"Together we made it
We made it even though we had our backs up against the wall
Forever we waited
And they told us we were never going to get it
But we took it on the road"
If I had to choose an OST for the 7-day Ho Chi Minh-Cambodge trip, it would definitely be "We Made It" by Busta Rhymes feat. Linkin Park. Haha!
I've been dreaming of going to Cambodge to see Angkor for as long as I can remember. The problem was I couldn't find anyone who was that interested to go. Early this year, when I mentioned to guy friend Wes about the Angkor, he said he also wanted to go but had pretty much the same predicament as I did. What do you get when you have a two negatives? A positive, right?! In an instant, I found a travel buddy for Cambodge. Next thing to think about was the plane tickets.
As if the universe was conspiring to make the trip happen, PAL had its seat sale and despite the major problem with the online booking (I think everyone wanted a piece of the good deal), Wes successfully got to book us roundtrip tickets - HCM-Manila-HCM - for only $92/each! That was a good sign, yeah?
In the months that followed, we did some research on Cambodge, and coordinated everything online since we both had our toxic careers. Haha! Thanks to the Internet, we were able to find budget-friendly hotels and figure out how to get to Siem Reap by bus. We even had an itinerary on what we wanted to see, what restaurants to try, and so on.
Almost everything was set, yeah? But then, Ondoy happened... two weeks before the trip! Since my work assignment includes coverage of the company's disaster-response efforts, almost the entire week was spent out of the office and going to the different relief operations. After Ondoy, I thought I had nothing to worry about anymore. Not!
The blasted typhoon lashed Vietnam and Cambodia, too! Okay, by then I was starting to get worried, especially about Cambodge. I wasn't that stressed over Vietnam because I read that HCMC was far from the areas hit by Ketsana.
As for Cambodge, all the news that I read didn't mention exactly which areas were hit. I read about Kampong Thom, but I had no idea where it was. I read that the flooding was massive, but I had no idea how it affected HCMC-SR land trips. To make me worry more, when I emailed the hotel to ask about local conditions, the reply that I got wasn't that good. Town was flooded, and so were the temples. Sigh!
As if these weren't enough, news of typhoon Pepeng came. Could this get any worse, I thought. Haha! If the typhoon did hit the country before my trip, I would probably have to stay for the relief efforts. I was also already preparing myself for the bad news that flights would be canceled and that the trip had to be postponed.
Still, I tried to be very optimistic. I was telling myself to already think of a plan B, in case we didn't get to go to SR. I tried to be logical by thinking that since Ketsana hit the countries a week before my trip, there is a huge possibility that the waters would have subsided and that sun would already be out by the time we got there. Then Pepeng spared us and everything seemed to have started to fall into place. No announcement of flight cancellations. We found a new and better hotel for Siem Reap. And things were really set. (Of course, we know that the damn typhoon had to make a U-turn later on and unleash its fury on North and Central Luzon. The reason why I had to head to Pangasinan a day after I arrived back from my trip. Hehe! But this is another story.)
It also helped that I declared to the universe that I am going to have a good trip, whatever happens, damn it! Haha! Plus, I think I got to stock up on good karma from the "good deeds" the week before. I was really lucky that I was able to redeem the good karma that soon. Haha!
So, on the morning of October 4, I had a big smile on my face when I woke up and found the sun smiling at me. And by 1PM, I had an even bigger smile because Wes and I found ourselves onboard the PAL plane bound for Ho Chi Minh, listening to the pilot announce that we were ready to take off.
Ho Chi Minh and Cambodge, here we come!
