Cambodia, Day 1 – Vietnam Airlines business class food porn

The title pretty much sums up Day 1!!

Who needs to set two alarms when you’ve got the previous occupants of the room to thank for the alarm going off half an hour earlier than what you’d set your own alarm for?!!

Ah well, more time to get excited!

We shuttled back to the airport and in no time at all we were boarding our Vietnam Airlines flight to Siem Reap via Ho Chi Minh city.

After totally corrupting ourselves with a business class flight back from Japan last year, we went all out and upgraded both our flights to and from Cambodia up to business class!

Slippers! now where’s my pipe…?

On making ourselves comfortable the stewardess offered us a choice of beverage. Champers was our selection! I forgot to ask what they were serving exactly, but I do know it was very good!

While reading the food menu Karen and I both just looked at each and smiled. We were in for one epic gastronomic experience!!

Photos of the Vietnam Airlines Business Class menu

The Vietnam Airlines Business Class menu

Amuse bouche (aka horse doovers)

Awesome service for the whole flight!

Glass noodles (Thai style) with marinated prawns and beef / Vegetable salad / Roasted pumpkin soup / French wine

Pan-fried fish with XO sauce and steamed rice

BBQ pork char siew and fried rice with egg

Macadamia ice cream with caramelised walnut / Cheese fruit and biscuits

Chocolate!

Six or seven courses, and a cocktail or two later, we could hardly fit another morsel into our respective mouths!

But then before we knew it dinner was upon us….

Dinner (for me)!

Dinner (for Karen)!

It was inevitable. The belt was loosened by a notch or two. I put the seat back, and gently stroked my new born food baby…

My very own food baby

I’m not sure that ‘cute’ is the first word that comes to mind with this baby though…’scary’ perhaps? Or maybe just down and out wrong!!

Either way, it was the first of many over the next four weeks!

Our transfer at Ho Chi Minh city was pretty uneventful. We arrived late afternoon to find the airport very very quiet. For a country that is such a tourist magnet I expected more activity…?

You really don’t want to have to spend too much time waiting at HCM, because there is a dearth of activities to keep you interested. Browsing the duty free shops might take you half an hour, and then you can grab a meal at one of the half a dozen or so restaurants/cafes on offer. An overpriced massage maybe? Other than that, it’s up to you to keep yourselves amused! We made ourselves at home at the Fin Bar, grabbing a couple of drinks (don’t drink the 333 beer…its’ nasty!) and connecting to their free wifi for the next couple of hours.

One very short flight later and we were in Siem Reap! As we walked across the tarmac it struck me that the airport looked more like a resort than your typical transport hub!

Immigration went off without a hitch, and was actually quite an interesting experience. We could have gone down the path of getting our Visa’s before leaving Australia, but we just couldn’t be bothered (and it costs an extra US$5). So we lined up with another 50 or 60 other tourists (and our crisp US$20 notes swiftly going soggy in our sweaty little hands!), to apply for Visa on Arrival. Once you get to the front of the ‘queue’ you hand over your passport, arrivals card and money. A factory line of immigration officials then play pass-the-parcel with your travel documents, each one adding a stamp or piece of paper or performing some other very official, yet completely indeterminate, action with respect to your application!

Meanwhile, you’re waiting 20m away at the other end of the counter watching all this going on, but not knowing exactly where your papers are in the queue! As each passport was completed they would call out the travellers first name, letting you know it was ready for collection. This caused much hilarity with the large group of Spanish tourists in front of us when the name ‘Maria’ was called out and a number of ladies all put up their hands at the same time!

Our tuk tuk driver was waiting for us in the humid, tropical air outside the airport, swiftly getting us to our hotel whilst dodging potholes, puddles and other motorists in the dark!

Foreplay’s over folks, this is the real deal now!!