After leaving Siem Reap we were heading for the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. This would also mean taking our first intercity bus ride. Our hostel, Adan World, was able to arrange tickets and being frugal budgeteers we just booked the cheapest one. $10 including a morning collection from the hostel seemed a good deal.
The minibus that picked us up and the main coach both seemed to have had better days, on the other side of World War 2 probably, but we went with it. It seemed to be a coach for locals and chinese people to use – we were surprised to be the only Europeans on board – but it gave us a good taste of Cambodian life again and we made it to Phnom Penh in decent time. Once there we strolled off to the BKK1 neighbourhood to find a room but unfortunately all the top recommended spots were either taken or too pricey. Given the lack of choice, we booked into a windowless room with shared bathroom at the Mini Banana Hostel. It wasn’t great and when we discovered our bathroom was also shared with all the bar’s staff and customers we decided to see if anywhere had a room from the following night onwards.
Luckily we found a cafe called Aussie XL which was advertising vacancies. It wasn’t in any of the research we had done but the room was amazing: big, pristine, with a bath and air conditioning. We quickly snapped it up and moved in the following morning. The staff there were so friendly and the food was really good too. The room was $20 per night which was a little over what we were looking for but I’ve honestly stayed in £150 hotel rooms in London that were worse!
After booking that in we set off to look for a noodle house I had read about but couldn’t find it. We ended up getting some fried rice and noodles & heading back to the Mini Banana for a few beers. To its credit it was a really cool place to hang out, but I just have reservations about showering in a bar toilet!
