Midlifers Go East
Siem Reap and Angkor
We arrived mid afternoon at Siem Reap’s brand new international airport which opened back in October 2023.
The flight was good and only took a little over an hour from Luang Prabang in Laos.
The new airport is located outside the city and takes just over an hour in a taxi.
You can take the airport shuttle bus for $8 which does 6 round trips a day but you need to check if it coincides with your flight.
We would have had to wait an hour and half for the next one so we decided on a taxi which cost around £22.
Siem Reap is a popular tourist destination due to its proximity to the famous Angkor Wat temple and also the second largest city in Cambodia.
Most people visit here to be close to the temples. But when you’re all ‘templed out’ there are plenty of other things you can do and see such as; well-preserved colonial buildings, museums and traditional markets.
When the sun goes down, there are an abundance of restaurants serving local and international food and if you want a vibrant atmosphere you can certainly get that down at Cambodias legendary party road “Pub Street”, which is a fun place to unwind.
You can enjoy live music, street food and local beer at $1 or less during happy hour, or just walk around and soak up the vibe.
As it was early evening when we arrived at the hotel, we had a quick freshen up and headed straight out to ‘Pub Street’ to see if it lived up to the hype.
Our hotel was centrally located and was only a 5 minute walk away.
We were met by bright lights, neon signs and live music being played throughout the street.
The music comes not only from the bars but also from the street performers.
It was also happy hour which is every hour with cocktails $1.50 and $0.75 beers.
It’s a tourist trap so don’t expect the real Cambodia here and they do pester you to try and get you into the bars, but nonetheless fun for an evening or two.
We sampled a couple of cheap beers and cocktails then had a walk around the adjacent streets.
We fell upon a bar that looked more like a typical pub and it was playing some great tunes. Beer was cheaper still. Perfect – this would do!
We were sat people watching when Shane said “I’m trying to read the room here”. I knew what he meant, as whilst we’d been sat there we were the only couple at the bar. The rest of the customers were all single middle aged men.
It became obvious then that we were in a bar mainly occupied by working girls.
It wasn’t a problem as it gave us something to observe, the beer was cheap and the tunes were great!
Like most tourists our main reason for staying in Siem Reap was to visit Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples.
You can buy one-day, three day or a seven day pass.
We were staying in Siem Reap 4 nights so we purchased a three day pass for £50 per person which would allow us enough time to explore the temples.
We also hired a Tuk Tuk driver (which seems to be a thing here) for the three days, so we didn’t have to arrange ourselves how to get from temple to temple.
Sunrise at Angkor Wat temple draws hundreds of visitors each day to witness the sun rising behind the lotus-shaped towers of the famous temple.
So, on our first day we decided we would do this. Our driver said he would pick us up from the hotel at 4:30am (we planned this with him when we were still on ‘pub street’ at 10pm the previous evening). So, we made it our last drink and retired to bed ready for our early start.
We met our driver the next morning in his sweet ‘carriage’ style Tuk Tuk named ‘Mr Rain’ and we headed to ‘Angkor Wat’ which is around a 20 minute drive from Siem Reap.
We arrived a little bit early as the driver didn’t realise that I had already purchased our three day pass online and he was allowing time to take us to the ticket office.
However, when we arrived there were already plenty of people there – even though it was still pitch black.
We followed the crowds towards the temple using torch light from our phones to light the pathway.
People were gathering in front of the moat which we assumed must be ‘The’ spot to see the sun rising from the temple that stood before us.
Being so early enabled us to take prime position right at the front of the water.
The crowd soon built up behind us as more and more people arrived.
We waited in anticipation for the sun to appear.
It felt quite spiritual stood there in silence with a crowd of strangers.
It seemed to take ages for the sun to rise then all of a sudden a golden glow started to appear behind one of the towers and everyone had their cameras at the ready to capture this special moment.
The sun rose quickly above the temple and soon the crowd dispersed from the waterside . It was then time to head into the temple itself and explore.
Angkor Wat is an architectural masterpiece and the largest religious monument in the world. Covering an area four times the size of the Vatican City. It was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the first half of the 12th century, around the year 1110-1150, making Angkor Wat almost 900 years old and it took 30 years to complete.
It was originally dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu before becoming a Buddhist temple by the end of the 12th century.
