Mills Alumni Association/AHI Travel Tour of SE Asia: February/March 2024
Feb 18-20: United SFO to Singapore to Bali
One cannot prepare for any 17 hour flight--you just gotta go with the flow, catch as much sleep as you can, and hopefully you can tough it out at the destination particularly once you lose a day crossing the International Date Line, leaving late on the 18th, and finally arriving in Bali on the 20th. Here is the laundry list of movies I knocked off on both flights:
- The Holdovers: meh
- Wolf of Wall Street: excellent
- Ron Burgundy, Anchorman: not my kind of humor
- Blade Runner 2049: confusing
- Drive (more Ryan Phillope): meh
- Barbie: very clever and funny
The Singapore airport, where we had a significant layover, is quite the stimulant, despite spending most of our time in the Singapore Airlines lounge. EVERY terminal, and there were four, had multiple copies of luxury designer shops, and all were very busy. Somebody's economy is booming...
The two-hour flight to Bali/Denpasar was perfect for watching Barbie, and we got picked up by the resort van at Denpasar. We were arriving two days before our tour started, so we stayed at different resort than the one for our tour. Imagine our surprise when we were led to our "room" which was a James Bond-like walled compound with our own POOL! Needless to say, since we figured we'd see the sights of Bali on the tour, we only left our compound for the lovely meals at the resort!
Our very own pool, nice, right!?
I took a good dose of Melatonin (which works for me, not Janet, she prefers Excedrin PM, but, whatever works when you're halfway around the world) and got a great night's sleep in the bungalow in our compound. And, if you can swing it, arrive a day or two before any tour or cruise starts to allow for any flight (or other) delays. It'll save you stressing...
After that good night's sleep, we headed down to the incredible buffet breakfast, which turned out to be a (wonderful) recurring theme on the entire trip: selections of several Asian and European cuisines of "typical breakfasts." After fog of the long flight cleared with some coffee, I found out we were at the Amarterra Villas Resort Bali Musa Dua, a Marriott Autograph Collection in a "one bedroom pool villa." Gotta love those Marriott points!
With our "villa," we didn't feel the need to venture out anywhere beyond our resort, so it was a lazy day getting used to the time change, and the heat and humidity...it rarely got below 90 degrees the whole trip, but you just figure you're going to sweat...just go with it and don't complain! We spent most of the day reading; I'm on a serial killer kick, finishing the Mindhunter book that was the basis of the fantastic Netflix series. It was very quiet at the resort; there were not many people at the meals, just a few couples at both meals and no kids running around. This villa was on par with two other fantastic stays: our Innsbruck hotel on the Mercedes 2014 European purchase trip, and our Bora Bora overwater bungalow on our 35th anniversary trip.
Feb 22: Bummer...we had to check out! But we were on our way to our hotel for the Bali portion of our tour. A word about "taking a tour:" normally we are independent travelers, eschewing cruises and tours for getting a rental car and winging it (with some hotel reservations) around western Europe. We've since taken a couple of small ship cruises (Windstar and Uniworld--no Princess or Carnival for us...how elitist!) but since this was our first foray to Southeast Asia, we took a chance to go on this tour. This trip came about in our usual method: over coffee first thing in the morning. Janet was opening her mail and said, "hey, this brochure from Mills Alumni Association haas an interesting trip, four SEAsian countries (Bali (Indonesia), Singapore, Bangkok (Thailand) and Siem Reap/Angkor Wat (Cambodia)). We could not pull together such a wide-spread itinerary on our own, so let them do it. It turns out the tour was put together by AHI Travel, who markets trips to various colleges and universities alumni associations--this trip had a 28 traveler maximum, but our tour only had 14 plus a guide. And only 3 from Mills (and me a plus-one).
