Another fairly early start, up at 06.30 ready to get the 08.30 bus down to Phnom Penh. Bit knackered, and slightly annoyed when the transport to the bus station turns up late but hey ho – it could be worse, we could be at work! Traffic seems unusually busy – it turns out it’s Cambodian independence day, celebrating the fact the country became independent from France in 1953. The bus station is dusty but surprisingly well organised and we’re soon onto the bus and off on the road. The trip to PP is a good 5-6 hours so we settle down for a long trip. It’s actually pretty comfortable, and water and cold towels are included which is nice. We stop off partway in a town called Komplong Thom, which looks like a bit of a dump on entry but seems OK – not sure I’d stay there for any time though. We’ve got 30 minutes here so we have a bit of a wander but there’s not much to see. We buy some fresh pineapple which is amazingly sweet out here, then gawp at the trays of fried insects (grasshoppers, beetles and something else unidentifiable) for sale. People are buying them, one woman seems particularly taken and is coming back for more bags and chowing down while paying for them. Linda doesn’t seem happy and is not facing the stall. I find it amusing, particularly given we love stuff like prawns in the west and these are nothing more than sea insects. Still, even if I wasn’t veggie I wouldn’t – there’s something about a tray of shiny black fried beetles that is distinctly unappealing!
Back on the bus and 3 hours later we’re in PP. If the tuk tuk drivers in Siem Reap were bad then this lot are mental – as soon as we acknowledge we want a tuk tuk we’ve got four drivers surrounding us touting for business, we pick one and head off knowing the price is definitely right. The hotel we’re staying at – the Blue Lime – is down a small alley which looks slightly dodgy, but the place itself is a real oasis – it’s classy, calm, and is far enough away from the road to drown out most of the noise. It’s got a beautiful pool area (popular with expats apparently!) but that’s not an issue for us as we’ve pushed the boat out at this place and booked a room with its own plunge pool J PP seems to have a rather unusual penchant for hotels with concrete furniture (seriously!) and this place is no exception, but it seems to work rather well. After unpacking and having a swim we head out into PP proper.
Most southeast Asian cities have interesting (read: chaotic) traffic as anyone who’s been to downtown Bangkok or KL will testify. PP, however, raises this to a new level. The traffic is Utter Fucking Madness (excuse the language but swear words are truly justified). We’ve genuinely never seen anything like it, crossing the road is like playing a game of chicken on the M25. We swear to never try and walk around after a few beers! We wander round for a bit and it gets no better – the opposite in fact, we’ve been wandering down backstreets, the riverfront is an order of magnitude worse again! We sort out a visit to the killing fields and a bus to Saigon in 3 days (it’s peak season so we have to!) then grab some food, and we’re treated to an independence day firework display over the river Tonle Sap which is actually pretty impressive and, amusingly, it causes some of the traffic to stop almost literally in place, adding a new variable to the traffic equation! Then we run the gauntlet of traffic (and it’s definitely getting worse), and the casual sweeping up of a very large dead rat on the street as we head back to the hotel – it’s been a long and interesting day!
