink orders for our group and I asked for a passion fruit mojito - YUMMY!!! I was obsessed with passion fruit juice for the remainder of the trip, which you'll also get to hear more about. We had a set dinner menu with delicious start, pumpkin soup and a main, as well as a small dessert. Lots of fun. But soon it was time for the cycling group to leave and get the overnight bus to Siem Reap as we had to start pedaling first thing in the morning. While we were trying to catch some sleep on the bus, our fellow group was partying it up in Phnom Penh.

I was a little excited about the bus. At first, we thought we were taking a private shuttle, but it turned out to be a public bus with sleeping chairs. I was thinking similar to Peru, but oh no. Not that fancy. It is three rows of semi-flat beds with one on the bottom and and one on the top. We were all ticketed for the bottom section, which some people were disappointed with. I slept ok, not great, but fine. It was definitely an adventure!

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