Our transfer from the Amarterra took a while...traffic in Bali is insane, with scooters outnumbering cars 10 to 1, but there were still tons or cars and lorries between us and our next resort: the Jimberan Puri Belmont Hotel. Again, we were led to a walled compound as our "room" but, alas, no personal pool! Bummer. But, again, a walled villa with a very spacious room and courtyard. At check-in, we were advised not to drink the tap water, or brush your teeth with it, hence relieving my "hippie guilt" for using bottled water.
As we made our way to the restaurant that evening for the "orientation" meeting, this older man rushed to me and enthusiastically introduced himself as Bill and then proceeded to tell me his life story--worked at Wilkes Bashford in the City, and he was the "personal shopper for Willie Brown" among other world-wide accomplishments, but now living the Fa-Boo lifestyle in Palm Springs--not that there is anything wrong with that. Well, I thought to myself, he's no Millsie so he's just staying at the resort too and we won't have to put up with his pomposity very long...WRONG! He was in our group...ugh. This being our first "group" tour, and with the group so small, one oddball can mess with the group dynamic. The upshot of it, he seemed to wear on most of us, so we all pretty much kept our distance--he in the front of the bus monopolizing the guide's time, many of ou in the back tuning him out.
We met the rest of our group, and our overall guide (more like a coordinator of all things for the trip), a lovely Florentine, Chiara. For each city/country we were in, there would be a local guide, so Chiara was more of a project manager than a tour guide. Our guide for Bali was a middle-aged gent named Pitha, and he accompanied us all throughout Bali, even seeing us off at the airport.
For those that I can remember, the group consisted of an older gay couple from the East Coast (who also found Bill overbearing and over the top), two women from New Orleans (one of whom we didn't see for the first few days as the flight had affected her), a Millsie from Pinole traveling alone, another Millsie from Washington state with her Professor Hubby, a Manhattanite Korean mother-daughter (mom was a pistol!) and another retired couple...well, that goes without saying, but as I remember all of us were retired.
Feb 23: Day 1 of the Tour: We had another great buffet breakfast at this resort (no wonder it was a plus-10-pound trip!) and we were quite surprised when this huge 50-person bus pulled up for today's touring. At least it gave us the "Bill Buffer." But navigating that beast through the incredible traffic and tiny roads in Bali was for a driver better than any one I know.
Apart for our time at the Amarterra Villa "private James Bond-like compound" that wasn't even a part of our tour, I'd give Bali a resounding "Meh" score, because it was so crowded and getting anywhere is near impossible. Yes, it was gorgeous, yes, the experience was fantastic, but if I want a tropical vacation Hawaii is a mere 5 hour flight away as opposed to a 17 + 3 hours away.
February 23: First Day of the Tour
In our 50 person bus with only about 15 of us, we went with our local guide Pitha:
- To an elementary school in a tiny village that our bus had a hell of a time getting to...I find it a little creepy to send us to a small child school where they perform a song or two for the smiling rich American tourists...I'm just uncomfortable with it.
- Next to a "typical multi-generational family compound" with a couple of separate houses, a central little temple area (Bali is Buddhist), and a second small wall section behind the main door to block and confuse evil spirits. Lots of little shrines inside the compound, with daily offerings laid out in the shrines, and at the foot of driveways leading to the compound for the gods. And, in Bali, the wife always goes to live in the compound of the husband.
- For lunch we hiked up to another village that had several rice paddies and one right next to the open-air restaurant being worked with a little old man and his water buffalo. After a lovely lunch this rustic little village cafe, we were asked if anyone wanted to experience planting rice. I leapt into the murky gooey paddy with two others in our group and were handed a bunch of rice starts to shove into the paddy. I broke into a "Seven Samurai" final scene rhythm placing the starts in a pattern that even impressed the man with the water buffalo. I fully expected some slimy creepy crawly to latch on to my arm or leg, but all that I came out with was a bunch of mud.
- After cleaning up, the villagers had set up for giving (very intense) calf and foot massages, so while I was planting, Janet got her massage, then I got mine after hosing down.
