http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Cambodia , South , Phnom Penh en-us Fri, 11 Dec 09 17:42:06 +0000 Fri, 11 Dec 09 17:42:06 +0000 I very nearly miss the bus tback to Phnom Penh thanks to the TutTut driver dropping me at the wrong bus stop I hijack someone elses TutTut who is going in the direction of the bus station and make it with 5 mins to spare. I notice seats 3 and 4 on this bus also have very little leg room but this time I'm not sat there. In fact I have seats 5 and 6 all to myself with lots of leg room. My stomach i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-459730.html Day 8 n 9 Dec 67 We are now back in Phnom Penh which is the capital of Cambodia as you know if you have been reading my previous blogs that this is wherewe first set off from once again had an early start as left Siem Reap at 7am so happy we took the VIP mini bus as it took us only 4hrs.We thought the bus would drop us off back at the hotel here but instead it was at their bus station and than http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-458804.html Up bright and early a lot of that these days and taken by a tuk tuk to a covered motor boat to take us and a bunch of German tourists across the border to Phnom Penh Cambodia. The border crossing was pretty simple with us looked after by the boat guys with a very smiley Cambodian border guard. Pretty sure we paid over the odds by 3 not sure who's pocket that went in to but was worth it. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-458784.html A visit to the beautiful National Museum the brutal Killing Fields and the devastating S21 Prison Arriving mid afternoon on the Thursday we decided to make the most of our time and first went to the guest house to drop off our bags then straight to the outstandingly built National Museum. Before even getting near the doors you are blown away by the beautiful gardens and the pure size of t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-458525.html Well I got to the point where I couldn't wait to leave Vietnam. Mainly because I just couldn't take the in your face hard sell'' attitude of most of the people in the end. The constant sounding of horns in the traffic got to me too Saigon just wasn't my cup of tea I have too admit too noisy 24 x 7 And the overcharging of tourists went to new levels. The hotel even hassled me to pay my bill in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-457945.html Hi againI decided to once again take the easy option and fly to Phnom Penh from Bangkok and arrived in the evening rush hour which means that the traffic is even crazier than usual After I managed to fight my way out of the airport through the throng of taxi and tuk tuk drivers I was lead to a taxi to take me to my hotel.....we drove about 100 metres to another taxi which I was transferred into. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-455766.html We had to change hotels today as we had decided to stay an extra day cause we loved the place. The Goldie Boutique was booked so we moved around the corner to the Golden Gate. It was 20 a night and had free laundry. We were only down to about 1 shirt each and basically to the point of wearing our undies inside out to get extra use so the poor bastards had to wash about 5kgs of clothes.We had a go http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-453365.html Anyway last night we ended up going for a walk around the riverfront for some cheap drinks. There are cafes and bars everywhere so you don't have to look too hard. We met a little guy who had no legs but was selling bracelets with countries on them and their flags. His name was Hun Yut and he couldn't speak English but we got another girl to translate. We told him off for not having any Australia http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-452687.html Hi everyone So my volunteering placement is all over now...and it's time to move on It was so sad to leave and for a while I was in denial about it but there is more to do and see. Siem Reap has become like a second home to me and so familiar that leaving is a strange thought. I had an amazing last stint though filled with more indepth experiences of Cambodia. The family visited in September http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-450099.html Since our last post we've traveled quite a lot We left Hoi An in Vietnam by an overnight train to Saigon. We shared our compartment with 4 other people again a guy from the Army Train was very slow but in revenge beautiful landscape of rice fields. People were very nice and quiet common properties less dirty than in China After this 19 hours trip we got to Ho Chi Minh Saigon huge cit http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-446967.html We arrived in Phnom Penh after a six hour coach journey from Vietman. It's a large and bustling city reminding us in some ways of Bangkok. We stayed along the river front in Sisowath Quay. One of the first differences we saw in the two countrys was the difference in street food all the street food in vietnam looks totaly yummy wether its noodles or cakes. However the street food in Cambodia seem http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-446875.html Rather than the usual blogs on small weekend breaks and shopping trips to Tesco's which we have been boring you with since being back in the real world we have finally been somewhere of note to warrant a Travel Blog I hope.Whilst the destination is far flung our traditional methods of traveling are evolving somewhat and we appear to have grown out of backpacking in its truest form and are now http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-446723.html The last two days have been a real reality check for us but a necessary evil. I will try to explain. We arrived in Phnom Penh yesterday after a really long crappy bus ride. I took us 6 hours to get 200 miles on a bus filled with locals blasting Cambodian Kareoke and listening to our driver slam on the horm every other second. The horn sound alone was piercing not to mention everything else s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-446673.html We were really sad to leave the Happy Guest House. Since wed been there for so long it had become like a second home The bus to Phnom Penh was really posh and we were both pleasantly surprised that we were the only Westerners on it. The scenery that we passed on the roadside was pretty crazy. All of the landscape was really flat and water logged which is quite possibly why it is called the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-446004.html Phnom Penh is a great city with rich cultures and traditions and moreover people living there are very helpful and their faces are full of smiles. During our stay in Phnom Penh we stayed 3 nights at Frangipani Villas Boutique Hotel and we received a warm welcome. Staff were friendly and helpful http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-445897.html After our Mekong Delta trip and 2 weeks of a busy sightseeing schedule we were ready to settle ourselves on the beach...but after diverting our trip several times due to bad weather...we decided to postpone the beach just one more day. We saw a weather forecast for clouds and rain in Sihanoukville and so we spent a day in Phnom Penh to explore the citys sights and most of all its horrific histo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-445496.html YejjDay two in Cambodia and P had organised for us to visit Jotham at the Yejj training school. Yejj run a number of different types of training programs including some hospitality and some IT training. Obviously I found the IT side of things quite interesting they do basic Microsoft type training along with CISCO training networking stuff for the nonnerds reading this. What I found more in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-444325.html I survived Thailand Pattaya and the infamous Walking Street. Now I find myself in lovely Phnom Penh Cambodia. I arrived a few days ago and have been seeing some of the local sights around the capital which is filled with motorbikes tuk tuks and a third world aura which should be experienced once in life. I say this to really allow people mainly Westerners to gain an understanding and an a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-443989.html Hello againWell its been a little while since I last reminded you guys that wee still alive and traveling around Southeast Asia so I guess I should fill you in on what weve been doing. . .After our cultural binge in Siem Reap we decided to head south way south to find some sort of sun and beach. The weather was promising heavy rain showers for the next 3 weeks but we decided to take a chance and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-443940.html Monday kicked off with another session of Khmer 101 ably led by P. The hotel staff were most amused as they listened to us revise our greetings introduce ourselves repeatedly ask one another whether we had eaten any rice yet and express our deep gratitude to one another for the valuable gift of Phill Di's hotel room key that was being passed around. Whilst none of us were quite fluent after http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-443517.html