Day 105 – Battambang to Phnom Penh

Today we had an early breakfast at Lucky Hostel, before checking out and walking to Sorya Ticket Agency, which is where we bought our bus tickets the day before. The bus was meant to leave at 8:45am, but when we arrived we were the only ones here besides some cardboard boxes full of live chickens.

When we went into the office, we could tell something was wrong as the staff told us to sit down, but they seemed worried and were frantically making calls. After 5 minutes they told us we need to take motorbikes to the bus. We were each told to get on a motorbike, and our large 60L bag was put between the drivers legs and we got on behind the driver. As we went on our 10 minute journey on the bikes that were potentially racing each other, we both had thoughts of injuries and death pop into our minds. We were dropped off at a bus stop where we waited until 9:05am for the bus to arrive.

There were already people on the bus, who all disembarked at the stop. I think it was a toilet break for them as most got back on. The bus left 15 minutes after it arrived. The bus was actually good, with leather (or similar) seats and plenty of leg space. The top half of the bus was caked in a layer of thick dust, but the bottom half including seats were clean-ish.

At around 11:40am the bus stopped for a 20 minute lunch break and then closer to Phnom Penh it stopped again for 20 minutes at around 2:30pm. Here they kicked everyone off the bus and gave it a wash with a small army of staff.

The roads were very busy and we felt like the last 2 hours of the journey would have been faster to walk due to the traffic. We arrived at the Central Market Bus Terminal at around 4:30pm, and then walked the 1.5km to our hostel, Cool Wrong Hostel. While walking there, we felt like we were definitely in a large city again with lots of people and noise.

We checked into the hostel, Cool Wrong Hostel, which was really nice. As soon as we opened the door we were welcomed by the AC. I was in love. We were checked in by what I assume was the owner, who was Turkish. We were shown the beds which were upstairs, however we had no idea about the locker or toilet situation. It was a bit of trial and error to work out the various items of the hostel. It would have been good to have just been told at the start.

The location of the hostel is really good, right next to the Tongle Sap River. The banks of the river have been path-ed and seems like a popular spot for both locals and tourists. There were zumba like classes, roller bladers, food stalls and outdoor gym equipment (used by a wide variety of ages from kids to grandmas). We ended up eating at a super cheap and tasty place called Happy Phnom Penh Pizza. Drinks and two dishes ended up costing $8 USD / $11.08 AUD. We then walked back home and chilled before hitting the hay on the super comfortable beds