jules39

In Oct my hubby & I traveled to HK, BKK & Siem Reap. There was also a side trip to Calcutta for work. I am awful at writing any kind of travel log even though I always take a note book along for the purpose. So I am afraid this will not be a trip report worthy of a lot of others here but hopefully it will provide some information and I am more than happy to answer any questions.

FLIGHTS: Flew Cathay Pacific from LAX –HK-BKK return. They were excellent. No complaints.
Thai Airways return from BKK to Calcutta. Again no problems
Bangkok Airways return from BKK to Calcutta. No problems despite the outbound flight being a couple of hours late.

BANGKOK AIRPORT: We passed through the new airport quite a few times on the trip and have to say every time it was totally seamless. I did have the tales of bad baggage handling etc in the bag of my mind but every time we were through immigration and had our bags in hand within 45 mins of deplaning. This was back in Oct & early Nov so in the early days of the airport. I think it is a great facility. We opted for the “official” taxi desk to get a taxi to our hotel and that was also very efficient we never waited in a line. The cost to the Magestic Grande was about 700B & to the Radisson 400B. We flew in early morning & mid afternoon.

HONG KONG: We had a 2 night stop over in Hong Kong on the way out. We had been there before and didn’t have any big plans of what we wanted to do. Stayed at the YMCA Salsbury. This served our purposes perfectly. I had booked a harbor view room but they upgraded us to a harbor view suite which was very nice. Not huge but certainly fine for 2 people. After we were all checked in we headed out for a walk along the harbor to stretch our legs. Then time for a nap before heading out to eat. Sorry I can’t tell you where we ate we just wandered into a place that was Asian “Fusion”. Very good. The next day we went to the peak. Did a hike up there. Came down and wandered around the streets! Dinner that night was a local noodle bar. We were the only non locals and it was delicious. Watched the light show on the harbor from harbor side that night.

CALCUTTA: This was work so nothing really to report. We had been before and this time there wasn’t really time for any tourist stuff.

BANGKOK: Had a one night stopover between Calcutta & Siem Reap. We decided to stay at the Radisson where we had been before for this one night. This hotel does not get a lot of favorable votes but it is very close to the new airport and a killer price. Their buffet breakfast is also very good. We got there early in the day and took their free shuttle to the Central World Plaza to check it out since there have been big changes there since we were last in BKK. The next day we flew to Siem Reap. Upon our return from Siem Reap we had 4 nights in Bangkok at the Magestic Grande. Had a Grande deluxe room. Nice with a lovely bathroom. This place is a great location and would stay there again. I thought the breakfast was a bit limited though. I did have an aromatherapy massage at the spa there when I found myself with an hour to spare. This was absolutely wonderful!

SIEM REAP: We were in SR 4 years earlier for 3 days and really felt we had just not had enough time so we had been trying to get back there ever since. Last time we also visited some other parts of Cambodia for another week or so but this time we decided to stay in SR. We had such wonderful memories of Cambodia and its wonderful people and it was so good to get back there. We went back & forth before leaving as to whether or not we wanted a guide as well as a driver for our time there. We decided to split the difference and have a guide for half the time . We contacted Ponheary and she turned out to be the perfect guide for us. We also stayed at her families guest house. I know this would not appeal to a lot of people here but we really enjoyed it. It is spotlessly clean, safe very nice to have contact with the family and an excellent price. Her driver My Hong was also a treasure. We were in SR for 10 days so I will not go on here about every where we went! But we did go out to some of the outer temples that were a real treat. Ko Ker is about 3 or so hours from SR. We loved the drive getting out into the countryside. The complex of temples around Ko Ker great. Lots of very small ones that are surrounded by jungle. We did not see any other tourists while we were out there. Beng Melea is a large complex that you have to scramble around with a local temple guard showing you the approved way to go. I loved it there for the peace and quite as to imagine what the place would have been like in its prime. Ponheary was fantastic at getting us to places around the crowds. We would often be the only ones in a courtyard able to totally absorb the atmosphere. When we just had her driver we would chat with her at the guest house about where we wanted to go and she would make suggestions about timings. We had such an amazing time and never got templed out. I loved having the time to find a quite corner and sit for a few minutes while my hubby was taking photos. I really knew how much I enjoyed this when I saw a group RUN through a court yard in the jungle temple because they had a schedule to keep.
We had decided we wanted to make donations to the schools in SR and did this through the Ponheary Ly foundation. In conjunction with this we had asked Ponheary to take us to some schools. We were able to visit 3. The first was out near Ko Ker temple or at least an hours walk beyond it. The road was washed out so we grabbed the supplies we had brought for the school and walked the hour. Yes it was very hot but it was worth it to see the excitement on the kids faces when we got there. The 2 other schools were closer to SR but the experience was just as wonderful. We had also asked Ponheary to perhaps take us to a small village. We actually ended up walking through a small village with the principle of one of the schools we went to . We walked for a few hours with him as he greated all the locals an chatted to the parents about their kids. This was really amazing to see just what an incredible job this man must be doing. The parents hold him in the highest respect and the kids just love him. Lots of folks here have talked about their experiences of visiting schools etc. It really is special.
Sorry I can’t tell you where we ate in SR we would just find a different place each night. Never had a bad meal. We really had such an amazing 10 days I couldn’t believe how quickly the time went by.

Well sorry for the woffle. As I said I am more than happy to answer any questions. Thank you again for all the info I gleaned from this site prior to our tirp.

Happy & safe travels J

rhkkmk

thanks for sharring this with us

bob

rheinrich1

Hi, Thanks for posting all this info. I'm interested in your thoughts on Cambodia since we'll be there next week-also inNorthern Laos. Can you send more specific info on how to contact Ponheary, where that guest house is, what the costs were. What are your Laos experiences-i.e. any guide or guesthouse recommendations? We're looking for clean & inexpensive. Thank you.

Jed

I hope gpanda dosen't see this. I shudder at the penalty he wil impose for a late report.

jules39

Rheinrich1
Ponheary can be contacted at [email protected] She gets very busy but will probably be able to recommend a guide if she is not available. Her guest house is Marina Guest House. This link should get you to info about it http://www.travel-cambodia.com/marin...ouse/index.htm
We did not go to Loas on this trip unfortunately so I can't help you there.
J

Gpanda

Thanks for the report. Ponheary is a gem. Gald you enjoyed your time in Cambodia.

Now, the penalty. By my calculations, it's two months overdue. Muliplying by the estimated number of miles yields approximately 44,000 rials. However, the PLF donation gives you a free pass. Penalty waived.

Thanks again.