Jan 2007

We woke up the next day to begin our journey to the Philippines. We ate breakfast and intended to catch a cab to the airport by 9:00. Instead, we caught one at 9:30. Traffic was bad, so we were both worried that we'd be late. After getting fleeced for a parking fee at the airport (which we'd never had to pay before..shifty driver), we arriver a little later than we'd liked, but got there nonetheless. We checked in and went through customs, where we, once again, successfully chose the slowest line and waited impatiently. We finally got through, then had to wait again to go through security. Then we had to wait again to give our boarding pass to the attendant, and had to wait again in a separate area to board the plane. All in all, there was a lot of frustrating hurry-up-and-wait.

Here are some additional pictures of the Saigon airport (war-era cement shelters) and the view of the city.

It was an uneventful flight to Hong Kong. We were worried about our connecting flight because we had an hour and a half between flights and our flight from Saigon arrived 30 minutes late. We were also concerned that we'd land at one end of the airport and have to tke off from the other. Fortunately, the gates were right next to each other.

Our flight to the Philippines was fine as well. The adventure started when we landed. Someone met us at the terminal and took us to a van that was waiting to drive us to the dock to meet the boat. However, the person who met us was from a hotel with a name different from the hotel where we were staying. This made us both a little nervous.

We hesitantly got into the van, and took off. Literally. This man drove like a maniac for two hours straight. He drove like he was some Formula 1 driver on 'roids. It was scary. And in Manila, it was understandable, because it was the city, and traffic was bad, but you can't go that fast. But on the country roads, under cover of night, he was driving too fast and passing everything in front of him: around turns, with oncoming traffic, you name it. Andrew started a couple of games to try to take our minds off of the situation, but it only lasted for about 15 minutes until we both fell silent and prayed we wouldn't die on some backroad in the Philippines.

We finally pulled down a dirt road, which seemed really sketchy at first, but we saw some boats which settled us a little. When the van parked, we had never been so happy to be not moving in our lives. We got out of the van, gave each other a look, and were approached by a man. He said, "I'm the boatman. Come with me." We gave each other another look and did as he said. Anything to get away from that van. We got on a big outrigger and took off into the darkness across the water. We felt like we were smuggling something or defecting to the U.S. from Cuba. It was thrilling to be on the water again. After about an hour, we docked and disembarked. We walked in the water along the beach to get to our hotel. We got into our room, unpacked, and saw a mosquito flying around the room. Our gecko friend that was also in our room apparently wasn't doing his job. Andrew proceeded to hunt the bug for 15 minutes and eventually got it. Then we slept.

On our last day in Siem Reap, we settled into a very relaxed pace, getting up late and going to browse the Old Market for souvenirs. We took some pictures along the way.

We bought some silk paintings, a couple of shirts, a scarf and a pin. We were there about an hour before deciding to find some lunch at the Butterflies Garden Restaurant. It was really relaxing. All the butterflies are provided by local children, and in return their community is given financial support. There are also literacy and education programs being established in the communities as a part of the system. We decided it would be good to support this cause.

In the garden, we found a table and sat down. There were butterflies everywhere, and when our food came they kept landing on it. It was pretty funny. There were also lizards all over the place in the garden, and we watched one as it stalked and caught a butterfly. Yum. After we finished our meal, we walked to get some dessert (yum... coconut flan), and headed in the direction of our hotel. Just as we were heading toward the hotel, Vut (our tuk-tuk driver), pulled over and offered us a ride. We said we were okay for now, but he offered to take us to the airport later in the day, and it would be cheaper because he liked us so much. How could we say no?

When we got back to the hotel, we cancelled our pre-arranged ride, which the hotel wasn't too happy about, and went upstairs to pack.

We brought our bags downstairs, settled the bill for the crappy room, and got in the tuk-tuk to go to the airport. We were sad saying goodbye to Vut, and said we'd try to find him again when we returned. And we meant it.

When we arrived at the airport, we saw a sight we had yet to behold anywhere in Asia: DQ. We checked in and made an executive decision that we each needed a Blizzard. Yummo.

After the ice-creamy goodness, we waited for our flight to Saigon. As we were sitting next to the bookshop, we saw a lady running on the spot browsing the books; working on her fitness, we guessed. Credit goes to her though for making the most of her waiting time; I sat on my behind and did a crossword.

Our short flight was uneventful. We arrived back in Saigon, changed our money (and got some strange looks in the process), and went back to our hotel. It was strange to be back.

We discovered when we checked in that the staff at the hotel had given us an upgrade, for free. It pays to be nice, I guess. Our room had a sauna and hottub out on the balcony. We dropped our bags and went down for supper. We ate and went back up to the room. We tried to fill the hottub, but we ran out of hot water and patience with the low water pressure (the latter ran out before the former). We felt a little defeated, so we went to sleep, with the assurance that by the next night, we would be in the Philippines.