At 11:30 we had to be ready for collection to meet the Giant Ibis bus. After savouring our last Frangipani breakfast, they have be so good, we found ourselves with a couple of hours to spare. Knowing we would need some more dollars and now knowing where the free ATM was Glenn set off, card in pocket.
Every day we’ve passed a barbers next door to the hotel and Yvonne, who has, so far, been taking care of Glenn’s hair with a small pair of scissors from the first aid kit, suggested he call in on the way. With a combination of pointing, holding up fingers and indicating the desired length with a thumb and a finger Glenn struck a deal with the young barber and relaxed into the chair. Whilst the lad fastidiously trimmed and shaved Glenn tried to recall the last time he’d been to a barbers and literally could not. It must be over 15 yrs so he sat back and enjoyed the experience.
When the lad indicated he’d finished Glenn signalled that he would like the hairs on his ears cut, the joys of old age, and the lad produced a cut throat razor and signalled for approval. With some trepidation Glenn nodded and watched with a combination of fear and awe as the lad very carefully trimmed every hair accompanied by the scratching sound of blade scraping across skin ringing in his ears. Once finished the lad said ‘shave?’ and continued to give Glenn his first ever shave by cut throat. With the princely sum of $3 handed over and his head still attached to his neck Glenn returned to show off his new look to Yvonne.
The Frangipani has been great. Friendly, polite and helpful staff in a lovely building and, as already mentioned, tasty and plentiful breakfasts have made our stay very enjoyable so it was with some sadness we checked out and waited for our Giant Ibis collection service. Within a few minutes we were shuttled to their depot, boarded our bus and on our way to Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital.
The six hour journey through mile after mile of flat rice fields passed without incident and we rolled into Phnom Penh just as the sun was setting. Once disembarked we were mobbed by tuk tuk drivers all wishing to take us to our hotel so within a couple of minutes we’d negotiated our fare and were on our way dodging through the traffic. As we’d had such a great stay at the Frangipani in Siem Reap we’d booked at one of their Phnom Penh hotels. When we arrived we took a hasty tasty dinner then prepared for tomorrow’s early start to visit the Vietnamese embassy to arrange our visas.
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| The bus |
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