Chau Doc, Vietnam and Phnom Penh, Cambodia ~ Day 5

$100,000 VND (less than $6) for the shuttle bus and bus ticket from Can Tho to Chau Doc and then a shuttle bus from Chau Doc bus station to my hotel.

The bus to Chau Doc has quite a few people on it.  I enjoy taking in the sights and have my ear phones on and music cranked so as to drown out the bus driver's selection of music.

About 90 minutes into the trip we stop at a dump of a place to use the bathroom.  It was disgusting, and a squat toilet to boot with NO toilet paper.  Once again I scrounge through my purse for something to wipe with.  The water tap barely worked and there was no soap in sight.  Hand sanitizer will have to do.  Yuck!  There's nothing to look at here so I get back on the bus and wait and watch a woman hawking lottery tickets.  The guy she's trying to convince to buy isn't being suckered in and he continually shakes his head "no" as she continues to pester him and wave the tickets in his face.  All of a sudden it starts to pour rain and I watch the lottery saleswoman and the man still going at it but the man is trying unsuccessfully to keep dry under the little awning.

Everyone gets back on the bus.  Our bus driver is a freaking maniac.  He leans on the horn practically non-stop and every time he hits the brakes they sound like metal on metal.  All the Trip Advisor stories I read about the dangers of bus travel in Vietnam run through my mind. I begin to think the guy has a death wish.  I close my eyes and try to just focus on the songs running through my headphones.  I doze for a bit and soon we are pulling into a bus station.  It's a tiny station, no buses in the parking lot at all.  I gather this is just a "whistle stop" sort of place.   There are two French women seated behind me across the aisle.  We three are the only ones left on the bus.  They sort of get up and wonder aloud if they should get off.  I ask them if we are at Chau Doc and they shrug their shoulders and say they aren't sure.  I decide I had better get off the bus and find out what's going on. I ask if we are in Chau Doc and apparently we are.  Thanks for the announcement - NOT!

I'm immediately accosted by taxi drivers in my face.  50,000 VND to take me to my hotel.  I tell them "no" as the price of my bus ticket included a shuttle bus to my hotel.  They collude and three of them are shaking their heads "no", as if they have never ever heard such a preposterous story line before. The French women approach me and offer to share a taxi into town.  I tell them that I don't know where my guest house is - if it's even in town (by now, all the accommodations are starting to get muddled in my brain).  They ask me how much I'm paying for a room and they wonder if there are any vacancies as they don't have a place to stay for the night.  I tell them that I am going to phone my hotel and find out if they have any vacancy and if I should be taking a taxi from the bus depot.  I don't even get to dial my phone when a guy approaches saying he is expecting me and will take me to my hotel.  Bloody scheisters those taxi drivers!  The French women are fast thinkers and they say "we'll go with you to see if there are any vacancies at your hotel", so the three of us get in the van.  It's not all that far to my guesthouse at all.

I am greeted immediately - all these hotels seem to anticipate your arrival and in a non-North American fashion they all greet you at the hotel entrance never leaving you to wander up to the reception desk on your own.

As I am checking in, I see the French women being shown a room.  They don't take it and leave the hotel.

My room is nice.  The first modern bathroom of my trip.  The shower is separated from the toilet and I'm so happy to see this.  It's a planning process whenever you want to have a shower in a "wet" bathroom as the toilet and entire floor always ends up with water on it for hours afterwards so forethought is needed as to the timing of using the toilet.

I am shown up a flight of stairs to the dining room.  Breakfast is included in the cost of my room and opens at 6:00 AM.  I intend to be there right at 6:00 AM as my ride to the ferry is coming to pick me up at 6:45 AM.

I had brought two extra SD cards and have come to realize that both are faulty.  The error message says the disk is full but in fact both are absolutely empty.  I think they're toast.  I now only have a 2 GB card to work with and I really want a backup SD card.  I ask at the front desk if there's a place to buy an SD card.  One of the staff walks me up the street and around the corner but the store is already closed.  I don't know what time it is but it's already dark outside.  Oh well, I will try in Phnom Penh.

I decide to go for a walk to the night market to find something to eat for dinner.  Apparently it's a 10-15 minute walk.  I only get about a two blocks and it starts pouring rain.  I stand under an awning for about 10 minutes and accept that it's not going to let up.  I take some photos while I'm deciding what to do.

