After a late change in our initial plan to go to Vietnam, we now find ourselves in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The journey is a couple of short 1 hour plane flights and other than having to collect all of our things in Bangkok to go through immigration there the trip is quite uneventful.

Phnom Penh is the capital city of Cambodia with a population of about 2 million people. The city has a lot of French influence with nice wide streets and a lot of colonial style buildings, but as with many SE Asian cities it is VERY busy! Our trip from the airport in a tuk-tuk is very entertaining as our driver weaves in an out of traffic – often facing motorbikes that are traveling the wrong direction on our side of the street, and some of the most congested traffic I have seen. It is a good thing that the streets are so wide, because some of the maneuvers that we see on the streets here would not at all be possible in the more tightly packed streets of Thai cities.

Our hotel is located not far from the bank of the Mekong river, and after getting settled in we walk out for a look around and to find some dinner. The riverbank has a nice wide sidewalk (unlike the mostly non-existent sidewalks in Thailand) and after dinner we walk along for quite a distance taking in the scenery. It is a national holiday here to celebrate on of the previous kings – King Sihanouk – so part way through our walk we are rewarded with a nice fireworks display from across the river. Along the riverside we pass by the Royal Palace that is all lit up for the evening, and because of the holiday a few of the streets are closed to traffic and there are lots of people wandering about.

Our early impression of Phnom Penh is looking quite favorable for a city of this size. We are normally not big city people, but so far we feel a little better vibe here than we would in say Bangkok.

On our way back to our hotel we stop for a foot massage, and I must give full credit to the ladies who worked us over, the massage was very good, and among the best that I have had in SE Asia – Mrs. Columbus’ masseuse was even wearing a black cocktail dress!!

We have plans for a busy day tomorrow seeing some of the sights so after the massage it is back to our room and off to bed – in a bed that is not as hard as a rock I might add, so kudos to the Silver River Hotel for having a bed that at least resembles something that people would sleep on 😉

I am not at all embarrassed to admit that we have not done a whole lot the last few days. Our hotel has a great little pool and a nice sitting area, so we have been taking full advantage of that along with spending some time visiting with our local friends.

We have managed to find a nice little massage place close to our new hotel and in addition to being able to get a good massage, the owners are really friendly and we have had a nice time chatting with them while getting our daily relaxation!

We know that our time here in northern Thailand is approaching an end, so we are trying to get out with our friends here as much as possible. We have had a few good nights out with Tee, Ian, Richie and Landon, and we also had the chance to meet Richie’s girlfriend Vanna,  and Landon’s girlfriend Tiew.

We also managed to have an nice night out with Ian and Tee at The River Market restaurant – a bit of an upscale place featuring a sort of Thai-Western fusion type menu. The restaurant is situated along the bank of the Ping River and it was very nice to just sit and relax and enjoy the great food with our friends. Tee always does so much to help us out and take care of us, so it was nice to see her relax for an evening as well!

After dinner we walked up towards the old city, and stopped for a couple of drinks at the Interbar. They have been a fixture in Chiang Mai for a very long time and feature live music. It was very interesting to hear Thai musicians perform American music, and we got a chuckle from time to time from their rendition of the lyrics, but overall a great night out.

Our last day/night in Chiang Mai was a little busy.  Trying to get some goodbye time in with all of our friends along with getting the laundry sorted and all packed up kept us fairly well occupied. We had lunch with Landon and Tee, and then dinner with a couple we met at our new favorite massage shop, an Aussie fellow and his Thai girlfriend. Then it was back to Ginny Cafe for me to say a last goodbye to Ian and Tee for another year.

Our time in Chiang Mai was great as always, and we are sad to be moving on, but take some comfort in knowing that we will be back again soon and have developed some great friendships here.  Phop gun mai na krap!