AEON Days and HOME

After nine days in Cambodia, I finally received my e-visa and was able to fly back to Thailand. The two kingdoms have reached a tentative peace, and fortunately flights between them are still running as usual.

I hadn't planned to stay as long as I did, and my booking at my original hotel came to an end. I wanted to extend it, but unfortunately, they didn't have any availability for one of the days I needed. 

In the end, I had to make a reservation at a new hotel and got ready to move to a different part of town, far away from the touristy riverside in a very quiet neighborhood near the airport.

I've always stayed near the riverside, even though I've seen all of the sights and done all of the touristy things in Phnom Penh. It's just a habit, I guess, and I know the neighborhood really well. But I actually enjoyed my new hotel even more. It was the most beautiful, peaceful little boutique resort that I've ever stayed it. The staff were awesome, and there were no tourists anywhere to be seen (which means no backpackers, no scammy tuk-tuk drivers, and no touts trying to get you to buy their overpriced tour packages).

Every morning, I woke up and ordered breakfast at the front desk, which the hotel served on the patio of my little bungalow. It started with fresh fruit, juice, coffee, and croissants followed by a main course.

I ordered the Western breakfast one morning, but I preferred the Cambodian breakfast, which was an order of lok lak (pepper beef, the national dish of Cambodia) on rice with a fried egg.

The only point of interest in the nearby area is AEON mall, a gigantic shopping mall popular with Phnom Penh's urban middle class. 

The mall is very much like the ones in Bangkok, a giant structure filled with luxury shops, an upscale supermarket, and many of the restaurant chains I recognized from back home in Thailand.

One of my favorite shops here is Brown Coffee, a popular Cambodian coffee chain which sells very good (if slightly expensive) coffee drinks.

I ended up coming here every day for lunch just to give myself something to do. It was nice to walk around the air-conditioned shopping mall, browse the bookstore, and look for something nice to eat each day.

Phnom Penh is located in the east of Cambodia, not far from the border. The food here is heavily influenced by Vietnamese cuisine, and I had a really good pork sausage and baguette sandwich served with a pickled radish and carrot slaw.

 

Another day I enjoyed a bowl of rice noodles with pork.

Finally, on the morning of my eighth day in Cambodia, I received news that my visa had been approved, and I booked the first flight back to Thailand on the very next morning. I was back in my own condo by noon, very grateful to be home.