Day 5: Arrival in Phnom Penh

After an early start this morning, of 5:30am, we boarded the 8:40am flight from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. Many of us were worried because of the small size of the plane and there were heavy winds and storms. Once we arrived, we met out tour guide, Mr Hong. We took a small bus to the Ohana Hotel where we were dissapointed to find that the power was out. We took advantage of the darkness by having a silent doof and brought out all the iTorches. Because there was no power, it was very hard to get boiling water to cook our noodles for lunch. Mr Hong then took us to the Central Market where we shopped for just over an hour. We all bought t-shirts which we took to a printing shop to get our names written on them. This took a while because they were busy printing t-shirts for the upcoming election. After a short break at the hotel, Mr Hong took us to the Royal Palace, which is where the king of Cambodia lives. We learnt that the king has never had a wife and he is 61 years old. We toured around the palace with a guide and took photos where we could. From the palace, we went straight to the Tonle Sap River where we took a boat ride and witnessed the beautiful vast range of small house boats along the side belonging to the poor Cambodians. Our highlight of the day was lying on the front of the boat, at eye level with the water, and singing songs. We are currently dodging the small bat that is swooping our open corridoor and listening to everyone screaming like little girls. Xoxo Geoff and Mia