We woke up and had breakfast at our favorite street vendor. They had the most amazing Thai iced tea - a mixture of tea and sweet cream - so sweet, and so good. We hopped on a minibus to the airport, and as usual it was filled with Brits and Dutch people. Still no Americans.
The Bangkok airport is more of a shopping center than a transportation hub. It is filled with more designer stores than Michigan Ave. Our AirAsia flight was packed with people in tiny seats (that were literally acute, we were actually leaning forward). When we arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, we had to buy our visas on arrival. It was complete chaos, as all foreigners hand in their passports to a handful of agents. The passports are then passed down an assembly line of Cambodians for processing, and are finally signed and handed out individually by Capt. Mean Sam, Deputy Chief of Visa Services. Luckily, with Danny's pushiness, we ended up in the front of the line, so we were able to witness the comotion light heartedly. Oh, one more thing, they don't even accept their own currency for the visas, it's that useless - USD only.
On the tuk tuk ride from the airport into the city, our driver chatted us up, tried to sell us a guided tour for the next day, and kept telling us that we were his friends. He even exclaimed, "You twins?" At which point we looked at each other and responded with a definitive "No" in unison. "Oh, just brothers? You look so much alike, same face and color!" For the fact that Ashwin is as tan as he's ever been, this comment really took us by surprise. I guess Dannyreally has seen a lot of sun this summer.
Having missed lunch due to the travels and ridiculously overpriced airport food, we each had 2 full meals for dinner, and at least 5 cups of iced green tea to top it off (we're keeping hydrated for Janet). The family running the mobile eatery set up on the street corner were taken aback by our eating abilities and must have thought we were typical Americans. To our surprise, our hostel had cable TV, which we haven't watched in 2 weeks, so we watched the Thomas Crown Affair before bed.
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ReplyDeleteGlad to see your posts once again, I've been promoting your blog to just about everyone I know and it has been quite well received. In addition we get just a bit anxious when a day goes by and we don't hear from you two, especially after eating spicy porks head soup in the elephant village.
Surprised to hear you had no knowledge of the Genocide of the Khemr Rouge under Pol Pot. It is the main reason that Cambodia lags behind its neighbors, having lost a large portion of its educated population.
Enjoy your trip to Angkor and keep us posted.