7-25 Phnom Penh

Chris took an 8am bus to Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. It's $11 for a charter bus ticket and takes 6-7 hours depending on processing time for visas at the border. I booked the noon bus since the 8am was full. As expected, they give the foreigner the worst seat on the entire bus. In the seat in front of me was an overweight Frenchie frog. The seat wouldn't lock into position, so his seat reclined all the way back until the hard plastic backing was resting on my knee caps. Like a true Frenchmen, it was apparently my problem, not his. I ended up being saved by wedging a water bottle and thick 1,100 page novel between the back seat and my arm rest, keeping my knees from getting smashed.
The border town of Moc Bai was the only stop. An hour of paper shuffling and $25 for a visa got us across the border into Cambodia. Our stop for dinner in Moc Bai was unimpressive to say the least. $6 for a paper plate of some overcooked veggies and chicken that had been covered in flies. You'd be surprised what you're willing to eat if you are hungry enough. Every restaurant under $15 per meal in Vietnam and Cambodia would have enough US health code violations to fail inspection 10 times over. Forget eating the food, most people wouldn't even want to touch anything in their kitchens. Without a nice stash of immodium pills and a willingness to lower your standards of cleanliness, you will have a real hard time here.
Cambodia uses US currency for many transactions above $4USD, but they also have their own currency the Riel. 1 USD = 4,000 Riel, so just like Vietnam, there are no coins for small denominations. Once in the city center off the bus, I got a $2 tuk tuk ride to the nearest internet cafe he could find in order to get info on where Chris was staying. I was quickly finding out that Cambodia was likely going to be the most expensive tha ruthless of the countries we'd visited so far. The practices of gouging foreigners for every last penny seemed to be in full effect; even some shops post prices for Cambodians, then much higher prices for foreigners next to it. Many people will outright lie to you and try to cheat you. A woman exchanging currency at the border tried to cheat me out of $10. After learning that I'd just come to Cambodia, the tuk tuk driver after the internet cafe tried to cheat me by telling me the exchange rate was 15,000:1 instead of 4,000:1. I worked off a map and my handy pocket compass after quickly getting rid of my dishonest driver. Chris was waiting for me at a bar out front his accomodation -- The Royal Highness Hotel. It was ($18) with A/C, which is an OK deal I guess. He had a similar experience with tuk tuk drivers, but later found a great one - Mr. Jambo. He spoke English ans was fun to hang out with, so we spent the last hour at the bar with him. We arranged for him to take us sightseeing the next day, then pointed us towards a fun nightlife area to check out. It was an expensive night, but we had a great time with some new Italian and Canadian friends.