- After the massages we bussed (very slowly) back to the resort and had a lovely open air buffet dinner with entertainment provided by a Balanese troupe dancing with a band. The main rhythm instrument is a xylophone, a rindik, consisting of bamboo tubes struck with a silver hammer. Janet got up with the dancers in the audience participation part, but I had no phone on me so it went un-filmed (is that appropriate to call it that when it's captured on an iPhone?)
- There was incredible traffic EVERYWHERE: all the roads were very narrow, particularly rural ones, with no shoulder or sidewalks. And cars are usually parked halfway on the traffic lane, so busses and trucks need to swerve a bit in to the opposite lane going through any town or village. I kept my eyes focused to the side because looking through the windshield was an occasionally harrowing view. All the while motorbikes, mostly small displacement scooters, weave in and out of mostly stand-still traffic of cars and trucks, and busses.
- First stop was a batik store with a demo or how the fabric is weaved on a wooden loom and painted, old school. And, of course, we were given ample time to amble through the store.
- Our next stop with the Tampak Siring Holy Spring Water Temple in Ubud, where Chiara passed out souvenir sarongs to us all as our knees needed to be covered on the temple grounds. We saw a bunch of young white Westerners, clad in satiny green outfits, alternately praying and lining up to be purified in the Holy Spring, which is a large pool with several outlets that the faithful queue up to wash the holy water over their heads. Bali seems to be a magnet for young Westerners that are part of a fake hippie "find my center" at some woo-woo resort (we saw several as we sat in traffic) and once you achieve "something," you get to come to this temple in your green outfit and go through this purification ritual. But, TBH, I'm just an old curmudgeon who has seen a lot, and it all just seems a little woo-woo to me.
- The temple did have another pool, this one with koi, so no swimming.
- To exit the temple, there was the usual zig zag lane with vendors on both sides that ambushed you coming out--"one dolla' one dolla'"..I counted, there were ten twists and turns to get out to the bus. Yet, we all resisted!
- From the temple, we were stuck in a massive traffic jam--it took us 45 minutes to go a few kilometers to go to a lovely restaurant at a resort next to a "Monkey Forest." Each bathroom had a beautiful water feature, complete with a couple of good-sized turtles in each. I had fish; Janet had duck breast. Both were delish! We skipped the Monkey Forest...
- More traffic greeted us getting to the Arma Museum (and Resort) in Ubud. We were greeted and given a tour by the vigorous 70-year-old owner who started collecting Balanese art then opened this museum and resort to display his collection. We strolled around the grounds and listened to a Balanese band playing in the garden.
- We got back to our room about 6:45pm...damn, it's tiring sitting on one of those mega-busses. I timed it, we spent SEVEN HOURS on the bus--that doesn't include our time visiting the sites. We just got room service for dinner.
 The new-agey hippie types lining up for their purification at the Tampak Siring Temple  Janet and her massuese |  Bali is VERY Buddhist, despite Indonesia being predominantly Muslim. Statues are all over the place with daily offerings presented to the statues and all the bottom of their driveways |
- We agreed to give Bali a "meh" vote--yes it's beautiful and the resorts are outstanding, but getting anywhere on the island is insane, and we can save 15 hours of flying time by heading to Hawaii.
- We cleared immigration at Denpasar Airport and headed to Duty Free where some Balinese dancers paraded through the airport.
- It was an uneventful flight to Singapore, with a quick trip to our next hotel, the Shangri-La. All of the hotels from AHI Travel were 5-star, each one more incredible as we progressed. I was rather surprised as the trip wasn't outrageously expensive but the accommodations were very luxurious.
- We settled in to the Shangri-La then caught a taxi to take us down to the main drag, Orchard Street. He dropped us off at his recommended "chicken and rice joint' and we did a little discovery along Orchard Street as it has indoor mall after mall, usually with an extensive food court in each...and I mean a really good food courts.
