I convinced Jives to go down to the pool at around 3pm, but just as we were sitting on the pool side lounges for one minute, it began to rain pretty hard. I was starting to feel pretty cursed. We retreated to our room and sat on the balcony which we hadn’t done yet. After an hour we went down to the pool again, but it started raining immediately. We got in the pool regardless, but only briefly. When we got out, our towels were soaked, so we went to the room to dry off. I had a hot shower as I was freezing and Jives passed out again.

At 6:00 I convinced him to go down to our hotel restaurant to eat with me, as he had hardly had any breakfast and I was hungry too. I ordered Tom Yum spicy soup that came with rice. It was so good, sour and hot and very lemony with big chunks of tomato. Jives got fried rice which he had a bit of. I ended up finishing most of it. I had two small cans of Cambodia beer and Jives ordered a “Bayon” drink with pineapple, line and egg I think? He also got a lime juice. The whole meal was $17, pretty good! Ahh Cambodia is so nice on the wallet after Singpore., especially when it comes to beer. 

https://youtu.be/3cXl5lfmfcU Here is a video we made of our journey from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh

Oct 25th

I woke up at 5 am, ready to go down to eat breakfast right at 7am so we could catch a tuk tuk at 8:15. We had a few coffees in the room and Jives had a coffee too… he looked a little bit better, although he said otherwise. We packed up our things and went down to eat at 7. We both ordered my trusted favourite breakfast, the fish congee with fish, lime, beansprouts, crispy garlic etc. Jives could only eat a little bit, but I devoured mine. I swear I could eat that for breakfast every day for the rest of my life.

We checked out at 8 and paid for our arranged tuk tuk to take us to the Giant Ibis bus terminal for 8:30. Mr.Kim showed up to drie us, he was such a super sweet guy! He said to JIves “oh he is alive” (as Jives had been sick and missed out tour the day before). The ride to the bus station took maybe 15 minutes. Jives filmed a rap take along the way. We arrived at the bus station at 8:30 and we were first on board the bus. We got the front seats with a good view of the road. We were given a bun with anko paste (red bean) and water. We left about 5 minutes late as we had to wait for one last passenger. The bus was super comfortable, a little cold but I put on my sweater and we figured out how to turn our air vents off.

The first few hours flew by and we stopped for a lunch break at 11:00. We were given 30 minutes so we purchased a bag of nori flavoured chips and two small cans of beer, the lunch of champions! It came to $5 USD but the lady wouldn’t take our bill as it had an older date. This was our first time encountering this issue in Cambodia, Myanmar was a different story where we expected our bills to be rejected…but not in Cambodia. We dug another bill out of our money belts which was a bit tricky. We then drank our beers and hopped back on the bus (the rest stop was really lovely with a view over the water and many cats). 

We drove another few hours through the Cambodian countryside seeing so many fields full of lotus flowers, rice paddies and incredible lush green scenery. I saw a man with about 30 chickens onboard his tiny scooter, and a cart carrying more cows that looked feasible, also trucks with the most bizarre assortment of goods; rakes, shovels and plastic brooms and dustpans, cabbages and bags of dried foods. Time flew by watching the scenery and listening to music. We stopped once more for 10 minutes just before Phnom Penh (around 1:30pm). We then made the approach to Phnom Penh and the traffic got crazier. Our driver switched with the other driver but this new driver kept checking his phone and drove so fast, passing everyone except one ambulance. I definitely trusted the first driver more as he was very alert and avoided hitting an old man on a scooter that darted in front of us, something that I would have found hard to do in a tiny car, let alone a huge bus! 

Anyways, we arrived at Sakura Avenue , an hour walk outside Phnom Penh, on an island, at about 2:30pm. I thought this was our final stop, but it wasn’t. The guide explained that we would also be stopping by the night market in downtown Phnom Penh, which would mean we could walk to our hotel instead of taking a tuk tuk. The anxiety of trying to explain where accommodation is to a driver is always a lot for me, not to mention the scam where your driver says your hotel is closed and tries to take you to a hotel where he gets commission. 

Anyways… we walked along the waterfront to our hotel, “Jungle Addition” which took about 20 minutes. It was threatening to rain, but that meant the sun was hidden, which was lovely. We walked past the Palace and some very interesting looking temples. Just as we arrived at our hotel it began to pour rain,perfect timing! Our hotel was surrounded by temples and monasteries on three sides (later that night I saw monks playing music in their rooms). We checked in, they had some trouble scanning our visas as our passports were set to expire very soon and were pretty full. The lady went to scan our Laos visa… but I had to tell her that wasn’t the right one. We made it to our room, it was a lovely room with beautiful yellow and green tiles that looked like they were from another era. The ceiling was so high and there was a four post bed with a canopy around it, BUT the best part was the balcony, overlooking the pool and surrounded by trees and jungly plants. The tiles on the balcony were similar but in red and orange. 

We got situated and Jives had a shower. We then set out to find some dinner at 5:45pm. We went to a place nearby that had craft beer and pizza. Jives needed some comfort food as he was recovering. I got an IPA and he got a lemonade. We ordered a vegan “pulled pork” pizza with jackfruit, pineapple and BBQ sauce. The lovely waiter said it was a 2-4-1 night, so we ordered a second pizza as it would be free. Jives chose a seafood pizza. The setting was lovely, in a little alleyway with lights overhead and some street art. We really enjoyed it..with one exception….a british tourist was being a pain in the ass to the staff. Don’t be that guy. 

We walked back to our room and fell asleep around 8pm.