phnom phen

Dear travel journal,
Today was a long one. Up at 6am, quickly backed my bags and ran down stairs to join the others. Im still congested and yuk today but as the day went on my nose was starting to dry up a little, which was nice. Once we were all ready we headed off to the public bus station and piled in for the long journey from vietnam to cambodia - to phnom phen. Tom sat next to me and we had a good chat while the bus was getting sorted and we started heading off. Once we were off at 7am, we got our passports and visa and immigration paperwork sorted and they have us some water and banana bread and a bun for breakfast. After a bit, tom decided to sleep as he said he only got 2 hours last night because of his jet lag and i read for a bit and then had a bit of a sleep too. At 10am we stopped at the loas border and got our exit stamps sorted and back on the bus to the cambodia boarder and got our entries and visas sorted. Then back on the bus for 5-10mins and we stopped for lunch around 10.30am for about half an hour at a road side food court type place. We changed our remaining dong to US dollars while there because cambodia although they have their own currency, work more with US dollars then cambodian reip. Then back on the bus and i got a little more sleep and tom slept pretty much the whole way. After a while i got bored and the wifi started working on the bus so i started playing on my phone and messaging dana and euan. Euan i was just stared spaming pictures from the fightfighters calander, it was quite amusing. Well i thought so lol. We didnt stop at all, even for toilet breaks as there was a toilet in the back of the bus. Until 3pm when we were just outside of phnom phen. All of the city roads are closed because it is their wayer festival which goes for 3 days every year and falls on the biggest full moon in 68 years (14th and 15th). So its one massive party. Lots of police and military personel walking around armed and loads of cambodians everywhere. So we loaded into 3 tuktuks and a car with all of our luggage so that we could get to our guesthouse which took ages because the king is in town for the festivities and our guest house is not 100meters from the palace. Which is quite cool really. However it was also a squeeze in the car. We had tom in the front. Then gus, felix, dana and myself in the back. Soo i pretty much sat on the floor and we were all intertwined it was quite funny. Once at the hotel we checked in and went for a quick walk around town. The main square was filled with people and the palace had birds flying over everywhere. With the race being called out over load speakers and locals everywhere and people selling things and music it was all insane. We passed through an airport security type check point with security guards, military and police and firemen and ambos everywhere to where big marquees with chairs set up all the edge of the river ran. And we walked down to the rivr ledge and sat and watched the boat racing. The dragon boats had to have at least 30 people each and they do tree days of racing. There are 13 provinces of cambodia and they all enter multiple teams into the races, which are nearly 2kms in length. And they just up and back all day long. We noticed the kig arrive to a tent near where we sat and all the extra fancy merc's and black suited body guards show up. Then we wandered up the river front where peoplr just stretched out forever. Then we (kiwis, girls, nicola and i) ended up going through the local markets. Everyfood and random item you could want all cramed into tiny stalls, with no walking room. It really is quite fascinating. Then we headed back to a river front bar/restraunt where limney had made a booking and had some drinks, meeting everyone there and then we had dinner. While watching the fireworks which went on for an hour. With boats with massive light displays floating up and down. It was really quite cool to see. We are soo lucky to be here when the water/moon festival is happening, its amazing. After dinner it was already 9pm and we were all stuffed. So back to the guesthouse to get sorted. I completely unpacked my big bag, reorganised and then repacked after packing an overnight bag for our home stay tomorrow night and a day bag for the mornings excursion. Then it wad shower and bed for me. Night all.Read more