Getting to Cambodia (November 3rd and 4th, 2016)

 We had a quick breakfast at the hotel, and then took the shuttle from the hotel to the airport. Our driver dropped us at the international terminal just as the Asiana counter was opening. 

When we landed in LA yesterday, we walked down to terminal B and talked to one of the Asiana representatives. She told us that they would open the counter for our check-in at 8:00 am for the 12 noon flight. We decided that since we had such great seats that we would be there early to make sure that there wouldn’t be any issues. The representative that checked us in was very helpful and even gave us United Mileage Plus points on our account. We didn’t realize that they are affiliated, but they are part of the Star Alliance group.

The LA international terminal is very clean and open, with a large projection system in the middle, in the area of the duty free shops. As we sat and waited for our flight we enjoyed watching a wide array of visuals on the projection cube. There was and old time silent film with rag-time music to accompany it, a mermaid swimming and many other entertaining productions. It really helped to pass the time as we waited for our flight.

 










We were on Flight OZ201 which was a double-decker Airbus A380-800. Our seats were on the top level, so instead of a 3-5-3 seating arrangement, we had a 2-4-2 arrangement. Steve and I were in seats A and B, so we had a window and an isle to ourselves. Since I had a window seat, we also had a nice little storage compartment for the pillows, blankets, head phones, etc. that the airline provided us. It was really nice to have a spot for them instead of tripping over them the whole flight. It was a really nice, new plane that seemed to be in perfect condition.

There was a charger on the back of each seat.

As soon as we were in the air, our flight attendants came around with juice and water for everyone. It was a really nice way to start our flight. Then about an hour later, they brought around the dinner cart. We had a choice of beef steak or bibimbap. We chose the bibimbap because we always like to try something new. Sometimes it's not all that intuitive how to eat food that you’re not familiar with but lucky for us our dinner came with an explanation of the ingredients and instructions of how to fix it. We also watched the people around us since they knew exactly what they were doing. They watched us a lot as well, wondering if we would be able to figure it out.

The soup that came with our meal was really good too.

Bibimbap is a common Korean dish which is composed of steamed rice, minced beef and assorted vegetables. Gochujang is a red chili paste which came in a tube, and a small packet of sesame seed oil was provided to add flavor to the dish. On the side, there was a small dish with a yellow (dessert looking) item, but we noticed that everyone was eating it with their meal, so we gave it a try with ours as well. The light yellow cake-looking thing was an egg and seaweed omelet and the bright yellow garnish was some sort of pickled root vegetable. They were both very good with our meal, but we were really glad we didn’t save them for dessert. They also provided beverages with our meal which included our choice of red or white wine or beer.

We mixed our rice into our bibimbap and then added the chili paste and sesame oil and mixed it all up. It was really tasty. 

It wasn't as pretty once it was all stirred up, but it tasted really good!

As we were finishing up our dinner the flight attendants brought around coffee and tea to finish off our meal. We each had some coffee, so that will probably take care of any sleeping we might have been contemplating for later.

The flight attendants have been wonderful so far, and speak very good English. They are making our flight very comfortable. So now we will sit back and enjoy an in-flight movie for awhile.

The flight attendants gave us about 4 hours to watch movies and try to sleep a little bit, and then they brought around some ham and cheese croissant sandwiches for breakfast. They were wrapped in foil and were piping hot. At first we thought they were grilled cheese, but when we bit into them, they were buttery and flaky like a croissant. Very good. The flight attendants have been very good about bring around water and juice every hour or so to make sure that everyone stays hydrated. 

After breakfast, we went back to movie watching and before we knew it they were serving lunch. We had a choice of chicken with pasta or spicy pork, which ended up being pork and spicy kim chi with rice. It was very good and came with a dinner roll and salad. 

Asian airlines always provide some type of hand wipe to use before you eat your meal, which we really appreciate. Last year when we went to Thailand on China Southern they brought around hot wash cloths. Asiana just had packaged towelettes, but they worked perfectly.

We were also very pleased with the amount of leg room we had on this plane.  Even my long legged husband had room to spare.

They also provided us with slippers, which was really nice.

All of the announcements were in Korean and English.

One feature that this plane had that was kind of nice was that we could see the pilots view any time we wanted.  So we watched the take-off .

We flew over some very interesting city names, so when we got the chance, we finally looked them up and they were in Mongolia.

The Incheon Airport in Seoul, South Korea didn't look too hard to navigate.

As we started to make our decent into Seoul, the clouds were just beautiful.

When we dipped below the clouds, there were lots of tiny islands off the coast of South Korea.  I believe that Incheon International Airport was on one of the islands.

It was very overcast when we landed, but it wasn't raining.

