I made it! The flight from Bangkok was extremely long and I didn't sleep much because my seat wouldn't go back at all -- you wouldn't think it would make much difference but it's extremely difficult to sleep when sitting completely upright. But I finally got to Bangkok. There's a new airport in Bangkok and I was extremely impressed with the efficiency of the place....within less than a half an hour of landing I was through passport control (where I got my first stamps in my new passport :-)), had picked up my luggage and was checked in for my flight to Phnom Penh.....a far cry from Heathrow Terminal 3 yesterday. I was pretty tired but it was great to be able to walk around a bit and stretch my legs a bit. The flight for Phnom Penh left on time and took less than an hour. I was delighted that I got my Cambodian visa online before I left home -- it meant that I walked passed all the visa queues and went straight to passport control and got more stamps.
Matt was waiting for me at the airport and we jumped in a taxi and headed to the hotel, The Pavilion. Matt had already been in Phnom Penh for a couple of days so we took a wander around the town and the riverside and he showed me some of the sights. We had a really nice dinner and some beers in the Chiang Mai Riverside restaurant. We had a couple of set menus. They serve the dishes in smaller portions over here which is great as you get to taste more food without ending up completely stuffed, as I normally do when I go for Thai. I especially liked the red curry -- really sweet and delicious. Matt says he can make better now that he's a gourmet Thai chef after taking a cookery course in Chiang Mai, but I'll reserve judgement until he actually cooks for me.
By then I had been up for about 36 hours without any proper sleep, so I was ready for an early-ish night.
