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Published: January 22nd 2013
HE SAID... Cambodia had been on our travel horizon for months, but we were so busy with work and daily life that it had been somewhat of a ship on the horizon in the overall scheme of things. But suddenly it was upon us, and we were packing the day before we left. It didn’t help that Oliver, our new kelpie, cut his paw about a week before we left, which meant trips to the vet and continual monitoring at home to ensure the wound healed. Luckily, his paw healed just in time and we finalised all our projects, so we were ready to go.
The dogs were picked up at 11.30am. They were happy to jump in the back of the car, but not so happy to leave. We spent the next few hours sorting out our computers and finalising some last minute packing. We left for the airport at 3pm. After organising parking at the airport car park, we checked in and boarded our plane to Melbourne around 5.30pm. The flight was fairly uneventful, although the guy beside Ren had ants in his pants and didn’t understand the concept of individual seating. We arrived at 7pm, picked up
our bags and headed to the international terminal to meet Ren’s parents. We found a noodle place for dinner and finished the meal with a coffee at Hudson’s before checking in at 10.30pm. We slowly made our way through security and customs and then wandered through the duty free shops on our way to the gate lounge. We boarded our Singapore Airlines flight just after midnight for a 1am departure.
The cabin crew were fantastic throughout the flight, and it always amazes me how well they deal with the behaviour of some passengers. The woman in front of me was way too old for her way too shorty shorts, and her shameless performance to seek assistance to lift her tiny backpack into the overhead locker worked wonders with one of the passengers, but not with the flight attendant. After removing the backpack for her (Ms Shorty Pants apparently couldn’t manage this herself), the flight attendant demanded that they both lift it into the locker. With disgust, Ms Shorty Pants agreed to help lift her own pack into the locker. It would have weighed less than a kilo.
Unfortunately, the food was not fantastic. I had penne pasta with
smoked salmon and chive-cream sauce, which was OK but very salty. Ren had the fried rice with chicken and vegetables, which was ordinary (to say the least). On the plus side, the red wine and cognac were very welcome, and before long we were slipping in and out of sleep as the plane made its way through the night to Singapore. We were woken early for a 4am breakfast of very salty scrambled eggs and stale buns. We landed at Changi Airport at 5.30am, changed terminals, made our way to the gate lounge and sat out a 1.5 hour transit stopover before boarding our Silk Air flight to Phnom Penh at 7am.
We couldn’t believe Ms Shorty Pants was on the same flight to Cambodia. Luckily, she decided to do a quick change before the flight, and emerged from a dog-leg in the Changi maze of corridors in a skin tight mini dress. Luckily it was slightly lower than her shorty shorts, so we all breathed a sigh of relief…
The Silk Air food was inconsistent. Ren had a mushroom omelette with chicken sausage, which was one of the strangest tasting and textured dishes we’ve had for a
long time. I had the spicy steamed fish and noodles, which was surprisingly good. However, the food paled into insignificance when compared to the passengers. The woman sitting beside took a side-on photo of me as soon as she sat down (which was extremely disconcerting), while the woman over the aisle refused to make her two year old son sit and strap on his seat belt during landing. The crew tried to persuade the mother and son to cooperate, but they refused. With no other option, the crew gave up, sat down and strapped on their seatbelts. With only seconds before landing, the kid miraculously jumped into his seat and survived the solid hit we made on the tarmac.
We bounced down on the runway at Phnom Penh Airport at 8.40am, happy to have survived the solid landing. I was a little concerned on our approach, not only for the safety of the insolent child across the aisle, but also for our own safety – the landing speed of the plane was faster than I’ve experienced for a long time. We disembarked and made our way to customs. We were in Cambodia!
SHE SAID... I celebrated
a milestone birthday a few months ago, and for my birthday present Andrew asked where in the world I would like to go. You guessed it – I picked Cambodia. As mentioned in the last post, technically this will be my second trip to Cambodia. However, seeing as the first trip was only a long weekend to visit the Angkorian temples, I’ve never felt that I saw enough of Cambodia outside of the tourist trail. So this was a chance to do so. I know it’s a privilege to see Angkor Wat, and I’m counting my lucky stars that I’m fortunate enough to see it twice.
Before planning this trip, I knew precious little about Cambodia’s recent history. I had a rough idea about the philosophy of the Khmer Rouge and the brutality of the killing fields. I also knew that Pol Pot had been too sick to face trial, and that there were ongoing war crimes tribunals being held in Phnom Penh. And that was about the extent of my knowledge. Over the past few months I have read up on the history of the country from French rule through to recent events, and I found it hard
to believe that the world stood by and did nothing while the Khmer Rouge unfolded their tyranny against their own people for years. But I suppose this is nothing new in human history, and even as I sit here and write this, similar atrocities are being committed with little intervention from countries that have nothing to gain from intervening. We humans are not as evolved or sophisticated as we would like to think we are.
