Note: If you want to skip past my absolutely miserable flight experience and get right into my Cambodian adventure, you can continue on to Phnom Penh Part 2: Cambodia: New Country, New Friends!. But you'll be missing out...
I arrived at the Cochin airport and caught my flight to Cambodia. I am really excited to be checking out a new country. I spent my very last 100 rupees (~$1.75) on two bags of hard candy at the airport (strawberry creme and mango, in case you were wondering). I took my window seat next to an Indian couple on vacation. I offered them some of my candy and we had a nice chat before taking off.
That was basically the end of the pleasantness on my flight. This turned out to be one of the top three most miserable flying experiences of my life (and I've flown like... some 6-digit number of miles total in my life). I've come to discover that on occasion when I'm even the slightest bit sick heading onto a flight, I sometimes get a condition known as aerosinusitis. Basically what happens is one of my sinuses gets blocked so the pressure inside and outside of my head can't equalize. As the plane gets higher and higher, it's as if there's a little gremlin sitting behind my right eye that's growing bigger and bigger and is trying to escape from the inside of my head via my eye socket. It oddly enough also causes terrible toothaches. And wouldn't you know, this happened to be one of those lucky flights where my head felt like it was going to explode.
About 20 minutes after takeoff I asked the flight attendant if she had anything for sinus pain. She didn't, but she had some headache stuff, so she gave me that. It unfortunately wasn't working, so about 10 minutes later (which happened to be right after they served us food so all of the tray tables were down) I had to ask the very nice couple next to me if I could get up. I made my way to the bathroom and gave that toilet a wonderful gift of airline food, premixed with hydrochloric acid and baked in my very own 98.7 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Served warm. This was the first time I've ever thrown up because the pain from something was so bad. Doesn't seem like that's how one's body should work but... here I am.
I hung out in the bathroom for a few minutes, cleaned myself up and exited, only to take three steps and rush back for round two. After... oh I'd say round 4 I asked the flight attendant for something that might settle my stomach. I took about three sips of the soda she gave me, and after about another two minutes of hanging out by the bathrooms I went back for rounds 5-10-ish. Guess the soda didn't do the trick. All told, I spent the next roughly 3 hours in the bathroom. I tried leave a few more times, but each time my stomach was like "nu uh, not so fast buddy, your head still feels like it's going to explode, so let me give you something mildly more pleasant like uncontrollable vomiting to take your mind off it for a few seconds at a time."
I finally made my way back to my seat when it was time to start our descent into our connecting airport in Singapore. The couple next to me was like "..........are you okay???" with really concerned looks on their faces. At least the look of concern was about my health and not about the safety of this plane. That's kind of the nice thing about flying with a plane full of other brown people. Had that happened in the U.S., I'm sure we would have to make an emergency stop somewhere over the midwest and the FBI would have been there to greet me at the gate. I told the couple that I was fine, I was just feeling a little sick. Ha. A little.
Finally, FINALLY, I started to feel some relief as the plane inched closer and closer to the ground. Usually it goes away completely by the time we're just a few thousand feet up, but I think this time around I had been in pain for so long that I still had a headache by the time we reached the ground, but it was still so, so much better than when we were at cruising altitude.
At this point, it was around 6am local time and I had a roughly 1-hour layover. I'd never been to the Singapore airport before but WOW, it is incredible. Definitely the nicest airport I've even been to. It's huge. It's got tons of places to shop. And it's got this awesome indoor garden with these huge... glass? plastic? sculptures in it.
Stop #1 was to try to find something to help me with my next flight, which I was completely dreading as you can imagine. I found a pharmacy, talked to the pharmacist for a few minutes and found some sinus medication. I wasn't sure if food was a good idea or not at this point, but I decided to chance it and found a McDonald's. (I had a chicken breakfast sandwich, in case you were wondering. It exists in Singapore and it's good.) I popped a couple of those sinus pills at breakfast and found my next gate.
My next flight was two hours. The medicine didn't help, but I think at this point I must have just worn out the pain receptors in my head because it was ever so slightly more bearable this time around. I was at least able to spend the entire flight in my seat.
At last, I arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia! Wooooo! I survived! Who has a cookie for me?
Remember how I said I didn't know anything about Cambodia? Luckily I had done some modicum of research to make sure I could get into Cambodia. After we deplaned, I went to get my visa-on-arrival and was prepared with my passport photos, money, and a pen to fill out those forms. The process was pretty quick and painless, in and out in about 10 minutes.
Before I exited the airport I figured I should probably get some cash, and there happened to be an ATM right there. Perfect. In India, the exchange rate was roughly 60 rupees to 1 U.S. dollar. I took out cash in $100 increments so I could a sort of mental track of how quickly I was spending money. But it also meant having to remember to take out 6,000 rupees each time. The exchange rate in Cambodia was 4,000 Cambodian riels to 1 U.S. dollar and I knew inevitably I was going to screw this up and end up taking out either $10 or $1000 worth of riels. So I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the ATM and it asked me how much I wanted to take out in USD! Awesome. So I punched in $100 and a few seconds later it spit out a nice shiny new U.S. hundred-dollar bill. What?! No! Seriously?! Frustrated, I collected my cash and walked outside. I changed some of my money at the currency exchange booth at the typical usurous airport rate. I also purchased a Cambodian sim card and put a few dollars onto it. Which was surprisingly cheap! The sim card was $1 and I put $3 worth of minutes onto my phone which would have lasted I think for hours of local talk time.
