3 boats, 2 buses and no sign of Charlie

Our departure from Vietnam started with a short bus ride from out hotel in Chau Doc to a small boat powered by a tiny Vietnamese crazy woman. We stopped at a muslim village and then boarded another boat (Garry did an Indiana Jones impression and ran across 2 boats diving into the boat!) to the Cambodian border. The border crossing was uneventful and involved a walk through a muddy field to a small building, where we got our stamp and they took $50 from us. We walked over another muddy field into the Kingdom of Cambodia.


We boarded another boat which took us up the Mekong to a bus for the journey into Phnom Penh. Not exactly the same experience as Martin Sheen had in Apocolypse Now, but it was certainly an insight into life on the Delta.


Phnom Pehn was a bit of a culture shock at first, especially coming out of a modern city like Siagon. We arrived in the dark, which never helps first impressions, and there were hoards of beggars and kids trying to sell you postcards and motorbike drivers pestering you for a lift and the streets were dirty and smelly and to top it off our hotel had let our room because we were late.


The next day however we were feeling a little less tired and more equipped to face the city. It seemed a little brighter and friendlier. The city is poor and the people are more desperate than in Vietnam. The Cambodians are more reserved and wary and come across as unfriendly and sometimes rude, but you have to take into account the horrors that happened not 30 yrs ago.