We've arrived in Cambodia

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After a few days relaxing on the very chill island of Don Det in Southern Laos, we decided it was time to move on to a new country. Everyone, and every guide book, warns you about how awful Laos buses can be, but aside from the one rice bag ride, overall we had great experiences on Laos buses. Sometimes they were hot and overcrowded, but they were usually quite entertaining. The same cannot be said about our one Cambodia bus experience. Instead of doing our usual local bus/whatever we can ride in that's headed in the direction we want to go thing, we decided to go for the easy and relaxing VIP bus full of tourists. After all, it was supposed to take about 10 hours to get to Phnom Penh.

We will not make that mistake again. First, at 8am, we had to catch a ferry back to the mainland. The ferry is just a little boat and it turns out cannot handle 30 people plus their bags. As soon as all the bags were loaded on, everyone had climbed aboard and they pushed off from the shore, the boat started taking on water, fast. We all had to jump out and they began frantically bailing out the water. After the boat was empty, instead of fixing the numerous holes in the side of the boat or finding another boat (there are lots around!), they decided to only put half of us back in the boat and just leave the other 50% confused on the shore. After a tense 20 minutes we did make it to the other side with only a few inches of water in the bottom of the boat.

The bus was supposed to arrive at 9am- it arrived at 11am. There were about 46 seats on the bus and about 60 people. We would expect that of a public bus, but with the VIP buses you are supposed to get a seat. There was no room for our bags in the storage compartments under the bus, so we got to ride with them on our laps for awhile and then they became seats for the poor, angry people who had to stand. We made it to the border and that went fairly smoothly. We were expecting to pay $20 for the Visa plus $3 for additional costs/bribes, but for some reason the Visa had gone up to $23 and we still had to pay the $3 extra, some had to pay $4.

Eventually we made it to a city called Stung Treng, where after much confusion and people getting on and off the bus, they managed to get the extra people CRAMMED into a minibus and everyone got seats and we got to stow our luggage. Although we still didn't get the bus with toilets that we were promised.

We got to watch half of the movie Up, all of Indiana Jones, all the of the Mummy 3, which was okay, but after 9 hours of traveling, just whenever one is starting to get headaches and grumpy they put on this incredibly obnoxious Chinese comedy/action TV show at three times the volume of the the English movies.

But finally at about 9:30pm we arrived in Phnom Penh (we were supposed to arrive at 6:30pm). We found a "nice" place to stay with ease and had a good night sleep. Today we are just exploring. As usual, Andy is off trying to find a piano.

It's quite a nice city and they people are very friendly. We are just going to stay here today and tomorrow we are off to Kampot- the beach- for a few days. We are coming back in Phnom Penh on the 23rd to met up with a friend and do the sights- the very depressing sights.

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Comments

[Grandma Patterson]

Hello you two
Take care you guys. Sounds like you are having some exciting/interesting adventures. Enjoy the rest of your trip. Stay safe, Love grandma/Beth