- Oh My God! The breakfast buffet at the Shangri-La was heaven. Singapore being an international business center, their buffet ticked all the boxes for every possible breakfast cuisine: a British station with bangers and eggs and beans, Chinese station with dim sum (my first course), a French station with pastries and croissants (my last course), a Japanese station with sushi...you get the picture. It was brekkies nirvana!
- We then met in a hotel conference room to get a presentation of the history of Singapore from a local Malaysian businessman, who spent a lot of time talking about him and his accomplishments before getting to the history at hand.
- It's interesting that Singapore is all about reclamation, filling in the wetlands to build more and more, which is just the opposite of what we're doing by restoring the wetlands around the Bay. He gave us the poop about the Mer-Lion legend, and that most people live in high-rise public housing that are assigned to mix the ethnicities so they don't get an overpopulation of one in a complex.
- And it's interesting that Singapore was part of Malaysia until 1969. Malaysia didn't think much of the island so it let them become independent, so then the Singaporean leadership did the work to make it a rich, international business hub for Asia. I bet Malaysia regrets that decision...
- From there, we hit the bus and met Andrew, our local guide. He was much funnier than Pitha, and his opening joke was, "Singapore is a fine country; a fine for this and a fine for that!"
- We are not "Group Tour" people, but we felt the wide scope of this trip would give us a great overview of the four countries at a reasonable price; what we call a "scoping trip," scoping out the countries and the cultures to see if we want to come back for longer stays.
- The day's tour included the Mer-Lion statue/fountain, the old colonial quarter (now the government quarter), the old and new Chinatowns, the Indian and Malay quarters, and the local mosque.
- Lunch was at a Chinese banquet across the harbor, but Janet wasn't feeling well and taxied back to the hotel as we arrived. Andrew made a big deal about the Chili Crab, but it was the usual sticky, messy Chinese preparation of the crustacean where the meat sticks to the shell (y'all should know I prefer my crab done in the simple Old Bay boil, 15 - 20 minutes to perfection!) I did love the sauce and after extracting very little meat, I spiced up my rice with the sauce. The other dishes were excellent as well.
- After bussing around to all of Singapore's quarters, we were back at the hotel by late afternoon. Janet felt a little recharged to we walked along Orchard Street, which has a lot of indoor malls with a huge food court (it seemed) in every one of them.
- We walked all the way down to Raffles Hotel, the birthplace of the Singapore Sling, allegedly. Neither of us were up for a nasty, over priced cocktail, so we taxied back to the hotel.
- Janet still wasn't feeling well, so she skipped the day's activities.
- The Peranakan Heritage Museum was similar to a a tour of Locke, CA, where southern Chinese settled and intermarried the local Malay (and later Indians) and developed a hybrid culture of there own over several generations. The docent took us through their little museum then fed us some sweets washed down with an interestingly blue tea, make from the butterfly pea flower.
 Mer-Lion of legend, at the Singapore Harbor |  Peranakan Houses: very Insta-Worthy! |
- We then bussed over to a Peranekan neighborhood, featuring a couple of blocks of very Insta-Worthy row houses.
- After hitting the Peranekan sites, we had "free time" lunch and afternoon, but Janet still wasn't up to exploring Orchard Street further so we hung out at the hotel until I took off for the evening's show.
- We arrived at the can't miss Gardens by the Bay in the late afternoon then toured the two domes: one tropic with tons of orchids and other exotic plants, and one desert dome. The tropic dome features the second-highest indoor waterfall in the world, beaten only by the Jewel in the Singapore Changi Airport, or all places.
- Both domes were stunning, with fantastic collections and a path to walk up the and around the waterfall. Definitely a "not miss" (Janet had toured it on a previous business trip visit).
- It was dark by the time we finished touring the dome, and everyone gathered, after snacking at their little food court, for the SuperTree Sound and Light Show, shown below.
- That wrapped up the Singapore portion of the tour, so it was head to Changi airport tomorrow for the transfer to Bangkok.
