Holidays In Cambodia

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Breakfast at the hotel was awful and Jo had to go to the counter to ask for our change that seemed to have been forgotten about.

We were loaded onto another wooden tourist boat and went less than a kilometre before we stopped at a tin house, one of the hundreds that was floating alongside the banks of the Mekong. Most of the houses were fish farms and our guide lifted a chunk out of what was the owners front porch to reveal the sea bass living underneath.

The next stop was Cham Village, an interesting area that is inhabited by a majority muslim population. We walked for a kilometre or so around a block where kids waved from their front porches and the adults went about whatever it was that the adults in Cham Village did. We stopped at a Madrasah, one of the last things I was expecting to be seeing in Vietnam before we headed to the dock to get on a new boat that would take us across the border to Phnom Penh.

The boat was fibreglass but was little more than two metres across and ten metres long. It sat low in the water, even under throttle, and the noise was deafening. To make matters worse we had to backtrack as the preferred route was closed due to some sort of electrical problem further up the river that wouldn’t allow us thorough. We took a speed restricted alternate route and soon ended up stuck behind another similar boat. Instead of backing off, our driver kept right on the other boats diesel exhaust pipe, the fumes literally spewing into our cabin with it’s tiny windows. I was already uncomfortable but the fumes made me quite ill. The crew wouldn’t let me out the back even for a moment. The trip to the Vietnamese exit point took somewhere in the vicinity of an hour and a half but it felt like days. I was more than relieved to get off the boat for a while while we had our passports stamped to exit Vietnam.

Our new Cambodian guide told us we could change to another boat for US$25 each. It was similar but had an open area at the back of it. I would have paid three times that but I’m sure we got ripped. In any case we took it but had another problem – we were out of cash. We’d worked our Vietnamese Dong stash out near perfectly and only had D50,000 (NZ$3.50) left. We’d changed the US$50 we needed for the Cambodian entry visa in Chau Doc and therefore had no way to pay for both the boat upgrade and our entry visa. We were on a floating customs area with no ATM and in no position to gat any money.

Our Australian mates Rhonda and Kathy had seen the state I was in and Rhonda became a lifesaver, offering us US$80 to get the upgrade… we accepted greatfully and made arrangements to sort them out when we got to Phnom Penh.

There was very little space in the open area of the new boat and the space that was available was on top of the diesel engine. It was pretty hot but there was almost enough room for me to have a lie down and the air was much fresher.

It only took about 15 minutes to get to the Cambodia entry point of Khaorm Samnor. I took a seat on a bench and Jo took over… arranging the return of our passports from our guide and the visa paperwork. We were meant to provide photos but in the absence of any we were charged US$24 for the visas rather than US$23. The stamp itself states US$20 so the blokes doing the stamping would be doing a roaring trade at $3 or $4 a head.

We spent about half an hour at the border post and as soon as we got back on the boat I managed to get 50 minutes sleep. I woke up still a little crook but far better than I had been a few hours before. The boat was meant to take three hours to get from Khaorm Samnor to Phnom Penh but at 1400 we still hadn’t arrived and there were no signs of a city on the horizon.

We finally pulled alongside the dock at 1500 and we were surrounded by taxi and tuk tuk drivers immediately… all of which we ignored. The tuk tuks were all motorbike led with four seater carriages behind them We got our backpacks sorted and walked 10 minutes to Nordic House, the bar where we’d arranged to pay our debt back. We ordered some much needed beers and a late lunch. I needed something more solid than the usual South East Asian fare so I had chips, veges and chicken with cheese and bacon. At US$6.50 for the largest serving we’d had to date it was great value and it went down a treat. Jo had a huge plate of nachos for US$5.00 and polished it off with ease. We sat on a few more beers until Rhonda showed up. We paid her back and bought Kathy and her a few rounds of drinks.

Rhonda is an experienced traveller in Cambodia and she arranged us a tuk tuk to our hotel for US$2. We thanked her for the umpteenth time and headed off.

The Landscape Hotel is about a kilometre away from the touristy area of Phnom Penh and deserves better than it’s four star rating if our previous experiences in Vietnam were anything to go by. Our room was on par with the Novotel in Nha Trang – a five star hotel. We collapsed exhausted for quarter of an hour but built up the steam to go exploring.

We hired a tuk tuk (not difficult at all in Phnom Penh) and the driver told us that the Central Market was already closed. He offered to take us to another market and we were a bit surprised to be dropped off at a four storey shopping mall. We made the most of it and found a Swensons Ice Cream parlour where we got two icecream sundaes and a coffee for US$6.80. We wandered around to get an idea of prices in shops and found the local supermarket to be the best bar to set. We bought a carton of cigarettes for US$10.50 and an energy drink for US$0.35… not too bad at all.

Jo looked around for shoes but couldn’t find the perfect pair. I joined her but all the shops seemed to stop their sizes at size 11. I’d have bought a few pairs of Vans shoes at US$18 if they were just one size bigger.

One of the weird things we noticed was the amount of Angry Birds merchandise that was available; bags, clothing, iPhone covers, toys and even slippers. There were plenty of Friday night shoppers that were wearing the clothing too.

We walked back to Nordic House and saw the girls briefly before heading back towards the dock to see the night markets. On the way, we booked a bus to Siem Reap for Sunday afternoon at US$7.00 each for the six hour journey, including hotel pickup and dropoff at each end.

It was an absolute pleasure to not be hassled by any of the stall owners at the night market and we wandered through getting an idea of what was for sale and what we should be paying. Most of the stalls were selling footwear and clothing, with the odd one offering souvenirs such as Buddah statues, chopsticks and the like. Jo picked up an “Angry Birds Addict” t-shirt for US$4.

We stopped at a riverside bar on the way back to the hotel where the US$3.00 jug of Ankor Beer went down without even touching the sides then caught a tuk tuk back to Landscape Hotel (US$2). Jo was in bed by 8pm but I stayed up for a few hours updating the blog.

A few early thoughts on Phnom Penh…

Whilst traffic is still mad by New Zealand standards, it is significantly quieter in both volume (mass) and volume (sound) than even the smaller cities in Vietnam.
The roads and shops are significantly cleaner than anywhere in Vietnam.
The US dollar is used alongside the local currency the Riel. It seems to be common to get the bulk of your change in US dollars with the last few dollars and cents getting paid back in riels. My two tiered Arsenal wallet that I bought in HCMC was a great investment for this reason.
Whilst still hot, the temperature in the evenings is not only tolerable but quite pleasant. T-shirt and shorts are the go.
The touts are everywhere (especially tuk tuk drivers) but, for the most part, they seem to understand the word “no”.

I think we’re going to like this place… It would make a nice home away from home I reckon.

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