All Good Things...

---

Unfortunately this was to be the last full day of our adventure through Vietnam and Cambodia and although we were ready to move on from Vietnam, we were far from ready to leave Cambodia. This friendly, stunning nation had only been our home for just over a week but I'd certainly fallen in love with it.

After the bacon omelette breakfast (we didn't even have to order) we were ready to do some souvenir shopping at the old market so the free tuk tuk from the hotel was fired up for us.

It had become obvious over the last few weeks that our backpacks were not going to be sufficient to bring back the souvenirs, clothes and momentos that we'd amassed over the last month so another fake The Northern Face bag was going to be essential... at US$12 ($1 cheaper than the one purchased a few nights earlier), we set out to see if we could fill it.

The Angkor Wat painting was almost a compulsory purchase (US12) but the remainder of the next hour and a half was spent wandering and rewandering the depths of the Old Market. I picked up a pair of jandals (US$4), a kilo of Cambodia's finest coffee cost US$6 and we frittered off even more greenbacks on hammocks, scarves and asian style rice field hats.

All that shopping can really take it out of two ailing tourists so a final call on Dr Fish was required. Jo dipped her feet into the pond for a final tickle while I has a cut throat shave (US$2) and a back, hand and head massage (US$3 for 30 minutes). The poor masseuse was all of a quarter of my size and she had a hell of a job trying to move me about... my old man knees, shoulders and lower back refusing to play ball with her intentions. I'm not one for massages generally but I could feel the four weeks of travel weariness lift, albeit briefly.

I came back down the stairs to find Jo having a chat to Pheap, our tuk tuk driver from a few days before. He had used some of the good tip I had left with him to buy us some da cau shuttlecocks and a sepak takraw ball. We'd been discussing da cau with Pheap over our snake lunch and he'd made the effort to get us the shuttlecocks required to play It's very common to be ripped off by tuk tuk drivers in most countries in the world - I'd bet there wouldn't be another place where your driver shows up the next day bearing gifts. We thanked him and reconfirmed our tuk tuk to the airport at 1300.

Our hotel tuk tuk was booked for 1100 but showed up a little late so we sat in a corner cafe with icecreams and beer until our man arrived. It was rather an emotional journey leaving such an enjoyable town for the last time.

Back at The Moon Boutique Hotel we emptied out our two new bags and my backpack and proceeded to try and fit everything into them. It took equal amounts of careful planning and brute force but we managed it eventually. There was just enough time for a final swim before we had to check out and say goodbye to the staff.

Pheap showed up soon after and we hit the dirt road for the final time on the way to the airport - around 30 minutes away.

As we pulled in the security staff gave us a big smile and even when our cabin bags were opened after the xray, the bloke was friendly, courteous and smiled throughout.

Our plane was due to leave at 1420 but we were in the air at 1412 and on the ground in Phnom Penh at 1451.

The US$7 tuk tuk from the airport to The Landscape Hotel took around 45 minutes in heavy traffic but there was still an hour or so of daylight left after we checked in and reclaimed the backpack we'd left in the hotels control before heading north to Siem Reap.

Before we'd left Phnom Penh, one of our tuk tuk drivers had given me his number and I'd promised I'd call him when we returned. I didn't have to. Lee was standing outside like he'd been waiting there all day for us then proceeded to explain that he had. He even showed us his mobile phone with almost no battery - he was worried we wouldn't be able to get through.

We told him of our plans for the evening and asked how much it would cost.

"Whatever you want to pay".

Wat Phnom would probably have been far more exciting to us had we not just come from Siem Reap. We spent 20 minutes walking around the temple, the highlight of which was a gold Buddah in a huge room room with painted murals covering the walls and roof.

With time up our sleeve we were then taken to the Russian Market. Lee told us that the main part would be closed but the shops around it would be open. We took a chance and found a thriving meat and fruit market along with some fake label clothing stalls. Jo found an Angry Birds T-shirt for $5 but there wasn't much that would fit me that I would actually wear outside of weddings and funerals.

Lee had ducked off for a while to get the gear selector on his bike fixed - we'd been stuck in third gear for the bulk of the trip out there. To call Lee's motorbike vintage would be being kind to it. The poor little 100cc bike with tuk tuk, Jo and I in tow was near its breaking point.

By the time we'd done a circuit of the market, Lee was back with working gear selector and we asked him to take us to the local mall for some final shopping. We pulled up 20 minutes later and when I went to pay Lee he just said we could fix him up at the airport the following day... unreal.

We'd been to the mall our first time in Phnom Penh so we knew our way around. Jo bought an Angry Birds iPhone cover (US$8) while I picked up some iPod headphones (US$8). We also bought an eCigarette with spare cartridges for US$20 and a carton of real cigarettes for US$10.40 - well less than the price of one packet at home.

With Lee already probably touting for business back at The Landscape, we were spoilt for choice for a tuk tuk driver but the first bloke wanted to charge is US$3 to get no more than a kilometre down the road, I quickly demonstrated the supply and demand theory by going back to the mall exit and getting an alternative driver who did it for US$2.

Our final dinner was an oldie but a goodie - Monterrey Chicken from Nordic House. We saw Rhonda's husband there again but Rhonda had flown back to Australia soon after we went to Siem Reap.

Our final stop of the whole adventure is the FCC - which is where I sit as I type this. The second level is open and a cool breeze is coming up the river, easing the night heat of Phnom Penh. Below me the tuk tuk drivers that have been the source of so much pain in Vietnam and humour in Cambodia ply their trade. In half an hour, one of them will have a job taking us back a kilometre to The Landscape. Motorbikes, often with three or four passengers zig zag through the traffic and large wooden boats sail against the rivers flow back to the dock.

The FCC is probably best known as being an (almost) safe haven for reporters just prior to the Khmer Rouge takeover. I guess it's kind of fitting that after 29 days of blogging, I should finish our last full day in South East Asia from the Foreign Correspondents Club, taking in the buzz of a wonderful city that seems to have forgotten the horrors of the last 35 years.

---