6th
I am collected from the hotel expecting a tuktuk round the corner. I follow the guy to a smallish bus which weaves its way through the streets collecting passangers as it goes. We are then driven to the travel company office where we change bus and we change bus yet again at the bus station! The bus is quite basic packed with people, so much so that people are sitting on one anothers laps.

I manage to get some sleep surprisingly, and later the chap next to me offers me some fruit/nut hard to describe it. They tend to be quite hospitable with food I have noticed on buses before.

In Kampong Cham I check couple of places, the second hotel initially offers me a very small room which barely fits the double bed and without a window, I eventually manage to get a large double bedded room overlooking the Mekong river one floor lower. Initially his reason taking me up to second floor was that lower floors are too wet. This is a policy of hotels trying to get rid of their worst room first. There is little advantage in the view as I will be hardly in the room and leaving in the morning. I head out with the tuktuk driver and get a bus ticket to StungTrung (ST) for 9 a.m tomorrow then I hire a bicycle and head out in search of a temple and a nearby island. due to the usually unreliable directions (My tuktuk drivers direction were perfect but I wanted to ask more people) it takes me over 2 hours to find the temple which was only within 2 km of the hotel but I end up doing over 10 km in the day. when I arrive there are some guys including a uniformed policeman having some beers, I have a fanta with them, one offers to look after the bike while I am in the temple but later actually shows me how to use the lock I was given with the bicyle. The temple is a strange combination of old and new. The original statues and building are quite ancient but they have made these huge new colourful screens around the inside that is a huge contrast. when I come out of the temple they are all in uniform!

I an fairly tired, the bicycle is very basic with poor gearing and hard saddle and I am really feeling it. I head out to find this bamboo bridge which connects to an island worth a visit, by the time I get there the light is fading and it would not be feasible as the bike needs to be returned soon. There is a lot of atmosphere around the river front, there is fitness class going with music, food stalls, people selling stuff, drinks etc. I head out later and have a drink by the river.

In the hotel I begin to hear some sound of pots and pans in the corridor and when I stick my head out there is a Seikh man cooking a fish curry on a gas stove near the door to the balcony. I have seen at least 3 of them staying in one room few doors down from me, not very open to conversation which is ok. One of them was reading his prayer book on the balcony later in the night.

7th

around 5.30 I can hear the music and manage to be out by 6, hoping to take some photos. The red sun is rising over the horizon, I first thought it was the moon from the previous night. The fitness club is on the go and there are people jogging and limbering. I have a stroll but dont feel energetic enough to attend the gym I spotted last evening so have breakfast instead. The language expert is summoned by the counter girl (this happens everywhere) but he prefers French! anyway he tells me it is IMPOSSIBLE to have vegetarian food, Cambodians like the taste of meat. I manage to get the rice porridge served without meat BOBO, very nice too. There are school kids turning up and having breakfast, one of them picks out the spring onions off his food and slings it on the floor, later on he is having a game of pool on his own before going to school I suppose. One biker turns up with a face mask and then he removes it to smoke the cigarette he buys off the stall holder, how ironic I think, he protects himself from dust and petrol fume but smokes instead.

I return to the hotel, second shower before 8 oclock! and head downstairs to check out.
I am collected by a driver claiming to be the brother of my driver who is apparantly attending church today. at the bus stop I get chatting to a Dutchman. we are packed into this old bus, the Dutch guy is sent to the back of the bus, has to climb over some load to get to his broken seat, he is over 2 meters tall. I am very lucky I get the window seat next to the door. There is a lot of  stuff on the bus, people are sitting all the way down the isle on boxes and load. emergency evacuation would be difficult and on one of our stops I notice we are carrying large plastic containers full of petrol under the bus too, there are far less petrol stations here that Nam.

there is a stack of boxes next to the driver, if they slide one way they will squash him, the other and they will leave the bus through the door taking the drivers assistant with them. One of the rice sacks is ripped and leaking later and the woman declines my offer of duct tape which I carry wrapped around my pen.

I feel nostalgic seeing the straight roads then miles of roads under construction throwing up dust and even the cows on the road, and also feel grateful that I am inside the bus. I feel a lot of sympathy for the bikers on the road and to give him credit our driver and other drivers are much kinder than their Viet brothers. The traffic is also a fraction of what I saw in Vietnam. But it was a great experience what I did in Vietnam.

I am dropped off in the middle of nowhere, well, there are some stalls around but not what I expected ST to look like. I do notice a board advertising ST - phenompen but so have to concede we must be in ST. as I am trying to get some info from the driver's mate, I have a chat wih the Dutchman through the window, he has been to ST before and this does not look like it. I am eventually guided in the direction of what is supposed to be a taxi. very old car, no seat belts or door handles or much else, with 5 people in the back and 3 of us including me in the front, it is 15 km to ST. I am dropped off in yet another dusty hot small town, I had been looking along the route to see if there was any where worth staying such as Kratie where you can have a Dolfin visit, but no luck. they are fond of number 12 here, $12 from Kampongcham to ST,$12 for a hotel room and $12 for a bus to 4000 islands in Lao (it was number 5 in Phenompen, I preferred that!). I go for the final option and suddenly I am leaving cAMBODIA! Or so I think!

I return from the loo to see the bus I thought was mine already gone. I am picked up by a biker who takes me to another place, no bus there either but another guy (Austrian) is also picked up by another bike and we head out in search for a bus it seems. we hail down a bus on the highway, I'm pretty impressed by the timing, for Lao.