We haven’t really had too much down time to spend keeping this blog up to date. We are currently on our 3rd day in Cambodia and will be here until Wednesday…we had to change our itinerary a bit. Ill get into that later.
We arrived into Singapore after 27 hours of door-to-door travel. Our flight was amazing; at least once we left the US. We had a domestic flight from Denver to LAX on United and we sat at the gate on the plane while they fixed one of the two toilets. Good times. Our main leg of the trip was from LA to Seoul, Korea. The Asiana airplane was quite amazing. Our seats were huge and pretty much reclined flat (I think it was 16 degrees or something) and they gave us slippers and eye covers. We had two excellent 3-course meals and all the top-shelf alcohol you could order…we kept it to a single drink with each meal. We had a 2 hour layover in Seoul and spent it up in the Star Alliance Lounge. It was pretty swanky. We were able to shower, sit in massage chairs, eat, watch TV and just relax. Our last leg to Singapore was a 7 hour flight and we were again amazed with 2 fantastic meals. By this time I think we had eaten 5 meals in 24 hours. I could feel the pounds already.
Our driver met us at the airport and dropped us off at our hotel. Its actually a 3-bedroom apartment on the 25th floor turned into bed and breakfast. The girl working there was moderately helpful and our room was nothing to brag about. Fairly basic and quite frankly, overpriced. Reminded us of our $100 hostel room in London.
While there we checked out the Jarung Bird Park, which was pretty cool. It was a tip from a friend and we felt like we were in an Animal Planet show or something. Most of the birds were local to SE Asia. It was a neat to see some of the birds of paradise found in Papua New Guinea. It was nostalgic to once again see the toucans and macaws that we had seen in Costa Rica. We also rode around on the Singapore river, ate with our hands off of a banana leaf at the Banana Leaf Apollo in Little India, endured a torrential rain storm that completely flooded the roads, ate at numerous “hawker stalls” and tried to enjoy a plate of Chili Crab, but just couldn’t (mainly because of the inflated price). Also, I am in still dumbfounded that only one restaurant/stall had napkins for you…
We left for Kuala Lumpur via a 7 hour train ride. It was nice to see some of the Malaysian country side. At the same time it was very sad; miles and miles of palm tree plantations. They clear cut the forest and plant these trees for palm oil. It was also a reality check to see how people live outside the cities…shanty after shanty.
Chinatown in Kuala Lumpur on a Sunday afternoon is not the place to be backpacking through while looking for your hotel. The sidewalks are barely wide enough to walk on and there were hordes of people everywhere. We eventually found our place. Again for the price, we were pretty surprised at what we were getting (or maybe what we weren’t getting). Our first room was maybe 10x10, so we upgraded to the 12x12. It had a chair in addition to the bed and the bathroom was a 3x3 box with the shower spigot over the toilet. KL has some pretty spectacular sights, namely the KL Tower and the twin Petronas Towers. The KL Tower is the 4th largest comm. Tower in the world and it has amazing views from the observation deck 272 meters up. The Petronas Towers have a glass enclosed skybridge at the 42nd storey that you are allowed 10mins for viewing. We visited the Batu Caves, which are an important Buddhist site, and Merdeka Square; Merdeka means independence and this is where the Malaysian flag was raised for the 1st time after the Union Jack.
We had a 7am flight to Cambodia, which we missed boarding by about 15 minutes. If I had known how much money, time and energy that was going to cost, I would have arrived at the airport at 4 am. First, we didn’t realize that the mass transit didn’t start until 530 am. Second, we didn’t know that there are actually 2 airports in KL separated by about a 15 minute drive. Third, we didn’t realize that there is a scheduled mass transit that goes to the airport, not every few minutes like the rest of the rails. Fourth, we didn’t know that our air carrier only flies to Siem Reap every couple of days, so we couldn’t just get bumped to a flight later that day. Fifth, we didn’t know that was pretty much the same for all carriers going into and out of Cambodia. And so on. Lets just say that we spent the next 7 hours going back and forth between the two airports trying to figure out what to do and how to do it in the most efficient and economical way. Meanwhile our guide was waiting for us at the Siem Reap airport and wasn’t able to answer our calls. We ended booking a flight for the next day and an additional night of hotel near the airport. It wasn’t a fun day, but we held it together and kept our composure. We have plenty of experience with issues like this while traveling; aka Jan’s pickpocket experience in Rome.
We arrived in Siem Reap with no problems on Friday. It already is a special place for us. The people are extremely friendly. Our guide, Brem, is a great guy and very knowledgeable. His father was murdered and his two sisters starved to death during the Khmer Rouge invasions in the early 70s. He was placed in a labor camp working the rice fields for many years. But now he has 3 kids, has a “good” job and can feed his family…and he’s only 37. He has taken us around Angkor city, which comprises of a majority of the ancient temples that were discovered in the late 1800s. The most famous is Angkor Wat. They are majestic buildings which were built anywhere from 900-1100 A.D. I think we've taken 250 pictures over the last 3 days. We really enjoy Brem’s commentary and learning the history, but it is a lot to take in. Everywhere you go in Angkor City, as soon as you step foot out of the car you are swarmed with cute little girls and boys who are trying to sell you everything from guide books to tee shirts and handicrafts. It’s extremely difficult to say “no” to “Lady, you buy from me, I use the money to go to school; I make good price for you. You remember me when you come back from temple, okay lady?” Their broken English makes them even more cute!
