Cambodia - Phnom Penh & Siem Reap (day 1)

Let me start by saying that I just got back from 12 hours (12 HOURS!) in Angkor so I may not make it to the end of this post as I may die (or may already be dead and hell is endless ruined temples?).

I don't remember much about the bus to Phnom Phen except it wasn't a bed-bus unfortunately. It left at 5:30am and was half full of boxes as opposed to people.

I don't have a lot of photos of Phnom Penh so here is a bus at 5:30am

Oh wait - the border.  That I remember.  So, when we got on the bus, the conductor(?), assistant(?) collected everyone's passport.  Whatever, if the rest of the kids are doing it, so am it- here's my identity and ability to go home...  Hours go by.  We stopped for free lunch (pho).  Then back on the road when he handed  back my passport with a card in it.  I had been asleep so I wondered if we had crossed the border and I missed it.  Haha, so innocent back then.

Then he collected the passports again.  Was I supposed to have done something with the card?  If not, why did he hand them back and then take them again?  Who knows.  We eventually arrived at the border and buddy took his plastic bag of passports off the bus to some mystery location.  Again, I thought, this is so easy, he is going to deal with it.  Again, no.  I should note here that I barely remembered that I was about to cross an international border.  I definitely forgot that the money was going to be different.  This is why I shouldn't be allowed to travel alone.

After a while, assistant guy comes to me and says I have to pay for my Cambodian Visa.  Did I mention I am the only tourist on this bus.  So I get off and he leads me to an office which I enter and which is empty.  Someone finally noticed me and yelled at someone else who arrived to give me a form and take my money ($35US) and to give me a look of scorn that I did not have a passport photo at the ready (I did have one but it was in my bag on the bus - see above paragraph re: lack of preparedness).

Then to another office where they took my picture, fingerprints and passport again.  Then they told me to get back on the bus - sans passport.  Honestly, I trusted my bus assistant with my passport more than the border agents.  But what was I going to do at this point.  I got back on the bus.  I had pretty much figured out that I wasn't in Kansas anymore so when a money changer came on the bus, I sold some American money for Cambodian Riel.  I didn't even know what they were called let alone the exchange rate.  She could have completely ripped me off but as it turns out, she didn't.

Then we were off. I finally got my passport, with Cambodian visa, back, produced last out of the highly secure and confidential plastic bag.

Phnom Penh (the first ph is silent just for fun) is a nice city and my hotel was very close to the action.  Half a block to the river walk with lots of tourists, shops and restaurants.  I had actually looked up how to get to Siem Reap so my first goal was to get to the bus station (Giant Ibis Bus lines) to buy a ticket for the next morning.  I could see online (Giant Ibis is organized!) that there were only five seats left.

Are boring photos better or worse than no photos?

Not only is Cambodia a different country and uses different money, they use a completely different alphabet.   I couldn't figure anything out in Vietnam but at least I could read words and at one point, some of them started to make sense (Com means rice!).  Cambodian is squiggles.  Fortunately, they realize this so there is English on almost every sign unlike in Vietnam.  Streets are numbered so even better.  My hotel was on 178, the bus station was on 106.  The blocks are very short so it was an easy walk.

Giant Ibis bus station

Phnom Penh river

Eating on carpets is a thing here.  This is the food market, getting ready for the dinner rush.

In a fit of hyper-organizedness, I bought my ticket to Siem Reap, return to Phnom Penh (PP) and a ticket to HCMC.  I could see that I like PP so I decided to spend a day there on the way back.

Then I stopped for dinner.  Cambodian food is closer to Thai food. I got fresh spring rolls (half for breakfast the next day) and green mango salad.  And a mango daiquiri.  Except I wasn't sure I got rum instead of tequila and I am pretty sure it wasn't mango.  It was kind of terrible actually but it was happy hour so only $1.50.

Not a daiquiri, not mango.

After dinner, I walked back to my room and fell asleep.  At 6pm.  And slept to 6am.  I was tired.  Or that drink was laced.  Either way, I needed the sleep.

Next morning, more bus station mayhem.  And this was the ONLY bus station in all of SE Asia that did not have a coffee cart right there.  I had to carry my bag half a block, HALF a BLOCK! (the horror!) to get a coffee for $2.50!  scammers!

Bus ride was uneventful.  I was in the back row again.  All tourists on this one.  I did meet a cat I almost kidnapped at the rest stop.  I note this because I have pictures.

This was his opening gambit.  Flung at my feet, what could I do but pick him up
and scritch him all over.

