Hey Everyone!

We woke up today with the intention of heading to Ban Lung, but having realised we may have another Savannakhet crisis on our hands we decided to change our tickets to Kratie. We boarded the boat back to the mainland of Ban Nakasang where we got our bus. We soon arrived at the Cambodian border and had to fill in all our visa bumpf before chilling for some food and waiting for the others to clear border control; it was during this time we got chatting to a Cambodian man who told us about 'Bon Om Tuk' (the Water Festival) where 400 boats compete in races on River Tonle Sap, the population of Phnom Penh doubles during the festival. He also warned us that buses travelling to Phnom Penh are cancelled or are, at least, far less frequent. Having heard that Kratie was fairly small and not as great as Si Phan Don, we changed our minds once more and decided to head straight to Phnom Penh. The 12 hour bus journey actually went pretty quickly in comparison to some of our journeys and we even got to watch 'Karate Kid'.

On arriving in Phnom Penh we were ushered into a tuk tuk and whisked away to the other end of the city. We had read our Lonely Planet and decided which three hostels we were going to try for rooms. The traffic was absolutely mental, and coming from all directions. Although all three hostels looked amazing, they were unfortunately full. The tuk tuk driver took us to a hotel he obviously earned commission from and we were lucky enough to get the last room as a booking hadn't showed up. As it was about half nine at night we jumped at the chance of finally getting a room, despite the $15 price tag. We wolfed down some food and made our way up endless amounts of stairs to our room. Well. $15 it certainly wasn't! Although it had 3 double beds, aircon, cable tv and a nice bathroom it didn't have a window and the walls were made of plywood which meant we could literally hear everyone who passed us in the corridor.

We spent a day strolling around Phnom Penh and enjoying the Water Festival. It was a really nice day, despite the locals treating us like aliens with their outright staring, touching and grabbing. There were hundreds and hundreds of people, yet the crowds parted for us to walk freely down the street whilst smiling insanely! Although it was pretty amazing that we were such an attraction, it became very overwhelming having so many pairs of eyes gawking! After spending some time along the river watching the remarkable boat races - which resembled that of Oxford and Cambridge on a much much larger scale, we decided to duck in from the heat and found a lovely Irish pub. While Sophie was attracted by its menu, Kie was keen to watch the several screens which were all showing different sports. We spent the rest of the day there chilling under the fans, watching the screens, making use of the free wifi and downing drinks. Sharon and Jean kindly offered to treat us to a Sunday Roast - without a second thought we ordered and before long were gulping down the big dinner - thank you both!!

We returned to our hotel and booked our bus tickets for early the next morning to Siem Reap, where we wanted to see Angkor Wat and the many other temples that Siem Reap has to offer.

We will be updating you all on our Siem Reap adventures soon!

Hope you're all well, lots of love Sophie and Kie xx