Day 16 - Lurgy strikes like lightning

12:30
I’m in the hotel lobby a little after 07:20. Felix appears about 15 minutes later, mumbling something about his watch being several minutes slow. The bus station is a good 15 minutes away by tuk-tuk. We’ve got time - but not much. I use Grab to order a tuk-tuk. A driver accepts the job, and then moves exactly nowhere. I cancel, and order another. Happily, he turns up almost immediately. We make it with a little under ten mins to spare. Needn’t have worried - another passenger wombles up 5 minutes after the scheduled departure time. Wanker.

The bus is pretty well appointed. Comfy seats, decent leg room. Some parents with a young baby board. Yes, of course - they’re sat in the seats directly in front of us. They go to recline their seats, and nearly crush Felix’s knees. Our journey is 6 hours today - not in and of itself a concern, but if there’s going to be dickhead behaviour, it’s going to feel a lot longer.

The driver continues the trend of lunacy. I’m less concerned though, as I can’t actually see out of the windscreen unless I make a special effort. Out of sight, out of mind etc etc. Felix finds a spare couple of seats further back in the bus, which allows us both to stretch out a little. The time starts to pass quickly. I flit between watching a movie, reading about Phnom Penh, and watching the Cambodia countryside. This feels like the greenest part of the country we’ve yet come across. The rice paddies are richly verdant, unlike the barren and brown paddies down in Battambang. The roads are reasonably clear. We occasionally get stuck behind a tractor, or other slow moving vehicle.

At 10:00, around 2 hours into our journey, which stop for a bathroom break, a pitstop, and for some food to be taken onboard. We’re asked to make sure we’re back on the bus by 10:10. The bus driver starts to beep his horn when the appointed time arrives. We’re missing two passengers. It’s Mum/Dad and their teeny baby. They stroll back onto the bus 3 minutes later. Of course they do. I don’t think we knew we were going to be fed, but the bus attendant comes round with some fried rice shortly after we leave again.

Around 90 minutes from Phnom Penh, Mum/Dad/baby abandon their seats to instead occupy the rear bench of seats. They leave their original seats fully reclined, because they’re idiots.

17:30
The bus arrives almost an hour early into Phnom Penh, just after 13:00. 5 hours has passed really pretty quickly. Disembarking the bus in Phnom Penh, the heat is a bit of a shock after 5 hours in the air-conditioned cocoon of the bus. Our hotel is only a few hundred metres up the road, so we set off at a march. It transpires only one of our rooms is ready. To be fair, we’re early, and the check-in time is officially 14:00. The check in process is a little clunky and convoluted. It doesn’t inspire confidence. We dump stuff into the room that’s available, and Felix heads out for a massage.

Maybe ten minutes later, I use the bathroom - number 1s only, but when I flush, I’m met by a bowl of dirty, brown water. It does not drain away. I’m afraid this is not hugely uncommon in this part of the world. I bet pennies to pounds that someone has put their used toilet paper in the bowl instead of the bin. An easy enough mistake to make, due to muscle memory, but blocked toilets are a less than pleasant result. I’m 50/50 whether we should check out, get a refund and find somewhere else, or just ask for a new room. I ping Felix, and wait to hear back. It transpires he’s signed up for a full 90 minutes of massage, so I’m waiting quite a while…

We ultimately decide that new is always better, request a refund at the front desk, and head off to Penh House. Immediately, there are good vibes to be had. The staff are a delight, the rooms are beautiful, and fully functional in the toilet department. There’s a rooftop bar with an infinity pool, and there’s a more than decent Chardonnay by the glass. It does make me think about the risks of booking on an aggregator site. I’ve been lucky with booking.com during my sabbatical. This is one of very, VERY few misses over the past 8 months. Most have been great. I think when you’ve stayed in upwards of 40 different hotels/guesthouses in an 8 month period, it’s only reasonable to expect that 1 or 2 will be a bit duff.

22:00
Somewhere around 18:00, I start to feel properly rough. Aches, a fever, and an open backdoor policy. I repair to bed, and try to sleep. I doze for a while, but keep waking up - shivering. I don some socks and a hoodie, and curl up under the duvet. It’s really quite dull. I let Felix know that I think it’s incredibly unlikely I’ll be up for touristing tomorrow. It’s a huge shame, as we were due to take our Killing Fields tour tomorrow, which - whilst not the jauntiest of subject matters, is very much why we planned to come to Phnom Penh. Still, I can’t much think about that just at the moment, as I’m feeling incredibly sorry for myself. I touch base with Felix. It transpires he’s had a lazy evening at the hotel. I can’t blame him - the hotel’s proper lovely.

I’ve only been in bed for a few hours, but already feel like my back is seizing up. I’m really struggling to get comfy. Very much wish my room had a bath right about now. Actually - scratch that. I don’t fancy the idea of getting out of the bath and feeling cold...Meer informatie