Farewell Vietnam, Hello Cambodia

This morning was another early start as we had to be on the boat to Phenom Penh by 7.30am. It was made all the harder by an unexpectedly late night last night, although we all had fun just hanging out.

We bid farewell to Fu. He was an awesome guide and we will miss him but it was time to head over the border. Our speed boat was fairly speedy and the processing time to both exit Vietnam and enter Cambodia was good, but it still took till 12.30 till we arrived in Phnom Penh. We also got our first taste of how the kickback system works in Cambodia.  Our visas cost us $US23, yet the visa price is $US10.  It is a kind of institutionalised corruption that takes some getting used to, but the system seems to work, so there is nothing to bother getting upset about.

Our new guide (phonetically pronounced Soccer) met us and we headed to our hotel to quickly shower, change into more appropriate clothes (it is a very modest society I wish more of the tourists would appreciate that) and headed our for some lunch.

Soccer took us to a local restaurant where as it was now an extremely long time since breakfast we ate a massive meal. It was quite delicious.

We drove through he city, admiring the very different architecture from Vietnam. Our first stop was the Royal Palace. Unfortunately it was partially closed in preparation for International Women's Day tomorrow but we did get to visit the Silver Pagoda. Before we went in Jules, Oren, Mikey and I had our fortunes read. We all got very promising fortunes which was great. The silver pagoda is amazing. The level of gold, silver and precious stones including diamonds as big as your thumb were mind blowing.

The Silver Pagoda (the floor is solid silver inside)

We continued around the palace complex, including visiting a small building where Mikey and I were purloined into making some local music which was fun.

From there we headed to the art museum. The Khmer art through the ages is gorgeous and so interesting. However we were hurried through though by a large contingent of guards as the Lao Prime Minister was visiting. I felt really sorry for all the guards and officials in their long dark suits as it was very hot.

The Khmer Art Museum

The final stop on our city tour was an artificial mountain with a temple on top for Lady Penh who first settled the city before it became the capital.  Most of it is being renovated but there was great view including of the monkeys that live in they city.

Entry to Lady Penh's mountain temple - free for locals not for us

As we headed back to our hotel we mentioned to Soccer that we would like to get massages - after all it has been 2 days between massages for most of us. He rang a place and we arrived to find a phalanx of masseuses waiting. We had traditional massages and they were fantastic, although we are fairly sure that it was the type of massage place that offered a wider range of "services" than we were interested in.

Since then we have had a drink and some dinner - just pizza as it was close to the hotel and we were all too tired to do much else. Today has been great and we are all enjoying Cambodia but tomorrow we will be visiting some of he remnants of the darker side of this country's history which may not be so fun but is sure to be memorable.