We arrived into Singapore after 27 hours of door-to-door travel. Our flight was amazing; at least once we left the US. We had a domestic flight from Denver to LAX on United and we sat at the gate on the plane while they fixed one of the two toilets. Good times. Our main leg of the trip was from LA to Seoul, Korea. The Asiana airplane was quite amazing. Our seats were huge and pretty much reclined flat (I think it was 16 degrees or something) and they gave us slippers and eye covers. We had two excellent 3-course meals and all the top-shelf alcohol you could order…we kept it to a single drink with each meal. We had a 2 hour layover in Seoul and spent it up in the Star Alliance Lounge. It was pretty swanky. We were able to shower, sit in massage chairs, eat, watch TV and just relax. Our last leg to Singapore was a 7 hour flight and we were again amazed with 2 fantastic meals. By this time I think we had eaten 5 meals in 24 hours. I could feel the pounds already.
Our driver met us at the airport and dropped us off at our hotel. Its actually a 3-bedroom apartment on the 25th floor turned into bed and breakfast. The girl working there was moderately helpful and our room was nothing to brag about. Fairly basic and quite frankly, overpriced. Reminded us of our $100 hostel room in London.
While there we checked out the Jarung Bird Park, which was pretty cool. It was a tip from a friend and we felt like we were in an Animal Planet show or something. Most of the birds were local to SE Asia. It was a neat to see some of the birds of paradise found in Papua New Guinea. It was nostalgic to once again see the toucans and macaws that we had seen in Costa Rica. We also rode around on the Singapore river, ate with our hands off of a banana leaf at the Banana Leaf Apollo in Little India, endured a torrential rain storm that completely flooded the roads, ate at numerous “hawker stalls” and tried to enjoy a plate of Chili Crab, but just couldn’t (mainly because of the inflated price). Also, I am in still dumbfounded that only one restaurant/stall had napkins for you…
We left for Kuala Lumpur via a 7 hour train ride. It was nice to see some of the Malaysian country side. At the same time it was very sad; miles and miles of palm tree plantations. They clear cut the forest and plant these trees for palm oil. It was also a reality check to see how people live outside the cities…shanty after shanty.
Chinatown in Kuala Lumpur on a Sunday afternoon is not the place to be backpacking through while looking for your hotel. The sidewalks are barely wide enough to walk on and there were hordes of people everywhere. We eventually found our place. Again for the price, we were pretty surprised at what we were getting (or maybe what we weren’t getting). Our first room was maybe 10x10, so we upgraded to the 12x12. It had a chair in addition to the bed and the bathroom was a 3x3 box with the shower spigot over the toilet. KL has some pretty spectacular sights, namely the KL Tower and the twin Petronas Towers. The KL Tower is the 4th largest comm. Tower in the world and it has amazing views from the observation deck 272 meters up. The Petronas Towers have a glass enclosed skybridge at the 42nd storey that you are allowed 10mins for viewing. We visited the Batu Caves, which are an important Buddhist site, and Merdeka Square; Merdeka means independence and this is where the Malaysian flag was raised for the 1st time after the Union Jack.
We had a 7am flight to Cambodia, which we missed boarding by about 15 minutes. If I had known how much money, time and energy that was going to cost, I would have arrived at the airport at 4 am. First, we didn’t realize that the mass transit didn’t start until 530 am. Second, we didn’t know that there are actually 2 airports in KL separated by about a 15 minute drive. Third, we didn’t realize that there is a scheduled mass transit that goes to the airport, not every few minutes like the rest of the rails. Fourth, we didn’t know that our air carrier only flies to Siem Reap every couple of days, so we couldn’t just get bumped to a flight later that day. Fifth, we didn’t know that was pretty much the same for all carriers going into and out of Cambodia. And so on. Lets just say that we spent the next 7 hours going back and forth between the two airports trying to figure out what to do and how to do it in the most efficient and economical way. Meanwhile our guide was waiting for us at the Siem Reap airport and wasn’t able to answer our calls. We ended booking a flight for the next day and an additional night of hotel near the airport. It wasn’t a fun day, but we held it together and kept our composure. We have plenty of experience with issues like this while traveling; aka Jan’s pickpocket experience in Rome.
We arrived in Siem Reap with no problems on Friday. It already is a special place for us. The people are extremely friendly. Our guide, Brem, is a great guy and very knowledgeable. His father was murdered and his two sisters starved to death during the Khmer Rouge invasions in the early 70s. He was placed in a labor camp working the rice fields for many years. But now he has 3 kids, has a “good” job and can feed his family…and he’s only 37. He has taken us around Angkor city, which comprises of a majority of the ancient temples that were discovered in the late 1800s. The most famous is Angkor Wat. They are majestic buildings which were built anywhere from 900-1100 A.D. I think we've taken 250 pictures over the last 3 days. We really enjoy Brem’s commentary and learning the history, but it is a lot to take in. Everywhere you go in Angkor City, as soon as you step foot out of the car you are swarmed with cute little girls and boys who are trying to sell you everything from guide books to tee shirts and handicrafts. It’s extremely difficult to say “no” to “Lady, you buy from me, I use the money to go to school; I make good price for you. You remember me when you come back from temple, okay lady?” Their broken English makes them even more cute!
No comments:
Post a Comment