Saturday, April 19, 2003

Cambodia...finally!

Up at 6:00AM, breakfast started at 6:30. At 7:30 we loaded our bags onto a van and walked down to the river and loaded our bags onto a big boat. Then we all took rowboats to visit some floating houses, some with caged fish breeding, then to visit a Cham ethnic minotiry village. Yawn. Back to the big boat for our trip to the border at Vinh Xuong. As we were going to the Cham village, I turned and said to Courtney that I was sick of this tour, I just wanted to go to Cambodia. She agreed totally with me, we are both looking forwrd to it!

The big boat has cushioned seats!!!! YAY!!!!

We took the boat to the border, about 2.5 hours, checked out of Vietnam. We had to fill in a SARS form asking us a bunch of health questions. We didn't have to deal with customs at all, our tour guide did everything for us. We then walked to another boat, a long slender boat painted yellow. Looks like the fuselage of an airplace, actually, and the "cockpit" even looks like the cockpit of an airplane! It seats about 60 people, but there was only 11 of us on it. Sweet! We went about 1 km upstream to the Cambodian passport control. Very nice passport control area, almost like a garden setting. Everyone on Cambodian side very friendly and smiling. Got checked into Cambodia with no fuss. We finished the border control about 2:00, then took the boat for about 1 hour to a bus, then a 2 hour bus ride to Phnom Penh, along a really bumpy road. Boat the whole way would be the best way to do it, the boat ride was smooth as silk.

We got dropped off at the CApital Guest House in downtown Phnom Penh. Very, veyr busy downtown.

My brother and his girlfriend stayed at a guest house in Phnom Penh when they were here 4 or 5 months ago, and they had given me a letter and some pictures form when they visited the guest house, and he asked me to deliver the letter and pictures to them in Phnom Penh. The guest house is called Roza Guest House, known as guest house #7. So, we took a motorcycle taxi to that guest house, got checked in, a very small room, but only $2US/night. It has a double bed, and a bathroom, with a bathroom sink tap that doesn't work (we have to use the shower to brush our teeth), and there's no mirror in the room at all.

I then pulled out my brothers package, and gave it to them, and they got soooo excited, saying both of their names, and laughing and giggling at the pictures. They loved it, and remembered both my brother and his girlfriend.

We went out for supper to a place, it took about an hour to get it. Then we hit the internet...and it's FAST!!!! I can't believe it!!! If you guys are a little lucky, we just might be able to upload some more pictures for ya! (Not right now, though.)

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