Cambodia bound (Jan. 14-15/09, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia to Siem Reap, Cambodia)

With nothing on our agenda today until our evening flight to Kuala Lumpur, we savoured a sleep in and leisurely breakfast before wandering around town for the bulk of the day. There's a trail up to an observation deck that looks out over the city, so we climbed up and had a view out over the port, the lush little islands just offshore, and the jumble of buildings and stores comprising the city below. We killed some time browsing the markets and treated ourselves to the first real western sandwich we've had since leaving home.



It was a long wait at the KK airport until our 9pm flight rolled around, but eventually we were lifting off from Borneo and heading west across the South China Sea. Kuala Lumpur's lights came into view a couple hours later, and by midnight we were picking up our bags and looking for a place to sleep until our 7am flight to Siem Reap. Normally, airports have these wonderful inventions called chairs where people can at least sit to wait out ridiculously long layovers - especially an airport in a huge hub of a city like Kuala Lumpur. But no - not a single section of chairs to wait in, no airport hotel to splurge for, and even the first class lounge was about to close. To make matters worse, they chose tonight of all nights to fumigate the entire airport, which meant shutting everyone outside until they were finished at 3am. Fabulous! What few benches and chairs there were along the curb outside the airport by the taxi stand had all been claimed by the time we got outside by hundreds of other people who were waiting out the night too. We did manage to snag a couple of cafe chairs that were stacked in a corner, so we huddled in a free corner with our bags and hoped we could get at least a little sleep. Not so much - between the cigarette smoke, outdoor air conditioning (?!) and blaring leaf blower clearing dust off the sidewalks for hours, it was hopeless. So we read and people watched in our uncomfortable chairs until the hours finally passed and an airport guy suddenly started to run around frantically, shouting at everyone to hurry up and get inside. Around the corner came a guy with a sprayer that billowed massive clouds of thick dark pesticides, and we had just seconds to haul our stuff out of the way before he would have coated us in it. So now we're inside, still with an hour before the check-in counter opens, and still nowhere to go. Desperate for sleep now, we passed out on our packs on the floor and waited it out. The Air Asia girl was almost an hour late showing up to the posted counter, only to tell us finally that our flight was switched to check in at a different one that was open already. The whole process was infuriating, especially since we had been awake for pretty much 24 hours. When we finally got to sit down at the gate, we saw the most ironic poster ever: a big banner claiming that "Kuala Lumpur International Airport is the world's best airport!" SERIOUSLY?!?!

Somehow we were pretty refreshed after two solid hours of sleep on the plane, and we woke to see the flooded rice fields on the edge of Tonle Sap (the large lake in central Cambodia) glimmering in the morning sun out the window of the plane. The air outside was refreshingly cool and misty, and soon we were being driven into town. All along the 10km stretch between the airport and Siem Reap are enormous luxury hotels with names like "Royal Angkor Palace" and "Le Meridien Cambodia". Our awesome little guesthouse was right in the main part of town beside the river, where the streets are home to restaurants and shops, yet they are pretty quiet too. The Lonely Planet gets kudos again for recommending this place - with a leafy entrance and cozy downstairs restaurant, we were taken to a comfy, bright, clean room upstairs that had all the basics for a whopping $7 a night! It felt good to have a sweet little place to settle into for a few days - especially at that price!


We cleaned up a bit and then ventured out into town to see what Siem Reap is all about. Close by on the river is the busy little market area, with food stalls, book shops, tailors, hostels... you name it. We found a spot called the Khmer Kitchen ("Khmer" meaning the indigenous people of Cambodia), where we savoured fresh spring rolls, cold Tiger beer, and some kick-ass pumpkin coconut tofu soup. Just as we were leaving, two girls at another table noticed our Canadian flags on our bags and mentioned that they're from Nanaimo! Another small world moment. It was fortuitous though, as they were just about to fly out after spending two days driving around the Angkor temples with their awesome little tuk-tuk driver who doubled as a tour guide. We were on the hunt for someone to do just that, and it just so happened that he was waiting outside to take them to the airport! So we chatted with "Mr. Khen" and agreed on a plan and a price for the same deal for us. He was pretty funny - a scrawny little Cambodian guy with very good english, but with a weird Australian-ish accent from the way he was taught! ANyway, we now have a plan for seeing the sights over the next couple days.

To get some of the background info on the huge array of temples that comprise the Angkor area, we paid a visit to the brand new Angkor National Museum, where huge displays are beautifully presented with tons of artifacts and relics from the temples. Considering that we went in knowing basically nothing about the cultural and religious history of southeast Asia, we left with a pretty solid idea of what we would be seeing over the next few days, how and why it was built, and all the mythology and symbolism behind it. On the way back, we stopped in to a supermarket to get some water and were surprised to see Whistler brand water on the shelves - exactly the same as the brand at home, bottled from the hills around home sweet home on the other side of the world!

Sleep deprivation caught up with us late afternoon, so after a decadent nap, we went for a walk through the night market in search of some dinner. We found some awesome cashew chicken as well as tons of beautiful handmade stuff like silk scarves, handbags, placemats, bedspreads, and clothing. It's probably a good thing I have no space to buy anything or else I would be lugging around an extra bag and I would be broke!