Well I finally got my finger out and booked the first of (hopefully) many Country-hop trips from my interim ‘home’ base in Singapore.
Like normal, I decided on a last month bargain, but wasn’t sure it would work out, so last week I tried to bag one of these bargains for my first holiday-trip abroad since being here in Singapore. On this point, I’ve now officially been here in Singapore for just over 2 months, so I felt this long weekend holiday was required, and if I didn’t book something, I knew I would start to regret it very soon!
Also, you can only do so much in Singapore, having seen most of the sights and sounds already that I wanted to see, so the timing of this away-trip couldn’t have been more purrfect! The ace in the pack is that I coincided the trip with two-Bank Holiday’s that were occuring in Singapore. Both were very important for this Country; the first being the Presidential Elections on Saturday, 27th and then the Tuesday, 30th being the Hari Raya Puasa (also known as the “Eid Al-Mubarak Al-Fitr” / “Hari Raya Aidil Fitri” / “Festival of the Breaking of the Fast“). Anyway, the trip away was sure going to be exciting and enjoyable – irrespective where I decided to go!
I did a quick price comparison, so went on AirAsia, JetStar (the lo-cost Qantas Airlines carrier), Lion Air, Silk Air (the lo-cost Signapore Airlines carrier). I was advised to avoid Tiger Airways, as they have recently been banned in Australia Airspace for some safety irregulatories. For a trip to Cambodia, it seems that JetStar offered the flexibility that I needed, as well at a most reasonable price. That said, I had to leave on Sunday, 28th August to Phnom Penh via Siem Reap, and returning on Wednesday, 31st August directly from Phnom Penh to Singapore Changi Airport. Not bad for only booking one-day holiday from work, the other day was a day-owning as I was working on the Singapore National Day earlier in August, and the Tuesday was the Bank Holiday in Singapore.
I think it would have been better to have left on the Saturday, then I would have had Sunday-Wednesday to really relax and unwind, but the Saturday flight prices were twice the cost – so it probably was due to me booking last minute! Hey-ho, I lose a day of holiday, but save a bit of money!
Hopefully the trip would be good, I’ve been told that Phnom Penh is quite nice, but I started realising that Siem Reap would have been a better stopover option. If I had spent a few more days planning before I commited the booking, I would have done the same journey, but booked a day stop-over in Siem Reap, before continuing onwards to Phnom Penh. We’ll see what happens!