Angkor itself stretched over 400km² and is now home to the magnificent remains of a variety of temples including Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bayon Temple and Ta Prohm (made famous by Lara Croft in Tomb Raider!)
The Angkor archaeological park has been on the UNESCO heritage list since 1992 and is now considered the unofficial eighth wonder of the world.
After exploring Angkor Wat we returned to our driver and onto the next temple. We had a full day planned and around 5 more sites to see.
All of them were amazing. The architecture blows your mind, the amount of work that has gone into each temple, structure and statue.
One favourite of ours was the bridge leading to the southern gate of ‘Angkor Thom’.
Either side of the balustrade is a massive stone carving of a seven-headed serpent and then lining the bridge there are 54 stone giants pulling on the body of the serpent that leads up to the southern gate – dating back to the 12th century.
Another site that stood out was ‘Ta Prohm’ – the so called ‘Tomb raider temple’.
Undoubtedly the most atmospheric ruin at Angkor, Ta Prohm should be high on the hit list of every visitor.
Unlike the other monuments of Angkor it has been swallowed by the jungle.
Fig, Banyan and kapok trees spread their gigantic roots over stones, probing walls and trunks of trees twist amongst stone pillars.
It has a mysterious and romantic feel to the place – if only the trees could talk.
Built in the early 12th century the temple has had minimal restoration and has been left in a more natural state and I think this is what makes this temple an awe inspiring sight to behold.
Over the next two days we visited all the temples within the archaeological park.
Day three, we travelled further out 30km to Banteay Srei Temple and then onto Banteay Samre Temple.
Each individual to the next but all truly mind blowing.
We had one more day in Siem Reap. After 3 days of exploring temples in 39 degree heat we were able to chill out by the pool and for our last evening we ventured over to the other side of the river.
We crossed over the bridge that brings you directly in front of the ‘Hard rock cafe’.
If you walk right it leads you to the ‘night market’ and food stalls also line the roadside.
There is even a quirky pizza van selling wood fired pizza that looked delicious.
If you walk to the left by the ‘Hard rock cafe’, staying on the riverside you will find some quirky pop up bars that line the pavement & the street. Surrounding this area is home to some trendy bars, especially ‘Miss Wong’ which I imagine is a Instagram favourite.
We preferred the vibe here as it was more laid back and chilled than pub street.
Songkran (Southeast Asian New Year) is also only a few days away so the town is in preparation for the 3 day festival and the city is being decorated with buntings, traditional star-shaped lanterns and colorful triangular ornaments adorning their homes.
We won’t see the celebrations here as we are moving onto ‘Battambang’ for a few days, then onto the capital ‘Phnom Penh’ which apparently is one of the best places to celebrate the incoming New Year in Cambodia.
Battambang
Next stop was to Cambodias 3rd city ‘Battambang’ which is often overlooked in favour of the better known cities of ‘Phnom Penh’ and ‘Siem Reap’.
We had read a little bit about the city and it seemed to be a popular place to visit especially with backpackers and people travelling throughout the country.
It’s known for nearby attractions such as the Bamboo train and the Bat caves at Phnom Sampov so we thought we would add a few days to our itinerary.
We were centrally located just across from the main food market, close to a selection of bars and restaurants and the riverside.
After checking into our hotel we headed out to explore.
The first thing that we noticed about the place was the amount of dust everywhere. Most of the roads in this area were just dust tracks and not properly laid.
Everything in the immediate area was covered in it and also being in the height of the dry season didn’t help.
Shopkeepers hose the pavements outside their shops to dampen the dust and we saw a large truck travelling through the streets spraying the roads with water to dampen them down.
It wasn’t a great first impression, however, we would keep an open mind!
Venturing further on we found that the streets in this area were a fascinating jumble of French-colonial construction and shophouse architecture that have managed to withstand the long years of destruction and war.
The vibe is low key with arty cafés tucked down quiet side streets.
Vibrant street art and colourful murals adorn many walls and buildings which I read were created during the 2019 and 2023 S’Art urban art festival.
We were starting to see the charm of the place behind the dust.
Also, whilst in Battambang we wanted to ride the famous Bamboo Train.
After the war many of the railroads were in disrepair, however, locals were quick to use scrap that had been leftover from tanks and other military vehicles to reinstate the track.
They then built small bamboo trains called ‘Norry’ which are a bamboo flatbed on wheels powered by a small motorcycle engine and were able to transport people, goods, and sometimes, even livestock along the abandoned railway tracks.
