We said goodbye to Siem Reap and headed  for Phnom Penh, taking the same bus as Aline, Deborah and Kai.  The ‘Giant Ibis’ bus was most expensive option for the six hour journey as it had seatbelts, air-con and wi-fi, and even a hostess who supplied refresher towels, bottled water for $13 per seat.  In true backpacker style, Lara and Teddy opted for the cheaper Capitol bus at $6 per seat without these luxuries. If it were just Dave and I, we would have been right alongside Lara and Teddy – funny how having children changes your perspectives.

Our first impressions of Phnom Penh were not great.  Once known as the ‘Pearl of Asia’, it was considered one of the loveliest French-built cities in Indochina.  Now it is a bit more busy, dirty and overcrowded but still with the same friendly, gentle people albeit a bit less so than their country cousins in Siem Reap. Having forgotten to get our Indian Visa’s in Bangkok while we were there (duh), we knew that Phnom Penh was our only chance without making major changes to our plans. So after completing the exhaustive on-line application forms that only India would have, we received our automatic notification of an appointment at the Indian Embassy in two days time.

We spent the next day taking in some sights of Phnom Penh and the National Museum. Built in 1924 by the French, it holds many artefacts especially from the Angkor Wat area perhaps in response to the looting that has occurred at the temples, and to keep safe a selection of the main deity figures of Hindu and Buddhist mythology like Garuda, Ganesha, Shiva and Apsaras. Having already been to the temples, it was great to see the girl’s reaction to these figures and photos around the Museum as they could now really relate to what they were seeing – an excellent revision! I have done a couple of ‘lessons’ for the girls centred on these mythical deities so now they exclaim with excitement when they recognise them when we are out and about and I am learning right along with them!

Phnom Penh sits at the junction of the mighty Mekong and two other rivers (Tonle Sap and Bassac) so we walked along the riverbank and watched the local kids swimming in its muddy waters.  They would jump in and let the quite fast moving current take them downstream where they would climb out run back and do it again.

Heading back to our guesthouse we stopped briefly in at the Royal Palace before chancing upon a great playground (very few and far between in Asia). The girls were happy playing while we sat, had a cold beer and watched a steady stream of monks walking through the park.

Lara and Teddy were heading back to Bangkok the next day so we said our goodbyes by going out to dinner at ‘Friends Restaurant’ (a teaching restaurant training street kids in hospitality).  Lara generously offered her family holiday house located up in the Italian Alps if we were in the area at the end of the year.  Of course the girls are now determined to include Paris as part of our travels knowing that Lara is there and I would have to agree it would be lovely to catch up again. I have never met a more environmentally and socially conscious 23 year old and if my girls turn out to even be half what you are Lara I will be a happy and proud Mum!

After our appointment at the Indian Embassy on the Tuesday morning, we left our passports and visa applications and hightailed it back to the guesthouse where we packed our bags and jumped on the next bus headed for the coast, being the water-babies that we are!

We would spend the next five nights (which included Immi’s birthday) in Sihanoukville, or ‘Snooky’, the very laid-back beach area enjoying the warm waters in the Gulf of Thailand, and home of the main factory of Angkor beer, Cambodia’s national beer – gotta be our kind of place!