Day 4: Crossing the border to Phnom Penh

The tour organizers picked us up at around 6AM to bring us to the floating hotel to have breakfast.  It was chaos. In a small but open dining area along the river, it was jam packed with tourists and bags, they didn’t have enough tables to seat all of us nor enough people to timely serve us food.  But by the time I got my breakfast, I only had a minute to eat it since we were about to go.

Our first destination - the fishing farm. It consists of wooden planks above the river, with square whole in the middle used to feed the fish. One has to get used to the smell there, primarily due to the feeds use. But what’s interesting to see is how the fishes go wild when you drop feed pellets!

Active fishes

Lazy dog

Afterwards we went to a nearby local village by the river, a tour to show the daily normal lives of Vietnamese there.  Though the provincial scene is nothing out of the ordinary, I particularly was fond of this one. The rice grains on the road, the street vendor, the bridge, grandmother who was cooking her own version of pancakes, of which I used my last 5,000 Dong to try.

By mid morning, we were headed to the border to go to Cambodia. The tour guide told us all that the slow boat option is no longer available.  To reiterate the difference, the “fast boat” means that one will take the boat all the way to Phnom Penh.  The “slow boat” on the other hand would entail a transfer to a bus at the border, with travel time approximately 4 hours longer, and it’s not really a boat. I purchased the fast boat option but for some of us, they were ambushed to pay an extra 10USD.

On the border, we docked to one of the most unstable looking wooden platform to wait for more than an hour for visa processing. For an “Asean” like me which doesn’t need a visa, they charged me 5USD for “stamping fee”.  I later on heard mixed stories about this questionable fee, but I guess this is just one of the money making corners that people take, which I chose to shrug off.

dock to the border of Cambodia, stable despite the way it looks

After the border, it was still a several hours of boat ride which left me with some headache due to heat and poor air conditioning. I was distracting myself by reading a novel written by a Cambodian survivor during the Pol Pot regime, lent to me by Manon. I was able to finish over a hundred pages, enough to psych myself to visit the killing fields tomorrow.

An autobiographical novel written by a Pol Pot regime survivor

We arrived at Phnom Penh at 5PM, and Manon said goodbye to us since she wanted to chill and take her time in the city while I, Hanna, and Harleigh are at a bit faster pace. Told myself I’d do that kind of vacation someday… 6 months, having days wherein you will practically do nothing, just lay down and read a book. 

Manon

So just like with any other foreign friends that I meet along, it’s goodbye and hope the world is too small for us not to see each other again.

Phnom Penh riverside

The 2 girls and I stayed stayed in a 6USD/night dormitory hostel near the riverside called “Velkomen”, or Dutch for “Welcome”.  There we met Lee, who was there to accompany her friend cover the live hearing of the old Khmer Rouge leaders being prosecuted by UN for crimes against humanity. Her stories made us decide to check that out.

Lee

It was raining hard that night. My disposable rain coat served a good purpose again for one of the girls on our way to the cheapest dinner that we can find.  Then we just chilled with drinks in Velkomen’s wonderful lobby.  Hannah and Harleigh are actually literature and language major graduates, so aside from the love life of the former, we were able to make some good cultural and peculiar topics that lasted for hours and hours until it was time to retire… Looking forward to Phnom Penh city tour.

Weird Cambodian bartender on the left

For more picture of my 4-day trip to Vietnam, please check my facebook photo album & subscribe.