We went by Tuk Tuk as it was located a few miles out of town.
What we did notice as we headed out of the city, was fresher less dusty air. We were greeted by countryside with rural charm as we passed through local villages.
Arriving at the rail track, we paid our $5 each and were quickly on our way bumping along uneven tracks riding the train.
Each bamboo train can accommodate four passengers. Luckily no one else was waiting so we had it to ourselves.
They take you so far down the track then turn the motor around and head back.
As it’s a single track if there is another ‘Norry’ heading towards you the idea is that one can easily be dismantled to let the other pass. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to experience this.
At one point on the way back we really picked up speed which was quite exciting.
The bamboo trains used to run all the way to Phnom Penh. Nowadays, the majority of the track lies in disrepair, with Battambang being one of the only places left where it still runs as a tourist attraction.
It was good fun and definitely a unique thing to do.
We also visited the bat caves at Phnom Sampov located 14km out of the city.
It’s cheap to get there by Tuk Tuk, our driver offered to wait for us for an £8 return trip.
We arrived there around 4:30pm as we heard that at this time of year the bats start to leave the cave around 5:20pm.
Entrance was $1 each. Plastic tables and chairs line the roadside outside the cave and you can purchase food and drink from the street vendors whilst you wait for the incredible spectacle of nature to take place.
As we were a little bit early we had a walk around to look at the Buddha carvings in the rocks just next to the cave.
There was also a family of monkeys that kept us entertained trying to steal food from many of the street sellers.
When we thought it was almost time, we took a seat overlooking the cave, got a couple of $1 beers and waited in anticipation.
The bats soon started to make their mass exit. It was an incredible site, they just kept on coming and coming.
An estimated 15 million bats leave the cave each evening and fly to the surrounding rice fields to feed on mosquitoes.
It takes upwards of 30 minutes to watch them leave and it’s amazing sight watching them fly as a colony across the sky, paining the air with fluid black shapes.
The Bat cave is located within Sampov Mountain, if you’re feeling energetic you can access a steep staircase to the summit to take in the gorgeous views.
About halfway up to the summit is also where you will find the ‘Killing caves of Phnom Sampeau’.
Now a place of pilgrimage, a staircase leads into a cavern where a golden reclining Buddha lies peacefully next to a glass wall memorial filled with bones and skulls which are the remains of some of the people killed by the Khmer Rouge at this site.
We arrived back in the city at nightfall. Battambang isn’t a city known for its nightlife but there are a few spots that are pleasant places to enjoy a drink.
‘Miss Wong’ is one of those hidden gems, a sophisticated cocktail bar serving dim sum. It was only quiet when we visited which was a shame. It’s designed beautifully in the style of the speakeasies of the roaring 20’s.
Another good bar was ‘Pomme’ with extended happy hour and a decent menu. We enjoyed a quiz night they have there on a Wednesday joined by some new friends we had met on the bus – we didn’t do too bad coming in at third place!
These were just a couple of the bars we visited, however, there are other low key bars and drinking spots throughout the city.
You can also visit the ‘Phare Battambang Circus show’ where all circus shows are performed by the current students of the Performing Arts School.
These young people will later go on to perform at Phare, The Cambodian Circus in Siem Reap or on circus tours with other professional companies around the world (including Cirque du Soleil).
Shows take place on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays starting at 7 p.m. Buy your tickets online or on campus!
We personally didn’t get a chance to go, however we did speak to a group who had been earlier that evening and they said it was fantastic and well worth a visit.
So, overall we had a great time in Battambang.
Highlights were definitely the ‘Bamboo train’ and the ‘Bat cave’ and I think it helped that we met some new friends along the way – which was lovely. We enjoyed a couple of evenings together sharing travel tales.
We stayed three nights but could have easily have done it in two.
Next, we move onto the capital ‘Phnom Penh’ which I imagine will be filled with mixed emotions, as here we will learn the history of the Cambodian genocide but will also witness the celebrations of the ‘New Year’.
Phnom Penh
We arrived in the capital after a fast but safe bus ride 1 hour ahead of schedule.
I think the driver put his foot down as the New year celebrations had already started and he probably wanted to get back to his family.
We booked an Airbnb in a modern apartment block, something we hadn’t done before.
