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Published: April 21st 2012
OMG! What is up with traveling from place to place. First, I had to buy a new Eurostar ticket in Paris, second, I almost missed my flight from London to Amsterdam, third, I had issues flying from Amsterdam to Bangkok cause I had a lay over in Moscow and they were hassling me about how I needed a visa for Moscow, and the final straw: my flight was never fully booked cause my travel agent's credit card didn't go through! OMG! So I had to buy a new ticket from Bangkok to Phnom Penh. UGH! Next time, I think I'm going to do everything myself and not go through a travel agent! I know I'm better at it than they are...but I just didnt want the hassle of finding everything when I was crunched on time. Oh well...next time I know and I can plan better (yes, DB?)!!
So, once I landed, I had to pay for a visa. Cambodia takes American dollars and so I gave them $100 (cause that's all I had) to pay for my visa. It cost $20 and somehow, I ended up with $75 change. Oh well...not gonna make a fuss about $5 when I'm
in another country. Then I went through customs where they looked at my passport and thought I was Cambodian. So, I had to explain to him that I'm actually Chinese but my parents grew up in Cambodia. Oh well.
Then, I got to my hotel...and what a relief! WHEW...it was gorgeous and looked clean and looked like a place with no roaches! I'm so relieved! You can see through the bathroom from the bed and it has a lovely pool, which I plan on using tomorrow!! I wanted to get dinner at Friends restaurant (one recommended by my good friends Ian and Fredrik)! I had the tuk tuk driver take me there, only it was closed for the month for the new year and renovations! AHH! I just wanted to try that place. The idea behind the restaurant is this: to hire kids, train them in the restaurant business and to keep them off the streets. It's the same idea as the restaurant Fifteen in London by Jamie Oliver (he stole the idea from this place). I guess I can see and hope that the one in Siem Riep is open! Anyway, the tuk tuk driver suggested I go
to the restaurant across the street. So, I did. It was yummy and the waiter was super friendly. I ordered Khmer curry with noodles and spring rolls and the curry reminded me of food similar to my mom would make when she would have a whole day to spend cooking. The waiter recommended I check out the Night Market that wasn't too far from the restaurant. So, my tuk tuk driver said he would take me for another $1. So total from the hotel to the restaurant and from the restaurant to the Night Market would be $4. I get there, and the tuk tuk driver said he would take me back to my hotel. I asked how much, and his response was: "$10." What!?! $10. How the heck did I get from $4 to $10? He kept saying that it was far and I knew for a fact that it wasn't! So I said I would let him take me back for another $3. He said fine..but I didn't like how he kept pushing for $10 for 5 minutes! So anyway, I went to the night market and had the most amazing drink: Sugar Cane juice! So freakin good!!
It was 15 minutes to 10:30pm when my driver would pick me up, but there were so many tuk tuk drivers throwing themselves at me. I decided to ask how much it would cost, and I was able to bargain it down to $2 to get back to my hotel (yup, my mom taught me well...no wonder she's so good at it cause that's all you do here). Heck yeah...I'm going to take that and not wait for my weird tuk tuk driver anymore! So, I happily went home and am now relaxing in my hotel, getting ready for a very long day tomorrow! The only thing that sucks is..I've killed a few mosquitos 😞 Heck, I'll take that any day vs. roaches in my room. Eating one at the market was enough. I don't need to eat another!
PS. There are tons of geckos here. I forgot: my mother warned me! :P
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