When we bought the tickets, we were surprised that they asked which hotel we were staying at so the tuk-tuk could pick us up. We had assumed that we would have to make our own way to the bus station. But sure enough, the guy was there right at 7:00am.
We had a short tuk-tuk ride to an intersection in town where there was a full size bus waiting. We were told to get on the bus. Surprised again, because we thought we were taking a minivan. And, there was only one other person on the bus!
But it turned out that the bus brought us to the main bus terminal on the outskirts of town. There, we got into a minivan!
Waiting for our minivan departure.
We had visions of being packed into a totally full minivan for the nine hour trip, so we really were prepared for the worst. But fortunately, there were at least two empty seats at all times, and usually more than that. So it wasn't that bad. And, the driver was fast and we arrived ahead of schedule.
Our view for the trip!
We were the only westerners.
Our route for the day.
520 kms (322 miles) from Siem Reap to Sen Monorom, Cambodia.
Tough to take photos along the way, but there wasn't much in the way of great scenery. And a lot of plastic rubbish.
Cashew nut plantation.
Scenery along the way.
Stopped for lunch.
We did two 5 minute bathroom breaks and one 20 minute lunch stop.
Crossing the Mekong River.
A lot of people living in shacks, but there was the occasional nice looking place.
We went through a few busy towns.
Tuk-tuks and an elephant statue.
Arrived at Sen Monorom at just after 3:30pm. Earlier than expected. Our driver was pretty aggressive, and I'm sure many western tourists would have thought "dangerous", but that's just the way they drive here and we felt okay.
Our guest house is fine. It has lots of five star reviews, mainly because of the helpfulness of the host and his family.
Our room.
Not bad, for $10 USD ($13.50 CAD) per night for a one week stay.
But while the room doesn't have any kind of sitting area, there are two common areas here that are quite nice. So we went and relaxed on the back patio and had a drink and played some backgammon.
Really pleasant change in temperatures! We are at 700 meters (2,300') altitude now, and we should have highs of about 29C (84F) and lows of about 18C (64F). I actually had to put my long sleeved shirt on as the sun went down.
Playing backgammon on the patio.
There are three friendly cats to enjoy.
They serve food here as well.
Chicken vegetable stir fry and rice for $4.25 USD ($5.75 CAD).
Ginger chicken and rice.
Same price as above.
So, we think we're going to like it here. Because we agreed to stay for a week, the host has changed us to a different room that is a little bigger and has a nice view of the garden out the window. We're just going to explore the town and relax today. Lots of walking we can do in the area, and of course the elephant visit and 18 km jungle trek that we're going to do over a two day period.
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i have to ask. Who is winning the most at backgammon? Seems Jeannie has the edge on me way to often. Very affordable room. How are you handling the language barrier? Or is English spoken in the tourist areas.
ReplyDeleteI was winning the most games this year up until a couple days ago and now Kevin is ahead but not by much. You need to keep track of your games, it is the only way to know who is ahead, lol!
DeleteThe room is definitely very affordable and although it is very basic, it is suiting our needs nicely, especially when they have such a nice deck area at the back of the guesthouse. So far we are finding that English is spoken by most people in the tourist industry so really we haven't had too much of an issue. We have also been learning the basic Khmer (Cambodian) words/phrases which is always appreciated by the locals.