Goodbye Cambodia - Hello Vietnam

After some markets and The Royal Palace in Phnom Penh I wanted to go to Sihanoukville. But it was easier said than done. Because of a festival, everybody was going home to their families to celebrate their ancestors, and all the buses were full. My hostal tried to call the buscompany but with no luck. The buses were full the whole day and the upcoming day. I met a guy from The Netherlands who were going to Takeo to do some volunteering, and I was about to join him before I found a hostal that had a busticket.

Sihanoukville is by the sea and is the beachplace in Cambodia. Unfortunately it was not very good weather when I was there. There are many beaches there but I stayed at the main beach Serendipity, since the weather was not that good anyway. There were huge waves so it was not nice to go swimming and a bit cloudy and it was also raining several days. There were a lot of Asian people there though, which did go in the sea.

Actually I kind of spent my days in Sihanoukville just waiting until I could cross the boarder. I had arranged my visa from Norway and it started the 1st of October, so I had to wait until then to go to Vietnam. What I didn't know was that I could have arranged it in Phnom Penh or Sihanoukville for about $30-40. I would recommend others to do this locally since you'll be more flexible on when you can cross the boarder and it's a lot more cheaper. I paid about $80 to get the visa in Norway before departure. You just turn in your passport and it takes about 2 days.

Looking at the beach from my hostal

Since it was not so good weather at this beachplace, I decided to go on a tour one day. The first day it got cancelled because of the rain but the second day we left for the Ream Nationalpark. It was not that good of a trip but it was nice to just do something.

A fisherman in the national park

The rain is coming

I think the mosquitos had bitten me all over my body except in my face. Well, the last night in Sihanoukville my eyes were the target. When I woke up I could barely open my eye, I think it had bitten me about 5 times around the eyes, good I had sunglasses with me.

I decided to go to Kampot the last day of my stay in Cambodia. It's a small riverside town close to the vietnamese boarder. It's known for producing some of the world's finest pepper, so a visit to a pepper plantation was a must. 

The gas station in Cambodia:)

Kampot was a nice little town which I could have stayed in for a little bit longer.

Then the 1st of October was here and I could finally cross the boarder. Amacing how they can fit 12 bags in the back of the last seat if the just want to!

In the same van to the boarder I met Irene from Madrid, and we ended up travelling together for the next 2 weeks. The boardercrossing went fine, except that we had to wait a very long time at the boarder. I don't know why, because Irene and I got our passports quickly back, but the rest of the group that was crossing had to wait 30-45 minutes or so. But after everybody had there passport we were taken to the busterminal in Ha Tien and took a local bus to Chau Doc. We were now in the Mekong Delta.