20th nov Phnom Penh 2
the next morning, I was getting the bus with monique and the 2nd couple see met in ban lung. Monique was going to kratie for the night and then to Phnom Penh before heading down to the south to kep for a few days before she went home. I decided to head down with her, if I could get my Vietnamese visa on time, as I was planning on going back in there for about a week or so to see the south of Vietnam. On the bus journey I was sitting in the front sit with monique, so I could everything. Not a good idea, I wouldn't recommend it. You have to have nerves of steel. Getting to kratie was OK. The bus journey was much shorter than we thought it should take but we weren't complaining. We said goodbye to monique, I told her which guesthouse I would be staying at, and hopefully I would see her there the next night to go to kep together.
The next couple of hours on the bus was a bit hair raising. The bus driver decided to take the short cut, which would have been fine but the road wasn't in the best condition. It was quite bumpy in some places and the bus would sway side to side as he went over potholes. But the best was when he came to one part of the road, it was just mud. Looking at it and I was in the front seat, it didn't look good. All I could think was that I was glad I went to that fortune teller and he told me I would never have an accident. I know its a stupid prediction but it definitely made me feel calmer.
So he went at the mud on the left side. I myself would have gone down the middle but that's me and really fast. Ha ha. We were swaying back and forth and then he started to slide to the left. He stopped the bus and tried to bring it back up to thee right and got to a certain pointed and started to slide again. It was kinda freaky. I was expecting us to turn over at any minute. I wasn't having much luck on the transport in Cambodia. What made it worse a Cambodian woman and her teenage daughter jump off the bus because they were afraid. You think that they would be used to stuff like that. But us westerns just kept looking to see what would happen, if they told us to get off the bus we would have but they didn't so we didn't.
He tried again and this time he made it to the right but the bus dangerously tipped to the right and back again. That I think was the closest I ever got to a bus tipping over. Over all the road actually wasn't that bad in parts anyway. I think they were actually fixing it up. At one stage they were building a bridge so they had made a bypass, where you had to drive around where they were building it. The bus went down and it was grid locked. So the bus had to joined the queue as there wasn't anywhere to go. There was only room for one car or bus at a time and we had a fuel trunk in front of us to. We were stuck there for awhile. Atleast at home they green light signals for when each side could go. But not here. So eventually the bus had to back up far enough for the trunk to back up to let the build up on the other side through. So when they got through, we went to take off, but at the other side no one had told them not to come forward so we had another jam trying to get out. Trying to get a bus past a mini bus with motorcycles strapped to the roof. It was very interesting and then the ramp back up to the road was a muddy mess again and for sure I thought we would tip over this time, but we had a great bus driver and we made it through. After that the rest of the journey was uneventful. Ha ha
when we got to Phnom Penh, we needed to get a tuk tuk to the guesthouse. After my last encounter I was ready for them. The French couple decided to share a tuk tuk with me, so when we got our bags off the bus. There were drivers looking to bring us. Again they started off at 6 dollars and I said no. and we continued to walk towards the main road to pick up one from there. When one of the tuk tuk drivers said 3 dollars. I turned to talk to him and who was it but the tuk tuk driver I got the last time with the other couple. I couldn't believe it. I said no, I went with you before. And turned away. That's when another driver said 3 dollars. This time I made sure it was clear before we got into his tuk tuk. So I said 3 dollars, one dollar each. No more and made sure the couple heard as well. He said yes yes 3 dollars. So we decided to go with him.
We went to the same guesthouse I went to the first time, and again there was space for me but not for the couple. So they had to leave and go somewhere else. I guess I was lucky. That night I was going to have an early night but I ended up being on the computer quite late. I had gotten an email from sareth the monk I met, apologizing for not being there when I went to see him. The letters were actually very sweet, and I ended up getting 2 from him because he hadn't heard back from the first one. But I didn't actually end up being on line while I was up north. I tried once in kratie, but the service was really crap.
So I emailed him back saying I would try and call over to him the next day after seeing the palace as I still hadn't seen it. Then went to went bed, not setting my alarm clock as I wanted to get a good sleep.
I woke up the next morning around 9 and went for breakfast, and then checked my emails. I had gotten an email back from sareth saying maybe I could have lunch with him and his monks friends that day. That was really nice and I wrote back I would love to and would see him later. I then left to go to the palace, when I got there it was after 10 already and the palace closed at 11 till 2. I guess for lunch and the hottest part of the day. So it was too late for me to go in, I had to wait for 2pm instead.
I wasn't sure if I should go over to sareth then as he never said what time for lunch and I wasn't sure if I would have been early. So I headed back to my guesthouse first and thought I would back over for about half 11 when I would have gone as if I was in the palace that morning.
I left a little late and then on the way I met this lady from the Philippines, who got all excited when she heard I was from Ireland and wanted to talk to me because her sister was going to go to Ireland to work as a nurse for awhile. So when I finally got to sareth it was after 12 and he wasn't there. But one of the monks said to wait for him in his room. I thought I would wait a little bit and if he didn't come back soon I would leave. But he wasn't long and we started chatting. He brought me into another room where I could have lunch. He said that they had eaten already and it was my turn to apologise for being late saying I wasn't sure what time to come for. He said that Buddhist monks don't eat after 12. that they can eat as much as they like from the time they wake up till noon and then after that they can't eat again for the rest of the day. I had to apologise again saying I didn't know that and then he said he was waiting for me for come all morning. I felt so bad. But sareth and kept some food for me so I ate by myself while sareth sat there by me.
He was telling about Cambodia. and asking me questions about Ireland. From everything from education to the different foods. The lunch that was made was beautiful. It tasted exactly like stew from home but instead of eating it with bread I ate it with rice. I told him it was really good and he said so you like Cambodian food and I told him it was like stew at home and it was great. Best food I had eaten in a long time. The time spent with him was really nice and peaceful and we had some great discussions. We even meditated for awhile. With him showing me how to fold my legs and to relax and breathe. It was really cool. My legs were killing me after though. I don't know how they can sit like that for hours at a time. I guess you get used to it.
I left him in the afternoon, saying I had to find my friend who was coming down from kratie today and to pick up my passport as I had left with the guesthouse so that they could get me a visa for Vietnam again. I thanked him for the lunch and everything, and said if I make it back up to Phnom Penh again I would call back into him. He said that if I did, he would bring me out to the country to see his homeland. It sounded really cool and I wanted to come back and do that.
On my way back to the guesthouse I stopped by the palace and saw it, finally. It was really nice, a bit to expensive for it though.
When I got back to my guesthouse, I got my passport with my visa in it, so I was ready to go. There was no sign of monique, but I don't know if she already got here and went out again or hadn't arrived yet. So I sat and ate dinner and decided to hang out around there and see if I ran into her.
While I was eating dinner she came up to me, she had just come back from walking around, so she sat down and ordered dinner as well. It was good to see a friendly face. I found out she had already bought her ticket to kep so I went up to the desk at the hotel and got my aswell. We were leaving the next morning. So we went to bed early as again we had an early start.
