Had breakfast. Checked out of Saigon Hotel. Got on giant tour bus. Stopped at border. Stamped out of Vietnam and got Cambodia visa. Arrived at Phnom Penh in the afternoon.
Once we crossed the border it was an entire different world. The roads are not exactly paved and very bumpy and the houses are in very rough shape. Not all, but many. This is what we saw as the bus continued. Some houses are very nice and all remodeled and right next door might be a shanty made of bamboo and metal sheeting. Also, unlike Vietnam, there are a LOT more cars. We have seen numerous high end passenger cars and SUVs. Most people are very poor, making the gap between the rich and the poor striking. The contrast makes it obvious that corruption is a huge problem here.
For lunch, we stopped on the side of the road at a traveler's stop. It was still expensive food, but much cheaper than the USA. Cambodia takes US dollar and the Riel. They want dollars, but the Riel is what you will get in small change. Still no coins, but paper money is what you get. We have not seen coins since Thailand.
I don't want to go off about it, but there were more backpackers on the bus putting their feet up on the chairs. I felt bad since the stewardess didn't mention anything to them, but I knew what she thought. Arghhhhh! Now that I am looking for rudeness like this, I see it everywhere.
We had a ferry crossing on the tour bus. Some children came right up to the windows looking for food. Many children. One lady behind us bought some Lotus flowers and offered us some. I had never seen anything like this before. She showed us how to take out the seeds and eat them. They were a little nutty with not too much flavor.
The bus dropped us off in the middle of the city. It was too bad that we did not totally research where we would be, so we had no idea which way to head. There was a Tuk Tuk driver in the crowd that asked us if we needed a ride. We told him and the others no thank you, but we did need a ride. He walked away nicely and did not persist. Thats when I asked him if he had a map. I saw it in his hand and we talked about where our place was. He happily took us to the hotel and we agreed on a price for taking us out the next day. We wanted to go to the Killing Fields and the Genocide Museum. Everyone just hires the driver for the whole day for 10-25 dollars, and that was what we did.
We walked to the river front road for dinner. There was a nice place with some Malaysian girls out front. It was a good choice with great food and service. As we ate, we just people watched and were in amazement. This place rivals Chiang Mai with the retired men. Ask me about it personally or in email. Geeezzee! What a show! Massage here is blatantly a little more.
While we were eating, I saw a girl walk by that I recognized. It took me a second or two, but I realized it was Mel from San Francisco. We had met her in Laos on the Mekong slow boat and then hung out in Luang Prabang. I shouted her name and she turned around, surprised as we were. Wow! We had traveled through different areas and met up here by luck! She sat down and had dinner with us and it made for a great time. We went through Vietnam while she toured through more of Laos after we last saw each other. This was just like seeing Louie in Bulgaria last year, and then seeing him again in Montenegro and Croatia. Crazy!
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