I don't know what to do now as the rain isn't letting up.  The awning I am standing underneath is near a food cart.  No clue what she is selling as the sign says Cam Thom.  But a good sign is people seem to be continually pulling up on their motorbikes (while draped in rain capes) and without ever getting off the seat of their bike, they order their meal, pay, and with plastic bag filled with containers in hand, head off into the rain. Well it can't be all that bad if all these people are stopping, right?

I walk over and point and lift up my index finger. to affirm I want one order (of whatever it is she is selling).  It is a rice dish with a chicken leg and a piece of ham, and a bag of soup.  Yes, a BAG of soup.  Cam Thom

As has been my usual practice thus far, I am in bed before 10:00 PM.  I have had to set my alarm every morning of this trip and am often out of bed between 4:00 - 5:00 AM.  Tomorrow is no different.

I am upstairs in the dining room right at 6:00 AM.  I help myself to coffee and find a lovely table on the balcony overlooking the goings on, on the street below.  The coffee served here is so delicious.  Some of the tastiest coffee I've ever had. It's not the thick sweet Vietnamese coffee but is more similar to what I'm used to.  They don't use Arabica beans in Vietnam.  They use the Robusta bean.  The coffee I am drinking this morning is majority Robusta, with a slight bit of Arabica blended in.  Delicious.

Breakfast with a view over the street below

It's not even 6:30 AM and kids are on their way to school

While I'm eating breakfast, Murray the Inn keeper approaches and says good morning and we exchange conversation.  He tells me he is married to a Vietnamese woman and they have an adult son and his wife and children who live in the unit right next door to the restaurant.

Murray asks me if I want the "scoop" on how it's all going to work on the ferry.  I tell him I would welcome whatever info he can give me.  Murray proceeds to sit down at my breakfast table and give me the scoop.

Murray's Guesthouse has arranged my ferry ticket and ride to the ferry.  This is all part of the service that guest houses offer in Vietnam and Cambodia.  The customer doesn't pay any added sur-charge for this service.  Perhaps it's a hidden fee in the price of the room but I'm none the wiser.

Murray explains how it will work from when the Cyclo driver picks me up.  He tells me about the forms I will have to fill out:  a form to exit Vietnam and a form to enter Cambodia and to make sure I have $35 US in exact bills to pay for my Cambodian Visa.  He says the boat will make two stops:  one on the Vietnam side (about 40 minutes into the trip) and then about 20 minutes later another much longer stop of about an hour on the Cambodia border crossing.  He tells me where the best seats are on the boat (middle, left hand side will be cooler as the sun beats down on the right-hand side of the boat); and that there is a bathroom on the boat.  He also tells me what to expect when I land at the Phnom Penh ferry dock.

I am very thankful for this information as there is miniscule English spoken over here and when announcements are made they are made in the local language so foreigners count on one another to clue in to what is happening and what is being said.

A Cyclo driver comes to pick me up at 6:45 AM.  The staff at Murray's guesthouse ask if they can take my photo which they will email to me.  This is a very nice customer service offering that really doesn't cost them a penny.  It's a very nice keepsake for solo travelers such as myself as I only ever end up with only a few photos of myself while on my travels.  Within minutes of taking the photos, they are emailed to me.

Checking out of Murray Guesthouse in Chau  Doc, Vietnam

On the Cyclo in Chau Doc, Vietnam

Here's my video journey from my hotel to the ferry dock.  Cyclo trip

I thoroughly enjoyed this 10 minute ride through the morning traffic of Chau Doc.

The Cyclo driver wheels my luggage to the ferry loading dock and he is on his way.  I call out to him "Sir, sir".  I handed him a tip which seemed to completely surprise him.  Heck, that's one heck of a job he has cycling through the traffic and a job worthy of a tip.

There is a massive lineup of several hundred  people, part of a tour group, lined up on the dock about to board a series of three fast ferries.  I presume they are going to Phnom Penh as well but are using a different carrier.

Passengers climbing over boats to get onto their assigned ferry.

I am told to line up in a certain place with my luggage and I do that and am first in line.  Other tourists show up and when told to line up behind me they all dump their luggage in front of me and just stand around, not in a line of any kind.  More tourists show up and follow the lead of the first couple who didn't follow instructions and it goes on and on until there are more than a dozen bags impeding my way.  Ignorant tourists!  They're everywhere!

The view while waiting to board the ferry

Finally, we are permitted to board our boat. 

