There are a few options to get from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. The bus is the cheapest, but the speedboat is the coolest. One thing to consider is that this is one tight ship. I don’t mean clean or well maintained, I mean that it’s cambodian-sized. The Germans sitting behind us held us personally responsible for this situation, which was uncomfortable on more than one level. The inside of the boat is akin to riding in a tin can hurtling down the Tonle Sap lake and river.
Close quarters, and there was some leaking coming in from one of the welds, so water was shloshing around on the floor of the boat. Bad news for anyone that left items on the floor when they went up top. Atop the tin can was this situation. There’s a guy there on the side with a white shirt on- he’s the porter, of sorts. You can’t see it, but he has a small cooler of beer that he carries around selling at a nice profit.
After 6 hours of riding on the boat, many people were very sunburnt. But they had legroom, and life’s a trade off. We checked into our guesthouse and headed a few blocks to the Foreign Corespondents Club, which was very civilized. Seriously, check out the single ice log in my Gin & Tonic. That’s mixologist-worthy. And yet, not a hipster in sight.
