No, I said 'OK Guesthouse', not 'OK, Guesthouse'!
Shianoukville -> Phnom Penh, 10th
June 2002
I made an early start today, there was no reason to hang around
here. However, finding breakfast turned out to be a bit of a
challenge, it was about 8am, and no where seemed to open till 9am.
Hmmm, eventually I found a place that was open and managed to get
something approximating to food.
When I got to the bus station, I was delighted to find that the
price for the ticket back to Phnom Penh was on special offer (for some
reason I couldn't figure out). The ticket cost only 8000r, 4000r
less
than the ticket to get here!
They seemed to have some sort of policy where they tried to seat barang (foreigners) together. (NB Have you noticed how the word for
`foreigner ' is very similar all over South East Asia? The Thai say
`farang', the Lao say `falang' and the Khmer people say `barang'.)
So I get seated next to a chatty Kiwi guy who turned out to be quite
a character. He'd done a considerable amount of travelling and had
some interesting tales to tell, including having entry refused to the
UK when he last tried to visit. I think the fact he knew how to make
fake pound coins indicated his state of mind and why the UK said
`no' to him.
Again, the journey on Cambodia's finest road was problem free, and I
reached Phnom Penh with no problems.
However, when I tried to get a moto from the bus station to my
guesthouse it was a bit more difficult...The driver I ended up with
didn't speak English that well, but when I said `OK Guesthouse' he
seemed to understand. However, he took me to a random guesthouse,
and after I said `no', he took me to another random one. It became
clear that he thought I said `Ok, Guesthouse', as in `Ok, take me to
a Guesthouse'. In the end I gave him directions and we got to the
'OK Guesthouse' ok.
The really friendly staff, who'd I got to know quite well, were
happy to see me, but were surprised I'd come back so soon. I
explained to them about the lack of sun, and they nodded
understandingly. I asked if Amy was still around, but they told me
that she'd left for Shianoukville (where I'd just come from) this
morning. Oh well, I hope she has a better time there than I did!
The rest of the day turned out to be a relaxing (lazy) day,
just passed time before moving on again tomorrow. I spent the day
wandering around Phnom Penh and getting a couple of new books from
the `London Book Exchange'. The book swap place is fantastic, it's
the only place in Asia that I've been to where they give decent
rates for part exchange. So if you come here and wanna swap your
books, check out the `London Book Exchange'.
I headed back to the guesthouse in the evening and chatted with some
guys who'd just arrived here from Siem Reap. I gave them tips about
Phnom Penh in exchange for some inside info on Siem Reap.
After watching the football on TV, I retired early to sort some
things out and repack for my excursion the next day. I'd decided to
visit a small town called Pursat. Not many tourists go there, and
there's a nearby floating village that sounds really worth seeing.
Night!
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