From Angkor to Saigon: Two Weeks Through Cambodia and Vietnam

My flight got in late in the afternoon, and the heat hit me the second the doors opened. Late March in Cambodia is hot. Properly hot, the sort that slows you right down, and it set the rhythm for the whole rest of the trip. My private local guide and driver were waiting just past customs, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate that after a long haul. No taxi line, no puzzling out a strange airport. Just a friendly face and a cold drink, and I was checked into the Rambutan Hotel and Resort within an hour after we navigated the traffic of the city.

I'd left the rest of the day wide open on purpose. I never book anything for arrival day anymore, since the first hours in a new country are better spent getting your bearings than racing off to a sight. I found my balcony villa, found the pool, and let myself catch up to the time zone and the temperature. There's a particular freedom to traveling solo, nobody to wrangle and nobody waiting on me. I had a quiet dinner, turned in early, and set two alarms for a 5:00 AM start. Then I lay there half-convinced I'd sleep through both.