Mozzeenet

By now I should have been winging my way to Ratanakiri but hello, I find myself in an Internet cafe in Phnom Penh. What happened?

Well, Cambodia happened! But the good news is that I’m now headed to Vietnam tomorrow morning. Very excited - going overland via the border crossing in the South of Cam and will work our way through the Mekong delta up to Ho Chi Minh City. I’m hoping to fly back from there. An update will be imminent upon my arrival back in PP.

As for Ratanakiri - well the travel agent told me I could pay for the tickets 2 days before (Friday) because the airline had to check there were enough passengers to fly!

So Fri morning 9am, I rang up and the man told me he would call the airline (no computer system for that airline) and call back in 5 mins. 11am came round and I was getting anxious to know so I rang back. He said, he would call me back in 5 mins again. 2.30pm - no call! I was getting annoyed by now.

I rang back and he wasn’t in the office and a lady asked me where I wanted to go! I told her I had tickets booked and then she looked for my name in the computer and couldn’t find it.

I was getting very edgy by this time. Then the man I have been dealing with walked in. He got on the phone and said he would call me back. I made sure that he would and hung up.

This time he did call back. Ummm, no flights are going on Sun, Mon or Tues because the airport in Ratanakiri is being fixed! I was not a happy customer but also not really surprised after living here for 6 months!

We could have gone on Wed but had to come back Fri and that wasn’t enough time. So, we decided to mull it over on the weekend and see what we could come up with.

Overland to Ratanakiri was not an option (15 hours or more in the rainy season on terrible roads). Vietnam seemed to be a good idea - initial inquiries revealed that we would probably not get a visa until Tues afternoon but I found a guesthouse over the weekend which could do it today and we get it tonight - we put our passports in last night.

So, I am a bit busy today organising a couple of things. I wanted to go to Vietnam but didn’t know if I would have time so this has worked out well. Two of the other YAs, Natalie and Jen are coming along as well.

Had a great weekend - Friday night found us at PopZone again and we saw the movie, ‘Donnie Darko’- as the name might suggest, it was a very dark movie but lots of excellent themes and ideas. Pretty intense for a Friday night flick. We had dinner with some of the new YAs beforehand and they came along to the movie.

Day trip to Kompong Cham on Saturday - nothing remarkable but good to get out to another province. We stopped on the way at the town where they sell fried spiders, piled high on round trays! Some people may be disgusted that I tried a small portion of a leg. Sonia was 10 times braver and tried the body. She said it tasted like pate.

We also saw some wats (again), a big new bridge built by Japan over the Mekong, some temples and rice fields. It absolutely poured on the way back, very cold and wet by the time we got home.

Stuffed at night - dead to the world by 9pm.

Had a great day yesterday - went for breakfast with some of the new YAs then we went with Ana’s parents to eat corn over the river, by tuk tuk. Then I met up with Natalie and we put our passports in to get the Vietnam visa.

Had a quiet dinner by the river last night - it was really buzzing up there, packed with people walking, riding and sitting around. The palace was all lit up. I think it must be for the holidays this week - lots of people come to PP then many will go to their homeland later in the week on the public holidays. It is for honouring ancestors and relatives who have died. The people take food and flowers to the pagoda to give to the monks.

well next time, news from Vietnam!

Ruth e xx
Miss Phnomer in Cambodia