I finally made it out of the airport, caught a cab, and was on my way to my hostel. I don't care how terrible the journey was to get here, I'm in Cambodia!
CONTINUE ON to Phnom Pehn Part 2: Cambodia: New Country, New Friends!
I arrived at the Cochin airport and caught my flight to Cambodia. I am really excited to be checking out a new country. I spent my very last 100 rupees (~$1.75) on two bags of hard candy at the airport (strawberry creme and mango, in case you were wondering). I took my window seat next to an Indian couple on vacation. I offered them some of my candy and we had a nice chat before taking off.
That was basically the end of the pleasantness on my flight. This turned out to be one of the top three most miserable flying experiences of my life (and I've flown like... some 6-digit number of miles total in my life). I've come to discover that on occasion when I'm even the slightest bit sick heading onto a flight, I sometimes get a condition known as aerosinusitis. Basically what happens is one of my sinuses gets blocked so the pressure inside and outside of my head can't equalize. As the plane gets higher and higher, it's as if there's a little gremlin sitting behind my right eye that's growing bigger and bigger and is trying to escape from the inside of my head via my eye socket. It oddly enough also causes terrible toothaches. And wouldn't you know, this happened to be one of those lucky flights where my head felt like it was going to explode.
About 20 minutes after takeoff I asked the flight attendant if she had anything for sinus pain. She didn't, but she had some headache stuff, so she gave me that. It unfortunately wasn't working, so about 10 minutes later (which happened to be right after they served us food so all of the tray tables were down) I had to ask the very nice couple next to me if I could get up. I made my way to the bathroom and gave that toilet a wonderful gift of airline food, premixed with hydrochloric acid and baked in my very own 98.7 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Served warm. This was the first time I've ever thrown up because the pain from something was so bad. Doesn't seem like that's how one's body should work but... here I am.
I hung out in the bathroom for a few minutes, cleaned myself up and exited, only to take three steps and rush back for round two. After... oh I'd say round 4 I asked the flight attendant for something that might settle my stomach. I took about three sips of the soda she gave me, and after about another two minutes of hanging out by the bathrooms I went back for rounds 5-10-ish. Guess the soda didn't do the trick. All told, I spent the next roughly 3 hours in the bathroom. I tried leave a few more times, but each time my stomach was like "nu uh, not so fast buddy, your head still feels like it's going to explode, so let me give you something mildly more pleasant like uncontrollable vomiting to take your mind off it for a few seconds at a time."
I finally made my way back to my seat when it was time to start our descent into our connecting airport in Singapore. The couple next to me was like "..........are you okay???" with really concerned looks on their faces. At least the look of concern was about my health and not about the safety of this plane. That's kind of the nice thing about flying with a plane full of other brown people. Had that happened in the U.S., I'm sure we would have to make an emergency stop somewhere over the midwest and the FBI would have been there to greet me at the gate. I told the couple that I was fine, I was just feeling a little sick. Ha. A little.
Finally, FINALLY, I started to feel some relief as the plane inched closer and closer to the ground. Usually it goes away completely by the time we're just a few thousand feet up, but I think this time around I had been in pain for so long that I still had a headache by the time we reached the ground, but it was still so, so much better than when we were at cruising altitude.
 |
| I felt so miserable I couldn't even enjoy this scene until posting this picture right now |
Stop #1 was to try to find something to help me with my next flight, which I was completely dreading as you can imagine. I found a pharmacy, talked to the pharmacist for a few minutes and found some sinus medication. I wasn't sure if food was a good idea or not at this point, but I decided to chance it and found a McDonald's. (I had a chicken breakfast sandwich, in case you were wondering. It exists in Singapore and it's good.) I popped a couple of those sinus pills at breakfast and found my next gate.
My next flight was two hours. The medicine didn't help, but I think at this point I must have just worn out the pain receptors in my head because it was ever so slightly more bearable this time around. I was at least able to spend the entire flight in my seat.
At last, I arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia! Wooooo! I survived! Who has a cookie for me?
Remember how I said I didn't know anything about Cambodia? Luckily I had done some modicum of research to make sure I could get into Cambodia. After we deplaned, I went to get my visa-on-arrival and was prepared with my passport photos, money, and a pen to fill out those forms. The process was pretty quick and painless, in and out in about 10 minutes.
Before I exited the airport I figured I should probably get some cash, and there happened to be an ATM right there. Perfect. In India, the exchange rate was roughly 60 rupees to 1 U.S. dollar. I took out cash in $100 increments so I could a sort of mental track of how quickly I was spending money. But it also meant having to remember to take out 6,000 rupees each time. The exchange rate in Cambodia was 4,000 Cambodian riels to 1 U.S. dollar and I knew inevitably I was going to screw this up and end up taking out either $10 or $1000 worth of riels. So I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the ATM and it asked me how much I wanted to take out in USD! Awesome. So I punched in $100 and a few seconds later it spit out a nice shiny new U.S. hundred-dollar bill. What?! No! Seriously?! Frustrated, I collected my cash and walked outside. I changed some of my money at the currency exchange booth at the typical usurous airport rate. I also purchased a Cambodian sim card and put a few dollars onto it. Which was surprisingly cheap! The sim card was $1 and I put $3 worth of minutes onto my phone which would have lasted I think for hours of local talk time.
I finally made it out of the airport, caught a cab, and was on my way to my hostel. I don't care how terrible the journey was to get here, I'm in Cambodia!
CONTINUE ON to Phnom Pehn Part 2: Cambodia: New Country, New Friends!
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