Day 18: Travelling up to Phnom Penh

What a journey - up early to start the boat trip to Cambodia, and never a dull moment. The boat from Chau Doc was late in setting off, then 20mins in we had to turn back to pick up two people the driver forgot, then we had a half hour delay whilst a different couple had to sort out cash for the visas, before we finally set off properly. It didn't really matter as we knew we wouldn't be able to check in until after lunch, but it was a bit tense thanks to the general level of fussing amongst the others.

Once underway the only notable things about the journey were the two stops for immigration - one to sign us out of Vietnam and the other to sign us into Cambodia. As both went smoothly, despite JP's fears, there isn't much to share. Oh, except for the world's smallest banana's - see photo of my hand holding one of them. We received a snack pack, and each had three of these tiny pieces of fruit. It's all a conspiracy to make us feel even more like giants!

Once in Phnom Penh, we arrived at the tourist dock, and faced the usual barrage of drivers trying to convince us to use them as transport. Given we knew our B&B was some distance away, we decided to opt for our first tuk-tuk, and it was great fun. After the two dodgy cyclo's the boat company sent to get us first thing in Chau Doc, the tuk-tuk was luxury and much safer by comparison.

The B&B is really nice - very modern and I think it might be quite new too. Our room is one of five and is at the top of the building, up three floors, so it is a bit of a hike with bags as there isn't a lift in such a small property.

Once settled in, we headed out to look round the city. I'm a paranoid android about what to wear as the Lonely Planet guidebook has completely freaked me out about how conservative Cambodia is and now I'm fretting about vest tops. Having had a stress about this, we made it to the National Museum to look at the Khmer sculptures, almost as a warm-up to Angkor. As there are lots of Buddha statues there, the museum has an unusual fund-raising method of offering people jasmine flowers threaded on sticks to offer to the statues, together with a financial offering, as though it were a temple. As most people have altars at home and in their places of work, this is not a surprise to the Cambodians, but seems quite clever to a westerner to me. This is a statue in the courtyard outside - it is of Ganesh, the god of happiness and look how happy he is with his round tum from eating lots.

Once we'd done the tour of the museum, we headed out to continue our wandering. We'd just walked around the corner looking for something to eat and there was one of the recommended places to eat that is run by an NGO, the Friends restaurant. It is run as a charitable organisation for the benefit of kids from the street. There is so much poverty here still and a big problem with sex tourism and kids being at risk so there are lots of organisations trying to help stop this. The Friends restaurant offers really westernised food, drink and atmosphere but is entirely staffed by former street kids, some of whom have gone on to become teachers at the school, which is a big complex behind the restaurant. It is a brilliant restaurant, fab food at low prices, especially for those of us used to prices from the west.

Cambodia is notably more expensive than Vietnam, which I think is because so many people come here for Angkor. It is far more westernised generally here in PP than in either Hanoi or HCMC, and the people are less friendly and more aware of what tourists can and will pay for things. Although things are still cheap compared to home, it's been a shock to us after Vietnam and we're still making the adjustment to the new price scale.

We wandered some more and found ourselves on the river front, where we discovered the Foreign Correspondents Club, or FCC for short. This is something of a PP institution, and is where the journalists who reported on Cambodia in decades gone by would gather as a watering hole. Situated on the first and second floors of an old colonial building looking out over the river front on one side and the beauty of the National Museum building on the other, it is definitely worth a visit. This is the view over the museum from the FCC.