Day 51- 52, Savannakhet, Pakse, Phnom Penh

Ok, we are 100 % recovered when writing this post. It's time to catch up with the blog before we get on our bicycles again tomorrow.

Rice on the left and on the right

So, days 51 and 52 were travel days by bus to leave Savannakhet and meet Katie's parents at Phnom Penh in Cambodia. We had to get two buses, one each day.

The first day the journey took 5 hours to get to Pakse, which is close to the Laos-Cambodia border. We arrived at 3pm and the bus was comfortable enough and good value for money: 3 euros each. Pakse is a much more dynamic city than Savannakhet despite its lack of charm. Four big complex hotel buildings are scattered in the centre. We chose to sit in the rooftop restaurant of one of them for the rest of the day ( I was still feeling ill...). The scenic view was great and the food surprising. I asked for cannelloni, which turned out to be a kind of crepe with meat and tomato. The French chief explained to me later that he was disappointed with his staff because they have broken two pasta makers and five microwaves in less than three weeks. That is why when we arrived at the restaurant we heard him shouting "no alu" (no aluminium) at his staff.

Pakse

Day 52 was more comfortable thanks to the V.I.P bus we took. It was just intense when we were putting the bicycles on the bus and when crossing the border. For the first, it was only a question of persuading the driver. For the second, it was just frustrating to give some money to every official. When we asked the Laos officials why it cost 4 dollars for both of us to leave the country, they answered: "It's for the stamp". We had no choice but to agree and to convince ourselves that it's the way it works there. After that, we went to the quarantine point, the information point and the entry visa of Cambodia. What is my first impression of Cambodia? People smoke "Alain Delon" ciguarettes... We passed all the day in the bus, from 7am to 8pm. Once in Phnom Penh we couldn't wait to get our room, which we had already booked on the Internet. We cycled 20 minutes in the city to get there and found that our room was without a window, and a useless fan. This time we deserved aircon so we upgraded our room. The two day journey with a fever is done, oufff.