Our flight finally ended in Seoul South Korea at about 4:30 in the afternoon on Friday, November 4th. We disembarked the plane and started looking for our terminal, but then realized that we were going to have to go through security with our carry-ons before we would be able to continue on to our gate. Security went very easy, and we didn’t have to walk far to find our gate.  We came in at gate 43, and we would be departing for Phnom Penh at gate 42. It was our lucky day.

The international terminal was very clearly marked, and made it easy for us to find our way.  The only confusion was where they separated the international and domestic transfers.  It was a little hard to figure out which way to go.   

We had to wait for about 2 ½ hours for our next flight, but it went by quickly. Our plane into Phnom Penn was much smaller, but by this point we are getting delirious and I have no idea what type of plane it was. We boarded our flight to Phnom Penh and were on our way. As soon as we were in the air, they came around with a dinner and beverage cart. Steve had penne pasta with chicken and I had a beef stew with rice. 

After dinner the flight attendants handed out our customs and immigrations forms, and they also handed out Cambodian visa applications for us to fill out on the plane. It was nice to be able to get that paperwork done ahead of time. We weren’t sure what to expect, or how many people would need visas in Phnom Penh. 

As soon as the plane landed in Phnom Penh, Steve turned on his T-Mobile phone to see what would happen.  There was a Cambodian man with his American wife sitting right across the isle from us, using his T-Mobile phone, so Steve asked him what to do.  He said to make sure we had our international roaming turned on, so Steve checked that in the I-Phone settings. Then he sent himself a text, and it worked!  He showed it to me with a big smile on his face.  A few minutes later, he got a text that said "Welcome to Cambodia! Your T-Mobile plan gives you unlimited data at 2G speeds, calls at 20 cents/min and free texts." 

Then a few minutes later he got a message from Cabodia Smarts network saying "To make calls dial + (country code) (phone number).  Dial 911 in case of emergency.  Enjoy your stay in Cambodia with Smart's superior network".  When we looked at our T-Mobile phone, we could see that we are connected to the Cambodia Smart's network.  We were thrilled!

We got off the plane pretty quickly, and attempted to follow the signs. There is not a lot of English in the Phnom Penh airport, but if your pay attention, there is just enough to get by. 

On our way to the visa station, there was a quarantine station.  The were using infrared to scan all of the passengers coming off the plane, looking for people with fevers who might have Zika.

There is no photography allowed in the visa area, but there were long lines, and you take your passport and visa application to a window, they take them both from you and have you go stand in another line. There are about 10 people behind the desk watching all of us and a few were processing the visas. 

After about 15 minutes they called Steve’s name. He paid his $30 and they returned his passport to him with a visa sticker in it. About 2 minutes later they were done with mine as well. The confusing part about this process was which type of visa we should request. There is a tourist visa for $30, which is what we had checked on our paperwork, and there is a regular visa for $35. We didn’t know the difference, and we still don’t, so hopefully a tourist visa is OK.

Once we got our visa’s we still had to go through immigration and and then pick up our bags. Yay! They were both there! Then on through customs which was our last stop before they booted us out of the airport. As we made our way out of the airport, there were literally hoards of people standing outside the building.  All we anxiously awaiting someone!  Luckily we saw our Gate-1 representative holding his sign and waiting for us.

Our Gate-1 representative/driver loaded our suitcases into the trunk of his Toyota Camry and off we went to the Ohana Hotel. We literally drove straight down the street that the airport was on until we hit the river, then we turned right, and our hotel was on the right a few blocks down. 

Once we got to our hotel, we texted our girls and Steve's mom to let them know that we were in our hotel room in Cambodia.  Within minutes we heard back from each of them.  We are so excited with how our T-Mobile service is working here.

The Ohana Hotel entrance is only about 12 feet wide, and not easy to see at all, so once again, we were glad we had a driver that knew where we were going, or we might not have been able to find it.

We checked in and took a quick little walk to clear our minds, cleaned up and headed to bed. As always, Gate-1 had complimentary water in the room for us which is huge after so many hours of travel.

Our first glimpse of the river at night.  We originally thought we were looking at the Mekong, but later found out that this was the Tonle Sap as it back-flowed toward Tonle Sal Lake.

We left LA on November 3rd at 12:00 noon and landed in Seoul South Korea at 5:30 pm on November 4th.  The actual duration of this flight was 13 hours 30 minutes.  We had a 2 hour layover in Seoul before boarding another Asiana flight to Cambodia.  We left Seoul at 7:30 pm on November 4th and landed in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on November 4th at 11:10 pm.  The total duration of our journey was 19 hours, 10 minutes, and we're exhausted but very excited to be here!