Hawaii and Beyond

After our stress of actually making it to Cambodia ( see previous post ), our B&B had arranged for a pickup at the airport. Ever fly international and exit and airport to find a crowd of drivers standing with signs of tourist names? Our driver was nowhere to be found. We figured they forgot, so we hired a driver. We were staying at the Khmer Cuisine Bed & Breakfast , which the driver had never heard of. He didn't want to turn down a fare and how hard could it be to find? Halfway through our ride he pulled over and flagged down a Tuk-Tuk  driver for directions. Tuk-Tuk's are basically a motorcycle with a little trailer attached. In Siem Reap, they'll take you around wherever for $1 or $2. This type of transportation is used all over the world with varying names and setups. I definitely recommend as there easy to get around busy streets. Anyway, this Tuk-Tuk man seemed to know better directions so our driver had us hop out and go with him. We obliged, but realized

We almost didn't make it to Cambodia. Our original plan to get to Cambodia was fly from Manila to Bangkok, stay there a few days, and take a bus or train to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Political protests and elections in Bangkok deterred us from visiting so we decided to just fly out of Bankok to Cambodia. Easier said than done. After getting off our Manila to Bangkok flight, we showed our Angkor Air tickets to some workers who pointed in the general direction we needed to go. We had two hours between flights which I felt comfortable. Janie felt uneasy and was rushing us around. I'm glad she did. After an hour of airport employees taking us on a wild goose chase to find the Angkor Air counters, we were destined to give up on our flight. No one knew where our ticketing counters were. Was this airline THAT small? I happened to try one more Info kiosk. She was able to give us an answer...one that we didn't want to hear. With One Hour left, we needed to exit out of the whole ai

  Our red eye flight was from Honolulu to Manila with Philippine Airlines with arrival at 5:00a. The airport pickup was seamless, got some currency, and a 20 minute ride to Hotel H2O. This place was right on the water at Bay of Manila, by ocean park and Rizal park. Days after our stay would be the Shell EcoMarathon, for cleaner fuel innovation. Ironic with the immense pollution from vehicles with little emission standards. Anyway, gotta start somewhere, and why not a heavily polluted place first.    View from our room Since we got to our hotel around 6:00 and still dark, we decided on a quick nap before venturing around on foot. We decided to check out Intramuros and Rizal Park . This is where things got a bit eye opening and our initial ass-kicking of you-are-now-in-a-developing -country. Descriptions don't do justice, but I can give it a try...families making fire along the road and cooking chicken feet over a tin little box (smelled good though).  Walking b