Phnom Penh

After sleeping off the jet lag and exploring our first stop, we made arrangements to head to the majestic Angkor Wat in Cambodia via Phnom Penh.  Because I am a glutton for punishment and like arduous bus rides, we booked ourselves into a mini-bus from Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Penh before taking another arduous journey to Siem Reap the next day.  The journey was simple enough to arrange and we paid £10 each for a seat on the 'express' service.  Six hours and a border hop later, we arrived into sweltering Phnom Penh.  

Our first tuk-tuk ride through the city was a little overwhelming...

But we made our way to delightful accommodation recommended to us by Paul's co-worker.  If you find yourself at a loose end in Phnom Penh, may I recommend the Blue Lime?  We paid prices that will disappoint you if you ever try to book a hotel in the US, UK or anywhere else in the world ever again.  Four star accommodation was met with five star service; one of the concierge set us up with a friend of his in Siem Reap who became our tuk-tuk temple driver and tour guide for the following three days. 

 

Unfortunately, because our two-week trip was so quick, Phnom Penh acted a glorified rest-stop.  We couldn't fit in the historical bits we wanted and we couldn't avoid the throng of tourist restaurants, gift shops and other tacky venues.   

 

Fortunately, even in the tourist restaurants you can order a beer for $1.50 and receive a pitcher for exactly the same price. 

 

And we still found a few real gems like this! 

 

The National Museum of Cambodia 

The ascent to Buddha

 

Buddha 

Looking like a real tourist. 

Thus, our day in Phnom Penh ended.  We suited up for our next journey to Siem Reap and loaded our gear into the mini-bus.  We quickly learned that Cambodians use their horns to signal they're pissed off with the way the person in front of them is driving and they are therefore going to pass that person at top speeds on the opposite side of the road despite what oncoming traffic thinks that they're doing there. Amongst drivers that pissed our driver off was an entire convoy of google street map drivers.

If you happen to do a google maps street view search of the route from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap and you see a white van veering from side to side, I'm probably in it.

I think it's justifiable to say that the driving experience was terrifying. But we got to Siem Reap in one piece. And how worth it it was.