23rd March 2009

We were waiting at the travel agents in Saigon at 6.30am for our lift to the bus station to arrive. We waited anxiously for 20 minutes, sensing that there was some kind of problem occuring. We were told that there was a problem with the minivan, even though we had seen it drive past half empty ten minutes earlier and told to get on a moped with our backpacks. We refused, as not only has Clare never ridden pillion before, we did not think it was a safe thing to do. So they asked us to walk, as it was only 10 minutes away. Thankfully they hadn't left without us and we were soon in our seats and heading towards the Cambodia border. After a few minutes someone came down the bus to collect our passports and asked for a $24 fee for the Cambodia visa. This was a but strange as the actual fee is $20, so we maintained that we would do this ourselves, rather than pay the $4 each fir this service. Soon we were at the Vietnamese immigration and after another long and chaotic wait, we had our exit stamp in our passports. Then it was a short hop on the bus and we were at the Cambodia border. as we were completing our visas ourselves, we were pointed towards the visa desk, within a couple of mintues, we had our new visas and our passports stamped, all alot quicker than the passport from the bus and also saving us $8. As we left the immigration building, we looked around and couldn't seem to see our bus. The man from the bus company pointed to the road and told us the bus had left, then pointed to a moped and told us both to get on and catch the bus up! Both of us were in shock, afterall, all our luggage was on that bus! Having no option, we got on our 2 seperate mopeds and we started hurtling to catch up with the bus! Down a very busy road we went, weaving in and out of trucks and bikes, until we finally saw the bus had pulled into a food area. We got off the bikes and wobbled up to the bus. This was a baptism if fire for Clare, we both enjoyed it, but when you are not wearing a helmet and just shorts and a t-shirt, it is a little worrying! We got the impression the bus company had done this on purpose, as it makes their visa service seem worthwhile, but we did save $8 after all!!! The rest of the journey was thankfully not as eventful and by lunchtime we were back in Phnom Penh.

We were warmly welcomed back at the Super Star hotel, quickly checked in and made our way to the Blue Dolphin Restaurant for a tastey steak and onion baguette!

We had decided that our time back in Cambodia should be spent relaxing and doing less touristy things, as we had spent so long travelling in the past four months. After 2 nights in Phnom Penh we booked a bus ticket to take us back to Sihanoukville, so we could have some time by the beach.