We are both ready to move on from the Vietnamese cities, and looking forward to Cambodia. Today we are taking a public bus Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. While waiting for the bus we all went for a little walk to kill a few minutes. WE stopped for a minute before tuning back only to realise a local was standing right next to me who first slowly looked me up and down, then did the same to Julian! She was particularly paying attention to our ‘Buddha’ bellies, very strange! We had to walk off as she was freaking us out.
We had no idea what ‘public bus’ means, its a 7 hour journey so were really glad to see it was a big comfortable air conditioned coach with onboard toilet etc, phew! We managed to get the very front seats for a great view so even better. After a few hours of similar Vietnamese craziness' happening outside we reached the boarder. This was a strange crossing. We were required to take our bags off the coach although they were not checked. The coach crew already had everybody's passports on the coach and had been busy filling out forms on our behalf earlier in the journey. They handed the passports over to the authorities for stamping etc then called out the name of the passport holder who had to go forwards get their passport and go through to get it checked. Just like the earlier baggage claim, Anna's was early and mine came late, I was just starting to get worried! Zak’s actually came last out of the whole group! The Cambodian boarder was far more relaxed and a taste of things to come. Although they did take our temperature with a ‘gun’ by shooting it at our heads to check for swine flu. This was slightly concerning since we had no idea that's what they were doing.
I was instantly impressed with the Cambodian buildings on the border and gave a sample of what we’d be seeing later. Toilets have gone down in quality considerably though and now tap water is going to make us ill. Cambodia is the poorest country in south east Asia.
Temperature is now into the 30’s and the chills of north Vietnam are becoming a distant memory!
Looking out of the window in Cambodia things have changed dramatically. There are not so many people, everything is generally green, as opposed to dusty, and every now and then you amongst the shacks you see a stunning pagoda temple. The road is also smooth and straight.
On route we had to cross the Mekong river by ferry boat. Their is a town and market at the crossing point, selling the usual local birds on bbq, insects and fruit.
We planned how we would smash the window if she sank, luckily we didn’t need to action this plan.
Some other sights on the final leg into Phnom Penh
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