A couple of scenes from the road:

Ok, I am realizing that in this particular post, I am not going to come off as too smart.  First the border situation.  And then this story.

On the Giant Ibis but they asked if we would like a tuk tuk (did I mention they also have tuktuks here and not just mototaxis - the first guy to import a tuktuk to Vietnam is going to be rich).  Sure I said.

They assigned me to Lee (or Mr. Lee?).  He hadn't even started the engine before his big pitch started.  He could drive me to Angkor the next day and then to (unknown) the next day.  I have a new policy where if I know I want to do something, I am just going with the first person who offers to facilitate my doing of that something, so I said sure.  But I had read (I did manage a few minutes of research in PP before I crashed) that if I bought my Angkor ticket at 5pm the night before, I could go in that evening and the whole next day.  He looked unenthused but we negotiated a price for that evening and the next day with the second full day to be decided later.

I was feeling super keen (after my 12 hours of sleep & 6 hours of bus) so I also bought a ticket to Phare, the Cambodian Circus for that night.  I had time for a shower before (Mr.) Lee showed up at 4:15.   We arrived at the ticket office by 4:30.  He said they start selling the tickets at 4:45.  So we sat for a few minutes.  People were starting to line up at the lines to the left.  But (Mr.) Lee knew that ALL of the windows would open so he said to wait.  At 4:40, we lined up, first in line in the first line to the right.  Well, that caused a rush of lefties moving to the right.  My line was 50 deep in minutes.  But I was first thanks to (Mr.) Lee!.  We were on the road to the park before #3 had even paid.  Suckers!

We arrived at Angkor Wat, the big temple, the one everyone knows.  The reason everyone comes to this place.  So cool.  I took a million pictures.  I was there in time for the sunset over the wat.  But I watched the sun set and it was not any different than any other sunset.  Plus, Angkor Wat is not that impressive.  Sure, it was nice,  but I have seen much more impressive palaces, temples, ruins etc.  Well, that's because it turns out I was not at Angkor Wat.

My first view

I even saw a way more impressive temple behind and took this photo AND
still didn't clue in.

Sunset from the wrong side of the
wrong temple

Here's me seeing Angkor Wat again, taking another
picture through the first building AND still not cluing in.

Waiting for the sunset to DO something.  It just set, like any other sunset

This monkey is smarter than me

Anyway, after the sun set, I went into the building again and then out the other side.  There was a tide of people coming at me.  I went as far as I could before guards started corralling people back through the temple, closing time.

Ok, here is the embarrassing part.  Obviously, I was not in Angkor Wat.  I was in front of the building in front of Angkor Wat.  Everyone was behind Angkor Wat, watching the sunset over the temple.  But I didn't really figure this out until the next day.  I am an idiot.  I wasted what some people wait a lifetime to experience.  Apparently, I didn't do that much research before falling asleep in PP.

I finally came out the back of that first temple. And here was Angkor Wat.
I was starting to get an inkling that I was braindead here.

Here it is again after all of the people were ushered out.
I was the last one out.

The little girl selling fruit is smarter than me.

(Mr.) Lee took me back to my hotel (Adventure Hostel) and arranged for someone else to pick me up for the circus.  He was missing a wedding to drive me around (which was why he had been less than thrilled about my park visit that night) and he wanted to go to the reception.

The Circus was amazing.  They have a school for street kids who learn school stuff and acting, and circus arts.  The best students perform for Phare.  Here are a bunch of photos.  I have no idea if any of them turned out (I am choosing from thumbnails).

Ok, that's way too much already.  I will tell you about my full day at Angkor, when I finally figured out where Angkor Wat was.  Seriously, I was still confused even after seeing it!  Don't judge, I am sleepy and foreign.

South Vietnam - Mekong Delta - Can Tho

I woke up late on Friday.  I really diddle-doddled since I knew I couldn't check into my next hotel 2pm and the bus wasn't going to take that long.  Another mototaxi to the bus station and some general confusion about tickets (the usual).  It never fails that someone is watching out for the whities.  A million buses stopped and left.  Then one arrived that looked exactly the same as all of the others but a guard came by and picked up my bag and waved me over.  My bus I guess.

It was a bed-bus!.  They have seats that are like little bunk-beds - two up, three across.  As I was getting on and showing the driver my ticket (already wrong) he pointed to a basket with plastic bags in it.  He was quite adamant.  So, I dropped my ticket in the basket.  Wrong again.  I had to take my shoes off and put them in a bag.   That's a first.  But ok.   Thank god there was a bottom seat/bed open because I don't think I could have hoisted myself up to the top.  I fell asleep so it was a good ride.

