Day 4: Siem Reap -> KL -> Singapore

 

Last Day in Siem Reap

It was our last day at the hotel. Our flight out of Siem Reap was at 3.00pm which meant we would need to leave the hotel by around 12.30 pm. I had already arranged with the hotel staff to send us to the airport. The transfer was free as it was part of our 3-night stay packet.

At about mid morning we went for a last swim at the hotel pool. While swimming we saw a "cooking class" being conducted by the pool side. A staff told us that two ladies were learning to cook Khmer dishes from the hotel chef. The lesson started with a trip to the market in the morning to buy the necessary groceries. Well we had pottery lesson and others had cooking class.

We checked out of the hotel at about 12 noon since we were still early for our ride to the airport, we went to the dining room for some fresh fruit drinks. I had fallen in love with Siem Reap pineapple juices, really sweet and refreshing.

More Pineapple juices

When it was time to leave, we went to the hotel counter to settle all our bills. Three night stay, four six course dinners, a few other small meals, drinks etc. We requested to use up as much of our US dollars as possible and to pay the balance using credit card.

Unfortunately there was some problems with the credit card system. The payment could not be completed with my hubby's card or my card. For a while we were wondering how to settle the balance as we did not have any more cash. Luckily after waiting a while the problem of the credit card system was resolved and the payment went through. 

We reached the airport at about 1.10 pm and there were many long queues at the airline counters in the departure hall. Our printed online check-in boarding passes cannot be used directly, they had to be exchanged for the actual boarding passes. So we had to join a queue to get our boarding passes. It was a long wait to be served, first the systems was down for a while, then there was this blond lady having some issues with her check-in luggage. After bickering with the counter staff for a long while, holding up everybody behind her in the queue, she finally opened up her luggage and pulled out some items and stuffed then into her hand carrier and those of her friends' before checking in her luggage. At last the queue was moving, once she was gone the queue moved so swifty and in less than 5 minutes we got our boarding passes. 

With our boarding passes we moved to the next hall to join more queues at the immigration counters. Another queue another wait. This time we got through smoothly. No "tips" request from any immigration officier, unlike when we came in three days ago.

Duty free at Departure Hall - Siem Reap International Airport

Surprisingly the departure hall was quite nice. Bright, cool, airy, clean and modern looking. There were a few duty free shops selling souvenirs and plentiful of chairs to sit and wait. Unfortunately there was no transit lounges. When it was time for boarding we entered the boarding gate and walked onto the tamac to our plane.

Would I come back again?

As I was sitting on the plane soon to be flying out of Siem Reap I was recalling the words that the hotel staff said to me. They said, "Please come back again." Would I?

Leaving Siem Reap

We had a great time at Siem Reap, temple visits, pottery class, Tonle Sap Sunset tour and three days of great stay at Tresor D' Angkor but I knew I would not come back again. The world is so big, there are still so many places I have yet to visit. Siem Reap is not a shopping paradise like Thailand, Korea, Japan or Hong Kong where one will go back again and again.  So "Bye Bye" Siem Reap for a long long time.

Transit at Kuala Lumpur

Flew into KLIA2 after two hours flight. Malaysia was one hour ahead of Siem Reap so when we touched down it was about 6 pm local time. Our next flight from KLIA2 to Singapore was 9.30 pm, so we just needed to be at the boarding gate at about 9.00 pm. We had three hours to kill.

The good thing about AirAsia and Malaysian Airport was that the printed online check-in boarding passes could be used directly so there was no need to go and queue to exchange for the proper boarding passes at some AirAsia Counters.  Our flight tickets from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur and Kuala Lumpur to Siem Reap and back were two sets of return tickets so it was also a good thing that we were not required to exit immigration when we touched down in Kuala Lumpur each time. We were allowed to stay in the transit area which made the transfer process so convenient. 

We searched around for a good transit lounges to pass our time. If we were to use our priority passes there were only three lounges in KLIA2 that we could enter. All three lounges were Plaza Premium lounges.

We had used Plaza Premium lounge at KLIA and it was very good. At KLIA2 we had used the Plaza Premium near boarding gate L8 and it was lousy in comparison.  

This time our boarding gate was near the Plaza Premium lounge at the 3rd level of the Satellite. Before we signed in at the lounge we requested for a quick look around. Well, we found it lacking in food.  The finger foods that were displayed looked unappetitizing so we decided not to go in. We would be better off eating at the Urban Foodcourt at 3rd level of the Satellite. At  least we could order proper meals from Hot Wok. 

I could not understand how the same brand could offer lounges of such drastic difference in standard!!! While eating we started surfing Singapore Channel News Asia website to watch Singapore 50th National Day live parade on our mobiles. We had always watch the parade every year and this year though we were out of town we still watched it.

There was no difference watching the live parade from the Television in our living room at home or at Kuala Lumpur Transit (KLIA2). Of course nothing was better than to watch the parade at the floating platform (Marina Bay) where the parade and performance were held but it was impossible to get the tickets to the parade/performance.


Home sweet home

We boarded the plane on time and was back at Changi International Airport Terminal 1 by 10.00pm. For citizen we could make use of the automated immigration check which let us through the immigration very fast and easy. At the arrival hall we joined a long queue for the taxis. Though the queue was long, it progressed very fast because there was also a long queue of taxis outside the terminal. Two airport staff was efficiently guiding the taxis into empty taxis bays and customers into empty taxis.

There was a Chinese man who instead of joining the taxis queue walked directly to the taxis bays and tried to board a taxis. The taxis driver refused to accept him and the airport staff told him to join the queue. Hurray to the Taxis driver, hurray to the airport for not condoning queue jumper.

Once on the taxis, it took on 20 minutes to reach our doorstep. HOME SWEET HOME.

