My
trip started out with a travelling lesson: NEVER book connecting flights on
frontier. They wouldn’t check my bag all the way through so I had to pick it up
in L.A. and go back through security, they also charged me for a checked bag
and used the domestic weight limits even though I was flying international, so
it was insanely expensive. The guy at the counter was a jerk and being
ridiculous about the whole thing.
After
I got to L.A. and was walking around the outside of the airport around midnight
trying to get to the right terminal I walked inside to a crowd of Asian people
in lines with tons of baggage. Everyone was pushing carts of bags and packages.
I got in the economy seating line and the lady immediately told me I could move
up to the first class line because I was connecting from another flight, some
other guy moved with me and immediately everyone in line was asking me where I
was going. There were two other white girls in the whole crowd and based on
their accents they were from Australia or New Zealand. The crowd was great and
I immediately started feeling better. The friendliness hasn’t stopped since.
So
I’m not sure what it is about the Asian culture but it after talking to other
students in my group, it wasn’t just my plane in which this occurred... No one
moves on the plane. The flight here was like 19 hours and I sat in the middle of
two people who each maybe got up one time. It was crazy. I don’t know how they
do it, but everyone just sits and sleeps and wakes up like they have internal
alarms when food is being served. It was wild.
When
I finally made it Phnom Penh I met two other students from my group (one of
which was actually on the plane with me from Taiwan). Another student in our
group had actually traveled here before and befriended a Tuk Tuk driver, who
met us at the airport to pick us up. Tuk Tuks are Mopeds with trailers attached
to the back for people to sit in. They are one of the major forms of
transportation in Cambodia and totally remind me of riding in the cart that my
grandpa would hook up behind his four wheelers growing up. Tuk Tuks basically sit 4 adults
comfortably but Cambodians pack in these things. We had no idea what we were
getting into or what a tuk tuk was but it was quite the experience. There were
three of us, immediately sweating from the extreme heat, who had just gotten
there with all of our luggage for 2 months. This guy was just packing this
thing and wanted us to be as comfortable as possible so he was trying to hold
our suitcases on his lap while driving this scooter. It was wild. We had to
stop halfway for him to get string to tie things on because he was holding like
4 things while also driving us.
We
got to our hotel (where we are staying for the next 5 weeks) and holy cow is it
amazing. It’s a 4 star hotel and way nicer than any of our apartments in San
Francisco. 6 of us are staying in this 4 bedroom villa and then the other
student in our group has a room with his wife. Our villa is amazing. It has a
kitchen, washer, 3 balconies, 2 living rooms, 4 bathrooms, and tvs everywhere
you turn. There is a pool, and a huge buffet breakfast every morning. And
everyday we get maid service where they change our sheets and clean. We are so spoiled
and everyone felt uncomfortable living somewhere so nice at first but it’s so
nice, at this point its hard to complain.
