Phnom Penh

After a great time chilling out on the Beaches we headed for the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. A buzzing city with lots to see. We managed to find the cheapest guesthouse so far called "No 10 Riverside Guesthouse' at $5 a night, bargain! Well you certainly get what you pay for, an absolute stink hole with an all night party outside our bedroom window plus the added bonus of a fan which sound like a helicopter. Cut to the morning, Steph is not happy 'I'm not staying here another night!', fair enough - I generally sleep through anything but I was done with the all night rave!!!

Sam and Rachael (from Koh Rong fame) had mentioned 'Fancy Guest House' which they had stayed in the week before at $15 a night, a bit more than we wanted to pay but we decided to jump into a tuk tuk first thing and head over. We were greeted by the friendlest guest house owner we've met so far, big smile and couldn't do more for us. He showed us to a spotless room with amazing aircon, done! That night we had the best sleep ever! We also managed to book a sleeper coach the next day which takes us to Saigon (Ho Chin Minh City, Vietnam) but more about that later.

Phnom Penh was certainly an interesting one. We visited the historical sights; S21 and the killing fields. These were more of Pol Potts and the Khmer Rouge doings, another sad but insightfull trip of the horror Cambodia went through. Apart from the sadness we also saw the charitable side which was my favourite part. There are a lot of charity organisations out here which have various agenders, we dropped into Daughters of Cambodia first which is this great little cafe and shop that sell home made goods made by the staff. We met a Canadian lady who voulenteers there and was so nice, Daughters employ sex workers who want to get out. They use to go into brothels and try get women to leave but they found that just by offering an opportunity was more succesfull. They give them on the job training such as cateering, hospitality and craft making skills and are paid from the start. We met two of the cafe workers who were so nice to us and very chuffed that we had learnt a few Khmer words (hello and thank you, we're trying to learn politness in every country) and it was great to see that these schemes are working. 'Freinds' was another establishment which offered a similar deal, they had a shop which sold arts and crafts as well goods made of recycled meterial, the walets made out of paper trimings were cool! They also had a tapas resturant which was bloomin AMAZING! The staff were really friendly and helpfull, another great insight into people actually doing something about their bad situation.

We managed to be in Phenom Penh at the same time as the Kings Birthday, they had two massive fire work displays (which we both loved as we knew we'd miss out on bonfire night, sad face) and a few things going on in the the center. The locals were all having a great time, it was great to see a nation who clearly respect their royal family.

After the fire works we waited for our night bus which was due to arrive at midnight, Fancy Guest House let us hang out in their foyer which was great. We were told the journey was going to take 6 hours and was a sleeper (a coach with beds) will we ever learn not to believe what we're told. The tuk tuk driver was late, but we got to the bus station in time and I was very chuffed as the bus which was the same as the snazzy picture on our ticket was waiting by the station, I went into the staion to give our details. The guy behind the desk pointed out our bus, you can just imagine the comdey - I looked to the snazzy coach with great delight to then see a clapped out dirty bus on the other side of the road - 'what that one???' "YEAH!'. Damn it! We spent the next 10 hours on a crappy bus with seats that didn't even recilne! However there was an up to the story... we got through the border with no hassle which was great - Saigon here we come!

To be continued...