After months of reading about Cambodian history, thinking about it and talking about it; I’m looking forward to being in the country and experiencing the people and the culture for what it is right now. I’m trying not to have expectations, but given that at some points in history the Khmer Kingdom stretched into both Vietnam and Thailand, I’m half expecting this country in the middle of old Indochina to be a blend of Vietnamese and Siamese cultures – I’ll no doubt be proven very wrong. 😊
One of the only downsides to travelling to South East Asia is the number of travel shots that are needed, especially if travelling to rural areas. Our immunity for typhoid and cholera ran out last year,
so we had to get top up shots and portions. Our doctor also advised us to take malaria tablets this time, but we’re not looking forward to doing so or to the annoying side effect of photo sensitivity! The last time I was prescribed doxycycline I made the mistake of taking it on an empty tummy which made me sick for a whole day! This time I’m going to have to be very good about eating a meal before I take the tabs.
The last time we travelled overseas, our 16 year old cat Nungi had just died (in May 2012). Since then our 16 year old corgi/beagle Oscar also died (in November 2012). Even though Jasper was dealing relatively well with suddenly finding herself as an only child after being one of three, we were a little worried about how she would cope with our absence this time. We hadn’t really wanted to get another puppy until we returned from Cambodia, but when I got notification via
Sophie’s choice website that there was a gorgeous little kelpie at our local Lost Dogs’ Home who needed to be adopted, we really didn’t have a choice in the matter. So Jasper now
has 16 month old Oliver to keep her company while we are away. It was hard saying goodbye to them, and even though it's only been just over 24 hours, I miss them both so very much already!
Flying from Hobart to Phnom Penh is not at all straight forward in terms of flight schedule or timing. One domestic flight to Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport and two international flights are required, and as with most flights off the major flying routes, we are flying in the dead of night. On the plus side, we gain the illusion of an extra day by arriving in Phnom Penh in the early morning. My parents Roy and Eva met us for dinner at Melbourne Airport and picked up belated Christmas presents for the family (as we’d had to cancel our trip to Melbourne when the bushfires looked ominously close). I love Melbourne Airport, but the food is nothing to write home about. However, we enjoyed some sushi and a nasi lemak meal none the less. Giving credit where credit is due, I haven't had a bad coffee at Melbourne Airport in years. Coffees and hot chocolates can be lifesaving when travelling! We had
already checked-in online, so after we dropped our bags off, we said goodbye to mum and dad and settled in to wait for our 1am flight.
The Singapore Airlines flight from Melbourne to Singapore was lovely, but the food was average in the usual ways. I broke my own rule of only ordering the food option that is local to the catering company... I ordered the beef fried rice, and it was the quality of food-court Chinese food circa 1989. Luckily, Andrew's salmon penne was passable. Breakfast was the usual rubbery mess that passes for eggs on planes, and the other sides looked like they could have been thrown up by a baby. However, most importantly we both managed to sleep for most of the seven hour flight, and surprisingly felt quite alert during our transit stop at Singapore's Changi Airport. Andrew's large glass of cognac and my Bloody Mary that seemed to be 90% alcohol with a splash of tomato juice may have helped to knock us out. 😊
The tiny Silk Air flight from Singapore to Phnom Penh was average. Mind you, dealing with the cumbersome security checks at Changi didn't set the best scene. Seriously, why do transit passengers have to have passports checked at three different points, and boarding passes many more times than that? Especially when we were already in a holding lounge anyway...no one has come or gone since the last two checks people!
The flight itself was ok – it was full of native Cambodians who had immigrated to Australia or America and were coming back to visit. It was quite funny being asked by multiple Cambodians if I was coming home to see family too. Apparently I could pass as Cambodian if I had lighter skin, but I just cannot see what they mean. The woman sitting next to us didn’t start our relationship off well when she took a mug shot of Andrew with her phone. She proceeded to try to make conversation with me, but I soon realised she was a whinger of super proportions, so I cut that conversation off by feigning sleep. We were served a breakfast of sorts, and yet again I broke my ‘food native to the catering company’ rule and ordered the mushroom frittata with chicken sausage. Hmm, that chicken sausage wouldn't have been out of place in a forensics lab. It was a good thing I wasn't ravenously hungry. Andrew scored well with a hot and sour fish and rice noodles dish.
When we started to descend into Phnom Penh, I got the impression that the city was like no other Asian capital city I've been to – there didn't seem to be any buildings taller than five or so stories high. However, I didn't have long to ponder this as we saw the airport below us and realised that the pilot was coming in to land way way way faster than normal. The plane started swaying, the engines suddenly seemed a little too loud and as if on cue everyone went very quiet and remained so until we bounced onto the runway and were still in one piece. It didn't seem overly windy outside, so I can only assume the pilots needed some jollies to get their day started. 😊
Well, here we are in Cambodia...see you in the swing of things in Phnom Penh!
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Rom
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shorts
HI guys, great to hear from you. Andrew I am picturing a Donna type character in shorts. Don't worry about Oliver and Jasper, they are probably having a party! Could you please send me a picture of a Cambodian Cucks so that I can be the judge. We always said you were adopted, perhaps you ARE Cambodian. Happy eating and travelling! Lots of love xxx