Boat and bus to Phnom Penh
Trip Start
May 12, 2005
1
4
33
Trip End
Sep 11, 2005
Sihanoukville,
Cambodia
Friday, May 20, 2005
There are three bus stations in Sihanoukville (three different companies, all working the same route) and the local who was driving me up to town from the port took me to two of them, neither of which had services running in the afternoon. He wasn't keen on taking me to the third and tried to persuade me that it wouldn't be possible to get a bus, so I would have to stay in his uncle's guesthouse! I stuck to my guns. Lonely Planet (what would I do without it!) gave times for afternoon buses at the third company and - surprise, surprise - there WAS a bus, which got me to Phnom Penh that evening.
Haven't had much time to see Cambodia (I'll be coming back after Vietnam and Laos), but it is visibly much, much poorer than Thailand. The buildings are much more ramshackle: many houses by the roadside seemed to be actually falling down, although they were clearly being lived in. The bus I was travelling in was probably a good 20 years older than the tourist buses in Thailand - we stopped in the middle of the four-hour journey to Phnom Penh not only to allow the bus company to try to flog us some food, as in Thailand, but also so that the driver could throw buckets of water at the overheating radiator. And when I got to Phnom Penh, there was much more aggressive competition among the 'moto' and 'tuk-tuk' drivers to take me to a hotel - I almost had to wrestle my rucksack off them so that I could walk the few streets to a backpacker guesthouse.
The Cambodians running the guesthouse were really friendly though and I spent the evening in its cafe talking to them about England and finding out about Phnom Penh.
Cathy
