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Wed 29/8
Left Chau Doc early in the morning to finish our Mekong Delta trip and head into Cambodia. We visited a floating village and got to see two of the fish farms followed by a visit to a minority village, it was dry when we visited but the houses are on stilts as the area tends to flood during rainy season. The one house had markers to show the high water levels of each year, hard to imagine the area filled with water! Back to the boat and we started our 2 hour trip to the Cambodian border. Since we were on a tour it made things very easy, we handed our passports and visa money to the guide and she sorted the rest. Heard some horror stories about this border crossing so glad we weren't going it alone! Once we arrived at the border we said goodbye to the boat and had lunch while we waited for our visas, got a nasty surprise when the guide came to tell us that we had stayed two days over our visa! The passports had been poorly stamped and signed from the date of issue, not date of entry as we had assumed! Luckily again we just had to hand over $30 to the guide and we had the exit stamp we needed no hassle! Would dread to think how it would have gone if we were on our own! Anyway we made it into Cambodia (where we know we have a 30 day visa from today!lol) and got a bus from the border into Phnom Penh. Was not a happy bunny when we arrived as we didn't get dropped off where our itinerary said we should, conveniently we were dropped off on the outskirts where there were a bunch of tuk tuks waiting to take us to our hostel. We had no choice but to get one at a ridiculously high rate but were actually secretly glad we did as the heavens opened half way to the hostel and it started to really lash it down. I would have been glad to give a tip after the driver got soaked in the rain but once we got there he asked for one so that was his tip out the window! Hate when they have the cheek to ask for it!
Thu 30/8
Set out to do a bit of sightseeing today, on our 10 minute walk from the hostel to the Genocide museum we were asked 11 times if we wanted a tuk tuk. We get asked this question so many times its unreal! So today we are turning it into a game to see how many times we will be asked in one day, if we reach lucky number 100 then we will take him up on his offer no matter how short the journey is! Its sad to say but the Genocide museum was actually a really nice place, very peaceful sitting in the garden area, but I suppose it had been a school before it was turned into the S-21 prison. It was interesting as we knew nothing about Cambodia's history, sad to think that after what the Nazi's did during WW2 that something so similar could happen somewhere else at the end of the 70s! We decided not to go to the Killing fields, it was fine visiting the museum and learning about what happened but not sure that I agree with the killing fields being a tourist attraction, didn't appeal to us anyway. Now that the depressing sightseeing is over with we grabbed some snacks and had a nice picnic lunch near the independence monument and watched the world pass by for a bit. Cam could sit all day watching the vehicles go by!lol. Walked up along the river and visited Wat Phnom, arrived at a nice time in the evening as caught it just before dark and after dark when things were light up! Had a really nice steak and garlic tatties fae a french restaurant which was a perfect treat to end the day. Cam was chuffed with himself tonight as while we were sitting having a drink a young boy came round trying to sell me a book, he had a lot of patience while i looked through them and told him he had none that interested me. He was a very nice young guy and i would have bought one if he had one i liked, he was trying to earn money to pay for going to school and only had $3 more to make before he could go home, i gave him the dollar profit which he would have made on the book i really didn't want and off he went. Cam then went after him and gave him the other $2 that he needed, it was nice to do a good deed for someone who appreciated it and genuinely needs it.
Fri 31/8
Bit of a slow start to our day, didn't feel just 100%, walked up to see the central market as the building was meant to be an interesting landmark, didn't do much for us. Had a late lunch and then visited Wat Ounalom, had planned to go to the Royal Palace but it was closed by the time we got there. Back to the hotel to make a few skype calls followed by a nice indian for tea, it was just like the indian food we got in india! :)
Sat 1/9
Well we had planned to head to Siem Reap today but we found out last night that there is an international cinema here so we are staying another day. Headed down to the river for lunch, tried to barter for a bracelet which was a fun experience for a change, the girl was reluctant to go for the price i wanted but said she would play rock-paper-scissors for it! I lost but had fun in the process so gave her what she wanted, fairs fair after playing the game! Its a shame another girl came up afterwards whining about it not being fair i bought from the other girl and not her! Do they really think they will get a sale with that attitude!! Went to visit the Royal Palace but once again didn't get in, this time we weren't appropriately dressed, it was actually really expensive so we didn't mind so much especially as on the way back to the hostel the heavens opened up and it poured down, could have ended up being a huge waste of money! Luckily we found a small local restaurant to take shelter in, spent a couple of hours playing cards until the weather cleared up just in time for us to get back to the hostel to change before heading out to the cinema. We went to see 'the dark night rises' it was a great film, sound was a bit too high which spoilt it at times but what do you expect for $2 each!
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