And so I come to the end of another vacation. We had our bags outside the room by noon and a bus came at lunchtime to take us to Siem Reap airport. From there it was a 2.5 hour flight to Singapore. 3.5 hours at Changi, and then a 13 hour flight to Heathrow. At Heathrow I said goodbye to Denise and waited on my own for another 6 hours before my 6.5 hour flight back to Ottawa. When I left the hotel it had been 33 degrees and 95 percent humidity. As I was coming in to land in Ottawa I was looking out of the window thinking "what's this white stuff all over the ground".
It's an awfully long journey, and suffice it to say I was totally knackered when I arrived back - so it's taken me a few days to catch up on these last few blog entries. Vietnam/Cambodia are exactly 12 hours time difference from Ottawa, so I still haven't really adjusted back yet.
Whilst this vacation was certainly an eye-opening experience, it was hard work physically, and not the relaxing holiday I'd been expecting. Would I do it again? Probably not. Whilst it was nice to see Vietnam there honestly wasn't anything impressive to look at - so there's nothing I need to see again. As far as Cambodia goes I saw some absolutely amazing temples and buildings, and had a really fun time driving around Phnom Pen at night in a tuk tuk. Unfortunately, my enjoyment of some of the sights was spoiled by the aggressive hawkers and beggars all trying to milk the tourists as much as they could. Most of the so called "beggars" didn't look malnourished or badly dressed - they could just make more money by scamming tourists than by fishing or working in a factory. So unfortunately I'd have to say that I don't really want to go back to Cambodia either - despite it's beautiful temples and palaces. The area around the Mekong is heavily polluted - both in Vietnam and Cambodia. It's sad to see what could be such a beautiful area spoiled in this way, and I hope the governments of both countries will do their best to tackle the pollution in future.
The most positive part of the holiday was the group of people I met on board ship. It's great being in such a small group and we met some really friendly and fun people. It was very hard to say goodbye to them. I'll also put a word in here for the staff on Scenic Spirit and for our Vietnamese tour guide: Duc - who were all amazing.
Now it's time to plan my next vacation. The tentative idea is Maccu Picchu next summer.
The great thing about meeting people on holiday these days is that it's much easier to keep in touch with them (if you want to) by means of social media.
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