Starting Our Journey from Singapore

Changi International Airport

I have done self-online-checkin and printed four boarding passes for each of the four of us a week ago. Unfortunately not all the four self-printed boarding passes could be used directly. For the first leg of our flight , Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, we had to use the self-printed boarding passes to exchange for the actual of boarding passes at the AirAsia counter at Terminal 1. I always wondered why this inconvenience for AirAsia flight in Singapore as compared to TigerAir which allowed me to use my self-printed boarding passes directly.

Once we passed the imigration check at Terminal 1, we headed straight for Terminal 2 for our dinner. My son took the lead walking in the direction where the sign said T2, the funny thing was that we never reached the skytrain station, as taking the skytrain was the usual way to get from T1 and T2.  We walked for about 10 minutes moving from one travellator to the next and found ourselves reaching the duties free shops of T2. I had no idea that within the transit areas all the 3 terminals were interconnected.

Dinner at Green Market  

My husband and I are Priority Pass card holders (a free privilege from our bank)  which gives us free access to many airport lounges. So whenever we go on a flight we would visit an airport lounge for coffee and some finger food before boarding the plane. 

At Changi International Airport, our favourite airport lounge is Green Market because of its great food. Green Market is more of a restaurant than a lounge. It does not have the usual lounge features like free flow of coffee, tea, finger food, sandwiches, magazines, newspaper, shower rooms, etc etc. It just serves good food like typical restaurant. 

Green Market at Terminal 2 Changi International Airport

We were at Green Market for our dinner. With our priority passes my husband and I needed not pay for our dinner as for our children we had to pay SGD$21 per person just like a walk in customer.

For the $21 dinner, it included four fixed items from a set menu and unlimited serving from the salad bar.

The four items from the set menu were Chawanmushi, Salmon Sashimi, Grilled Cod fish and Garlic Fried Rice. These four items came in small to average size portion which when all added up would give me a full meal.

My favourite was the garlic fried rice, it had a very aromatic fragrant and tasted as delicious. It was a good thing that the serving was not large because as delicious as it was I would ended up eating it all and that would leave me too full to eat the other three items.

4 items from the set Menu

The cod fish was grilled and served with terayaki sauce, it tasted fresh and smooth. The Sashimi salmon was chewy just my type. 

The salad bar carried a variety of foods. It was not the typical fresh vegetable salad bar, it was more a Japanese style cook food type of salad bar. There were a couple of stir fried vegetable dishes, sushi, miso soup, Japanese appetisers, fresh fruits, tempura, sweet potatoes etc. 

Cook food from the Salad Bar

Four of us enjoyed our dinner very much at Green Market. The hot green tea was a good complement after all the tasty food that we had eaten.

After eating we lazed around surfing on our mobiles until it was time to get to our boarding gate. Since we knew that we could get back to terminal 1 by walking we did just that. The walking exercise was good for digestion.

We boarded the plane on time and reached Kuala Lumpur KLIA2 within an hour. 

Flying AirAsia and Air AsiaX from Singapore to Siem Reap

Shops in KLIA2 Transit Area

KLIA2 is not as posh as KLIA, it is also the terminal that is used by most of the budget airlines. Lucky for us the first leg of our flight (AirAsia) landed in KLIA2 and the second leg of of flight (AirAsiaX) from Kuala Lumpur to Siem Reap would start from KLIA2.

Since it was a short holiday we did not have to pack many clothes and our luggage were only on board bags. If we had checked in luggage we would have to exit immigration to pick up our luggage. Our plan was to stay in the transit area of KLIA2 until our next flight in the early morning the next day.

It was near to 11pm and there was not a lot of people around so it was quite enjoyable walking in and out of the many shops in the transit area, looking at their displays as we headed toward our hotel Sama Sama. Most of the products in the shops were rather expensive and we could get the same stuffs back home at a cheaper price so we just window shop. Since we already had our booking confirmation with the hotel we were not in any rush to get there.

There was a short cut from the arrival hall of KLIA2 to the departure hall of KLIA2 where Sama Sama was located. We must had missed the short cut and ended up walking quite a long way.

Cafeterias just out side Sama Sama Hotel

Cafeteria right outside Sama Sama Hotel

At the departure hall area, the hotel was easy to find, as the direction signs were prominently placed. It was very nice when we arrived at the hotel to find that at its doorstep was a huge bright and airy foodcourt with many cafeterias and restaurants. 

We checked in and quickly left our bags in the room and was out of the hotel in a flash. 

From the entrance of the hotel we just had to walk no more than 15 feet and we were already in the food court.

We went into McCafe ordered four drinks (cafe latte and hot chocolate) and two cakes, including a delicious lava cake. 

Yummy, yummy hot drinks and sweet cakes a great nightcap for a good night sleep ahead.

Sama Sama Hotel

Hotel looked bright and cheery

Sama Sama Lounge

Sama Sama is actually a transit hotel cum airport lounge. The lounge operated from 6.30am to 10.30pm. The hotel offers rooms for a 6 hours time slot. 

Six hours was just good enough for us. We checked in at about 11.40 pm and would leave the hotel around 5.40 am the next morning. That would give us enough time for breakfast before getting to the boarding gate.

Our room was a family suite, a huge room for four. It had one double bed and two twin beds. The room was very large, on one side of the room was a panel of ceiling to floor glass windows that looked out to the airplane bays. A very impressive sight for a bedroom.

Double Bed and twin beds in the family suite (good enough for four)

View from our room

The bathroom was very huge with enough bath towels and toiletries for four. The room came with television and free wifi. There were coffee and tea bags and hot water kettle for making drinks. On the whole it was a very clean, modern and comfortable room. For SGD$95 a night it was value for money.

I booked the room at the Sama Sama Hotel Website.