Cambodia- Phnom Penh

So where it start...after the speed boat ride to Phnom Penh, I arrived to my hostel..which brought me back to college university days for sleeping 6 to a room... well for 4.50US a night what do you expect? It was only one night anyway. I got out of there quickly and went for a walk to get local currency, once i found an ATM, to my surprise US Dollars popped out. I thought...hmm..well I'll try another ATM...US Dollars again... but I soon found out you can pay everything in USD and they will give us local currency as change. It's sort of felt like a bit of a rip off everytime, but Cambodia is a poor country, so part of you wants to help and the other part doesn't want to get taken advantage of. In the bustling city of Phnom Penh, you can quickly see that everyone is trying to sell you something like books...where you can negotiate down to 3USD and then you realize later...you've bought a copied book. Does it really matter though? You're helping them...they words still are the same. It's hard to say "no" to a 6yr old who is selling books on the street and her boss who is a an amputee in a wheelchair who has been hurt by the Khmer Rouge or a landmine.This seems to be a common theme.

So after a walk about town, I wandered into the Green Vespa where I sat down for some food and to cool off from the 40C(more or less 100F) weather. I started chatting to a nice lady from England and her son who was living in Sydney. They were also there on holiday and going to Siem Reap in the morning. I sepnt the rest of the day with them, chatting and walking around town. Terri and I bought a few dresses at the local market, we had a lovely dnner and we planned to catch up the next day in Siem Reap.