28 HOURS LATER... PNOMPENH

First impression of Phonpenh (for blissfully ignorant - the capital of Cambodia) is it's big (at least feels much bigger after Vientiane), hot, full of little motorcycles running around with the complete disregard of traffic rules, and yet another place outside the US where the greenback dominates the scene. Almost everything is in increment of $1. Everyone carries the US dollars and Cambodian Riels at the same time. In some restaurants the menu only shows the US prices.


Anyways, the way here wasn't quite pleasant. But, to be fair, we were played by the book, and since most of us (foreigners) on the bus had the same book warning us of the events to happen, we still got sucked into the sort of scam. Leaving Laos went relatively according to our expectations. We took a sleeping bus from Vientiane to Pakse (a town in the Southern part of Laos), from where we were supposed to take another bus to the border, and from the border another bus to Siem Reap. The sleeping bus was actually quite good. The bed was a bit short for me to stretch my legs, but was perfect for Katy. So, she slept better than I did. We were also given complimentary water, yoghurt and a bisquit. We arrived in Pakse about half past 6am, where we were met by the girl from the local travel agency who took us to her office, where we were supposed to take a minibus to the border. As we were to stop at the office we saw Katinka, with whom we already said Good Byes like 4 times. She just keeps popping out in places where we go.. haha~ Anyways, we were happy to see her, so, while waiting for the bus to leave we chatted a little bit again. When we got on the bus to the border, it turned out that the bus and all people in it, with the exception of us, wasn't going to the Cambodian border, so, we were let off at one point about 18 km from the border, where we were taken by the little motorcycle drivers to the border. It was a bit unnerving in the beginning because the motorcycles were tiny and kept breaking along the way and having not enough gas. But after about 20 minutes ride we got safely to the border. Got our Laotian departure stamp and then Cambodian entry stamp.
Up until this point was the smooth part of our journey. Then the little scam began to unfold. We got on the other bus which was already almost full, so, I had to sit on a broken seat for about 2 hours before our lunch stop. The local guide on the bus was one of those types which I don't really like. Trying too much to be cool, friendly and "smart-assy". To cut story short, the scam is that what should take 10 hours of trip, would take twice as long, so, that when we arrive it is pitch dark and they drop us off at some Guesthouse, where people end up staying and from which these guides get commission for bringing in the guests. We switched about 5 buses to get to Pnohmpenh and wasted about 6 hours just sitting around in random restaurants along the way waiting for yet another bus, and it wasn't even our original plan. Anyhow after more 24 hours of not showering and switching the buses we got to Pnohmpenh and settled in the guesthouse of our choice. No plans what to do tomorrow, except to get my Thai visa.

Oh, by the way, we're not going to China this time, because I can't get visa. Apparently with these Olympics games coming I can only get the tourist Chinese visa in my home country. So, we'll be coming home one month earlier, which is fine with us because we get sort of tired of travelling.. haha~~