Bed-bus

Arrived in Can Tho to pouring rain.  No mototaxi this time.  Fortunately, the rain stopped by the time I reached my hotel, The World Hotel.  Nice place.  Huge room with high ceilings.  I even have a balcony.

World Hotel Rm 201

Can Tho is the home of the world famous floating markets so my first task was to book a boat to the markets for the next morning (5am!!!!).

Then I wandered into town.  A 20 minute walk to the main drag.  I am getting good at finding my way around.  Maybe I'm not so bad at directions as EVERYONE supposes (including me).

I really wanted to try one of the sandwiches I had seen around (Bahn Mi, I think).  I forgot to tell you that in My Tho I found a sandwich stand and ordered one.  They looked at me funny and gave me a taste of the meat.  It was salty so I smiled and said yes.  However, as I was chewing and they were whipping together my sandwich with lightning speed, the full taste of fermented fish came to me.  I kept smiling and swallowed with great difficulty.  I paid my 10k (50 cents) and chucked the sandwich the first garbage can I saw.  I just couldn't do it. Any way, I found a real Bahn Mi with pork here and had it as I sat on the walkway along the river.

I visited a temple and the tourist market.  I can happily say there is really nothing here that I have wanted to buy so far.  They have thing for kitchy owl patterns.  Hey, fashion tip.  foam rollers as hair accessories are a thing here.  I kid you not.  You'll all be wearing one by next year.

Temple (Oom?)

There are incense coils hanging from all over the ceiling,
it was a bit cloying to say the least.

(I am just going to mention here that there is a wedding going on next door and it is super loud!.  I have to be out of here at 4:30 tomorrow to catch the bus to Phnom Penh so sleeping through Asian Karaoke should be fun.  Let's hope it's another bed-bus so I can sleep in transit.)

I found a real Vietnamese market with veggies and fish.  I realized it was getting dark but the city was really coming alive so I stayed downtown for a couple of hours, just wandering around.

Here are some photos of my first day in Can Tho:

boats waiting for the tourists in the morning

Khmer temple I didn't visit

the city lit up as it got dark

 Next morning, up at 4:30 for 5am pickup for a 7 hr boat tour of the floating markets.  There were two Aussies with me.  They were on a year travelling soon after graduating high school so they were so young.

Here are a bunch of pictures of the first market.  This one is more wholesale, little boats buying bulk veggies.  Each market boat attaches whatever they are selling to a pole.  so, lots of flying watermelons, pineapples, carrots etc.:

Very civilized.  Our first boat was selling coffee.  Yes please.

Floating market dog

Next market was small boats selling smaller amounts of fruit, mostly to tourists. I think there were more tourists than sellers.  We got some tiny bananas and mangos.

At some point, we stopped at a noodle making factory.  Unlike my previous river tour, they actually made noodles here but WAAAAYY more interesting was a pack of puppies in a kennel.

Hello!

The best part was this poor kitten in with the puppies.  The dogs just kept harassing her.
She hadn't figured out that she could just climb out the open top. 
Just wait puppies, she will get the last laugh!

Then we stopped for lunch at 10am and I had my first beer of this trip.  Can't eat with Aussies and not have a beer!

18 year old, on their phones even as we have breakfast beer.

(I am going to try to sleep now - unlikely with very bad karaoke at full, window shaking volume).

(Yikes, two days later, let's finish this up)

Back when I first arrived, remember my soup with the rat under the table, during that meal, everyone on the street was watching a soccer game and getting very excited.  It turns out that night, Vietnam made it into the finals of the Asia Cup, a big deal apparently.  Well, this was the finals night.

You'll need a flag to celebrate!

Asia Cup dog

Everyone was talking about the game so I decided to head back into town to find a place to eat and watch it on tv.  I found a restaurant that is actually in Lonely Planet as cheap and good that wasn't crammed to the rafters like the bars were but it had a tv on.  So I plunked myself down, ordered their specialty (make your own spring roll) and watched the loooooooooooooooong game.   I really nursed my beer so I could keep my awesome seat as the place filled up.

Making my own salad roll

I may have been sitting at the staff table.
The field is white becasue it was snowing so hard in China where they were playing

Spoiler alert for those of you who have it taped - Vietnam lost. But that did not stop the city from celebrating like crazy.  This is how you lose a big game people (I am looking at you Vancouver).  I can only imagine if they had won!

They streets became a mayhem of horns and bikes and flags.

Next morning, I left for Cambodia.  I am finishing this up from Phnom Penh just before I get ready to leave for the bus to Siem Reap (Angkor Wat).