Thursday, February 18th, 2016
Per usual, I overindulged a bit too much, and was feeling a little hungover as we packed up and caught a ride to “Envoy Hostel”. The new place was really nice, and after checking in, we searched for a place for Trevor to grab breakfast. I wasn’t up for the challenge of eating anything just yet. I sipped on my Gatorade while Trevor ate an unexciting Chicken Club Sandwich from “Blue Pumpkin Cafe”.
Our next stop was the Vietnam Embassy to get our visas. What we thought would take several days only took 30 minutes when we applied for the Express Visa, which was only $50. I was glad that filling out the forms was much simpler than it had been for the ones for India. With visas in tow, we returned to the hostel to take care of a few errands, like laundry and setting up a tour for tomorrow, followed by some relaxing and recovering.
Once we were feeling a little more refreshed, we headed back out to explore the newer side of town, and grabbed lunch at “Krahom Noodle Bar”. Trevor was regretting leaving his fork back in the room since he’s still getting used to chopsticks. He struggled with his Vegetarian Krahom Noodle Soup. The noodles were pink since they were made with beets, and it was very delicious!
We made a beer run before returning to the hostel to plan out the remainder of our stay in Phnom Penh. We had a few days to kill, since we had booked several nights at the hostel before realizing that our visas would be processed the same hour.
After relaxing on the rooftop with our drinks, we decided to head over to Independence Monument. It was rumored that there was a light show during a certain hour of the evening. After sitting there for a while, we figured out that this wasn’t the case. There were only fog lights shining on the monument, and stringed lighting on some of the nearby buildings and shrubbery.
We grabbed dinner nearby at the “Vego Salad Bar” where they made a killer salad and massive veggie wraps. This would become one of our favorites. We topped our meals off with a beer across the street at “Top Banana on the Rooftop Bar,” which had a nice view of the city. We chatted a while with the American bartender who only planned on visiting Cambodia several years prior before falling in love with the place, and deciding never to return home.
We returned to the hostel to find ourselves locked out. Our key card wasn’t working at the gate, so I called reception to ask to be let in. After unlocking the gate, he escorted me outside to show me how the key card worked, thinking I was just a simpleton, only to discover that we had a faulty card. He apologized for the trouble, gave us a new card, then we hit the hay.
Jump Back to Part 1: Tips, Hotel Swap & Cheap Beer in Phnom Penh
Jump Ahead to Part 3: Cambodia’s Genocide: The Killing Fields
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Start from the Very Beginning at Part 1: Don’t Forget to Pack Your Anxiety
Stubbs Rambles On 