Welly welly well we have arrived in Cambodia. Country número 4 on our first SE Asia journey. We hopped another bus from Saigon > Phnom Penh. Pretty pleasant ride besides a couple screeching Vietnamese aunties on the bus, luckily Aim came in clutch with the ear plugs.
We have been hitting the holidays, we went to the Grand Palace in Bangkok on Buddha Day which was insane and we left Vietnam on their Independance Day which translates into all the Saigon folk heading to Cambodia for their days off.
All in all one of our more pleasant transits, the border crossing did take a little over 2 hours because of the timing but was an experience in its own right. 4 guys stand in front of a mass of people with guards and yell out names, when your name is called you crowd surf to the front and you're in Cambodia, well not crowd surf but kinda grind your way through.
We arrived in Phnomh Penh & waded through the Tuk-Tuk drivers to get away from the bus station. Our hotel is about a block away from the station so no need to take an over priced ride, we are backpacking soooo hard.
The things we have noticed here are:
1. The kids are abnoxiously cute.
2. You gotta protect ya neck as Wu-Tang would say. This place is notorious for pickpockets, bag nabbing and phone snatching. We feel eyes that are not looking at our face but at what we are carrying, honestly the first time we have felt unsafe on this trip, but at least Dusty has a wicked right cross and Aimee has tiger claws.
3. Everyone is still trying to figure out what nationality Aimee is.
4. Less hassling among street vendors than in Vietnam.
5. Beautiful smiles and respectful greetings.
6. Locals speak good English & use USD. At the stores they list the price with American currency.
7. Things are couple dollars more expensive here compared to the other countries we visited. Ex. A meal = $1-2 Cambodia= $4-5
The above picture is from a cafe we ate at that is called "Friends and Stuff" that focuses on helping troubled and disadvantaged youth get out of the streets and pursue a craft in the hospitality industry. The food was excellent and the cause is noble so we made that our first stop.
Tomorrow we head to Siem Reap & spend our last 4 days in Cambodia. We plan to visit Angkor Wat and if we're lucky meet up with some friends. Then we are on to the Phillipines to wrap up this amazing journey before returning to 'Merica.
