Travel Day to Phnom Penh

---

Geo: 11.5542, 104.926

Our hotel suggested we take an international bus rather than fly. It was not the best idea due to traffic in Ho Chi Minh City, at least an hour crossing the border and the roadwork in Phnom Penh. Interesting to see the countryside but the 5.5 hour trip ended up being 8 hours of start and stop and blaring horns.

Near the end of the day one of the motorbikes tried to pass the bus and the riders and motorbike ended up in a 3 foot deep trench with water and mud at the bottom. They did not appear to be injured.

Local transportation vehicles are very interesting and sometimes unusual.

As we arrived at the bus depot the rain began and it was a torrential downpour complete with lightning and thunder. Our tuk-tuk ride to the Mekong Dragon Boutique Hotel was quite wet!

---

Comments

[crw]

Bus rides do allow you to see scenery on the ground, but packed buses without air circulation can be difficult to cope with. Not too long ago, it took me 3.5 hours on a Sunday evening to go from the Tokyo AIrport to my hotel downtown via a
bus. Just traffic. When I saw a helicopter in the sky, I wondered if it was carrying some first-class passengers to their hotel. On that particular night, I could see why one would pay for such a service. It still remains a mystery to me - when you get off a long distance flight during which you have done absolutely nothing, you feel tired, very tired.