It had two features which appealed to us; one being the rooftop pool with 360 degree views across the city and the second being a washing machine (Woo hoo).
After 3 months travelling and constant hand washing it was a much welcomed luxury.
The apartment also had a kitchenette, so perfect if we wanted to cook anything for a change.
The apartment was in an ideal location close to the district of the Royal Palace.
It was also close to ‘Bassic lane’ which is an area known for nightlife and we had been told was the place to be.
As we arrived late in the day we headed straight to ‘Bassic lane’ to check out the bars and restaurants. (After putting a wash on of course).
What an amazing place! It’s a hip ‘walking street’ which is home to many independent bars, serving great cocktails and beers all with chic and quirky decor.
Theres also a variety of different restaurants serving local and international cuisine – you can see why the area attracts tourists and locals alike.
As it was the Khmer New Year a few of the bars and restaurants were closed but there were still plenty open to give us a taster and the place still had a vibe about it. (Plus Shane was happy he found the Welsh bar).
Cambodia has had a troubled past with war and Genocide. So whilst here in Phnom Penh we wanted to learn more.
Lasting for four years (between 1975 and 1979), the Cambodian Genocide was an explosion of mass violence that saw between 1.5 and 3 million people killed at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, a communist political group.
The Khmer Rouge had taken power in the country following the Cambodian Civil War.
During their brutal four-year rule, the Khmer Rouge was responsible for the deaths of nearly a quarter of Cambodians.
Here in Phnom Penh you can visit the S21 prison known as the ‘Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum’.
Housed in a former secondary school between 14,000 and 17,000 prisoners were detained there, often in primitive brick cells built in former classrooms. Only 12 prisoners are believed to have survived.
It’s a grim reminder of the Khmer Rouge regime but we wanted to visit to learn about the history and to pay respect to the millions of victims of torture and death due to starvation.
To get a full understanding of the regime we also visited the ‘The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek’ located around 10 miles outside of the city.
It was here around 20,000 men, women, children and infants many detained and tortured at S-21 prison were transported to the extermination camp of Choeung Ek.
It was extremely sad to be in the grounds where so many Cambodians lost their lives unnecessarily.
We had an audio guide which was easy to navigate and meant you could go at your own pace, spending as much or as little in each section as you wanted.
After decades of destruction and poverty it’s good to see that Phnom Penh is a city now on the up.
It has witnessed significant urban growth over the last 10 years, and now has close to 2 million residents.
Evidence is all around of the ever changing skyline with many skyscrapers being built around the city.
The city still has a mix of the old and the new with wide tree lined boulevards – a legacy of this former French colony.
We spent a day exploring the city and found ourselves strolling along the riverfront at Sisowath Quay. There is a lovely promenade along the Mekong river where you can stop to people watch at one of the many cafe bars and restaurants.
We then made our way back to the hotel passing by the ‘Royal Palace’ with its classic Khmer roofs and ornate gilding which still serves as the residence of the King of Cambodia and his family.
On our last day we wanted to join in the celebrations of the New year so we headed over to ‘Wat Phnom’ which is a temple and gardens within the city where we knew different festivities were taking place.
The area was cordoned off so no traffic. Food stalls lined the streets leading to the temple.
‘Tug of war’ was in full swing as children had water fights and local families set up picnics on the grass.
Buntings and other decorations adorned the streets and park.
During the Khmer New year it is tradition to have water fights.
In 100 degree heat you don’t mind a soaking like everyone else. Bring it on, it was most welcomed.
The party went on all day with various singers on the stage. It was a great way to end our stay in Phnom Penh.
Next, we are heading south to the island of Koh Rong Sanloem.
It’s been a while since we’ve been on the beach so it will be nice to chill out for a week or so and do very little
Koh Rong Sanloem
We took the high speed ferry from the southern city of Sihanoukville which in its hay-day was a popular tourist resort.
Today the town is an almost-permanent construction zone, a town destroyed by over-tourism and a victim of Covid.
Bricks and construction materials litter the streets and it no longer attracts the tourists it once did.
The island we were heading to was
‘Koh Rong Sanloem’ which lies 25km from the mainland and 4km south of neighbouring island ‘Koh Rong’.
Originally we were going to visit both islands but after reading up on the two, the vibe of ‘Sanloem’ sounded like it would suit us better. Nothing to stop us moving onto Koh Rong later if we chose.