Ferry from Chau Doc to Phnom Penh

I follow Murray's instructions and immediately grab a window seat on the left hand side of the boat.

Inside the ferry

The minute the boat leaves the dock, a man walks down the aisle handing out Immigration paperwork.  Again, foreigners are left to figure it all out on their own. Eventually, I pieced it altogether and think I filled out the forms accurately (all the while crossing my fingers).

Eventually the man comes back again and collects all of our paperwork along with our passports.  We don't get them back again until given clearance to enter Cambodia.

Next comes the obligatory refreshing towel and a snack.

A bottle of water, banana, snack cake and some crackers

The sights along the river are interesting.  Different from what I saw in Can Tho.   In the waters of Vietnam there appeared to be fisherman.  In the waters of Cambodia there was some industry and a lot of water buffalos.  It was amazing to see the farmers in the river with their water buffaloes washing them off. I also saw farmers and kids swimming in the Cambodian waters and looking like they were enjoying life.  I didn't see any of that in Vietnam.

We stop for about 30 minutes at Vietnam Immigration and I am stamped out of the country but still don't get my passport back - won't get that until I am stamped into Cambodia.  I use the decrepit washroom.  Yikes!  Holes through the door, and the usual no toilet paper or soap.  Argh!  I buy a bottled lemon green tea and it is quite tasty.

Inside the Vietnam Immigration building.
Perhaps he thinks the entire building will collapse into the water (?)

I happen to look over the railing into to the water and there's a bunch of brown scum floating and there's something that I can't make out what it is.  I look harder at it - it's a bloated dead dog.  Oh geez.  I've never seen such a thing in my life.  It looked like a rottweiler sort of dog or it could have been the bloating that made it look like that sort of a breed.

We all get back on the boat and only about 20 minutes later we dock at Cambodian Immigration.  All much more official looking than the Vietnamese border control that's for sure.

Again, grateful to Murray for his explanation of the process.  We're basically locked inside an outdoor compound but it's pleasant enough with plenty of seating areas.  I try to find some shade and I take a few photos.

See that massive dark brown clump on the red patch?  That's a very, very active bee hive.

The scenery on Cambodian waters is very interesting.  Odd how two bordering countries can live such different lifestyles.

There were a lot of ferries for the locals

I know we'll soon be in Phnom Penh when we pass under a humongous bridge that looks exactly like our big Port Mann and Alex Fraser bridges back home.

Soon, we can make out skyscrapers in the distance:  Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

We land at the ferry and are immediately accosted by a swarm of tuktuk drivers.  Murray told me that the rate is $3-$5 depending on how good of a negotiator I am.

I had already researched where my hotel was in conjunction to the ferry dock and apparently it as a 12 minute walk.  I wasn't going to walk it, not having a lay of the land or any knowledge if the sidewalks would be congested with food stalls and make shift markets and I had heard that Phnom Penh traffic could be really bad.  In any event, I had an an idea that my hotel wasn't that far away.  A guy gives me a rate of $6 US.  Nope, not going to pay that much.  I flat out tell the few guys who are in my face:  Google can tell you all sorts of things.  I know the rate is between $3 and $5 so if you want to negotiate within that range I'll consider it.  One guy says he'll take me for $4 and I agree.  $4 it is.  We head up the ferry ramp to his tuktuk and thankfully that is when I realize I totally forgot to grab my luggage!  OMG!!  Back to the boat we go and it's sitting there on the dock all by itself.  Geez Louise, how the hell did it completely slip my mind?

Phnom Penh is surprisingly very modern.  It's not at all what I was imagining.  Here, the car is king. Not a lot of motorcycles, but a lot of cars and SUVs and luxury vehicles. Hi-rises and modern looking buildings.  Really, it could have been any North American city.

Phnom Penh traffic

My tuktuk driver is trying to convince me to hire him to be my driver all the while I am in Phnom Pehn.  I am leery.  First, I have no idea how much a ride to any destination should cost.  I don't want to commit.  By the time we reach my hotel and I pay him $4 US, we have agreed that he will drive me to the airport in the morning for $10 US.  I had a note jotted down in my book saying it would cost $12 to the airport so $10 seemed reasonable to me.  My flight wasn't leaving Phnom Penh until 9:30 AM and I didn't need to be at the airport until 8:15.  Rein (my tuktuk driver) told me he'd pick me up at 6:00 AM.  I said no way, 6:00 was w-a-y too early.  He proceeds to tell me how bad the traffic is.  I already knew the traffic is supposed to be the worst in Phnom Penh and the worst of all the cities I will be visiting.  We agree on 6:30 AM.

