Slept fairly well, unexpectedly, up until the 5am alarm. I’d done all the packing I possibly could last night, so the morning process & final pack didn’t take very long at all. Partially because I’m getting better at it, and partially because I don’t have that much stuff.
I’d arranged, by which I mean I asked at reception and they handled it, to get a shared ride out to the airport, so I had the now familiar “be in the lobby from this time” instructions. I was there about 20 minutes before the 6am start time, and the driver arrived at maybe 6:15. I think by the end of the pickup run there were six of us heading to Siem Reap Angkor airport in the early morning.
It was dark when I (and the extra person who I never saw again after I checked in, and who maybe I imagined? or was a ghost? or just didn’t stay that long?) drove through there, so it was interesting to see what had been out there beyond the streetlights.
The airport was almost devoid of passengers. It’s bigger than I realised, and very new.
Got through check-in & security & immigration in pretty good time, and found myself airside with 2+ hours before the plane left, so I had some breakfast at Coffee Club.
I still find it funny that this chain exists in some form outside of mildly overpriced cafes in NZ. Also that it’s Australia’s Favourite; If you’d asked me when I lived in Perth, I’d have assumed it’d be Dôme, but I think they turned out to be Western Australia only.
The flight wasn’t full, and was uneventful. Honestly, I was dreading all sorts of bullshit, from “you needed to do this thing and didn’t” to “this isn’t the route you mentioned on your visa application”, but none of that happened.
Even the free airport transfer at Bangkok was fine; They’d sent me meeting place instructions & pictures, I found the place, and they called the driver. Even got me to take a picture of a picture of the car so I could be sure to get the right one, & sent the driver my picture so that he could find me.
Couldn’t do much about bumper to bumper Bangkok traffic though. Even Hanoi was better, because while the traffic was insane, at least it was still moving.
The hostel could only take cash, but there are a number of ATMs nearby, so that got sorted fairly easily.
In an effort to feel like I had done something other than sit on a plane or in vehicles today, I went for a walk to the/an infamous nightlife location of Khaosan Road, admittedly during the day, & got some lunch.
There were a number of places openly advertising marijuana products & consumption, so I’m guessing the stuff is legal here, or legal enough that it’s OK to openly try to sell to people walking past when your shop is right beside the police station.
On the topic of sales; I had multiple people trying to sell me on getting a suit made. I’m not sure what sort of person would have somebody approach them on the street to offer them a custom-made suit and say Yes. It surely can’t be a very effective way of getting customers, can it?
The Cough does seem to be fading away, though I’m pretty tired, so going to try for an good night of sleep and a bit of a lie in.