The day has finally come when Ted will realize his ambition to visit Agkor Wat!
Saturday we were up early to pack and off to the little airport at Vientiane, on to a full, rickey old turboprop airplane, just over an hour to the southern city of Pakse. We are labeled "In transit" so quickly pass through this little airport and about 10 of us board a spanking new Lao Airlines plane to Siem Reap, home to the famed ruined Angkor Wat temple group, the largest in the world. We have visited Borubador and Parambanan on Java, but never India, so have high expectations.
On the plane, we fill up three forms wanting also the telephone number of where we will stay in Cambodia!! But we can't enter the arrivel hall until we fill in a health questionnaire too.
We then find the visa applications, more of same info, line up to present it with photos (the cheap cinema booth pics were fine) and hand over our passports and $40 US each! Further along the line of about 12 government personnal, we line up to get our passports back with a handsome visa attached. Now we line up at another booth to hand in our entry form, now with the visa number to be inserted. There are about 4 booths and about 12 of us, including one wee family from UK wih 2 kids getting their edcuation on the road for 6 months! We are directed way down the line where a smiling officer deals with our papers and seems to be asking Ted for more dollars. I look him in the eye and say we have paid. He indicates eating, money for food. I tell him, we've paid. He shrugs, hands us our papers, our first shake-down in Cambodia, which I'd been told about. Just like Central America in the 70s! But this time no moola changed hands.
We are out into the sun and sweltering heat, and there is the broad grin of our guide for the next 5 days, Savuth, a welcome sight. He drops us to our modest hotel in the centre of town. I find Siem Reap is not a sleepy town attached to the famous ruins, but a bustling city of one million people!! First surprise.
Saturday we were up early to pack and off to the little airport at Vientiane, on to a full, rickey old turboprop airplane, just over an hour to the southern city of Pakse. We are labeled "In transit" so quickly pass through this little airport and about 10 of us board a spanking new Lao Airlines plane to Siem Reap, home to the famed ruined Angkor Wat temple group, the largest in the world. We have visited Borubador and Parambanan on Java, but never India, so have high expectations.
On the plane, we fill up three forms wanting also the telephone number of where we will stay in Cambodia!! But we can't enter the arrivel hall until we fill in a health questionnaire too.
We then find the visa applications, more of same info, line up to present it with photos (the cheap cinema booth pics were fine) and hand over our passports and $40 US each! Further along the line of about 12 government personnal, we line up to get our passports back with a handsome visa attached. Now we line up at another booth to hand in our entry form, now with the visa number to be inserted. There are about 4 booths and about 12 of us, including one wee family from UK wih 2 kids getting their edcuation on the road for 6 months! We are directed way down the line where a smiling officer deals with our papers and seems to be asking Ted for more dollars. I look him in the eye and say we have paid. He indicates eating, money for food. I tell him, we've paid. He shrugs, hands us our papers, our first shake-down in Cambodia, which I'd been told about. Just like Central America in the 70s! But this time no moola changed hands.
We are out into the sun and sweltering heat, and there is the broad grin of our guide for the next 5 days, Savuth, a welcome sight. He drops us to our modest hotel in the centre of town. I find Siem Reap is not a sleepy town attached to the famous ruins, but a bustling city of one million people!! First surprise.
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