Today was a very exciting day, I finally left Vietnam. I
probably should have spent another day in Ho Chi Minh but to be honest I’m
having trouble keeping track of the days and I thought it was later in the
month than it is. I probably would have made the same decision even if I had
realized how much time I had to make it to Siam Reap because I was just sick of
Vietnam. I know I wasn’t there very long but it just wasn’t the place for me.
I caught the bus outside the hostel just after 8am and as I
was boarding I met Jamie, a Canadian guy who like me didn’t prearrange a visa.
This gave me a sense of relief because at least if I got screwed over he was
getting screwed over too and I would have someone to freak out and work through
it with. We chatted along the way and realized we had the same hostel booked
and so did the Rachel, the girl sitting in front of me. I was pretty stoked to
learn this because it was going to making finding the hostel so much easier,
and cheaper!
We drove for a few hours and finally reached the border.
There was a guide type person on our bus but he wasn’t very helpful or
informative. He didn’t even tell us we were at the border and we thought it
might have been a bathroom stop. He had previously collected our passports and
turned them in to the authorities at the crossing. We waited in line until our
passport was held up by one of the officials, shoved our way to the front of
the line, picked up our passports and headed back to the bus. We drove a few
more meters before stopping at the Cambodia side of the border. We waited in
line, and handed over our passports and visas were applied while we were finger
printed. All in all it was a much easier process than I had pictured. And it
actually cost the price I had read online which was a lovely bonus.
Once everyone had made it through border control we piled
back on to the bus and drove a kilometer or so before stopping for lunch. The
restaurant we stopped at had a frightening looking buffet set up so I opted on
plain rice and the others ordered ramen noodles. Lunch was pretty confusing
because as we were ordering they were shouting prices at us but when we tried
to pay they wouldn’t take our money. They ended up coming to collect it from us
once we had eaten but none of us were sure what was going on because at our
table of four people one was made to pay straight away and the rest of us were
more or less told to go away.
The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful aside from the
cute Cambodian kid trying to sell me a bag of chips through the bus window
while we were on the ferry. We arrived in Phnom Penh around 3pm and my new
friends Jamie, Rachel and I piled into a tuk-tuk (my very first tuk-tuk ride
yay!) and made our way to the hostel. They didn’t have my booking in their system,
which was a little frustrating, but after proving I had a booking they sorted
me out with a bed.
Once we had all gotten settled we decided to go for a bit of
a wander. None of us had expected to get into town so early so we hadn’t really
looked into things to do. The main objective was to find an ATM for Rachel and
from there we more or less wandered aimlessly stumbling upon temples and
monuments along the way. Fun fact: although the official currency in Cambodia
is Riel the ATM’s dispense American money and most places advertise prices in
American dollars.
We walked for quite a while before deciding to grab some
dinner. Apparently Cambodia is known for a few restaurants that sell ‘happy
pizza’ comparable to a special brownie, which is kind of interesting because
weed is illegal here. Jamie wanted to see what it was all about so he had a
happy pizza and Rachel and I both ordered Asian dishes. I should have just
ordered a BLT because my noodle dish tasted of vinegar with a touch of sugar. I
tried to force my way through the whole thing but my stomach was churning after
a few mouthfuls.
From dinner we made our way back to the hostel stopping at
Dairy Queen along the way. It was quite hot out and we had decided almost as
soon as we started our adventure that we were going to need some ice-cream at
some point and when we passed the DQ on the way to dinner we knew we had to go
back.
Things have been pretty chilled at the hostel since we got
back, we hung out at the bar for a bit and I was able to take a hot shower! I can’t
remember the last time I had a shower that wasn’t lukewarm or cold. It was
magical. It’s also so nice to not be in Vietnam anymore, I feel so much better
already and I haven’t even been here for 12 hours yet. I really think I am
going to enjoy Cambodia; there certainly isn’t a shortage of things to see and
learn about.
No comments:
Post a Comment