What a long day!!! So we woke up at 7am, said bye to the ladies, I hugged them they were so nice to us. We have 2 big suitcases, 2laptops, 1 handbag plus backpack. Lots of stuff… yes I only have one big suitcase, a netbook and a handbag. That’s all I have in my life at least until I finish this trip or until next year. Im a TRAVELER I keep reminding myself traveler! Traveler! n also a blogger. (But still keep thinking OMG I hv no job, house, friends nor family around).
Anyway back to the bus ride, it was such a #painInTheAss what a long ride… it took us about 2hours from HCMC to the border at about 10ish am, the guy on the bus told us “we will take care of your VISA u only have to pay $25” but what we read in internet the Visa costs only $20, we thought oh well at least we don’t have to hassle with the stuffs and immigration people in the border, but the guys from Russia who sat in front of us refused to pay I guess because they knew how much is the real price. When we got to the border we had to take our stuffs to get through the X-ray etc. MAN!! We have such heavy bags I thought by paying $25 we will be relax and sit in the bus but I was wrong.. those Russian guys have saved $5 and have through the same procedures as we did (D#mn we should have followed them). One thing I learn today, everywhere you go, those people always tries to rip your money off. But all good I got my stamp and my first Cambodian Visa..(woo hoo, another VISA sticks into my passport, I love it) i always love watching NatGeo Adventure and so envy to those lucky guys who travel around and has passport full of stamps from different countries.. but YES “We are in CAMBDIA, but OMG I felt like illiterate, I couldn’t read single letter bcoz they have their own letters looks like Indian’s letter or Sanskrit or something, I dunnoAround 11.30am the bus stopped in this restaurant for lunch, me n Shea were so Hungry we went to local food, the guy said it only costs $2 so we got 2 plates of rice, small piece of chicken and vegetable… we ate and at end it cost $6 Damn they rip us off again!! I hate it… well the food wasn’t good all I could taste was MSG… gee I mean a lot of MSG.. A LOT.. seriously, I know in HCMC people put it in their Noodle but this time I couldn’t take it.. after I ate I threw up. But life to learn.
We passed 3 provinces of Cambodia and some villages for sure. Oh I felt like home, EVERYTHING looks so much similar, the houses, stalls on the street, people, etc. we played chess in the bus, watched movie, etc. at 12ish we crossed the Mekong river on the ferry. It took only 20 minutes n at around 1.30pm the bus stopped again in this restaurant but I had enough with MSG and local food. I didn’t buy anything, Shea bought fried noodle with chicken for $2,5 yes we r talking about dollar here coz seems like Cambodian likes $$$. (who doesn’t!! hahah). They also sell weird food such as fried spider, frog, cockroach etc. the Russian guys ate the fried spider n drank local beer. CRAZY!!!We arrived at Phnom Penh (Capital city of Cambodia) at around 2.45pm, in the bus station.. OMG it was so much hassle and hot, if I have to do it myself I don’t think I could, being a real backpack.. if you are a sophisticated traveler you should think twice to get a bus to go across the country. Thanks God Shea’s here, he brought all the bags etc. What a hassle, the tuk2 guys ran to u and try to get your luggage, I understand how hard they try to get some money to bring it home for their family but hassling others isn’t cool. God Bless Them. Our next bus would be at around 3.15pm, apparently the Russian guys were also going to Siam Reap. Yes SIAM REAP is where we heading to… we decided to skip Phnom Penh because the city is pretty much the same like HCMC, it doesn’t have many tourism sights. On the way, the bus stopped couple times…
We arrived at SIEM REAP at 10 pm, got out the bus, just like Phnom Penh, the tuk2 guys try to grab our bag, there was this tuk-tuk guy offered us $1 to anywhere we want.. sweet, we got into his tuk-tuk (first time I took tuk-tuk) if was fun ride, we wanted to go to a guest house from the lonely plannet book but according to the Tuktuk guy it’s far away from main city so he offered us to check some hotels he knows and he took us there. We got to this Hotel called Mekong boutique Hotel, very nice and clean, they only had one room left but in the 5th floor, I went up to look the room OMG 5th floor with no lift/elevator but stairs, yes 10 flights of stairs all the way up. The room is so nice n clean with 3 beds, TV, Air Conditioner, bathtub, hot shower, TV, fridge, etc. for $12 (so damn cheap), then I tried to bargain to $11 since we will stay for more than a week and the guy agreed (hahaa we backpack always try to get the best priceJ). BUT 5th floor, we then went to see another hotel just to compare, the tuktuk guy of course took us, but big N-O, dirty, small room, no fridge etc. for the same price. So we went back to the first hotel, I felt sorry for the Tuk Tuk guy and the receptionist who carried our bags all the way up to the 5th floor oh bless THEM. I wish I had small $$$ I would give them tips.. I had 900 re-al (local money) I gave it to the tuk tuk guy, i promise I will give him more. He will use his tuktuk again anywhere around the city, he was so nice.. he told us “I just need a job, give me a job, we will help each other” yes we promised only use his tuk tuk oh Bless him. He is such a nice and honest guy, I can see that.
We went out just to check the street around our hotel, I was super hungry I hadn’t had anything since I threw up from the MSG food. It was late almost midnight everything was close and quiet. We were wonder where all the tourist go… we walked and walked YES.. we found this street full of bars and tourist.. it called BAR STREET, loud music, party, bars, tourists everywhere, wow!! Looks like Kuta. We ate in this Italian restaurant, I had pizza for $5.75, drinks etc. the total bill was $7.75, we gave $10 and we got $2 plus 3000 RE-AL (local money) for the change. Everything is in $$$, we went this circle K to get waters etc. all the price tag is in $$$ but still cheap. We went back to the hotel, I had a looong shower n went to bed.
Ps: the TV in our room has many channels including Indosiar (Indonesian) channel, I also saw some ladyboys near the BAR street last night hahah…
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