Fancy Guest House Phnom Penh

okay so its been way too long and i have lots to tell! so sihanoukville which was where i had just arrived last time i wrote, i had a lovely wander and delicious dinner there then an early night. the day after, whatever day that was, tuesday. was the day of our boat trip, to the surrounding little islands near the town. lovely little boat and the prospect of snorkling and spotting some reef. so we all chill on this little thai fishing boat style boat and we arrive at the first snorkling stop....

10th November
We arrived in Phnom Penh at midday after a six hour bus journey from Saigon.
The ride was relatively easy and all our immigration paperwork was ready for us to fill out on the bus. The 'guide' on our tourist bus approached us before the border crossing and said 'now you give me $25 with your passport and forms together and I will get your visas for you'. I checked my last Cambodia visa from 2 years ago (still in my passport) and it stated $20 for a visa. Countries often i...

A pretty uneventful day today with another early rise Most of the day was taken up with a bus ride, this one was actually a double decker and actually had the advertised toilet on board, although access required you to be the size of Ric***********d. The trip into Phnom Penh was pretty uneventful and after looking at a place to stay that was actually sinking into the lake at Boeng Kak (Seriously, floors warped and walls falling down) we went into town and found an awesome place called Fancy G...

Phnom may be a contraction of phenomenal, but Phnom Penh, to me, didn't live up to that hope. Where's the River? Phnom Penh is located at the convergence of the Tonle Sap and Mekong Rivers. Fancy Guesthouse was near the Tonle Sap riverside so we thought we'd take a walk along the river and Sisowath Quay. Many restaurants are on Sisowath Quay I had thought that they would be taking advantage of the river views and be quite lovely and character filled. Ha ha ha ha. The promenade between the roa...

We should be entering a blog entry here all about our trip to the Mekong Delta. Unfortunately I had a bout of food poisoning and have been in bed for the last few days. I did have to drag myself out of bed for our bus journey to Cambodia though. Something which I am unsure how I got through, but when you have already paid for your tickets, and your leader of the tour you were on agreed that you could tag along and he would help fund us accommodation you can't really make any exceptions.
Phnom Penh, Cambodia gibbontravels

After a number of negotiation tactics we managed to bag ourselves a tuk tuk and driver to take us the 45km out of the city to the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Sanctuary. The drive there and back was relentless. I don't think either of us realised quite how long it would take to get there with our chosen method of transport.
The wildlife sanctuary was set up to rescue and care for different animals taken from poachers or abusive masters. They are well looked after at the sanctuary and entered into...

Yesterday we had a leisurely day exploring the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. The Royal
Palace is the official residence of King Sihamoni and so parts of the palace are closed off to the general public.

The palace itself is rather striking, hidden away behind protective walls, with it's lush gardens and leafy havens. The main building seems to be used for large elaborate ceremonies, with a very long aisle leading to the King's throne. The inside of the building is ornately decora...

17/02/08: Early morning with a hungover for our departure to Phnom Penh. The bus was supposed to pick us up (yes, quite strange) and we thought it would never arrive when he turned up nearly 30mn later to drive to the bus station. All in all we were supposed to leave the bus station at 9.30, we left at 10.30. Punctuality must not be Khmer, we thought, we were the only tourist plus an old Belgian hippy. The rest were locals. The bus curtains were of various flowery patterns, giving it a real 7...