Not a lot to write about today, as most of the time we would be on the road, travelling to Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh.
We were up early as usual this morning as we had to be underway at 7.30am. We ensured everything was packed up in our lovely room at the Aviary Hotel, and placed our cases outside our room to be taken down to reception.
We enjoyed a substantial breakfast in the restaurant; I had a freshly-cooked mushroom and pepper omelette washed down with coffee and water.
We then made our way outside to the waiting coach, and watched while our cases were loaded onto it. Moonie greeted us all in his usual cheerful manner, and told us we could expect a lot of rain today. After the last few sweltering days, we almost welcomed the news. 🙂
The coach set off on time, and we looked back as it slowly pulled away from the Aviary Hotel. We were quite sad to leave; it is an amazing hotel in a fantastic location, and we’d really enjoyed our three nights in Siem Reap; it was quite an experience. 🙂
So now we were on our way to Cambodia’s capital. What immediately comes to mind when you hear the place name Phnom Penh? For me, it has the same connotations as places such as Basra, Sarajevo, Kabul and more recently Mariupol. You know these place names, even if you don’t know how you know them. It’s because, at that time, you heard them on the news all the time. Why did we hear them on the news? Because of war. War that happened then, and war that continues to happen. For those particular places, even decades later, you’ll always associate them with war.
Moonie told us we would he having a comfort stop around 9.00am, as he wanted us to see a particular bridge. It was at a place called Kampong Kdei and was known as Spean Praptos (or sometimes just the Kampong Kdei Bridge) and used to be the longest corbelled stone-arch bridge in the world, with more than 20 narrow arches spanning 285 feet. The bridge was built in the 12th century during the reign of King Jayavarman VII. It is one of the few Khmer empire era bridges to have survived to the modern day.
When the coach pulled up at the bridge, we all alighted and walked along to where the bridge spanned the Chickreng River. So much for the 20 arches; the muddy water was so high that the bridge almost seemed just to ‘float’ on the top of it.
The fact that the river was so high also meant that, at the little roadside rest stop, the toilets were closed as they were flooded out. Moonie said it was a walk over the bridge to some more toilets; hopefully these ones would be OK, and indeed they were.
We continued on our way again, passing the endless landscape of flooded rice paddy fields, small villages, towns, roadside stalls and traffic. Moonie periodically came around to top up our water bottles, and we spent the time napping, relaxing, reading or just sitting in reflection of the things we’d seen and done so far. Ashley and Clare, two fellow travellers who were sitting behind us, were passing the time playing games such as going through the alphabet and naming fruits and vegetables, or famous actors, or brands. We couldn’t help but eavesdrop, and I had to resist the temptation to join in! 🙂
Just before 10 o’clock, the coach stopped at a petrol station for some fuel. There was a supermarket next door and Moonie said we had about 20 minutes to stretch our legs and perhaps buy drinks and snacks in the supermarket as we wouldn’t be stopping for lunch until around 2.00pm.
Trevor and I therefore went into the shop and browsed around; we didn’t want any snacks but, as is customary, I had to buy a large bag of those low-quality foreign sweets to take back to work to share with my colleagues. 🙂
As we passed a refrigerated display, we spotted some cold cans of Tiger beer so we bought a can each to enjoy on the coach. We remembered when we toured India in 2015, our guide used to stock up with Kingfisher beer and come around on the coach at intervals to sell it. 🙂
We enjoyed our cold beers immensely, and got rid of the empty cans at the next rest stop. Each time the coach pulled up somewhere, roadside sellers would come flocking with handicrafts, snacks such as dried mango or coconut, scarves and cotton clothing. Several of the ladies on the bus bought some nice floaty trousers; I will have to see if I can get some later on in this trip. 🙂
And so the time passed, as time surely does. At least sitting in the air-conditioned bus we weren’t all hot and sticky and sweaty. In fact, we’d have no chance of becoming hot and sticky and sweaty at all today, because the rain had started with a vengeance and was pouring down the windows of the coach in torrents.
