Siem Reap Airport Experience

What an experience to the airport, it needs it's own entry
- organised our tuk tuk friend to pick us up from the hotel approx 2.5 hours before flight.
- Siem reap has recently built a new airport and we googled this and figured it was 20 mins away, I enter the airport into the grab app and off we go, I don't realise that this says it's approx an hour journey. 10 mins into the drive, Chloe says, have you put the right airport in and I'm like yeah and then check and the airport is supper far away, so we change the address on the app (to the airport 20 mins from city). We translate to the driver, different airport, he is so confused, partly cause he speaks no english, I am also accidentally translating in Google translate in Vietnamese rather then Cambodian and lastly he says he knows airport road. We assume this is the old airport he is talking about.
- We are not confident on which is the new airport as Google says 20 mins away but apple shows a much further one. I google the new airport code and it comes up as the one 20 mins away.
- we then read a blog and realise they all say the airport is 45km away and the initial direction we were heading and the one the driver knows is the new one. Turns out Google is wrong and has not updated the new airport address.
- by this time we then have to translate to go back to the new airport in broken english and google translate. The grab app won't let me change the address back so keeps telling him to turn around, lucky he knows the way.
- we have approx 1 hour 50 to get to an airport that is now 1 hour away, in a tuk tuk, with our bags squished in. The price on the grab app mind you says 16k when it should be 60k and I can't change it , so we think we will just tip 40k on the app.
- we race to the airport in this tuk tuk and he is going as fast as possible (I think he is unaware of the time constraints however). The airport approaches and we are approx 15 mins before bag closure.
- Chloe goes in and I attempt to tip driver appropriately as he realises the app has not paid properly, I can't tip more then 20k and we only have a 100usd note. I attempt to tell him "ATM" and point inside. Chloe tries to change the 100usd but nobody will, we end up getting money from an exchange place eventually.
- we get outside and old mate tuk tuk driver looks like he has almost given up on us, he is so grateful when I give him the 20USD.
- the airport staff are so casual and blazae, the airport is dead. We end up on the plane, and it seems because we checked in last, we get the emergency exit. After all that experience, the extra leg room seems all worth it ☺️Read more