Andrew, rockin' out to some traditional music at the Supertree Light Show |  SuperTrees at the Gardens by the Bay |
- After getting us all checked in, Andrew took us to the Jewel, the tallest indoor waterfall in the world. It doesn't flow all the time but on a regular schedule, and we all gathered along with many other travelers, to watch the spectacle from the top, then one level down with the cascade down a glass "funnel."
- Another uneventful flight to Bangkok (always good to have an uneventful flight), fought an astounding amount of traffic (a similar theme throughout, except, most notably, Cambodia), we settled in to the Peninsula Hotel (yet another 5 star joint), with views out over the Chao Phraya River that separates Bangkok's halves.
- There is an astounding amount of river traffic back and forth across the river, and the Peninsula had it's own water taxi bouncing back and forth all day and night.
- Janet was now back to he old self, and that night we had a floating dinner in a former rice barge. I was expecting very spicy food but I think it was toned down for us white folk. But, for me, it didn't need to be...
- On the flight, I watched "Bangkok Dangerous" a crazy Nic Cage movie, showing the seedy underbelly of Bangkok. but we hung in the higher-class neighborhoods.
- Today's agenda included a boat trip up and down the Chao Phraya River, where we saw the Royal Navy practicing/working out on the three Royal Barges that looked like larger dragon boats we see raced around here, then got dropped off on the other side of the river for a tour of the Royal Palace complex. Janet was annoyed at the Chinese tourists who were obsessed with staying tightly packed in their group, other tourists be damned if we got in their way.
- At the Royal Palace, we ditched the shoes to go in to see the teeny golden Buddha (actually it's the 26 inch tall Emerald Buddha carved of jasper and clothed in gold, 26 inches tall) that was aggressively policed by guards demanding those annoying Chinese tourists to shush repeatedly. Janet was so annoyed with them she didn't even go in to the temple, having visited at a much quieter time on a business trip. The king dresses the statue appropriately for the season in an elaborate ceremony.
- Also on the Grand Palace grounds, in Wat Pho, was the giant Reclining Buddha, all 150 feet of him, and 50 feet tall--not solid gold, only gold leaf.
- Once through the full breadth of the Royal Palace grounds, we were herded out to the street to get a few block long tuk-tuk ride. You heard that right, we went up a few blocks, turned around in a roundabout, and headed right back to our bus. But I guess it's required for tourists to get a tuk-tuk ride, however short and useless. I thought we were tub-tuking to lunch...
- Absent the tug-tuk ride, we were bussed to lunch at the Blue Elephant, where I assumed "here comes the heat!" But nope, I'm not saying the food was bland; it was excellent, just mild on the chili side. A couple of others were also feeling it for more heat, so several of us got side ramekins of a fiery fish sauce. We noticed on their menus their menu items had small elephants to indicate the degree of heat...all of our special menu items were one elephant hot.
- After lunch a few of us in the group took a smaller van to a jewelry mart. I chilled while Janet checked out the jade bracelets for Karen, involving much texting back and forth with pictures of my wrist struggling to put a bracelet on; my wrist a better approximation than Janet's tiny wrist. And after that we went to Jim Thompson's home and museum. He as an OSS (precursor to the CIA) agent in Thailand, and after the war he stayed and introduced the west to Thai fabrics, making a nice little fortune. He met his end mysteriously while on vacation in Burma/Myanmar, disappearing on a short hike, but his home and the textiles live on with tours being given (we just made the last one).
- Janet hesitated in her decision to buy a Jim Thompson hat (modeled later in Egypt, but that's another trip) and Dodie in our group scooped up the last one! Sad Face Emoji...she scored one later at the Jim Thompson boutique at the Bangkok airport.
- Then it was back to the hotel and a delightful room service dinner.