It was an interesting phenomenon to watch how the locals coped with the deluge. Many people on scooters or motorbikes obviously carried those disposable plastic ponchos with then for occasions such as this, but others just sat astride their bikes and got soaking wet. Whenever the coach went under a bridge, it had a job to get through due to the sheer numbers of cyclists and motorcyclists who were sheltering underneath. 🙂
At 2.15pm we arrived at the Banana Tree Restaurant for our lunch. There was a long pathway under a tree arch, and I baulked when I saw it was tiled. I was wearing my flip-flops and, on wet tiles, it’s like being on an ice-rink and I was terrified of slipping. Trevor took a firm grip of my arm as I gingerly tip-toed along. I made it safely to the entrance of the restaurant where there were towels on the floor for us to dry our feet.
It was lovely in the restaurant, and made a nice respite from the seemingly-endless coach trip. Trevor and I each ordered a 600ml bottle of Tiger each, before the dishes of delicious food arrived. As always, it was fragrant rice accompanied by local dishes containing fish, pork or chicken, and lots of fresh vegetables. The conversation was upbeat and interesting and amusing… what a great bunch of companions were were sharing our Great Asia Adventure with! 🙂
It was about 3.15pm by the time we’d all finished and Moonie had rounded us all up again. Then it was a case of going back outside in the rain and along the slippery path towards our waiting coach. As each person was about to emerge into the deluge again, our brilliant coach driver ran forward with a capacious golf umbrella and held it over us until we were safely aboard the coach once again. Moonie then told us we only had another hour or so on the road until we reached our hotel for the night. 🙂
The rain didn’t let up for the rest of the way, and we were amused at the sight of lots of children splashing, jumping, paddling and even ‘swimming’ in the deep, muddy puddles, obviously having the time of their lives.
Finally, just after 4.00pm, the coach pulled up outside a large building right on the banks of the Bassac River, which is a tributary of the mighty Mekong. The hotel was called the Sun & Moon Riverside Hotel and looked fabulous. Immediately next to the hotel were a couple of bridges spanning the river; each bridge carried two lanes of traffic going in opposite directions. The opposite side of the river to the hotel didn’t look too built up; there were very few high-rise buildings, mostly just kampong-type dwellings.
Inside the hotel, we were given the traditional cold towel and chilled glass of juice while we waited for our cases to be collected from the bus and for our room keys to be issued. Then we travelled up in the lift to our room on the sixth floor.
The room was lovely; large and airy with a massive window that gave us a fantastic view over the river. Well, it would have been fantastic on a clear day, but the rain still hadn’t let up so the low cloud and the mist blurred our view a little bit.
We decided to rest and have a power nap for an hour or so. It’s funny, we hadn’t done much at all today, apart from sit around, but sometimes inactivity can make you feel more tired than if you’d been active, as was the case now. As it was, it continued to rain so even going to the lovely infinity pool that we’d seen the pool had was not really a very good idea.
After our nap, I got showered and changed and ready to go down to the hotel’s restaurant. We enjoyed the usual cold beer, along with a selection of tasty local dishes. The food and the dining options have been excellent on this trip so far, and we felt sorry for anyone who ‘didn’t like’ foreign food because there weren’t a lot of options otherwise. One of the sheer pleasures of travelling far and wide is discovering new, authentic local dishes (although we do absolutely draw the line and char-grilled rat and snake).
After our meal, Trevor and I looked at Google Maps to see if there were any bars or pubs nearby (we didn’t want to go too far in the rain!). It seemed as though the nearest one was nearly a mile away (and we’d have to walk back again), so we decided just to make do with the hotel bar tonight. It seemed as if everything closed at 10.00pm here anyway.
It was just before 10 o’clock when we returned to our room on the sixth floor with its great views. I took a photo out of the window (compare it with the ones taken earlier) and decided to leave the curtains open overnight, so we could appreciate the view in the morning.
Tomorrow we would spend a very full day, not only exploring Phnom Penh, but travelling along the Mekong in a passenger boat and into Vietnam. Once again, we slept very well.