Phnom Penh, Cambodia

We took a bus from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.  The border crossing was interesting.  First, we had to leave Vietnam. While still on the bus our bus attendant collected everyone's passports.  Inside the border crossing building was chaotic.  Bus attendants and administrators were running around with stacks of passports, tourists and locals were pushing their way through the crowd just to be pushed back by the next group.  We had to crowd around the immigration booths, straining our ears waiting for administration officials to call our names, mispronouncing them terribly.

This took a while, and we never actually got to see a border guard, so I'm not sure how they control the border.  I'm assuming they don't really care who leaves, as long as they get paid.  When we eventually did get called, we checked our passports and we already had a visa into Cambodia.  We had read online that the fee for the visa was $30, but we knew in advance that our bus company would charge us $35, $5 probably split between the bus company and the border controller.  We got back on the bus and drove to the second border.  Entering Cambodia was really easy, no lines, no crowds.  They just took our fingerprints, checked our visas, and let us through.

I am including a few pictures of our first glance of Cambodia.  It is much different than Vietnam - Cambodia is a much poorer country and the difference is evident when you cross the border and the roads are no longer paved.  It has only been a month since we left Madagascar, and already I had forgotten what it was like to drive on unpaved roads.  It sucks.  There is one point on the road to Phnom Penh where you need to cross a wide river and there's no bridge (yet?), so there's a ferry to take you across.  Children played on the water's edge and women sold crunchy fried bugs to tired, hungry travelers.  Closer to the capitol we saw kite sellers on the side of the road, peddling their colorful wares in an otherwise destitute landscape.

We arrived to the capital in the late afternoon, having just enough time to eat a meal and find a decent hotel with a lovely view before nightfall.  Tired, but excited to be in a new country, we took an evening walk for a quick peek at the city.