Delta dawn

Well the sunrise that awaited us on the morning of our trip was amazing. We had not yet seen a great sunrise and i think this one would be hard to beat. The floating market we were about to visit on the other hand was nothing like i imagined or had seen in the postcards. Another disappointment.

The day had just begun and we had a long boat journey ahead to get to Phnom Penh. We stopped off at a fishing village which was quite interesting as the whole house (which floats on water)  has cages underneath full of ravenous fish which they feed multiple times a day (i was great at feeding them too).  

The border crossing into Cambodia was a good laugh, we did all our Vietnamese exiting stuff and were queueing up for our entry stamps in Cambodia when the chap at the counter stops Celia and asks her with a serious look on his face if this was her in the picture. I realised what had happened and cracked up laughing, Celia had given him my passport and he thought she was a lady boy post sex change. In stitches.

We arrived a good hour and a bit out of Phnom Penh and the bus was there to pick us up as arranged. Here we go.. After about 45 min driving on the worst roads i have ever, ever been on. I mean we were hitting our heads on the bus roof after some of the bumps we went over to bus trickled to a halt on the side of the road. All amazed, but not surprised,  by what was going on we calmly got out and started taking pictures of the locals who were just as interested in us. Word came though after the bus drivers boss handed one of us the phone to ask us if we could loan the driver money for petrol. I know.. unbelievable. After we all refused as we knew he had money on him somewhere, he went to get petrol on the back of someones bike. We were on on our way again but no sooner had we picked up speed than the bus ground to a halt again. This time it was serious, possibly terminal. They tried in vain to resuscitate it, but no luck. We got in one more time but it again splattered to a halt.

We had had enough as night was falling and no one had any accommodation booked. We decided to seek alternate modes of transport. I put my head torch on flashing mode and hoped a car would stop. Some of us managed to flag down a double cab, others got in another bus but us, the lucky ones, flagged down a motor bike propelled proper local cart with some planks on the top that we could sit on. We negotiated the price to around 10US and headed the 20km into town. Quick point - in Cambodia nobody used their own currency as it is worthless so the dollar has basically been adopted. We arrived in town to rousing applause similar to the queen when she arrives in her gold gilded horse card. Ours was not gold but i still managed to give my best wave when required.

We eventually found a guest house and who happened to be there? The dirty Germans and the cheap Dutch (only joking) so all the crew were together once again by complete chance after going our separate ways after the bus disaster