We have left Vietnam and arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Our journey was by high speed ferry up the Mekong river. At the boarder we stopped at the Vietnam river customs and then 5 minutes further up river at the Cambodian customs for them to inspect our passports and visas. Unsurprisingly, the Cambodia Visas we purchased in the UK are not permitted for the river entrance, so politely they take another $68 US to let us in.
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The river journey was around 3 hours, which progressed well, until the boat came to a sudden stop. As we lift our heads from the back of the seats in front, we realised that we had run a ground. Our driver quickly jumped out of his seat, opened a box close to him and pulled out his swinging trunks. A few minutes later he was in the water. We had the feeling this was not the first time. After about 45 minutes of trying to get the boat free another ferry boat arrived to our rescue. After several attempts they managed to pull us free of the river bed. It wouldn’t be Asia without this type of incident.
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We had lost a little trust in our driver, but eventually we could see Phnom Penh in the distance. This was our second surprise of the day. Phnom Penh had a sky line we were not expecting, High rise buildings rising up behind the Mekong. A much more modern city than we expected.
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We arrived safely and checked into our hotel. The first stop a local market to buy new mobile phone SIM cards. Two SIM cards with 5 Gig of data each for a total of 6 USD. As someone who has spent the last twenty years trying to sell expensive mobile infrastructure to mobile operators around the world, it explains why they negotiate so hard. This is a low cost, low margin market,
England play Iran in the World Cup tonight. Just like Vietnam they love their football here, so there are many bars showing the game. The only challenge is a big rain storm is heading our way, which could mean we get wet.
Good Night Cambodia and good luck England.
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