Sunday Guest House Phnom Penh

Got up at 7.30am and went to breakfast. I started chatting to two Dutch guys, Derk and Erik, and a guy from London called John. They were also going to the Killing Fields, so when we'd finished eating we all got a tuk-tuk together. We headed south-west out of the city for fifteen kilometres, and after half an hour arrived at Choeung Ek.

We entered through a gate, and after paying the entrance fee, decided to get a guide. What then ensued was possibly the most sombre and depressing expe...

After an overnight train from Nha Trang to Saigon we took a bus from Saigon to the Vietnam/Cambodian border. Buses are not allowed to cross the border so we got off the bus, walked through customs to leave Vietnam, walked through immigration into Cambodia and got on a bus on the other side and continued the ride from the border to Phnom Penh. There was an instant difference between Cambodia and Vietnam. What I had considered the impoverished areas of Vietnam looked nice as the bus passed alum...

Dear All We have been here since Tuesday lunchtime. The bus journey was fairly uneventful (enough seats for everyone and mostly tarmac roads) - the only interesting bit being a half hour stopover where Q decided to wander the local food stalls, returning to see me with a giant deep fried beetle. He said it tasted like chicken skin but I wasn't tempted enough to try one for myself. We did see some rain (for about 10 minutes) on the journey which was the first for about 5 weeks! We were picked ...

Just finished a mildly disappointing tour of the Mekong Delta. The average age was pretty high, the bus contained about 3-4 tour groups combined so the majority went elsewhere at the end of the first day (although I was glad to see the back of one - a fat American with two young Asian girls who was constantly giving out about the guides "bad, bad English"... what a loser!) and the hotel they dropped us off at in Phnom Penh is kilometers from the centre!

We did see some interesting thin...

This was worse then Siem Reap I realized once I got here. At least Siem Reap had some charm and Angkor Wat. Here there was nothing to do but go to museums and see sights about the genocide in the 1970s. It is good to learn about and I will take this information home with me but I think it was a bit too much at times and with nothing really fun to do in the city it became a pretty depressing couple days. Also it didnt help that both my sister and I were sick while here. Still dusty and dirty a...

After 6 hours on the bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh (this time a luxury double decker, with a loo and only a little karaoke), we jumped into a tuk-tuk and toured several guest houses until we found a good one. After seeing quite a few expensive - and "iffy" looking places, we found a very friendly place, in a good location. Most nights they played a DVD of the film Killing Fields in the restaurant to let their guest know a bit about the history of Cambodia. We did hire the patient tuk-tuk d...

We arrived in Phnom Penh about dusk time and picked a guesthouse out of the dozens to stay in. We'd already stayed at the riverside, and although it was really good for drugs etc (haha) we had done that part, so chose Sunday Guesthouse, which we thought was near the riverside, but was just in the middle of a suburb. Nice place though. Problem was that it had John Malkovich corridors - for anyone that hasn't seen the film, the corridors get smaller the further you go down them and I ended up n...

Now in the capital city of Phnom Penh. Meaning the hill of Penh. A woman named Penh found 4 buddha statues washed up on the riverbank of the Mekong and took them to the top of the only hill in town and hence the name of the town. Another eventful bus ride here. Supposed to leave at 12:30; left at 2:30. Supposed to take 4 hours; took 6. But special treat, the road was paved! The bus was a double decker and we took the front seats on the top. What a visual treat. Watching the bus driver dodge m...

Sihanoukville - a difficult name to say. A Beach town in the making - seems like they are just getting the idea of tourism and the word is that the hope is for these few beaches to become the new Phuket. The beaches are lovely yet the area suffers from the same issue all over Cambodia - garbage - everywhere. There is no garbage collection so people just throw their refuse at the side of the road so the plastics and Styrofoam has started to become a big issue. There is no recycling here so the...

We arrived in Phomn Penh after a six hour bus ride from Siem Reap. It was quite an easy journey as the roads are pretty much sealed the whole way they. We had difficulty getting off the bus however, as the Tuk Tuk drivers were practically on the bus begging for our business. There must have been about 30 of them, it was quite intimidating as we noticed an immediate change to the atmosphere. Whilst it is still a poor place, like Siem Reap, the people are much more pushy and in your face. But w...