Cambodia

That foray into the Mekong Delta was the last significant expedition of what is termed the Main Trip. If you will recall, we spent a few days up in the North, above and to the West of Hanoi, in the Hill Country with two different tribes. That was the Pre-Trip. Quite often there are three options when planning these trips with O.A.T…… Pre, Main, and Post. Put them all together and you end up with about a total of a month’s worth of travel.

                        Not everyone opted in for the Post Trip to Cambodia, but most did. Sherry and Harold had already been there, so they decided to throw another O.A.T. trip on as long as they were over here, so they are in Thailand and the Philippines. A few of the others needed to get back, so off they went when the Main Trip was concluded. But nine of us (now I know how Frodo felt when the Fellowship got broken up!) went on to Cambodia, the obvious big draw being Angkor Wat.

                        Angkor Wat is very conveniently located just outside of Siem Reap, the coolest sounding city (seem reep) we’ve been to so far and the second largest city in Cambodia after Phnom Penh. At only 250,000 residents it pales in comparison to Phnom Penh at ten times that and 2.5 million!  I’m glad we were in Siem Reap.

                        We have a new Tour Experience Leader, his name is Ting and he is an experienced O.A.T. Guide with about ten years under his belt. His personality mirrors that of Phil’s so we are all very happy!

                        They jam countries together over here the way it’s done in Europe which makes for tons of diversity when it comes to everything that makes up an ethnicity…..i.e. occupations, foods, religions, and local customs. The actual size of the old “French Indochina” is roughly one third that of the Lower Forty-Eight back here in the States. This means that to cover any ground in a decent amount of time, we needed to fly between some regions. Hence our three internal North to South flights in Vietnam, and now a flight into Cambodia will save us innumerable hours of driving, which we traded an hour of flight time for. The highways are not the same as back home so sometimes road travel does not equate to the usual miles driven vs miles flown calculation. Flying was good.

                        Except, we found ourselves on Fly One Airlines instead of Air Cambodia. I’m not sure that there’s a big difference as I’m not sure how large Air Cambodia is but Fly One has a whopping fleet of aircraft that numbers (I can’t believe that they just don’t buy one more plane….) 13! We all breathed a huge sigh of relief when we found out that Fly One is one of the aviation leaders in the Republic of ……. Moldova! (Huh?) Now we’re really feelin’ good!

            This feeling of confidence was only heightened when the Captain got on the horn to speak to us. Now Moldova is a tiny little thing nestled between Romania, Russia, Ukraine, and any other strip of land that wants to claim its independence from someone else (leaving everything in turmoil). So that means that he speaks with a Russian (?) sounding accent. Now that sure gives us folks from the West a real cozy feeling!

                        We were bused (where are you taking us?) way out on the tarmac, far away from any witnesses, and dumped off next to an old biplane that held maybe 20 or so passengers. Luckily our plane was on the other side of that one, so we trudged over, baggage in hand and climbed up the long flight of portable steps into the plane. The interior was a little reassuring as there were no produce or chicken crates to sit on, just the regular seats that one may expect. Except that I think Moldova’s aviation regulations have little concern for the comfort of their passengers because I’m pretty sure that there was more room in the back seat of my sister’s old Triumph Spitfire and that car didn’t even have a back seat!

                        Good thing the flight was only an hour! (But that 12-hour drive was now looking really good about now!)

                        Arriving in Cambodia at Siem Reap’s cute little airport stopped being cute as soon as we spied the Officials. Did you ever go through Customs or Immigration at JFK or Newark….some guy eating a Subway sandwich, sauces dripping on his shirt and the look on his face that says, “I only have 10 more hours of my 8 hour shift left.”?

                        Well, over here, where they revel in the obvious effects of an Official Guard that looks like they’re straight out of Central Casting, complete with a spotless uniform, gold braid, and odd-looking hat, and…… the Supervisor eyeing everyone up as if we were from the CIA, well then, don’t we feel like just giving them all a nice, big hug!

                        But when we get outside, just the direct opposite is true!

                        EVERONE bows slightly at the waist, hands pressed together, fingertips upward in a greeting, when saying thank you, or just as an everyday greeting, or serving anyone at a table, or anything! And it’s done with a genuine smile on their face and a warm glint in their eyes.

                        How nice is this???!!!

                        Ting picked us up from the Airport, rescuing us from the stiff-collared ‘Authorities’ in time to whisk us away in our own Toyota Minibus for the drive to town. The hotel is the best one we’ve been in so far, and they’ve all been good. Doormen and Bellhops bowing gracefully every time we enter, leave, or just pass by.

                        I could get used to this!

                        Ting wasted no time in getting us introduced to his city….. a tuk-tuk ride was in the offing which brought us around downtown and a very nice temple and the Royal Gardens.

                        A note on Temples here…. it seems that O.A.T. (the acronym) has another meaning. Tongue-in-cheek they refer to themselves as … Oh! Another Temple! Similar to Viking who will entertain you with A.B.C. Tours ….. Another (Bloody) (Bodacious) (Beautiful) you fill in the blank…. Cathedral.

                        Cambodia is Buddhist.

                        Buddhists have shrines and temples.

                        We saw all of them.

Of course, we are all waiting for the Big Kahuna (wrong religion, but you get the idea) of them all, Angkor Wat. The anticipation is building, teased along the way with its proximity to where we are, but kept under wraps by our rather full schedule of our All-Things Cambodian tour.

            The next two days were filled with a trip to their local Killing Fields, the Angkor National Museum, three more temples, including the one that has all of those incredible ancient tree roots spaghettified within it. There was another home-hosted meal, this one in a village of houses on stilts, not because of water, but because of heat!

No worries! All of these, and more will be detailed in their own photo-posts coming soon! The simple fact is that we have been so busy, and experienced so much, that I did run out of time documenting all of these ventures. Truth be told, we are leaving for the airport for our flight to Tokyo, and then Houston, in two hours. It’s 2AM and I can’t sleep so here we are talking! Wish I had a glass of milk and a few cookies! (any kind will do ‘cept yucky Fig Newtons).

            So now you know that we’ve been to Cambodia and are now back in Saigon. We arrived yesterday afternoon and are leaving this morning. By the time you read this, we will be somewhere over the rainbow winging our way back to the Western World, reluctantly leaving the Mysterious East behind us.

                        But have no fear, those Posts of what went on in Cambodia are too good to just leave in their digital files for no one to see, so I will duly foist them upon you in the next few days as if we are still there. So, suspend your internal timelines and if you’re like me, you’ll be happy that we’re “still” over “here”!