I check into my hotel and am shown down the narrow hallway to my room.  At least no stairs are involved.  The room is an absolute DUMP!  Oh my gawd, I cannot believe I am staying in such a dump.  What really made it dumpy is the cement floor was completely unfinished.  I mean it was like you poured a cement pad in your back yard kind of cement.  There was a wonky wicker table in one corner of the room (no where near the bed) and the table top wasn't even straight.  A bottle of water kept falling over.  There was a coat hook thing on the wall but the walls were so filthy there was no way I was hanging my threadbare towels on those hooks.  It was so bad, it was the first time in my life that I actually put my suitcase on the bed.  The floor was disgusting to look at.  I have no clue if it was clean or dirty.

When I went out for the afternoon I cable locked my daypack and suitcase to the bedframe.  That's how sketchy this place felt.  Lesson learned:  Don't believe all the reviews you read on Trip Advisor. Trip Advisor has never led me astray before so I can only presume the reviews I read must've been left by the very much budget backpacker type of travelers.

I asked the hotel how to get to the S21 Genocide Museum  There was a tuktuk driver dozing at the table and they called out to him.  Ninh (the tuktuk driver) said he could take me there for $3 US.  Deal!  A nice guy.  When he dropped me off at the museum he asked if he could come back and pick me up. Another deal struck!  He asked me about going to the airport in the morning.  I told him I had already committed to a driver.  I asked him if I overpaid at $10 US.  He told me his charge is $7 US (and he had his set prices typed out on a piece of paper).  Live and learn.

S21 was extremely sobering.  It's beyond comprehension how something so horrific could happen in the blink of an eye really.  Pol Pot changed a nation in only 3 1/2 years.  What was once a highschool right inside the heart of Phnom Penh was turned into a torture chamber.  Initially, bodies were buried on the school grounds.  When the bodies became too many, they were dumped in mass graves.

I have some recollection of this time in history because I remember when I was aged 19 or 20, in my hometown, we had Cambodian boat people come to live in our town.  The men were of similar age or perhaps a bit older than I.  My friends and I would hang out with them at the local bar.  But back then, I absolutely never had any comprehension of the horror they were escaping from.  It causes me to reflect on the current state of this world and people who are anti-refugee.  You cannot convince me, if you have ever in your life ever seen such atrocity inflicted on your fellow man, that you think it's okay to turn a blind eye and say they are not welcome in your safe country that you lucked out on to be born in.  There by the Grace of God go any of us.

I also didn't know that Pol Pot's killing regime wasn't directed only towards educated, well-to-do Cambodians.  In 1978, New Zealander Kerry Hammill and his English friend John Dewhirst were swept into Cambodian waters when their yacht was caught in a storm.  They were arrested and sent to S21 where both men were killed.  However, in Pol Pot's regime, before anyone was killed, they had to give a confession of their ties to the USA and any other country that was against this regime.  Kerry Hammill's confession was well thought out and was his way of sending clues to his family should they ever get to read his confession.   Confession of Kerry Hammill

The graves of the final 14 people to be murdered at S21.
They were killed by having their throats slashed or their heads bashed in.
Pol Pot didn't want the sound of gunfire to alert the liberators as to their whereabouts.

This was originally a high school before it was turned into S21.
You can see the ventilation holes above the windows but on the ground floor the
ventilation holes were covered over in order to create less than humane conditions.

Rules to abide by at S21

The gallows

The barbed wire was put up so that prisoners could not jump over and commit suicide

At the end of the tour, there was a wall where people could write some words.

Ninh had timed it perfectly as to when he should be outside the main gate to pick me up.

Back at the hotel, I wandered the neighbourhood and got a bite to eat.  Completely mediocre meal which was ruined when the guy next to me thought it appropriate to chain smoke beside me.

Early to bed as I had to be up early.

Rein was outside the hotel at 6:08 AM despite our agreed upon time of 6:30 AM.  The ride through the morning traffic of Phnom Penh was so interesting.  Rein made sure to point out the Canadian Embassy with all it's beautiful flags flying outside on the building.  I got to the airport so early that I had to wait an hour for the check-in counter to open but at least there's free wifi which worked perfectly.

Phnom Penh