A ride to the capital

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After our first few days in Cambodia at Siem Reap we were eager to move on and see some more of the country, so it was off to Phnom Penh by bus. We are on a tight schedule because I have to be in Nha Trang, Vietnam at the end of the month to meet with some folks at a school there. The ride from Siem Reap to the capital took about 6 hours with our bus leaving around 7:30am. The bus company sent a smaller bus to pick us up at our guesthouse. We then had to transfer to a larger bus already full of people. It was a mix of foreign tourists and Cambodians, but not particularly cramped. After a couple of hours we arrived in Kampong Thom and had a chance to get down from the bus and get something to eat. The first offering out the door was a huge basket of grasshoppers! We eyed them and thought, “Okay, after we get some lunch we’ll try the insects.” We were told we would have 30 minutes. Everyone went to the restaurant by the bus stop, but we decided to walk down about 75 meters to the market and buy some food there. Vivian and I had some rice and meat, while Jo and Will went for something else. Once we finished, after say 25 minutes, we headed back toward the bus only to find the lady bus assistant standing at the door tapping her watch and everyone else already on the bus! We felt so embarrassed as we got on and she told us the bus would have only waited another five minutes before it left. Maybe, I heard the 30 minute announcement wrong. Hmmmm. Oh well, we got on and got to our seats. I asked a Cambodian woman how long they had waited, she indicated 5-10 minutes. With red faces we were back on the road.

We crossed over the Tonle Sap River and into Phnom Penh about 2:30pm. It was a short taxi ride to our hotel, the Bright Lotus. It was recommended by the guesthouse in Siem Reap, but we weren’t quite sure what to expect. It turned out to be a pretty nice place at a reasonable price right in the center of everything. We had a corner room with a balcony that overlooked the intersection below and a park with the national art gallery across the road. Just a block behind us was the promenade along the Tonle Sap/ Mekong River. In the evening, we went for a stroll around the area along with lots of Cambodian families out for impromptu picnics in the park.

The city wasn’t as chaotic or hectic as I thought it would be. Yes, there was lots of traffic, but the city had an interesting character to it. One thing we noticed right off, was the great number of Buddhist monks walking about in their orange robes. That’s one thing that I’ll long associate with Cambodia, the site of the monks.

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Photos

Snack time!
Roadside snacks on the way to Phnom Penh

Central Cambodian houses
Some typical rural Cambodian houses that we passed by on the way to the capital