There are direct flights to Cambodia on Korean Air and Asiana, but both leave Korea in the afternoon and arrive in the evening, and then the same plane departs at night and lands in the morning. So you’re stuck with a red-eye no matter what, and since it’s five and a half hours to Cambodia, it’s too short to sleep properly but too long to stay awake, a really awkward flight. Honestly, if time and money aren’t an issue, taking a daytime flight to somewhere like Thailand and then flying back to Korea from there is a far better choice. Overnight flights are just exhausting. But this was my first red-eye, so I didn’t know that yet..

Duty-free shop

Not much worth buying.

The vibe

The spirit of Cambodia

I went in because they said they sold Cambodian specialties, and right at the front was pepper. Turns out Cambodia is famous for its pepper.

Liquor

Liquor

Not much that looks good.

Dried fruit

So-so..

Banana chips

These seem to be popular..

Chocolate and so on..

Mala peanuts

Snacks and such

Banana candy

I Love Cambodia

Well.. there’s quite a variety, but not much that really tempted me..

Leaving the duty-free shop

There’s not much outside. But since it’s an overnight flight, the duty-free shop closes early once some time passes. So if you want to buy something, buy it early. Buying right before boarding isn’t possible.

Shop

Lounge

I was tired, so I went into the lounge.

There’s a place like this too.

Bakery

Menu items like these

They seem fine as bar snacks.

Rice noodles

Spices

Noodles

Well, just an ordinary taste. Hangover noodles, drinks first and noodles after..

Dairy Queen

I see a lot of these around; they seem popular in Southeast Asia.

Asiana business class meal

I tried business class too, but Asiana’s business class isn’t all that spacious.

A drink

Would have been better to skip it and sleep

The souvenirs I brought back this time

The jelly and dried fruit were nothing special.

Organic sugar, pepper, and honey.

Not sure about the sugar, but the pepper smells wonderful. The quality is so good that I finally understood why people say pepper when they think of Cambodia.

Honey

This honey is amazing; the brown color in particular shows it’s the real thing. There’s something special about honey that bees gather in the wild. It’s a dessert on its own, with no bitterness and a rich flavor.. It has some acidity too, which seems to soften the sweetness.. Now I get why people make a point of eating honey.. By the way, apart from Cambodia, honey is apparently also famous in forest-rich countries like Indonesia.. Next time I go back to Cambodia, I’ll just buy honey and pepper. (The white honey, though, seemed like plain sugar honey..)

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