Phnom Phen Water Festival
As you may have gathered, getting around in Cambodia isn’t always easy. But that’s one good reason to do it. It was fairly easy to escape Siem Reap and catch the bus to Cambodia’s capitol city. We took a government bus – the ones the locals take. At least those who can afford the riel and escape hanging on the roof of a shared van ( I saw some with 10 on the roof and lots jammed inside).
Anyway -the bus stopped some distance from town – the end of the line because of the water festival. There were an extra million people in town, so no room for big busses. Of course, we were all immediately assaulted by tuk-tuk and moto drivers willing to take everyone into the town center. They claimed we were about 25 Kms from downtown and wanted a bit of $ for the fare…one guy even was willing to take both Jan and I with our backpacks on his moped – for $5. I don’t think we would have survived the first pothole. We opted for the tuk-tuk and $8. Of course, we were only about 10K away – so we paid about twice what we should have – but how were we to know? And to quibble about a fare that is really quite low for us seems in bad form. Oh, well…
When we went down to the river, we entered the throng of folks at the waterfront – it rivaled any big gathering I have ever witnessed (Times Square on New Year’s, Mardis Gras). After a few minutes of being caught up in the flow of people, we escaped to a balcony bar and had a few beers and watched the masses and then the floats and fireworks. During the walk back to the guest house, many local teens had to measure how tall they were next to me. Being 6’4″ and blond, well…I don’t exactly blend in.
Tags: cambodia, Travel
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