As always crossing the border is more trouble than you bargain for. We bought a ticket in Chau Doc that was supposed to take us smoothly, and in only 7 hours, get us to Phnom Pehn. It involved two tranfers but we were assured that with our onboard guide we would have no trouble. You thought we would have learned by now that crossing borders is never as smooth as the ticket agent in the country you are departing from tells you.

The first leg was smooth as we took a liesurely ride down the Mekong to the border. The second leg was on a small speed boat that fit 6 people and to which we tied our boats over the front tip of the boat. Every time we crossed a wake created by another boat I prayed the boats would stay put and not sink to the bottom of the river. We made, about 2 hours behind schedule, to the town in Cambodia where a bus was to be waiting for us that would transport us to downtown Phnom Pehn. Alas, we were informed, the bus had broken and three cars had been sent instead to take the 25 tourists into town. Not to mention the 5 bikes (there was one other cyclist with us). After a lot of finaggling we got the bikes precariously tied into the mouth of the open trunk and headed off. If I had thought the wake on the river had be nerve wracking before that was nothing compared to the terror that struck me every time we hit one of the huge potholes that characterize Cambodian roads. After some more praying we finally arrived, nerves frayed, and tempers worn following another adventure in cross border travel.

Our stay in Phnom Pehn is a little different that our trip to this point. We are doing volunteer work at the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC). Because of this we had a person to meet us in Phnome Pehn and we had arranged a place to stay for the month at a guest house called The Boddhi Tree. Luckily after our rather disappointing trip the guest house turned out to meet our expectations. It is in a quiet part of the city, rather close to the CRWRC office. Also we soon met Navy, our supervisor for our volunteer work. She is a Canadian-Cambodian who escaped from Cambodia during the Pol Pot era and emigrated to Canada. Now she is back in Phnom Pehn trying to help the people of the country she left from. She is a wonderful person and soon made us feel at home with her laughs and smiles.

Well, I am going to stop there and tell you more about our volunteer work and our life in Phnom Pehn in the next update. Hope you check it out.