Whirlwind In A Mama's Head

We flew from Siem Reap to Phuket early in the morning. The airport transfer from Phuket airport to the hotel was the most overwhelming one in our trip. I had booked Wabi Sabi Boutique Hotel in Kamala Beach through Agoda. I tried contacting them by email regarding tours and airport transfer but they didn't respond. My friend who spoke Thai was so nice she offered to give them a call. They said that it was against Agoda policy to communicate to the customers directly so they would only deal with us when we get there. Bummer... this was a first. We tried getting a metered taxi from their booth but after waiting for a while they told us that they did not have a van and that we would not fit in a small car. Ha! I suppose they wouldn't know how we got to our hotel in Siem Reap! Lol In the end, we hired one if those overpriced airport transfer cars with a driver who didn't speak English, who had to make a stop at his 'office' to ask for directions. At the offi...

We arrived in Cambodia in the evening on New Year's Day. Cambodia and Vietnam are two of the very few countries where I do not need a visa to enter while DH did. Ha! I had obtained visas for Miss Kiki and DH for Cambodia via their website just before we left for our holiday. MM and TM still had to get their Visa On Arrivals at a different counter. We lined up at different lines. It was not DH's lucky line, it was moving super slow, he went through even later than MM and TM!  I had booked Angkor Boutique Tropic Hotel via Agoda, and had arrange an airport transfer service for us. We walked out of the airport door and searched for my name on the signs... no luck there. We waited and waited and DH remembered to buy a SIM card. It was the cheapest SIM card so far. We spent US $3 each for a data and calls. With a working cell then, I was able to call the hotel. It turned out that they had made a mistake in jotting down the time so the hurriedly sent someone to get us from th...