Rested, cooled, showered, we are ready for our Cambo Dinner cruise on the Tonle Sap and Mekong river. Our pick up is at our hotel – but we’ve switched hotels since making the booking, so we have a few concerns about it. We have a string of emails with Viator(the booking agent) and with Brian (the owner of the cruise boat) making sure that we are picked up at the correct hotel. In addition, Brian emailed us before we left and asked if we could change the date of the cruise form 1/11 to 1/10 because he was having some problems with the dockage. So, we agreed – we don’t care – and so, we arrive downstairs a little before the 5:00 pick up time and wait patiently in the lobby.
At around 5 we go outside and wait patiently for a few more minutes. By 5:10, I’m back inside asking the Front Desk to call Brian for me. He answers and is adorable. I tell him we are waiting for pick up, and just wanted to be sure we were still on schedule. He says, yes, someone shoudl be coming shortly to pick us up from the FCC and that he is actually just across the street from there. I nicely point out that we are at the Queen Grand Boutique, not the FCC, and he says “of course you are” and we will be there shortly.
Ok! We go back to waiting patiently outside. 5 minutes. 10 minutes. The boat leaves at 5:30 – we are so not going to make it. Then one of the Queen Grand guys comes out and says that Mr. Brian wants to speak with me again. Oops! he apologizes profusely, and goes on abougt the mix up with the hotel change and the confusing way Viatour does things, etc. But he assures me that someone is on the way to pick us up and that we will just about make our 5:30 departure.
5 minutes. 10 minutes. We are still standing there, thinking, ok, well, no biggie, we’ll not make it, but just ask for a refund and figure out something else. But then, a tuk tuk pulls up, the driver, with cell phone in hand, says “you waiting for boat?” We say “yes,” and jump in. Ok – so – yeah – this guy could be anybody - could be any boat – could be whatever! We don’t ask any questions – trusting souls that we are – we just hop in and off we go on Mr. Toad’s wild tuk tuk ride.
Oh my gosh – it was frighteningly hysterical. They guy is roaring (as fast a tuk tuk can roar that is) all through the city, taking back roads, and getting stuck in traffic jams, and screaming on the phone to someone, and going down alleys and then the wrong way down a one a way street. I am dying laughing – and of course – hoping we don’t die for real!
He finally deposits us at the river promenade across from the night market with a curt – you are here! Ok – great! Out we go, and here comes a uniformed guy to escort us down to the boat. Seems tonight was a dockage problem too and we have to climb down a metal ladder to some concrete stairs that lead to a dirt path to the boat – waiting for us. Hey – it’s Cambodia!
Aboard we go – thanking everyone for wiating for us. They are more apologetic than we are – can’t apologize enough for the mix up, etc. We’re not at all upset – happy to be there – and try to make them understand we’re good – no problem. We get our welcomoe sunset cocktail drinks and go upstairs to cruise out onto the river. It is oddly empty downstairs, but we figure everyone is upstairs. And they are – everyone being the 1 other passenger – an Australia lady whose name is poppy, thalia, I don’t know, something that reminds me of a flower. But anyway – that’s it! I swear – a private cruise for 3 people. To top it off we have our own personal musicians! How crazy is that?
We join Poppy (that’s her name now – regardless!) at her table – she is great – has been traveling around Cambodia for a month – been everywehre and is flying back home tomorrow. We trade travel stories and political stories and Cambodian stories all night.
The sunset is nice, but it is muted as there is a very low cloud deck (or maybe smog deck?), not sure. But we still get a few good snaps as we sail along.
Oh and there is that stupid video screen that lights up our room everynight. See there in the distance?
On through the night we sail, eating fabulous food that the staff keeps bringing out, talking and drinking away.
The staff is so friendly, too. They are upstairs with us at all times, talking and chatting. Telling us stories about where we are located, the hotel on the peninsula that isn’t busy anymore because people want to stay in the city now (and there really aren’mt too many lights on in the rooms as we pass…huge hotel….nobody home!).
They ask us about our day, and what we did and we compare stories about the “little” ferry. Seriously? This is one of the best nights. Great company – both Poppy and the staff – really wonderful setting, great food. And to top it all off, they give us our drinks for free. Because of the mess up? So nice, it really wasn’t that bad at all, the tuk tuk ride was priceless in my book!
We end up docking on the same muddy hill from which we embarked, only a bit down from the riverfront plaza. So this time, they have to attach a gangway to get us ashore, then the captain has to turn on some light with a generator ashore so that we can see our way and they escort us over a huge ditch and up to the concrete stairs and metal ladder. I’m too busy watching my feet to take pictures. Sorry!
We end up on the plaza, standing there for a good 45 minutes chatting with Poppy about Australian and US politics, then finally bidding her farewell as we head for a tuk tuk and she to walk back to her hotel, her last night here, and she wants to soak up the culture for a little bit more.
We end up at the night market, where I buy a cool wooden fan for $1. We used them at the silk farm and I thought they were cool, so we went to the stall Nara had showed us the previous evening and made our purchase.
Then onto the tuk tuk negotiation. It is always $4 or $5. No. It should always be $2 or less! Finally we score. After another driver comes by and says, “if he won’t take you for $2, I will!” So off we go into the hurdy gurdy night traffic of Phnom Penh. Still crazy. Still weekend. Still thousands and thousands of people out and about!
Our driver delivers us safely to the hotel and we give himi $3. Again. It’s a dollar. He is totally appreciative. We don’t feel like going to Khavi, so we head up to the room to hang out for the balance of the evening (what’s left of it anyway)!
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