In my travels around Cambodia, I talked to some different people. Most of them said my plan to take a bus was fine BUT it wasn't the safest or cleanest or reliable. Two of them were older men who had taken many trips to Cambodia, so I listened and booked a flight through a travel agent with a cheap airline. It was about $50 more expensive, but would take 2 hours instead of 6-10 and I didn't have to worry about breaking down in the middle of Cambodian countryside.
I had to choose between a flight at 11 a.m. and one at 2 p.m. I figured if I took the morning flight, I would have some extra time to figure out my surroundings and make sure I got a good meal so I chose that one even though it was $5 more. WRONG DECISION!
The flight was delayed from 10:55 to 5:55 p.m. It was super duper hot outside and I have my backpack with a laptop and everything in it so I decided to just hang out at the airport (at least it was air conditioned). While eight hours in one place sounds maddening, it really was kind of nice.
A day without tuk tuks yelling at me.
A day with air conditioning.
A day of reading about the going ons in my world back home.
It went by surprisingly fast. And once I got on the flight, it was only 35 minutes to Phnom Penh. Unfortunately, while I was waiting...I watched everyone for the 1:30 flight board. And the delay forced me to break my cardinal rule of traveling...never arrive after dark.
I rolled into my hostel around 7:30 pm absolutely starving. Since my flight was at 11 a.m., I hadn't eaten a big breakfast and planned on eating a big lunch when I got to Phnom Penh. Well, thankfully, the airline gave me a meal voucher so I had a good lunch, but I was still STARVING. The hostel, again, wasn't super helpful with finding food, but it turns out that there's a KFC right around the corner. I ate it without shame. And it was delicious and one of the cheapest meals I've paid for in Cambodia.
Money is weird here. I pay in USD and end up with USD and Cambodian Riehl in change. They
only use paper money, so 1000 Riehl is about 0.25 dollars. I have a wallet full of 100 and 500 notes that are literally almost worth less than the paper they're printed on. Take a look at my wallet, all of those notes are about $40 total. It's so weird, but I've gotten the hang of it and even stopped someone from ripping me off the other day.
I had to choose between a flight at 11 a.m. and one at 2 p.m. I figured if I took the morning flight, I would have some extra time to figure out my surroundings and make sure I got a good meal so I chose that one even though it was $5 more. WRONG DECISION!
The flight was delayed from 10:55 to 5:55 p.m. It was super duper hot outside and I have my backpack with a laptop and everything in it so I decided to just hang out at the airport (at least it was air conditioned). While eight hours in one place sounds maddening, it really was kind of nice.
A day without tuk tuks yelling at me.
A day with air conditioning.
A day of reading about the going ons in my world back home.
It went by surprisingly fast. And once I got on the flight, it was only 35 minutes to Phnom Penh. Unfortunately, while I was waiting...I watched everyone for the 1:30 flight board. And the delay forced me to break my cardinal rule of traveling...never arrive after dark.
I rolled into my hostel around 7:30 pm absolutely starving. Since my flight was at 11 a.m., I hadn't eaten a big breakfast and planned on eating a big lunch when I got to Phnom Penh. Well, thankfully, the airline gave me a meal voucher so I had a good lunch, but I was still STARVING. The hostel, again, wasn't super helpful with finding food, but it turns out that there's a KFC right around the corner. I ate it without shame. And it was delicious and one of the cheapest meals I've paid for in Cambodia.
Money is weird here. I pay in USD and end up with USD and Cambodian Riehl in change. They
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| All those bills equal ONE dollar |
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| This is what my wallet looks like. It gets pretty darn confusing. |
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