First Impressions

23 Sept Spent the night in the Transit Hotel in the Singapore Terminal which was very convienient but guess what as you don't go through imigration you don't get your luggage, it just ends up in the lost and found office untl you get it the next day.  Lucky mine was bright purple as it was very easy to find. I let the hotel at 3am and set out on a 20 minute hike to the other end of the airport as the sky train does not start running until 6am and I was going to be in the air by then.  I had to leave the airport, go through immigration, get my back and then go back upstairs to check back in.  It was a great way to start the day. The flight to Seim Reap was one & half hours and it was on route to Phnom Penh and was only half full. Luggage weight was not a problem here, they just put it on the plane.  Most of the passengers did not have any luggage other than cabbin baggage. The airport in Seim Reap is a very old looking building and your first view is a huge line of men sitting in a very long row all wearing fancy uniforms and looking very stern.  They have the job of processing your visa and then straight onto immigration who like all immigration people all over the work (think they all go to the sam immigation school) ignore you complete and spend the next two minutes banging the table with about six different stamps and then pass you back your passport and you can not find anywhere where they have stamped it.  Mel picked me up from the airport and drove about 10 minutes into Seim Reap which after Saigon is a very quiet backwater.  Very little traffic, no honking of horns, no bikes or scooters full of families carring all of their live stock. It is quite clean and we live almost in the centre of the city, down a dirt road,right next door to the night markets.  It is a fantastic spot, especially at night. The six ladies I am living with are very nice, all Aussies and we are all over 45 with the exception of Sally who is in her late 20's. We have a lovely lady who cooks lunch and dinner for us, a young man who is the administrator of the school and a young man who is the security guard.  All three are learning English and enjoy learning new Aussie expressions!!! Before going to bed last night, I had to go to the markets of course and buy 2 new dresses.  The markets are the same as in Vietnam but the people are not quite as persistent.  My room is quite nice and up the top of some very steep stairs, nice calf muscles coming out of the climbing.  The classroom that I am using is just outside my door and it should be interesting with 20 students going up and down the stairs every hour and another 20 students every hour down stairs in the front room which is also a classroom. We have 240 students every day and Mel has another 200 on the waiting list. .0  My room		draft		9/23/10	by Jacana's Jottings	Delete
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