We departed Maui on Tues Sept 19 around noon and arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia, on Sept 21 at 10 am after crossing the international date line. It was 29 hours in transit. We flew to LA first, going the wrong way, then LA to Singapore on a 16-hour flight that included three meals, and our last flight was 2 hours from Singapore to Siem Reap. I’d heard Angkor Wat was very hard to get to but that changed around 1990 when the French built an international airport nearby. Sadly, the sweet little airport where we arrived will be closed in October, being replaced by a Chinese-built airport an hour away from town. 

 Thursday, September 21

Yay! We finally arrived! Siem Reap airport is small and quaint and mostly vacant since it’s off-season. [Siem Reap is pronounced by the locals like see-em ree-a, ending with the faintest of a ‘p’ sound similar to the ‘b’ in the word numb.] We were picked up by Mr. Thom from the hotel (to show respect, they use Mr. with a man’s first name, so we did the same). Remember seeing rickshaws in the old movies? A two wheeled carriage with long front forks pulled by a little man who runs down the street? Well, replace the man with a little motor scooter and shrink things down a bit and we have the modern descendant of that. They call it a Remork, but almost all the tourists just call them tuk tuks. 

To familiarize ourselves with the area, we had Mr. Thom take us through the main part of town on our way to the hotel and we changed some cash to the Cambodia Reil. We later found that they will take US dollars as readily as local currency and they do prefer crisp new bills especially in the small denominations. We arrived at our hotel, the Bayon Modern Residence, with a flurry of greetings and a welcome drink. We were personally escorted to our room. The room was beautiful and we were settled in by 11 am. Not wanting to lay around napping after our long flight, and wanting to save Angkor Wat for sunrise, we rested only an hour before we had Mr. Thom tuk tuk us to the Kompong Phluk floating village (Lonely Planet Kompong Phluk link) and sunset boat ride on Lake Tonle Sap [likewise, barely pronounce the ‘p’ if at all.]  On the way back we stopped at the bustling riverside district near the Old Market for dinner. Then we collapsed into bed and slept till 3:30 am.

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