By boat to Cambodia

Well - my previous post turned out NOT to be our last day in Vietnam...yesterday morning I woke up with D+V, so we postponed the boat until today. Laura and Solana had a lovely day yesterday, spending $5 to use the pool of the posh hotel in Chau Doc. I spent most of the day in bed but I'm happy to report that I'm feeling much better now.

This morning we got up early and got cyclo taxis to the riverside dock. These cyclos were different in style from the ones we've seen elsewhere in Vietnam - and more precarious - but good fun nonetheless. We then made the 6 hour journey by speedboat up the Mekong River to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Along the way we saw more of life by the river, although not as much as on some of the shorter boat trips we've done, as the Mekong river is so wide - rivalling the Amazon or, closer to home, the Humber at its estuary! We did get to see some of the large floating houses that have fish farms underneath them though (see 2nd photo here) - interesting to see. We stopped about an hour into the journey and disembarked to do the border formalities leaving Vietnam (1st photo with green sign), which consisted of sitting around on plastic chairs in a floating café for 15 minutes (whilst the boat staff got exit stamps in our passports), then putting our hand luggage through a scanner (a token gesture, as everyone's main luggage remained on the boat!), then getting back onto the boat. A few minutes further on we stopped again at the Cambodian border - 2nd photo with green sign (having seen quite a few houses in between - are those people Vietnamese or Cambodian? Who knows!). We all got our Cambodian visas and were back on our way again in half an hour or so - a pretty straightforward and painless border crossing.

As we approached Phnom Penh, lots of large and tall building appeared across the horizon (see last photo here). From what we have seen of the city this afternoon, it definitely has a "big international city" feel about it - much more so than the other cities we've visited so far (even Hanoi). There also appears to be a more noticeable Thai influence here - particularly in some of the temples/pagodas. I guess that makes sense, as we edge our way ever closer to our final SE Asia destination of Thailand...Read more