How to enter Cambodia by boat....
Trip Start
Oct 28, 2007
1
7
33
Trip End
Nov 21, 2007
Phnom Penh,
Cambodia
Friday, November 2, 2007
We had a 6.00am wake up call this morning (or banging on the door), followed by a rather strange and possibly the "meagreist" version of breakfast that we've had so far. John was served with a bread roll, 2 sachets of butter and 2 canned mini franks. As a result, John then spent 10,000 dong (about 70c) to order a second breakfast.
The trip the improved considerably.....we walked about 100 m to the riverside in Chau Doc and boarded traditional rowing boats. Each boat carried 2 of us and was rowed by women, standing up. Very relaxing and a great way to see the traditional floating villages that make up much of Vietnam's waterways. We stepped off the boats a couple of times to see a fishing farm (the "farm"was a floating house with a hole in the floor about 1m x 2m where the fish were fed before being harvested for sale).
We then transferred to a riverboat and sat in deck chairs (undercover) for about 2 hours as we motored along the Mekong River to the Cambodian border town. During this ride, we were given visa application forms (for a Cambodian visa) to fill in. Someone then collected all of the forms, everyone's passport and the application fees. We stopped off for lunch at a local village which was also the immigration /customs checkpoint for Cambodia. So, while we enjoyed Cambodian delicacies, someone else was off processing all of our visa applications. Once processed, we boarded a Capital Tours riverboat and headed for the actual border (about 10mins away). Here, we all got off, walked 100m on shore to the immigration office, had our visas and passports checked and then got back on the riverboat.
The riverboat was quite warm. So, 6 of us who had become friends (Fiona and Wessel from Amsterdam, Holland and Becky and Andy from the Sheffield, UK) decided to sit on the top of the riverboat to try and get some breeze. In addition, the riverboat kindly sold Cambodian or Vietnamese Anchor beer (pronounces 'Anshore'). So, each couple bought a round and we whiled away the 2 hours nicely. At about 4pm we landed on Cambodian shores. We waited for a mini-bus and then chuckled as the luggage of 10 backpackers (and us who are really only "wannabees") was loaded on to the mini bus, followed by 12 passengers. We endured about 1.5 hours on the mini-bus before arriving in Phnom Penh in a cloud of people offering us rooms, buses, tuk-tuk rides and the like. A little hectic, but we made it. Before going our separate ways, the 6 friends agreed to meet at a guesthouse on the riverfront at 7.30pm.
We inquired about transferring to Siem Reap by plane the next day and were told that the booking office was closed until tomorrow. We were told that our best bet was to arrive at the Phnom Penh airport at 8am and take pot luck with whatever flight we could book on to. Comforted by the fact that we tried our best, we walked 15mins to the river front and checked out a couple of places before checking into the Mekong Palace for the night. $15US for a comfortable, though basic room....can't complain. We then did some laundry before changing and meeting Wessel and Fiona at the agreed spot. Unfortunately, Becky and Andy were unable to join us that evening....Becky found out the day before that her grandma had passed away and by the time she reach Phnom Penh, it had become a little too hard....so, we wished them well and parted company.Wessel and Fiona joined us in dinner at a local Khmer restaurant where we dined on Khmer delicacies....John discovered the Amok; Natalie the green curry. By the time "last drinks" were over for the 2nd time, we finally parted at midnight after a great night out.
