Siem Reap - Phnom Phen, Cambodia: 4 am…wake up call…alarm going off…”What was I thinking?”. Oh yeah…”Ensel Adams” Chris was going to shoot Angkor Wat at sunrise. I stumbled out of bed, packed my luggage and was down in the lobby by 4:30. My trusted taxi driver was waiting for me. We made the 20 minute trip in silence (I think BOTH of us were asleep at that hour). He let me out in front of Angkor Wat and said he would meet me in the parking lot when I was finished. I showed my three day pass to the guard and proceeded into the temple area. For those of you who saw the “Indiana Jones” movies, he always had to successfully pass through an obstacle course to reach the treasure. Well, he had it easy since there was always illumination of some sort. (Note to self…bring a flashlight next time you want to walk in the pitch black dark). I made it to the temple without any major fractures or falls and set up the 3 lb tripod that I have been carrying around SE Asia. I put my Sony Cybershot on it and programmed it to “night mode”. Just as I did that, I got the low battery light and it died 15 seconds later. (Note to self again…charge camera battery before leaving hotel). Fortunately I had a 2nd camera and was able to get some shots from that. Just as the sun was about to rise, 178 tour buses with various nationalities unloaded and Chris was no longer alone. So much for Angkor Wat pictures without tourists. It was quite a zoo at that point so I sat back and watched it unfold before me. Around 7:00 am I called it quits and decided it was time to head to a temple about an hour north of Angkor Wat. As I was exiting the temple, I began to wonder…”How many taxis and tuk tuks have I taken the past 3 weeks? What did my driver look like?” Hell…I would have been happy to know what the damn car looked like. Minor panic started to set in since all of my luggage was in the trunk. As I walked around the parking lot that was now FULL with taxis, the “Scared School Girl” Chris started to come out again. Fortunately for me, I was the only guy wearing a White Sox baseball cap among all of the tourists and my taxi driver found me wondering aimlessly!
The road to the temple north of Angkor Wat was beautiful: full of rice fields, children going to school, little villages, etc. Unfortunately “Mr. Sandman” Chris began to suffer the consequences of getting up at the crack of dawn without any caffeine and missed about ½ of the trip. Upon arriving at Temple #372, the police guarding the temple began his pitch. They would let me go in and take pictures in the restricted area for a tip. I didn’t accept so they then tried to sell me police badges. (Yeah, like I could pass myself off as a Cambodian policeman). They soon got the idea that “Cheapo” Chris wasn’t going to bite so they left me alone. It was nice to see Temple #372 (or was it #398) and I highly recommend taking the time to visit it. You won’t be disappointed it.
Afterwards we headed to the Landmine Museum which was very sobering. As we were driving from there, I reminded the driver that I had to be at the bus station by 12:30 to make the bus to Phnom Phen. He said yes, not a problem and he mentioned in passing that the bus ride would take 7 hours. “Hold your horses”, I said. I thought it was only 4 hours. “Bitching, moaning Chris who had been on one too many extended train / bus rides” began to revolt! I vaguely recall seeing that Cambodian Angkor Airways had flights to Phnom Phen from Siem Reap during my planning stage. Change of plans – let’s go to the airport! Cheapo Chris (bus ticket was non-refundable) didn’t stand a chance! It wasn’t too much of a fight since the bus ticket was only $12. We got to the airport in record time and there happened to be a flight in 45 minutes to Phnom Phen! Yes…”Charles Lindbergh” Chris was going to put his life in the hands of Cambodian Angkor Airways. It ended up being a very pleasant flight with meal service and a cold towel! Forty-five minutes later, I was in Phnom Phen.
The original plan was to spend 3 nights/four days here. “Alzheimer”Chris raised its ugly head. What hotel did I book? After looking through all of my luggage and signing on to Hotel.com along with Agoda.com I came to the conclusion that I didn’t book a hotel here. Lucky for me I had a guide book and tried calling some hotels. I got a message in Khmer but I couldn’t quite understand it. I called six other hotels and got the same message. I began to understand the message: “You idiot, you don’t know how to dial a phone number”. After a few frustrated attempts, I found someone at the airport who knew how to make a call. It seems that if you are dialing a landline from a cell phone, you have to add the prefix “32” or “33” or some number. I got through to the hotel but they had availability for only one night, “I’ll take it” and hopped in a cab. The road into town reminded me a bit of Calcutta (lots of traffic, dust and no rules of the road for civilized drivers. I got to the hotel and told the driver to wait as I was going to cram 4 days of sightseeing into 24 hours.
The first stop was Choeung Ek, a village 15 miles south of Phnom Phen known as the Killing Fields. I won’t go into details here but it was one of the most moving experiences in my life. After that, it was just back to the downtown office of Air Asia to change my flight. Like most US carriers, there is a cost to check your bag with one major difference. If your bag is over 7 kilos, you must check it as luggage. So I paid the change fee ($46), the luggage fee ($13) but didn’t fall for the meal fee ($5), the insurance fee ($3) nor the seat selection fee ($10). Since the day started at 4am, I decided to head back to the hotel at 5:30 and call it a night.
