The Quinn Family Excellent Adventure: Goodbye Kathmandu - Hello Cambodia

It was kinda sad leaving our Kathmandu friends. Janardan provided each of us with traditional Nepalese scarves wishing us a safe journey. Then, to our surprise, a wonderful handmade singing bowl. It was hard to leave such kind friends. We departed through the skinny dusty streets and were soon at the airport. It was a busy place. We had no issues with our stuff. We had no gate indication so we hung out in a random empty part of the airport. Once the gate was known, the sign indicated boarding, eek we thought. Then, weirdly we were sitting again for about 20 minutes. Soon finally we were queued to walk onto the plane, yay. Someone had some Nepalese money fall out on their seat. I grabbed it and figured I tell the crew as someone on the plane owns it. It took a few explanations to the crew but someone understood. Soon an announcement about the missing cash was made. I hope it was reunited with them. The flight was only about 3 hours to Guangzhou China. After a great food service we had time to try to sleep. I blogged a bit. I wish I tried harder to sleep. Landing in China was a breeze, Immigration/Customs/Security was all pretty simple and soon we were walking towards our gate to Cambodia. The Guangzhou airport is immense and wickedly clean. We were impressed with the automation and voice support on the elevators and escalators. We had a few hours to kill before boarding.

The girls relaxed and slept. I was wound up. I noticed a "Napping" area earlier. Wish I tried it out. Around 8 AM our plane was ready to be boarded, yay. A huge bus took us all I think. The plane was not that full so we were able to spread out a bit. After a short nice flight we were in Cambodia, cool. The temperature difference was impressive. -5 to +30. Time to loose some clothes. Cambodia Customs/Immigration's was simple. Our hotel had previously arranged a Taxi. We found him right away. A Tuk Tuk, yay. No time to get cash or cell phone sims, dang. Our stuff kinda fit onto the Tuk Tuk. He drove very slow. I thought it was the weight. I later learned they drive with a huge amount of respect for each other. Slow and mindful, cool. We were soon in our hostel. The Angkor Pal Boutique. http://www.angkorpalboutiquehotel.com Really nice place.

We were all toast and tried to nap a bit. I went to purchase some Sims from the local mom and pop shop. Aparently it's possible to avtivate them manually. The instructions were not all that clear and the app registration process required taking photos of your own ID. I could net get it to go and had to ask for help from the nearby Metfone support person. It was weird. It's seemed activation was error free when using an iPhone to register. Androids failed, weird Other stuff seemed to require using the Metfone registration backend. I later learned it was only a few years ago that cheap Sims where everywhere with no activation. Not very secure. Perhaps recent security efforts are still a bit bumpy. When I used the Metfone website looking for help I bounced into a IIS 404 error. It's a mess. Either way it's done. $3 US for a Sim. $10 US for 12 GB in 30 days. Not bad. We learned the Cambodian cities use both local currency Riel and US. Luckily the ATM's dispense each. After sorting out our phones, it was time to chill, eat dinner and crash. I was toast and getting sick, bummer. So too was Michelle. We had previously booked 2 days of activities. Meh. We were up early for breakfast and onto our first of 2, the Angkor Wat temple complex from Siem Reap with Journey Cambodia. https://www.journeycambodia.com

Mr. Sok, the tour guide was great. He provided instructions for the drive to the first stop and clear guidance for the entire day. It was super hot so out came the hats, sunscreen and umbrella. The temples here a truly amazing. Sadly many of them are damaged with years of war in Cambodia's past. Despite the damage, they are truly amazing. Such fine detail. Fortunately there is a huge effort to restore them and the results are great. It was a fantastic day.

Leaving Kathmandu
KT's favorite little friend makes an appearance