Keeping it Reil in Cambodia - Phnom-enal Penh (day off!)
Another day, another country! Today was a transfer day from Vietnam into Cambodia – again, another early breakfast, ready to leave the hotel at 6.30am for our 7.30am ferry. Last night was great fun – had a Vietnamese barbecue with the little BBQ pots of embers sitting on the tables for you to cook your own supper. Was very similar to the Korean BBQ I had last year at one of Sam’s friends’ birthday parties. Lots of various marinated meats on skewers with yummy dips, chicken wings, tofu noodle soup, beef noodle salad along with the ubiquitous rice - very tasty, if not really all that healthy!!

So a short minibus ride took us into the centre of Chau Doc where it was time to bid farewell to our local guides, Mr Phat and Mr Trung and Vietnam. We’d had a little ceremony at dinner last night where 4 of us said a few words of appreciation for each of our guides and drivers as well as giving them their tips. Mr Phat had been especially fun with a wicked sense of humour (Mr Trung’s English was a lot harder to understand so some of his attempted jokes fell a bit flat at times!). Making sure we had all our luggage about our person, we trooped onto the ferry boat that would take us further up the Mekong, out of Vietnam and into Cambodia. The boat was pretty comfy so after a while, was getting lulled to sleep by the chugging of the engines (or knocked out by the carbon monoxide fumes?). After an hour, we slowed down and pulled into the side of the bank the exit point for Vietnam - and were immediately besieged by Vietnamese children selling sodas, crisps etc. Damian, our guide, collected our passports for inspection and then we just sat on the ferry waiting for about an hour whilst the bureaucratic process ran its slow and lumbering course (it pays to be patient on days like today!). A few bags were taken off the ferry for random searching and, after we’d got the all clear, we were off again for a short little hop to the Cambodian entry point. Here, we all had to get off the ferry into a fairly utilitarian courtyard, bounded by wire fences and high walls which housed the visa and customs station. I’d already got my Cambodian visa but, for those who didn’t already have theirs, the process was simple enough although it did look a little bit intimidating with the Vietnamese guy sitting across a large table from 3 stern-looking Cambodian immigration officials! After all the visas had been issued, we had to then go get them stamped (a quite intricate process involving 4 different stampers and 2 ink pads – you wonder if, on occasion, the immigration official sometimes goes wild and uses the red ink pad when really he should have used the blue one…..). My passport initially caused a little consternation until the official beckoned over another (obviously more important) official who then asked me where my Vietnamese visa was. I explained that I’d had a paper one – which was obviously the correct response, so the bureaucratic flapping subsided and the official could happily returned to his synchronized stamping.

So now, back on the boat for the remainder of the trip to Phnom Penh. It’s just gone 11am and I think we have at least another couple of hours to go, so I think I might have a quick snooze!!