I woke up at 5:30 and began packing my things as Dan slept a little longer. We then hauled our bags down the many flights of stairs and off into the main part of the restaurant. We ordered a coffee as we had some time before the mini bus arrived and it tasted strange; like biscuits. We then sat outside by the road having a cigarette and at around 6:40 the mini bus pulled up but it was already more than half full! Tourits were sitting in the back and locals in the front, and it wasn't just dan and i who had to get on. There were two other coulples who also had to squeeze on.
Me and dan squeezed into the row from the back and sat infront of an aussie woman who reminded me of my mum's friend Alison with her daughter. They had bought three seats on the bus so they would be guaranteed room but this wasn't the case as there was a local man squeezed beside them. Dan couldn't sit next to me as his chose to sit at the very front next to the driver instead of squashed in the back with the aussie mother and daughter.
The journey was supposed to be three hours but took us around 4.5. We stopped off twice where i bought some pineapple to eat and the second time we got a plate of rice and chicken to share. The roads to pnom penh were quite bumpy and there seem to be no traffic laws as we were close to hitting motorcyclists on more than three occasions, which is why its best to try and sleep throughout these journeys. We knew as soon as we were in Pnom penh by the amount of buildings and people. The traffic is crazy there are hardly no traffic lights and you get cars and motorcycles scraping passed each other knocking off side mirrors. You don't indicate when you change lanes either, you just go for it- so nerve racking, my hazard perception was at an all time high.
We pulled in next to central market and while we were all still in the bus we were surrounded by tuktuk drivers holding up signs for tuktuk service. Literally were ambushed so we grabbed our bags and darted off in a direction as far away from the drivers as we could to find a guesthouse. We spotted a kfc so popped in for lunch, we both got a chicken burger and fries. After lunch we continued walking around the busy city in the scorching heat to find a guesthouse but had no luck. So we approached a tuktuk driver to take us to a place recommended by the lonely planet called 11happy backpackers guesthouse. Luckily they had one room left but it didn't have a window and when the man at the desk showed us to the room i was hit by the stuffy atmosphere in the room, the fan didn't do much either. Dan went up to the rooftop bar while i had a nap. When he cane back he declared that he was going out to find a bookshop but i chose to stay behind. I ended up going to the rooftop bar where i sat with my ipad and a lipton ice tea. Dan took the fags with him so i bought a pack of my own and constantly had to ask people to use their lighter.
After chilling alone for a few hours Dan came and found me and we got an Angkor beer. We began to play a couple of games of pool, Dan won the first time and me the second. We then decided to order some food. I got a burger and chips and dan had a tuna sandwich. We sat by the TV which unfortunately was showing football so after the food i went back down to the room and played with the cats wondering about the guesthouse. We hadn't booked a hotel for my birthday yet as i wasn't in the mood so i went to bed feeling like my birthday would be a day full of s***.