On the 'road' to Phnom Penh
Trip Start
Jul 29, 2003
1
16
31
Trip End
Dec 01, 2003
Phnom Penh,
Cambodia
Thursday, October 2, 2003
Left Siem Reap at 7am today (but almost missed the bus as we did't wake up till 6:40!). We were told the road to Phnom Penh was good (ie: not bumpy) and we'd be there about 12pm.
All lies.
Funnily enough I wouldn't call a road which is 500m of tarmac then 500m of dirt track, "good", although I suppose it is relatively ok by Cambodian standards and might not have been so bad had I had a proper seat on the bus.
We had assigned seats on our tickets but some other traveller people knicked ours (which I didn't realise until later). Janine got on the bus first and got the last spare seat at the back (where they stuck all the foreigners) and the bus conductor guy whipped out a fold out plastic chair for me and stuck it in the aisle! Was a bit shocked but sat down none the less and realised I may as well have been sitting on the floor for all the cushioning it had.
After 3 and a half hours my arse was completely numb so Janine swapped seats with me for a bit, which wasn't a whole lot better as I was squashed between a fat, smelly German guy who kept falling asleep with his mouth open towards me, and a girl who was far too tall to be squashed at the back of the bus who's knees were practically in her chest.
About 1 hour before the end of our journey a seat became available (although I'm not sure how as we'd only stopped at a repair garage cos the bus was smoking), so I sat next to this Khmer guy who was an economics student who proceeded to question me about anything and everything and even asked me which nationality of man I wanted to marry!?!
Eventually arrived in Phnom Penh at about 3:30 (I can see how they mistook this for 12..) and got crushed by loads of men trying to get us to stay at their guesthouse or to drive us somewhere. Luckily we had booked somewhere beforehand so a guy was waiting with our name on a card but to get to him was pretty hard. Some guy from behind me stuck a poster right in front of my face so I couldn't see where I was going so I just threw it on the floor which sent him scrambling for it.
First impressions of Pnomh Penh - bit of a dump compared to Siem Reap.
xxx
