1-15-11: Saigon to Phnom Penh

As a rule of thumb we travel as early as possible and I didn't want to change that after Jen left, so I booked the 6:45am, which was the first bus going to Phnom Penh. I woke up very early for me - 5am, but that's a very normal time for the Vietnamese. There were two women that worked at our guesthouse and the one that didn't speak English well greeted me this morning. When I told her I was leaving, she looked a bit sad; I don't think they get many guests as I only saw one other couple, who only stayed a night or two, during our stay. On my normal walk into the backpacker's ghetto, I picked up 2 loaves of bread - one for breakfast and another for later if I couldn't find anything else to eat. I should have waited since the very good banh mi place was open. I almost got one anyway, but figured that would be way too much food. So on to the front of the travel agency. I waited there until 6:45am and a guy walked up and told me to follow. The "pick up service" was really "we will lead you to the bus service." Once on the bus, I noticed that most of the people we either Vietnamese or Cambodian, with 5 or 6 Westerners intermixed. We left at a little after 7am, which I consider fairly prompt considering.

 

I rode threezies on a motorbike!

 

Once we were on our way, they announced that they offered an express visa service for $25usd. When I said I wanted to do it myself, I was told the bus would leave me, but I stuck to my guns. If you go through and do it yourself, it costs $20usd and I wanted to keep my five bucks! Once at the border, I tried to go as fast as possible, but was not at my best. I could have finished before everyone that paid for the express visa finished, but I didn't and the bus left me. However, the visa man was still there waiting. He flagged down a motorbike taxi, and all three of us rode on one small motorbike. I wish I could have gotten a picture of that. It really wasn't all that bad, just no where to put my feet or at least I couldn't find a place. We made it easily to the bus (it had just driven up the road a few kilometers to a rest stop) and I could have had something to eat if I wanted it, but I had my bread.

 

Maybe Cambodia is a land of payoffs.

 

To get to Phnom Penh from Saigon you have to cross the mighty Mekong River and as there is no bridge, you must use the ferry. This is one of the main roads in Cambodia and has a lot of traffic on it so the ferry is a major mess. When we get to the ferry, the visa man jumps off to go talk to the police that were directing the whole mess. It didn't take long for them to decide on a price, I'm guessing, as I saw the visa man give him 10,000 vnd which is about $0.50 usd and then signal the bus to move to the front of the line. One slight problem was that there are two gates to get through and only one policeman was paid off. As we tried to go through the first (unpaid) gate, the officer wasn't so happy. We stopped and he was given the same as his partner and then we were at the front of the line. Magic!

 

Arriving in Phnom Penh.

 

The bus station is right in the middle of town and is setup to handle a few buses a day not the few an hour that currently go through there. When you arrive, the tuktuk drivers start after you before you get off the bus. If you completely ignore them, maybe only two or three will follow you through the bus station. These were the worst touts that I have run into on my entire travels through SEA. For whatever reason, that makes me not want to use whatever service they are trying to offer, so at 13:30 (in the scorching heat of the day) I start my search for a guesthouse on foot. If I would have just walked to the river and found an expensive place for around $50usd, it would have been fine, but I'm a budget traveler! I need to look at three places minimum before I am willing to select a place. So with my now much heavier load (no Jen to split it with), I am walking around the city in the heat of the day. I visited a total of 4 guesthouses: Top Banana Guesthouse (full), TAT Guesthousr ($7usd 2nd floor where I came back to stay), Seng Sokhom Guesthouse (closed), and finally Sunday Guesthouse (wanted $8 for the 4th floor and just the same as TAT). (what he doesn't tell you is that he opted for a cold water shower!! –Jenn) TAT guesthouse does have wi-fi, but it's very, very bad quality and only sometimes works. I sent a couple of emails and left to find some food as it was almost 16:30 and I had only had 2 small loaves of bread to eat that day.

 

Happy Pizza...

 

If you search "drugs in Cambodia" online you will quickly find that they are very available and well tolerated, as I said before it's a land of payoffs. So "happy pizza" is what most of the pizza places are called here or really they all have "happy" and "pizza" in their name. "Happy pizza" is what it's called when they put marijuana in your pizza. In fact, they will make any food you order "happy" if you so desire. This is right on the menu and at most places if you don't want the weed in your pizza, you have to ask them not to put it in!

 

I walked up to Boeng Kak Lake to check out the backpacker's ghetto, as marked in the book. I had also read that the government had sold the lake to developers and were filling it in and the guesthouse and restaurants once there had moved. I guess what has happened is that the scene had moved elsewhere, but I still wanted to check it out. It turned out that it really is run down and very few people were there, but I did find a happy pizza place and decided to get something to eat. I didn't have happy pizza as they seemed expensive and they had curry and rice for $2usd (not happy). After 3 expensive beers ($0.75usd for a can!), the guy told me that they do happy pizza and it's fine to smoke weed in the bar or really any bar around town. I laughed and we talked for a little while and then he cleared my table. He came back with a joint and we smoked it together. At this point I'm a little drunk and really stoned and I decide that it's time to go home. Before I left though, a woman came by selling opium out of a basket, just like many people sell books around every other city we have been too!

 

Tuktuk ride home.

 

I figured that a tuktuk ride home was the better way of traveling the 2.5km back to my guesthouse and since they are all over the place, I figured I'd have to give in to someone eventually. Also, I am now trying to spend my entire budget of $25 usd each day, and I had extra money. The driver I selected was very confident that he knew where I wanted to go. So off we went and of course it's very dark now and I can't see my map any more. After a while, he turns to me and asks me to tell him where to turn. I hadn't really been paying attention as most of our other tuktuks have been very knowledgeable about the city. I found where we were through the flashing light of street lights at intersections and navigated us close to my guesthouse. Or at least I thought. After dark the alleys that I had been walking around during the day on my guesthouse search had morphed into restaurants, shops, and a couple bars all thick with people. It took me a little while to find my much changed street and my new home. It's weird not sharing the bed with someone.     

 

NOTE: Any strange phrasing or typos can be attributed to the editor, Jen. :)