The Terminal

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It seemed like it was only seconds ago that I had shut my eyes to go to sleep when my alarm went off at 5.30am today. I had to be at the airport for about 7am to check in for my flight to Phnom Pehn. Unsurprisingly I hadn't heard from the Gekko hotel over the confusion with my three day cruise to Halong bat, so I could kiss the idea of getting any money back goodbye. I checked out of the backpackers and hopped into a prepaid taxi to the airport. The driver asked about my stay in Vietnam and I was less than honest so as not to offend him. I remembered that when I was in Ayutthaya Michael and Aya had told me that the northern Vietnamese were less friendly and less honest than in the southern provinces. Although this wasn't the case with my driver, I felt it was true of most that I had come across in my short stay in the country. If money and time hadn't been against me then I would have liked to have visited the south of the country, but maybe next time.

Once at the airport in Hanoi check in was relatively painless and I only had to shed a couple of kilos from my main hold luggage before they accepted it. I was starving and knew I couldn't face immigration on and empty stomach so grabbed a chocolate bar to keep me going. I had a very watery scrambled eggs and toast when I made it to the departures lounge. Bizarrely, the crusts had been cut off the toast so there was a small chance of my hair going curly before the day was out. I wandered round to find something for the flight as AirAsia are the equivalent of easyjet back home and provide a no frills flight with the most hidden extras. I found a four hundred gram bar of plain cadburys for only $5 (£3) and couldn't resist the taste of home. O sat patiently and waited for my first flight of the day to be called for boarding. The flight itself took next to no time, mainly because I slept all the way, and I was soon walking in the air-conditioned comfort of Bangkok airport.

As I passed through immigration and collected my bags I felt a huge sense of relief to be back in country with which I was familiar. I began to hum the tune to the song 'Cheek to Cheek' simply because it felt like heaven to back in the land of smiles! I put my bags on a trolly and asked the nearest security guard where the best place to get Thai food in the airport was. Surprised at my request he pointed me downstairs towards one of the food courts. When I got there I passed Subway and the smell was overwhelmingly irresistible, so I stopped here for a foot long sandwich. I was so utterly pleased to be back in a country that understood what tourism meant and that respected the needs of the traveler as much as it's own people. I killed time by catching up on emails and what was happening in the news with the national newspaper, feeling so hugely relaxed and at ease that I almost lost track of time. The queue for immigration and customs was quite long by the time I got there and there was barely enough time to hunt down some water in the sprawling duty free area before it was time to board my flight to Phnom Pehn.

Once the packed flight had taken off we were given our entry cards and visa forms to fill in for Cambodia. By the time I'd filled in the relevant information and skimmed through the inflight magazine we were told that we were preparing to land, the hours flight had flown by. After paying $20 for my visa, which took less than half the time it did in Laos, I was walked out of the arrivals hall to find my pick up. Ricky, one of the guys at the 88Backpackers hostel where I was staying, had arranged a tuc tuc pick up at my request. I confidently walked past the mob of waiting drivers to mine, who was holding a card with my name on. The beauty of arranging a pick up from the airport is that you don't have to haggle with a random tuc tuc driver over a price, and may not even take you to where you have asked to go. Pang introduced himself and took me to his waiting tuc tuc on the main road outside the airport. I automatically felt at ease as we drove through rush hour to the hostel and could tell that I was going to enjoy Cambodia.

I met the famous Ricky who checked me in and showed me to the dorm. The building looked like it had been a hotel which had been converted to a hostel as the halls separating the dorms were cavernous. I dumped my bags and headed back downstairs to the bar, I was gasping for a beer. I hadn't felt this way about having a drink in some time and Anchor, the local brew was extremely refreshing! I had Tries a lot of the beers in the countries that I had visited, and this was up there with the best. I sat in the bar and sorted out a rough itinerary for the next day. I had read about holiday destinations around the world that were haunted and S21 and the killing fields had been in the article. They were fairly close to the hostel and I wanted to see them so I could understand a huge part of Cambodia's history. Once I had a rough outline of the next day planned, and had sunk three glasses of Anchor, I headed out towards the Tonle Sap river to find some food.

Although the streets were poorly light, I felt at ease as the locals sat and watched me drift past. Once at the river I found one of the small mobile street vendors with a cart full of food. Although his English was as limited as my Cambodian I managed to gesture that I wanted a bowl of food. He got up from his motorbike seat and set about tossing together some vegetables and noodles with herbs and various sauces that he topped with a fried egg. I thanked him by nodding and went to settle myself on a bench over looking the river. I don't know whether it was the combination of spices and sauces that he had put into this simple meal, or the fact I was enjoying random street food again but I felt good about traveling again. It was the moments like this that I had come to relish earlier in my trip and had missed over the last couple of weeks.

I wandered down the road a bit further an found the obligatory night market. I had a look through it but it wasn't hugely impressive, stocking the same stuff that I could have bought most anywhere in Asia. I decided it was time to start heading back towards the hostel via a seven eleven to grab a bottle of water. I water through the humid streets in what I took to be the right general direction and it was but I seemed to have walked a lot further than I first thought! I found myself at the central market and whilst looking around spotted the top of the Canadia building that I knew was not too far from the hostel. I headed along the dimly light streets and eventually came across shops that I had passes earlier. As I rounded the corner a familiar voice from behind me shouted 'Hello brother', and one of the bar men from the hostel appeared in his scooter. I was amazed he had recognised me but gladly hopped on to the back and away we went. It was only thirty seconds round the corner so I hadn't done too badly in finding my way back. I headed straight to my bed to collapse for the night, it had been a very long day.

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