The English Communication course for 20 Cambodian civil servants at the Singapore-Cambodia Training Centre from 20 February to 17th March 2006 is provided by Ngee Ann Polytechnic under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Foreign Affiars, Republic of Singapore.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Arrival in Phnom Penh

The total flight time is surprisingly short. Reached Phnom Penh in only one hour and 25 minutes. Okay Eve, here's what you need to fill in prior to arrival in Phnom Penh. You have two forms, namely:

The Immigration Form

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and the Custom Declaration Form.

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You will be given a third sheet of paper (seen in the background) with the other two but that doesn't apply to us. That is an application for visa form and as Singaporeans we are on the visa-waiver list of countries so ignore that form.

One hour 25-30 minutes later.... arrival in
Cambodia! Here is a view of the Phnom Penh International Airport (aka Pochentong International Airport. It is very easy to navigate within the airport. The signs are in four languages and English is prominently displayed amongst them. When you get out of the sky claw, take a left and go down the stairs. Pick the line for ASEAN as we do not need any visa. After you go through that, the baggage carousel is right in front. You have to set your clock one hour back as Phnom Penh is one hour behind!

Here is the view of airport after you got out of the immigration.


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Oh and Eve, make sure you get in the right side of the car and I literally mean the RIGHT side! Turns out that traffic in Cambodia is lefthand drive and the passenger side is on the right.

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Lefthand drive


This is the main road that leads us into Phnom Penh.

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Some amazing sides. Noticed 3-adult perched on a little bike and on the right you have a whole family of four on a similarly sized bike. No one seems to obey traffic rules... ;c)

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About 15-20 minutes later, we pulled into the Himawari. It is in a very nice part of town and more importantly, very close to the training centre. Here are some shots of the room. It is a full fledge studio complete with kitchenette.

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Bedroom
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Kitchenette
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Bathroom

Anyways, just barely 5 minutes into the room and suddenly the room phone rang and some dude from the Singapore Embassy is apparently waiting downstairs for me. His name is Jackyie (or Samphan Pheakdey) and he is apparently the coordinator for the Cambodia-Singapore Training Centre (CSTC). He gave me a whirlwind tour of Phnom Penh in the dark and on his little bike.

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Jackie the Man!

Anyways, you can imagine how silly it looks with me and my big behind and skinny Jackie in his little bike. Must have been quite a sight.

But anyways, Himawari is too posh and expensive for me. I will be relocating to a cheaper hotel that offers cheaper internet rates. Wai Cheng, I will update you with the new hotel name and number when I check in.

That's all for now.

cl

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