Birthday "Blow Out"!

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We were picked up from our hostel in Vietnam on the best bus we'd ever travelled on in South East Asia - its was brand spanking new, and had air-con and super comfy seats. As it was Paul's birthday, Vicki explained - lying through her aching teeth - how she had had this bus put on especially. Immediately, the bubble burst. We were suddenly told to get off the bus. A couple of minutes of confusion and we were told we'd been picked up by the wrong bus. We were ushered into the back of a mini-bus and transported down the road to our real bus. Gutted. It was a knackered, rusting old jalopy, full of screamings kids and a TV blurting out a Cambodian karoke video.

It was supposed to be a 6 hour journey to the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, but inevitably things didn't go to plan. Almost immediately after crossing the border the bus came to a halt - on the wrong side of the road - with a flat. For the next hour and a half the bus crew tried to get the tyre off, but couldn't as the bolts had rusted. To top things off nicely, as we waited on the side of the road in searing heat, our original bus - the brand spanking new one - went past us in all its air-conditioned glory. Bastards.

We turned up in Phnom Penh 2 hours late, but surprisingly the people from our chosen accomodation - the Sunday Guesthouse - were still there waiting for us at the bus stop, which was a relief as there were about 50 people shouting us trying to drag us off to their places. Our room at the Sunday Guesthouse was a lovely air-conditioned sanctuary were we re-gathered ourselves before hitting the town for Paul's birthday.

Phnom Penh has a reputation as a dangerous place, but it seemed OK to us. Cambodia is a very poor country, and I guess that if you give someone an opportunity to run off with your camera or wallet, they'll take it, but with a bit of common sense these things can be avoided. We headed down to the bars on the riverfront for a few birthday beers before heading to the Foriegn Correspondants Club for an excellent pizza......and a few more beers. We even had a bottle of wine, which for South East Asia is quite a find. Unfortunately things seemed to close up quite early, so by 11pm we were on a tuk tuk back to a hostel after a very strange but enjoyable 29th birthday.

The next day, after recovering from surprisingly mild hangovers, we tuk tuk'd it back down to the riverfront to visit the National Museum and Royal Palace. The National Musuem is full of Khmer architectural art, featuring sculptures and statues from places like Angkor Wat, which is our next stop after Phnom Penh, so was a good warm up. The Royal Palace is the kings official residence. We had a quick look round here at the amazing temples and palaces.

There's a Raffles hotel in Phnom Penh that does very affordable cocktails during its happy hour. We took a long walk along the river front to find it... just for one. 4 hours later we left the very refined compound of the hotel back into the noisey streets of the capital and flagged a tuk tuk to take us to our bed.

After seeing and enjoying the fun side of Phnom Penh for a few days, next up is a look into its horrific past.....the Khmer Rouge and their leader Pol Pot.

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Photos

Birthday Boy
Proudly sponsored by Angkor Beer

Comments

[John]

Best wishes
A very happy birthday Paul from a steaming hot 21 C Wales :) John and Jacqui