Travel day from hell?  Sounds like this:

Leave beautiful, restful, tropical paradise at 8:30 a.m.; the time changes to 7:30 a.m. when we step off the island (ask us about “island time”); ride by second choppy speedboat for 45 minutes back to Sihanoukville; get back in very big (but not so cold) van for (shorter) 3 hour ride to Phnom Penh; catch plane from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, where we actually did have a very pleasant surprise:  Mr. Santhou, first and favorite guide, was there to meet us to take us on one more tour, to the floating fishing village of Kompong Kleang.  This very unusual community lives entirely on the water, so long as there is water!  There is a floating school, a floating basketball court, a floating church (first church we have seen on this trip), a temple HIGH UP on stilts.

Seen on the road from Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh:

At the floating village:

After our stop at the floating village, however, the respite is over.  We re-engage in the travel day from hell.  After a quick shower at the Journeys Within hotel facility, it’s off to Siem Reap Airport again to board a flight to Seoul at 11:40 p.m.  We arrive in Seoul at 7 a.m., and we barely survive the 9 hour layover (5 hours in the Asiana lounge and 4 hours killing time in the airport itself).  Nearly comatose, we board in Seoul at 4 p.m. for our 11 hour flight to Los Angeles.  It’s a good thing we had those days at Song Saa to prepare us for this travel combination.  We’re glad to be home, glad to eat something other than rice, glad for what we have learned about Cambodia, Laos, and the very special people we have met along the way.  And we are blessed to have had this time together.