Koh Rong Sanloem is pretty unique in that it doesn’t have any roads as such.
You will find a few in ‘M’Pay bay’ which is the only village on the island but other than that all transportation is by boat if you wish to visit other bays.
We decided we would do a two centre and headed first to ‘Saracen bay’ which is known to be the main tourist place on the island.
A beautiful bay with pristine white beaches, clear turquoise ocean waters and a tropical jungle wilderness which surround the expansive beach front.
It’s lined with small resorts and accommodation is low key and mainly bungalows.
You won’t find any hotels here and I hope there isn’t in the future, as it would ruin the peaceful and relaxing setting.
We stayed in the most fabulous pods at ‘Eden resort’. It was a treat stay which we allow ourselves every now and again.
This island forces you to chill and kick back, read a book, listen to music. This was something I felt we hadn’t done in a while.
You can walk the beach or the jungle trail to ‘Lazy beach’ or a nearby waterfall if you wish but the temperatures were so high we didn’t have the energy, so took the opportunity to relax.
Saracen bay has a couple of small shops selling essential items but other than that there are no other services.
There are also no ATM’s on the island so you have to make sure that you bring plenty cash to cover your trip. We heard there is a couple of places you can get cash back but there is a high charge for the privilege.
We knew the nightlife was pretty low key but we were still surprised to find the beach at night had a pretty good vibe.
Definitely chilled, but still lined with a dozen or so beach bars and restaurants many with happy hours and some playing great tunes, we were more than happy.
So, we enjoyed three days at Saracen bay then booked the slow boat to take us north of the island to ‘M’Pay bay’ where we decided to stay for a further 5 days.
We weren’t sure what to expect, but what we found was a sweet little bay with a handful of guesthouses, hostels, bars and restaurants.
Many expats have decided to make this place their home and run many of the bars and restaurants.
It was nice to hear their stories on how they ended up on this remote island and good to hear that they have been welcomed into the community by the local villagers and together make this place quite special.
It’s a small place and even though we were only here 5 days you would see the same faces and start to get to know people. Everyone was so friendly and always greeted us as we passed through the village.
We stayed in a lovely apartment which had a shaded outdoor seating area and garden overlooking the ocean.
We found it hard to get going in a morning as we sat and drank endless cups of coffee watching the sun glisten on the waves.
Opposite our apartment was a lovely sunset bar which was owned by the same people, it was perfect to watch the sun go down.
Around 6pm the bar would start to fill up. Comfy beanbag’s were strategically placed on the large deck in prime position.
Beer in hand, there was no better place to watch this daily spectacle.
There is always something spiritual about watching the sun rise and set and here we got to witness sunsets like no other.
Once the sun dipped behind the horizon you were then treated to the most mesmerising display of colours in the sky.
Like ‘Saracen bay’ there is not a great deal to do here.
By the pier there are a couple of restaurants offering sun-beds on the small bay.
We would head to the main beach which was always almost deserted and take shade under the trees dotted along the bay.
The sea was crystal clear but really shallow so it was like a hot bath – you had to wade out to where it was a bit deeper to get a chance to cool down.
Three dogs joined us one day and came racing into the sea swimming around with us, it was so sweet.
We really enjoyed our time on the island and I’d say M’Pay bay had the edge over Saracen for us. It’s a lovely little place and definitely gives you a glimpse of authentic island life.
So that brings our time in Cambodia to an end.
Next, we travel by boat and road into Vietnam and fortunately for us we are going to start our journey on another island, as we are not quite done with the beach just yet.
Onwards to Vietnam
Vietnam was one of the countries we were excited to visit but to get there a long day of travelling lay ahead.
First, we had to get back onto the mainland from the Cambodian island of ‘Koh Rong Sanloem’.
We took the high speed boat from M’Pay Bay back to Sihanoukville.
There are only a couple of crossings a day so we booked the 9:45am. The journey takes 45 minutes so we would be back on the mainland for 10:30am.
The boat left on time which we were happy about as we had a minibus booked at 11:30am to take us to Kampot.
Back on the mainland we quickly jumped into a Tuk Tuk which took us across the city to the bus company.
There was an hour between the connections so it wasn’t too stressful and as it happens we arrived in good time with half hour to spare.
We had to laugh when our minibus arrived. The driver got out and placed a brick behind the back wheel so it wouldn’t roll back.
