Day 22: Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia, Saturday 29th June 2024
Cloudy/showers, 32°
NZ$1 = THB22
THB1 = NZ$0.04
NZ$=KHR2500 ( Cambodian Riel )
KHR1=NZ$0.0004
NZ$1=US$0.60
US$1=NZ$1.6
US$1 =KHR4,100
A travel day today, heading to Siem Reap.
Up at 8am, downstairs for breakfast ( all good ) then back to the room to pack. Downstairs at 9:15am to check out and call a Grab, which arrived at 9:35am ( THB537/NZ$26 to the airport including toll of THB80 ). Left and headed north and east on main roads and onto freeway ( toll ) to Don Meung Airport, arrived a 10:15am. Through into the terminal ( through security first ) and printed our bag labels at the kiosk ( with a bit of help from a Malaysian couple to sort the machine out ) then dropped our bags at the bag drop ( this means getting bag labels printed by an agent at the check in desk, then taking the bags to the xray machine for scanning, and not using the conveyor belts at the check in desk as you would expect ).
Headed through immigration and scanning, and out into the shopping mall at 10:40am. We walked down through the duty free stores etc and had a drink and cake at Starbucks at 11:15am; and waited.
Headed down to our Gate at 12pm ( to Gate 1 which is gate onto a bus ) and sat and waited in the gate lounge. We were due to start boarding at 12:50pm but we didn’t get on the bus until 1:30pm ( the time the flight was supposed to leave ). Out and onto the plane; someone had taken Liz’s seat on the plane so she took mine by mistake and then wound up not in the seat she was supposed to have after I kicked her out of my seat, and the person in her seat didn’t want to move. We both had window seats a couple of rows apart from each other. Took off at 2pm, short hop up to about 23000ft, dodging thunder storms on the way across the Gulf of Thailand then over the border to Cambodia. Landed at 2:50pm and into the new Siem Reap Airport, which opened earlier this year. We were the only plane arriving at the time so it felt very quiet.
Filled in immigration card then through immigration ( with our evisa that we had got already ) then to baggage claim and then out through customs. Our driver ( Mr Tut Tut ) that we had booked through the hotel ( US$38/NZ$60 ) met us in the arrivals area at 3:30pm ( the arrivals is outside the building ) and we headed off to Siem Reap ( about 45minutes drive away ; first on a new highway then on the main road from Phnom Penh ). Arrived at our Hotel and checked in at 4:20pm ( Royal Crown and Spa, NZ$286 for 4 nights, breakfast included ) and up to our room ( Room 325 ). Nice big room on the main road side, so a bit of noise but not too bad.
Out at 4:45pm, checked out the roof top bar/deck then the pool and then walked into town. We walked past the hotel we stayed in last time we were here ( read here for that story https://www.ankhphotography.net/all-blog-posts/2017/7/16/south-east-asia-2017-day-36-phnom-penh-to-siem-reap ), which has been demolished and is now a retail store, and into Pub Street.
A short explaination of money in Cambodia; Riel is the currency but US dollars are preferred, as long as they are ‘clean’ ( no tears and in good condition ). Most prices are in US dollars for tourists. But change is given in a combination of US dollars and Riel, depending on what they have. So knowing that 2500 riel is 1 NZ dollar is fine, and knowing that 1 US dollar is 1.6 NZ dollars is ok, but when they give change in a combination if US$ and Riel there is no way to know ( unless you want to stand there and count it using a calculator for conversions, because $US1 = 4100 Riel ) if it correct ; you have to trust them a bit.
We grabbed a beer at Easy Speaking in Pub Street for US$0.75 /NZ$120 each for a pint.
Pub Street is a actually a nice collection of restaurants / bars serving good food and drink; not Irish Bars / Sports Bars like we saw in Bangkok in Soi11. At least it is a nice collection of restaurants at the time of night that we were visiting. Most restaurants on Pub Street have a happy hour ( which seems to run all day ) with US$0.75 beers; this was US$0.50 beers when we were here last time so I guess that is inflation.
We sat and people watched, talked to a couple of guys from NZ ( who were on a tour with 18, others including their wives who arrived later, and had come from Vietnam through Phnom Phen to get to Siem Reap ). We then ordered a starter to eat and then a main ( Lok Lak Beef ), and 2 more beers. In all 1 starter, 1 main ( very nice ) and 4 pints of Angkor Beer: US$14/NZ$21.
Wandered back to the hotel through the market ( bought some ear rings and a metal pill box for US$45/NZ$70), then back across the river to a mini mart for supplies, and back to the hotel at 7pm. Relaxed
Bought our Angkor Archeological Passes online ( US$62 each for a 3 day pass ) and looked at options for electric scooter hire for the next 3 days.