Day 11: Da Nang – Saigon – Phnom Penh: Airports, Airplanes, and Arrival in Cambodia

Day Eleven was mostly about airports. After our short stay in Da Nang, we were heading through Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh. There would be plenty of travelling, but remarkably little sightseeing. Unless airport seating counts as local architecture.

Da Nang to Saigon: An Unexpected Airline

We had booked the first flight with VietJet, but it was operated by the Turkish airline Freebird. The crew included Vietnamese and Turkish staff—an unexpected combination on a domestic flight in Vietnam. We were in the air for roughly an hour and reached Saigon around 8:30 am. Those were our arrangements on this trip, rather than a guide to which airline operates the route now.

A Long Gap Between Short Flights

Our Qatar Airways flight to Phnom Penh was not until 3 pm, leaving several hours at Tan Son Nhat Airport. We passed the time with coffee, people-watching and wandering around. Two short flights can occupy an impressively large part of a day once the waiting is included. The timetable had no interest in how ready we were to get moving.

The flight to Phnom Penh took about half an hour in the air—the shortest Qatar flight we had taken, and our cheapest with them too. It felt as though we were preparing to land almost as soon as we had settled in. After the long wait, the actual change of country happened very quickly.

Hello, Cambodia!

Immigration, a taxi and finally the hotel: by then we were running on the last of the day’s enthusiasm. We did not attempt to squeeze a proper look at Phnom Penh into the evening. Exploring would wait until we had slept.

Getting Our Bearings for Cambodia

We would continue to Siem Reap the following day and return to Phnom Penh later. For this first evening, a little practical orientation was more useful than pretending we had already discovered the capital.

Riel, Dollars and Paying Attention

The riel is Cambodia’s national currency, while US dollars are also widely used. That does not mean every payment works the same way. It helps to check which currency a price is quoted in and how change will be given. The National Bank of Cambodia explains the history of dollar use and the continuing importance of the riel. A small amount of attention here is more useful than a confident assumption at the till.

What’s Next?

Siem Reap would be our base for visiting Angkor. The distinction is useful: Angkor Wat is one temple within a much larger archaeological landscape. UNESCO’s Angkor listing includes several former Khmer capitals and monuments spread across roughly 400 square kilometres. There was clearly more ahead than one building and a quick photograph.

That was for another day. First came the overland journey from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, and before that came sleep. Our first evening in Cambodia was not especially eventful, which was exactly what we needed.