Cambodia and Vietnam – here we come! | Raising Flowers and Skids

And we’re off!

We set out early to head to the airport for this next grand adventure.

Must admit it felt a little weird having only 6 of us. Even at the airport, Zach pretended to put his arm around “phantom Gabe” – who is with us in spirit – in the “Vietnam wing” (seriously!!) of his residence at BYUI.

Because Gabe’s not with us, I might end up posting a lot more random pics – as I keep texting him pics so he can follow closely along our journey. So forgive the shots that you wonder, “why would someone take those??” I am as passionate about documenting as I am about travel!

So many people asked us, “why in the world Cambodia and Vietnam?”

I’ve always had a huge desire to go (since high school I remember talking about it), and Southeast Asia was top of the list of a couple of my travel addicted kids. We decided it would be our next “big” destination on our last big March break trip to South Africa in 2015.

But I have to admit, it’s a long way to come! We also know we are truly in for an adventure of a lifetime!

We started out pretty early, saying goodbye to a sad Reggie who I think recognizes our suitcases….and headed to the airport

We checked in (and I was annoyed that 1 of us was sitting apart. Really? How does that happen? Can’t they just seat people who are on the same reservation together??? It wasn’t even a full flight! Luckily, a nice man switched with Rob (the designated loner) so he could sit with us).

I love getting the walking pics as I’ve taken them over the years when they had their little matching backpacks and the suitcases were too big for them! Not anymore!

The kids got some homework done at the airport and also “won” some free soft drinks (an iPad game which I’m pretty sure is gambling).

We got all settled in for our 14 hour flight to Seoul.

Rob was on a conference call while we boarded…

The movies weren’t the best by the kid’s standards; but we all managed to watch a few, catch some shut eye and take some cool pics flying over Russia:

We had a 4 hour layover in Seoul, where the wifi was appreciated, and more homework was done (poor Josh is really the only one who had it,so wanted to get it over with! They are missing 5 days of school altogether)

We then boarded the 5.5 hour flight to Phnom Penh, where everyone was zonked, but I still saw a beautiful sunset (as did Zach who was sitting across the way — I often use Zach’s photos so I will just give him photo creds across the board now!)

We finally arrived. You need Visas for Cambodia so had to fill all that paperwork out (which we knew ahead of time and had all the required photos). The whole process was smooth, and we met our driver outside (I used a travel agent in Vietnan to help with all the drivers, hotels, guides etc.)

I took a few pics for Gabe to see as I texted him as soon as we landed:

And we finally arrived at our hotel – a full 24 hours later! I was a bit frustrated as they had rooms on different floors instead of all together. However, 1 room had enough beds for all the kids to sleep in (just across from us). They said only 2 people per room though, so we are left with an empty bedroom, but happy kids all together.