Day by Day Travels

Our final morning in Vietnam was a sad one- we have had an incredible time and some amazing experiences, but we are looking forward to a foray into Cambodia. Our faithful bus driver and Jung the tour guide were there to escort us back to Saigon and the airport.  We had a bit of time to spare are really wanted to stop at the War Remnants Museum, we were sad we had missed this.  Jung delivered us to the museum with strict instructions to meet at 1pm to get to the airport 3 hours before our “international” flight of 45 minutes. We spent the hour and a half solemnly absorbing the horrors of this museum, from what the North Vietnamese did to their Southerners, what the soldiers did to innocent women and children, how agent orange and napalm destroyed and deforested this country.  It was a very sad and eye opening visit.
After this we were all pretty somber and ready to leave for Cambodia.  At the airport we arrived and checked in- 3 hours before our flight- which seems ridiculous. We had a terrible lunch of Burger King, which cost us more than any other meal so far in Vietnam. We caught up on some reading at the gate and then our flight arrived.  We were on board and Siem Reap was on the radar.  The flight was so short they only had time to hand out a little bottle of water each and then we were landing.  The airport what awaited us was super cute and so welcoming.  At the gate in Vietnam I had texted Da Mao- he was a guide that a friend had recommended while we were in Siem Reap, and I wanted to confirm with him that he would be at our hotel first thing in the morning to take us to the temples.  He was on top of it and asked how we were getting from the airport to the hotel. When I said a cab- he offered to pick us up!  So once landed we headed in to the airport and had to wait in line to get a visa.  The Visa’s were $30US each- we had thought we could pay by credit card, but turns out they only take cash.  We turned out every pocket and came up with $120USD in dollar bills.  While waiting around for our visas the luggage arrived and we were out of the airport in no time.  Da was there to greet us and take us to the hotel.  What a stroke of luck that he was there, because when we arrived at the hotel we thought we were at the wrong place as the name was not the same.  Da said that they had changed owners and were under a new name.  We would never known that, as we received no notification of that at all.  Then we checked in to the rooms and they had not given us the correct rooms- the staff were very helpful and we were given adjoining rooms as booked after a little shuffling around.
Da then waited around for us and drove us to a wonderful local restaurant for our first Cambodian meal.  The food was incredibly good and very reasonable.  We were all ready for bed by this time and besides we had to be up early for our 4:45am pick up!