A Farewell to Cambodia

Our trip back to Hong Kong was a two-part flight - Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh City, a four hour layover, and then Ho Chi Minh to Hong Kong.  We didn’t leave Siem Reap until the afternoon and since the airport was only fifteen minutes from our hotel, we had time to do some more sightseeing around town. But first, breakfast.  The breakfast buffet at our hotel in Siem Reap wasn’t nearly as good as the one in Hanoi.  However, Siem Reap served some of the best coffee I have ever had.  The standard blend had a hint of chocolate favor.

We decided to walk into town to Les Chantiers Ecoles, a trade school started by the French.  The Ecoles teaches young adults ages 18-25, many of whom are deaf and/or mute, a trade.  Students learn traditional Khmer folk art such as lacquer-ware, silk weaving, silversmithing, gold embossing, and wood and stone carving.  Some of the works are special commission pieces for high-end hotels.  Others, particularly the stone carvings, are used in the restoration work being completed on the Angkor temples.  Much of the work is sold in fair trade stores around the world.  All of the proceeds from sales go back into the school.  When the students graduate, they either set up their own workshops or become teachers in small villages throughout Cambodia.

We made it to the airport and through customs with plenty of time to spare.  Everyone boarded the plane and we were just getting ready to push back from the gate when they discovered problems with our plane, so we all had to disembark.  No worries, we had a four hour layover in Ho Chi Minh City before our connecting flight left.  But when the airline announced that they were handing out meal vouchers (to the only restaurant in the airport) we knew we were in trouble.  We ended up missing our connecting flight.  The airline put us up in a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City for the night and gave us breakfast the next morning.  Rather than returning to Hong Kong on Sunday night, we didn’t get back to Robin’s apartment until 6 pm Monday night, so Robin and Karen ended up with an added day to their spring breaks.

When Robin and I were planning this trip back in December, we were originally going to spend the last few days in HCMC.  When we added the overnight to Halong Bay, we decided to strike HCMC from the itinerary.  After driving around getting between the airport and the hotel, I’m glad we did.  HCMC looked a lot like Hanoi, a maze of roads and tons of traffic and pollution.