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When I had the opportunity to use frequent flyer miles for an overseas trip, I decided to use them to go over a different sea than usual for a trip to Asia in November 2002. Here is a report on that trip to Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, and Cambodia.
TRIP TO ASIA, NOVEMBER 2002
Amc2004-09-13 14:42:34
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I should go for two hours at $20. I was the only passenger on a motorboat, in a wicker chair. Though somewhat uneasy at the situation, I found much interest in the Tonle Sap lake. The lake becomes a river, which joins the Mekong; after rainy season, there’s more water than the ocean can take, so the lake gets higher, with trees coming out of it and houses on stilts. We stopped at two lakeside aquariums/souvenir stands. At a wide spot in the lake, the skipper, who didn’t speak English, turned the motor off and had me put a life jacket on. He said something to the skipper of another boat and went clothed into the water as the boat rocked. I was certainly worried about what was happening, but he got back on and got the boat going. I suppose there was some kind of problem, but I’ve read from other reports that it’s standard for them to turn the motor off there so people can enjoy the scenery in silence; the writers of other reports worried that they were going to be shaken down for more money.
Eventually we got back to the dock and I got back to town. I had money to worry about; although I’d brought a good supply of dollar cash, these expenses were adding up. I knew that Cambodia didn’t have networked ATMs; perhaps I could have gotten cash advances on my ATM card, but for security I’d brought travelers’ cheques (TCs), and there was a bank right in front of the hotel open until 7 p.m. I’d cashed some the first evening; even after I found out that cash was the only option for both the driver and the hotel, I thought it would be enough to cash just one $50 TC. If I paid for my dinner in riel, I added up the costs of driver, hotel, and airport tax, and figured I had about a dollar to spare. Sometimes I’ve cut it that close with the currency of the country I was leaving, but it was ridiculous to do this with my own currency, so I cashed another TC, a good thing since I hadn’t accounted for the two days’ breakfasts. I had my dinner
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See photographs from:
Vietnam Gallery
,
Macau Gallery
,
Hong Kong Gallery
,
Cambodia Gallery
