Day 22 Cross the border to Cambodia

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Day 22

Up 5.30am to get the boat to cross into Cambodia. I'm half asleep this morning. Lesley helped me pack. Huong and the driver took us to pick up the boat. No such luxury today. We are on a busy boat with everyone else. It was a high speed boat but will still take us hours to get there. We were given papers to complete for the visa and a little goody bag of water crackers and a sponge roll !? Thankfully we've remembered to bring 2 passport photos and some U.S. Dollars. We're told to get off the boat onto another boat which is border control. Our hand luggage is scanned. Our back packs are still on the boat. We are only there 20 mins then told to her back on the boat and we're off. 10 mins later off the boat - passport control. This time we waited about an hour. It's 10am we boarded at 7.30am apparently we now have 3 hours on the boat to to Phnom Penh. I now understand why everyone was buying snacks at the earlier stop!
We were on deck and the cool breeze was nice . It was good to see some more of the Mekong.

3 hours later .... Get me off this boat! I've seen enough of the Mekong now. As we got off the boat Lesley's suitcase broke. She still can only use 1 arm and my backpack is heavy with my stuff and some of Lesley's. We manage to get to a local coffee shop ( what else!) and regroup. Over iced tea we decide the hotel is too far to walk and to hail a tuk tuk - another new experience. $2. Dollars seem to be the preferred currency but we have bought Cambodian Riel. The tuk tuk drivers were all laughing at us but we don't know why - earlier I nearly had a wardrobe malfunction with my trousers - maybe it happened again but I didn't notice! The hotel is lovely but no balcony again! Oh but there is a roof top pool. When we booked in Cambodia Lesley and I decided to book something more luxurious as it is the end of my trip. Still only $10 a night! The bathroom is weird again all glass. But we've found the blind! Quick change and out to scope the local area. I've got a sunburnt back from the boat - bright red! We strolled down the Main Street to check the tour prices for the killing fields tour. There are tours but we might be brave as usual and do our own. We're going to barter with a tuk tuk driver as it will work out cheaper. We stop for coffee to check internet prices and points of interest. Then the rain came. Very heavy but we were outside and under cover. Very refreshing, it clears the air. We decide we had better eat as I was feeling a bit wobbly. It's 4 pm and we haven't eaten since breakfast at 6.30am. We made good choices - shared Pad Thai, shrimps in coconut and the usual spring rolls. There are lots of children coming to the table to sell jewellery. They say "you English? Lovely juberly!" There are beggars too. You can't make eye contact or talk to them or they won't go away.

After the meal we sat and waited for the rain to stop. We walked down the back streets instead of the tourist strip. You get more of a feel for the place. In comparison to Vietnam There are not so many tourist shops, tuk Tula instead of rickshaws. There's a Burger King and a costa so must more western to what we are used to. The alphabet is symbols than letters so where in Vietnam you could make out some of the words (Lesley sang karaoke in Vietnamese) here you can't begin to work out the letters. The welcome has been warm and the people in the cafes very pleasant. Looking forward to tomorrow finding out more. We walked back to Browns, the cafe where we started today and enjoyed coffee and a muffin. We walked back to the hotel instead of using a tuk tuk to walk off the muffin! Back at the hotel we decided to ask if we could change room to have a balcony. They moved us! The bell boy moved our bags at the same time there was a power cut in the city. We stood and waited and it val me back on after 5 mins. Lesley had been scrabbling around looking to tip him. I don't know whether it was the power cut or the change of currency but she gave him the equivalent of £10 by mistake. No wonder he walked out smiling! We enjoyed an evening sat on the balcony listening to live music below.

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