The bus also looked like it had seen better days, we just hoped and prayed it would get us to our destination in one piece.
There was only four of us on the minibus so we had loads of room to store our bags and spread out.
We had only been on the road about ten minutes when the driver decided to eat his lunch whilst driving.
He was the noisiest eater and had a really bad habit of smacking his lips.
The other two on the bus had earphones in listening to music but Shane & I had to endure this irritating, repetitive sound for about half an hour.
Then the road got really poor. It was a dusty dirt road which was so bumpy. We were bouncing about as the driver tried to navigate his way around rubble and pot holes.
We felt every bump for about an hour and several trucks passed by sending dust flying into the air.
I felt sorry for the families who lived along the roadside. I don’t know how they cope day to day with this amount of dust.
In some areas the road was being sprayed down to try to dampen the dust which would help a little.
We were so relieved when the road finally improved as we made our way to the city of Kampot.
At kampot we then had to change buses and this bus would then take us onto the Vietnamese border town of Hà Tiên.
The lady at the bus company gave us instructions of what we had to do.
She informed us that when we arrived at the border we would have to take all of our belongings and make our way on foot through the border check point to be stamped out of Cambodia then onwards to the Vietnamese immigration.
She then showed us a picture of a cafe that we should go to once through immigration and someone would meet us there to continue our journey.
She asked me to photograph a WhatsApp picture and contact number of the man we would meet.
I suppose this is the only way they can organise the onward travel as it’s over the border but I did feel like something might go wrong.
As it happened it all went smooth. We did as she said at the border and made our way through immigration and into Vietnam.
Up ahead, I could see the cafe she had instructed us to go to and as soon as we approached this guy got up and said ‘you’re with me’ and asked us to put our bags in his car.
I was quickly comparing his WhatsApp picture to make sure we weren’t getting into a strangers car. He did reassured us when he said we were just waiting for one more person who was our fellow passenger still making his way over the border.
It was only a short journey from the border to the pier where we would then be taking a ferry over to the island of ‘Phu Quoc’ where we would start our adventure in Vietnam.
At the port the guy collected our Ferry tickets and then dropped us at the harbour.
He said if you just wait here, your ferry is at 6pm.
It was only 4pm so we had to wait a further two hours sat in this little shelter.
As it happened we were entertained by a Vietnamese guy who divides his time between Vietnam and Vancouver, Canada.
His wife is based here in Vietnam and she had told him to fly from the mainland where he had been on a school reunion but he hadn’t listened to her so she was giving him grief.
He said ‘I’ll take the ferry it’s only an hour’ but what he hadn’t taken into account was that the sailing at 6pm was the slow ferry which would take 3 hours, earlier in the day you can get the high speed ferry which only takes just over an hour and she was at the other side waiting to pick him up.
This was starting to be a very long day as we waited patiently for the ferry to arrive.
Luckily, it was on time so we finally got on our way at 6pm.
We ended up really enjoying the journey over to the island.
We got to watch the most amazing sunset and later followed by a ‘Pink full moon’.
The dark sea was also illuminated with so many fishing boats who were night fishing for squid.
The squid feed mainly at night and are attracted to light. It was quite magical to see the ocean lit with so many boats.
We were the only westerners aboard but got chatting to another group of Vietnamese Canadians who were on a family holiday.
I went for a walk about and ended up having my picture taken with a friendly bunch of locals. Happens a lot when they see Westerners with fair skin and blonde hair.
Finally, land was in sight but we had one slight worry – we had no Vietnamese currency as we’d been picked up as soon as we crossed the border and not given a chance to get to an ATM and I also had no WiFi to download a local SIM card so that I could order a taxi.
Luckily for us a wonderful member of staff on the ferry shared some data with me so I could set up my SIM card.
The same guy even followed us off the ferry and made sure that we had no issues booking a taxi.
We were so grateful for his act of kindness. There are good people left in the world.
As I’d been able to set up my SIM we were also able to pay for the taxi through the app.(Phew)
It’s times like these when I am extremely grateful for modern technology.
So finally, around 10pm we checked in to our hotel, dumped our bags, dashed to the ATM and were sat sipping Piña coladas in no time.
So although it had been a long day it was most certainly an adventurous one.
Our connections had run smooth and we got to meet some colourful characters and one extremely kind one.