Touchdown to Phnom Penh

Aerial view of the Cambodian plains.

My Last Hour in China, and First 30 Minutes in Cambodia
Jean Carmela Chua-Lim, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Aug 26, 2006

A train station. Its been 2 years but thats exactly how I remember the International Airport of Guangzhou looked like.

Waiting at the boarding gate, I tried to absorb as much of China as I can. It had been 8 wonderful months, and my travellers disease set in. I had to transfer my nest. Aboard Royal Khmer Airlines. Most of my fellow passengers were Chinese businessmen who had businesses, both legal and illegal in Phom Penh. Some were Cambodian-American families visiting home. I was the only one neither Chinese or Cambodian, but that didnt matter. What mattered was that I was able to reach the overhead bin of the Airbus 320. Because standing in front of me was the smallest (and i do not mean this in a derrogatory manner) flight attendant I had ever seen. She was struggling to open the overhead bins. At least she was charming, and knew some Chinese. The flight was short, more or less 3 hours. The man next to me asked me to help him sign up his immigration form. He was a clothes factory manager. That's what he told me. Making the final approach to Phnom Penh, I remember looking out the window and seeing flat brown pancakes. Literally flat. And brown. But then that wasn't really a surprise. I read that the largest part of Cambodia - about 75 percent of the total - consists of the Tonle Sap Basin and the Mekong Lowlands.
I was looking down unto the Mekong River and Tonle Sap Basin, and i was thrilled.The supposed clothes factory manager was beginning to give me suspicious looks as to why someone would be so excited over something so...bland. Well to me, that bland piece of water was my gateway to a glorious graduation from university. My final thesis was about the Hydropower Dams of the Asian Development Bank over the Mekong River and Tonle Sap Basin. And because the topic was highly B-L-A-N-D, I enjoyed inputting numerical data which i somehow suspected would be of no interest to the defense panel. Spending months weeks and hours studying about it, however, drove me to near insanity. A study about the bacterial level of the clothes factory manager's collar next to me would have been more interesting. Nevertheless, the data we presented was found to be impressive. At least, that was my very first bonding with the mainland Southeast Asian region.
Touchdown. I say goodbye to the CFM (clothes factory manager) and the cute flight attendant, eager to get out of the stuffy plane. I rush out and breathed my first air of Cambodia.
Warm colors greet me as i stepped out into the terminal of Phnom Penh International Airport (formerly known as Pochetong International Airport). Most people's definition of a nice airport would be all steel and silver, everything fast, everything modern, everything industrial-sized.But I particularly liked this airport because it didnt make me feel hurried or rushed, as other airports do. Warm orange, brown, red and yellow. I like it. The atmosphere gives you the feeling of being inside a giant coffee house. So cozy and warm. Very un-airport like. I learned that this terminal was a joint venture between a French and Malaysian company, signed in 1995, it was a 20 year project, with a fund of US$ 200 million to improve the capital's international airport. The airport now has the capacity to handle 1.8 million passengers per year and currently serves 14 different airlines.
The interior of the airport was adorned (not overly) with paintings, sculptures and engravings reflective of true Khmer art and culture. I later learned that they were designed by Les Artisans d’Angkor, a group that provides locals and young people work in their own homes and villages, with a focus on maintaining the magnificence genuine Khmer artistry.
I was basking in the richness and cozyness of the airport when i realized I still had to get my damn huge luggage. At the arrivals area, a group of local men who had papers with names of passengers neatly printed on white sheets of papers were waiting for the arriving passengers. Most were people from non-government organizations, being warmly greeted by their new co-workers. Then i noticed one name, it looked oddly familiar. My own name was boldy printed, in Times New Roman, on an A4 paper and its holder was a regal looking Cambodian, smiling earnestly searching for the bearer of the name. I say hi to him and tell him that's me. And he shakes my hand, tells me to follow him, saying my friends are waiting outside. He tells me to hurry because my flight to Siem Reap is now boarding! He tells me to hand him my passports and documents. We go to the immigration section, and like all other airports, there were counters for Cambodians and Non-Cambodian Citizens. He leads me under the Diplomats counter. I was hesitant and I asked him if he was sure. He just looked and exasperatedly said "HURRY MADAM!" i followed him, and I saw Mr CFM lining up under the Non-Cambodians line. He gave me a very surprised and impressed look. He probably thought I was in Cambodia for seedy and dubious purposes.
Good thing about being a passport holder of an ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Country, the countries made this agreement of Visa upon arrival on each other's territory. I was given 20 days stay.
Then I hear the last call for boarding for my Siem Reap flight. Immediately, I forget about my 5-second stint as a 'diplomat', get my belongings, and began my journey to Siem Reap and beyond.

Jean Carmela Chua-Lim
Halfbaked racketeer.Global Nomad. Has been: an English tutor in China, Kindergarten teacher in Malaysia, Interpreter and Airline crew in Manila, and most recently, International Flight attendant based in Seoul,South Korea. Now settling in Canberra.