Cambodia!! The adventure begins.

We were picked up at the airport by a very nice fellow named SonLee (at least, I believe it was SunLee). He greeted us as we exited the airport after purchasing our (30day) Visa’s ($30 USD/each, $120) holding a sign with my name on it. This was quite a relief and contrast to our initial greeting at the airport.

The Customs agents there were incapable of smiling, they insisted that each of us approached the booth independently, even little Isabel who couldn’t see over the counter, just imagine that?!? I started feeling slightly apprehensive when they asked us to lay our fingers on a tablet that took our finger prints….I was surprised at the technology, and became paranoid that we were somehow in the wrong… Turns out, we weren’t. Thankfully, the next step was SunLee.

His english was really quite good, and before we knew it Lisa, Ellie, Isabel and I were in his TukTuk, travelling down the crazy roads of Siem Reap towards our hotel. The roadside retail indicated to me just how different Cambodia is to pretty much anywhere I’ve seen before. I’ll try to post a pic of a gas station…it will illustrate my point (for most pics, see our instagram, Camfamgo). We were all aware of the vast differences here, but were all excited…in a good way.

When we finally reached our destination (The Golden Gecko Villa), we were met by the Australian owners Keith and Paul. A waterfall feeding the pool in the yard which our 2nd story balcony overlooked sparked smiles by the girls from ear to ear. Our room was clean, with 2 king sized beds, AC, and a safe.

Although Lisa and I were exhausted, we were determined to stay up until a semi-reasonable hour…thinking that after a good nights sleep, we would have “adjusted”. We reached the “GG” at around 11am local time, so our work was cut our for us. The girls were very excited to go for a swim right away, so we did. Then we found a local shop for SIM cards for my cell, and went to the city centre “Pub street” for some food, and a look around. We also managed to arrange a tuktuk to pick us up the following morning for an adventure. All in all, it was mission accomplished, feeling very comfortable in Cambodia, we hit the sack around 730pm, looking forward to the next days journey.