Onward to Phnom Penh

I travel to Phnom Penh the following morning and spend lunch chatting with a gentleman fifty years my senior. He was one of the only Germans living in Israel back in the sixties (illegally), has hitchhiked from the Middle East to Nepal, is on to his 22nd passport and knows a lot about everywhere in the world, including Kamchatka (a town in the Russian far east that I hope to visit some day).

In the afternoon, I succumb to the guidebook craze and purchase the latest Vietnam/Laos/Cambodia Lonely Planet for 4USD, mostly to figure out where I’m crossing back into Vietnam.

I take a photo of a mother monkey with its baby. The mother is not happy and bites me when I turn around. B*tch!

In the evening, I have one of my less fortunate moments of the trip; I am robbed by a pack of women pickpockets. After my Saigon motorbike experience, I’ve been avoiding motor bikes and tuk tuks along the trip; walking back to the guest house after dinner, I manage to find myself walking down one of the streets littered with working girls. Two of them approach me and grab my hand trying to lead me to follow them, then another two grab my other hand, another three grab onto my body and I’m now walking along, dragging seven women with me. Next thing you know, they all disperse. I do find this to be a rather hilarious experience and want to write up a post about the differences between how Cambodian and Vietnamese girls  try and get your business.

I stop laughing half an hour later when I find my wallet stolen and return to find the girls have disappeared. Fortunately, one of the locals gives me a lift to my guesthouse, another lets me use the internet in his bar.

A big thank you to Natalie and Stephen for helping me out getting my stolen cards cancelled (true friends indeed). I vow to leave for Siem Reap in the morning and never return to Phnom Penh.