Good morning Vietnam...
Joy and I woke up early to spend the rest of our Vietnamese Dong before we left Vietnam. We bought fruit, coffee, strange foodstuffs and had a couple of close calls with people carrying dead pigs over their shoulders or on motorbikes. It was great to be in the crowd of locals, experiencing shopping in another country. Our stuff was later loaded onto a little white speedy boat, and we headed up the Mekong river towards Cambodia. A couple of hours later, we had to get out of the boat with our bags and get them x-rayed and our passports stamped to leave Vietnam. Little local boys wanted to help us. One boy with blonde streaks showed me his big muscles to prove his strength.Too cute. We got out of Vietnam, loaded the boat and traveled a few metres up the river to enter Cambodia. Three little girls welcomed us to their country, in wonderful English! I had to get a visa on the border, so a few of us sat in a hut while officials made sure we were suitable to enter. I learnt the word for thank you...awkun. Another couple of hours on the boat brought us past floating markets, many houses on stilts and wavy children helping their families to fish. We reached Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, at around lunchtime. It was soooo hot! We got to the hotel, ate lunch, and then Joy and I headed out to the Royal Palace. It was a beautiful place, so full of colour and interesting shapes. We took our first tuk tuk ride on the way back, after we tried to find a monastery. A tuk tuk is a motorbike with a little carriage attached that you sit in while the driver takes you wherever you want to go. Our driver was called Nick and had a killer-comical Australian accent.
That night we were treated with a performance of traditional Khmer (Cambodian) dance by some children in a kind of orphanage centre. It was super. Some of the little boys kept winking at the audience, which was hilarious.We got the chance to dance and play with the kids afterwards---it was lovely to meet the local children.