 The Grand Palace |  Just a wee bit of the Reclining Buddha |
- Today's tour took us the 70 kilometers north to the Royal Summer Palace, and I got to drive one of the golf carts around the grounds. There was a mix of European, Chinese and Thai architecture among the buildings of the palace grounds.
- We then went a little farther north to the Wat Mahathat ruins, another UNESCO World Heritage Site, completed in 1374.
- After a spin through these ruins, we saw elephants for tourist rides on the way out; alas, it wasn't part of our tour.
- We returned to Bangkok, not by bus but by a river cruise ship, where they fed us a lovely buffet lunch as we sailed back south to Bangkok.
- Back at the hotel, we took their river taxi across to the other side and found a nice restaurant on an alley next to a fabric store Janet wanted to check out. Once comfortably fed, we ventured back across the river and "experienced" a crazy crowded mall next to the Peninsula, with all sorts of food and geegah vendors inside, and tons of people waiting in lines to board the various dinner cruises coming in to dock.
 Wat Mahathat ruins' trapped buddha head, "Tomb Raider" style |  The Royal Summer Palace, one of many of differing architectural styles at the palace |
- Flying in to Siem Reap "International" Airport was a surreal experience: pretty much a charter for our group, our two-engine turboprop plane came in to this massive new airport, and literally we were the only plane in the airport. No planes at any gates, no planes off to the side getting serviced, no planes in or near any of the many hangers scattered around. A real "Twilight Zone" experience. One plane, ours. It made getting through customs quick.
- Obviously, the airport was built for some "future capacity" and the answer was plastered on a large sign as we left. The airport, only opened mid-October 2023, was lovingly built and financed by the Yunnan Investment Holdings, a Chinese company. Guess what country's tourists will begin flooding in to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat soon??? I'm glad we saw it now...
- Interestingly enough, Siem Reap and Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples were the overwhelming highlight of the trip. The hotel was top notch, Siem Reap was very cool, and the temple complexes were absolutely awesome. I'm dismayed that this massive new airport will only have Angkor Wat show up as the next "overtouristed" spot in the world.
- It's almost goes without saying but after staying at 5-star hotels and resort in the other three countries, our expectations were lower going in to a Sofitel in Cambodia. Boy Howdy, were we pleasantly surprised when we pulled up to the Sofitel; it's a full-on plantation resort/golf complex with fantastic grounds and yet another brekkies buffet to die for!
- We chilled in the room before attending the 3pm history lesson then we headed our for a "remorque" ride, which is the French version of a tuk-tuk. Remember the French colonized IndoChina before the Japanese invaded in World War II.
- Siem Reap didn't look like much on our drive in from the airport, but we skirted the city itself, and the tuk-tuks took us in to the heart of the bustling city. There is a large covered French Market a'la New Orleans, with lots of food and clothing vendors. Large signs over "Pub Street" and "All Cheers Street" announced the intention of the many open air restaurants lining those streets. Our local guide, Tom, took us around the downtown area, and we tuk-tuk'd back to the hotel for dinner.
- We rolled out early (7:30) in two smaller busses to Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples, allowing us to get an uncrowded jump on all the other tourists.
- But first, I must mention the brekkies: this one topped the other fantastic buffets, with a fresh French Press pot plopped down on your table as soon as you sat down...talk about coffee nirvana for me. And at the pastry station, there was a large oven serving up fresh, hot French pastries throughout brekkies. And the "stations of the world brekkies cuisines!" Heaven!
- Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom are a Hindu-Buddhist temple complex was built from 1150 through 1200 CE of the same brick that built Rome, as we saw in Ostia Antica, but instead of the temples being capped with marble as in Rome, these were finished with a stucco-like covering, which is mostly gone.
- The Angkor Archaeological Park, another UNESCO World Heritage Site of some 400 square kilometers, contains remains of different capitals of the Khmer Empire from the 9th through 15th Century. As we went through the Angkor Wat to the Angkor Thom complexes, we stayed ahead of the crowds that started filtering through the morning. The monumental sculptured boulevards and bridges were astonishingly beautiful, and the extensively carved walls, where scenes of daily mundane life--not all royal ceremony as in Egypt's tombs--were preserved throughout the complex. Again, easily the highlight of the entire trip, and that was saying something.
