Day 31: 9/7/13
We were up early to have breakfast in the hotel at around 6:30. We had to be ready to leave then at 7:30. We were going on a public bus back to Pnomh Penh. It collected us at the hotel though, then had another stop in the town and another one at the bus station. It was 8:30 before we left Sihanoukville properly. We had seats 1-17 in the front of the bus again, but this time the bus wasn't full so we could spread out a bit. I expected public buses to be cramped and dirty but these are fine- they are a bit smaller, maybe 40 seaters rather than 52, but they have air conditioning and everything. They are almost cold but that's a lot better than hot when you are travelling and I just wrap up in my raincoat!
We only stopped once for the toilet and we got there around 1 o'clock. We had been told to expect delays so it went quicker than expected. I caught up on some of the blog and was chatting with some of the Australians about trips they had been on and places they had been to. Time went fairly quickly.
We went for lunch when we got off the bus- myself and Ann-Marie, 3 English girls and the Australian mother and son, the same people I was with most of yesterday. There were tuc-tucs sitting outside the restaurant for ages waiting for us to finish, so when we went outside and decided to go to the Russian markets they were up like a shot!!
The markets had a bit of everything, lots of clothes and souvenirs. It was very cramped though and the smells of raw meat and fruit mixed together wasn't great!! We wandered around for a while though and nearly all of us bought something. I bought a set of the spices they use for making the curries they have here- so that might be something I' use at home!
We went back to the hostel then for a nap. I went on the Internet though. I had emailed the tax people to see when my tax was going to come through as I hadnt heard anything from them. It'll be another six weeks anyway but I got a proper tracking number and a quote of how much to expect so it's not too bad. I had to change the hotel I had booked in Vietnam aswell as the tour changed the hotel they were finishing at. It's easier to stay in the same hotel and so far they've been nice places. So I booked they one they are finishing at now and shopped around on different websites until I found the cheapest. This one doesn't have free cancellation so they better not change it again!!
We met up at 7:30 and headed down the town for dinner. Jeff came with us aswell, the guy from New Zealand. There's a big divide in the group really for some unknown reason so I don't know where all the others were! We went to the same restaurant we went to the last night we were in Phnom Penh as it had a pool table and some of them wanted to play pool. The restaurant is on an upstairs balcony so you can see out to the street. At one stage there was a lot of shouting from the street so we got up to see what it was and it was the opposition party campaigning for the elections in a few weeks time. They had a few vans with megaphones and loads of people on motorbikes with flags and they were all changing! It was mad! About an hour later a convoy for the government party passed aswell so we were highly entertained with all this rallying.
We stayed for a good while at the restaurant chatting and then we had to call to a supermarket on the way home to get water for tomorrow. We are driving to Vietnam tomorrow and it is supposed to take most of the day to cross the border so it will be mostly a bus day I think- today was mostly a bus day too really apart from the markets!