Day 3 - KL to Pnom Penh

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An early start (4.00am) saw us heading for LCCT in Kuala Lumpur to catch our 7o'clock flight to Phom Penh. We were going to use the driver who had drivn us from the hotel to downtown KL for the return journey. He however wanted to charge us too much. The owner of the Lok Ann offered an airport transfer for half the price. No brainer which one we took. Luckily we left quite early as it was a pretty slow trip out to the airport from Chinatown. Check in at LCCtT was quick and efficient. Evn though we had already checked in onine you still go through the entire process again and it isn't simly just a baggage drop off. Earlier this year the gates for Phnom Penh were Y1 and Y2. There was huge confusion at these gates as you still needed to go through immigration, you could not hear the flights being called, and security only allowed the passengers on the called flight through. People just had to keep going up and trying every time a new group approached the security to see if it was their. We were pleased when we saw our gate was on the other side of the terminal....the more efficient side where flights were called and there was signage. The flight with Air Asia was uneventful and we landed in Phnom Penh at 7.15am local time. Immigration was quick. Although the other half had packed his passport photos in his checked in luggage so had to pay an extra $2 for a copy to be made of the one in his passport. High security at Phnom Penh....electronic finger printing. Baggage collection was also quick and if you had nothing to declare your card was collected and you were simply waved through customs. Within 10 minutes I had a purchased a pre-paid sim card that the staff at the booth set up with credit etc and made sure it was working. We decided to use a prepaid taxi to get to our hotel. The voucher cost $9. The driver tried to convince us that the hotel was closed...in fact his list told him so. He was not impressed when we told him that we would take our chances. He next volunteered his services to show us all the sites of Phnom Penh. He lost interest in that when he discovered we were only there for the one day and were quite happy to just poke around the riverside area. His last effort was to offer to arrange our bus tickets to Siem Reap for the next day. He became quite annoyed when we told him they were already booked. He wanted to know why tourists needed to be so organised and didn't just go with the flow. He forgot to add and 'be happy to part with more money in the process'. Our hotel room was not yet ready so we headed off to pay for our bus tickets and find some decent coffee. The riverside in Phnom Penh has changed much from the last visit but still a lot of small construction. We had booked to travel to Siem Reap with the Giant Ibis bus company which included a free pickup. The riverside has heaps of small coffe and not so small eateries so it is not hard to find somewhere to escape the bustle. Our room at the Local 2 is a bit on the quirky side but very comfortable and clean and the airconditioning was a welcome relief from the sticky heat of Phnom Penh. Once we were refreshed we headed off to the Nationa Museum. The OH was to miss out on the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda as the Palace is closed due to the death of the former Cambodian King. It was still possible to visit the Silver Pagoda bu with an entrance of $6.50 per person this is a bit steep. The National Museum although it shows nothing of Cambodia's recent past, including the French occupation or the Pol Pot era is still worth a visit. Many artifacts are available from the more ancient past, in particular the Angkar era. No photographing is allowed except in the outside gardens. It was so intersting we spent a good couple of hours there and could probably have spent longer except that it was past lunch and the hunger pains had set in. We found a great little noodle shop not far from the museum that supported a local school and it was the very yummy noodle soup.

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