We caught a public bus,not as bad as it sounds though,as it was more a luxury coach with wifi. Apart from the driver there were 2 men who collected the passports and our 70US$ for our Cambodian visas and they did the paperwork on the 2 hour drive to the border. Thankfully they also handled the process at the border which took an hour or so.Almost immediately we stopped for an early lunch and we managed to use up the rest of our dong so it will be dollars now until we are back in Thailand.
The first thing you notice as you drive through the countryside is how much poorer Cambodia is . Very little traffic and the housing is more traditional looking,many on stilts and far far fewer scooters and motor bikes. The countryside looked fertile enough and the paddy fields stretched as far as the eye could see. there were a few stalls at the side of the road with a small selection of produce.The towns and villages were mostly full of single storey buildings with the shops displaying their goods in the open. All of a sudden the road surface changed from ok to super smooth and we were approaching a very new looking bridge over the Mekong river and there were groups of people parked up on the bridge taking selfies etc. On this side of the river the agriculture changed to more coconut and banana plantations and the land was significantly higher than before. Soon the shacks gave way to more substantial habitations as we neared Phnom Penh and large infrastructure construction sites before entering the old colonial heart of the city.
Our hotel is in the old quarter and after a rest we took a cyclo tour of the sites,Wat Phnom the original Buddhist temple,the central market,independence arch and the royal palace by the river where the locals were enjoying the river views and open spaces.Sadly much of the river frontages have had huge 5* hotels built upon them. For dinner we went to the Foreign Correspondents Club where we ate on the terrace admiring the view.