- Running the ever-present gauntlet of vendors heading back to the bus, Janet did buy a light elephant-themed top for a couple of bucks, and we rolled out to the next stop, a local demonstration of how their fermented rice noodles are made, which we eventually consumed in a delish lime and coconut soup with a couple of rice-based dumplings.
- For lunch, we headed back to Siem Reap to an excellent group lunch at Chanrey Tree, then we stopped at a "National Ballet School" with a "robust" French woman professor narrating the dances and songs that were played for us, with the same Bali xylophone and a high-pitched oboe-like woodwind and drums. Fascinating place, considering this was a school to move up to the National Ballet.
- On our various rides around our local guide, Tom, told the story of the Khmer Rouge Genocide, which still is fresh on the psyche of the populous. About 25% of the populous was murdered, and many members of Tom's family perished. Running from 1975 through 1979, supported by Mao and modeled on the Cultural Revolution that was also a delightful time for the Chinese. May 20 is marked as their remembrance day as Phnom Penh fell on that day in 1975. In 1979 Vietnam invaded and deposed Pol Pot and his regime (facetiously named Democratic Kampuchea), but their resulting civil war lasted until 1989.
- That night, we took remarques to a Cambodian Acrobat Show: about 100 people in the stands, and the show was about the Khmer Rouge Genocide mixed around a bunch of tumbling. Another fascinating bit of their culture.
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- Fortified with our outstanding buffet, we bussed early over to "lesser" temples of Angkor Thom, a Bayon Temple Complex that served as a backdrop to the Angela Jolie "Tomb Raider" movie.
- This complex had many more examples of wall carvings, again of daily life like crocodiles eating men and fish, elephant battles, groups smoking, and, with one particularly pointed out by Tom, a fishwife hiding while her two lovely daughters were put forward to sell to the men.
- From that incredible temple complex, we bussed back to the resort for a free afternoon.
- We sat around the pool that afternoon watching a large set-up going on at the hotel, with a large stage erected, and little did we know it was for us. Our "departure dinner" entertainment was the more Cambodian Ballet, but it was more the rookie squad and not the troupe we say at the school earlier. There was a massive amount of food for our little group, and we felt a little guilty leaving so much leftover.
- Of the group, a gay couple, Steve and Chris, were continuing on to Vietnam then Hong Kong before heading home, and the Professor and his Millsie wife were heading to Laos.
- Most of the group left for the Airport except us and two women from New Orleans, Paula and Dodie.
- We spent the morning at the National Museum were many artifacts from the Angkor Temples are displayed--like statue heads that "fell off"
- At the museum, we had two real sugar cane drinks--refreshing!
- On our afternoon, Janet and I walked the short distance to the Royal Palace and took a spin around the neighborhood, with the highlight being the huge fruit bats roosting in the trees in a park close to the palace, flying around every once in a while. We also stopped by their Raffles (like Singapore) Hotel for a drink, light lunch and a rest before walking back to the resort.
- We chilled the rest of the afternoon at the hotel then had a light dinner with Dodie and Paula at the bar.
- I had to unfortunately say goodbye to the French Press Coffee buffet and traveled to the massive (and still empty) Siem Reap International Airport with Dodie and Paula, and our tickets got us in to the surprising nice Singapore Air lounge.
- The four of us were on the same flight in to Singapore, and their layover was so long they got a room at the hotel on the airport premises while Janet and I logged more time at the Singapore Air lounge before our long flight home. Interesting that flying SFO to Singapore took 17 hours into the jet stream headwinds; the return to SFO only took 14 hours.
  Easily the highlight of the entire trip, Angkor Wat Archeological Park |   |
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