Onward to Phnom Penh

This morning we woke in Chong Koh, which was a small village it is on the Southern  side Phnom Penh, we all disembarked and walked to the local school it was an absolute delight to see all the little kids. little being the operative word, the children in the class were 12-14 year olds but seemed so much smaller than the children in the UK the same age.

Again it was a delight to give out pencils and crayons to the kids which they took off us as quick as we could get them out of our bags. As they all knew we were coming they had been practicing a song to sing for us and as most of the guests on board the ship were Australian it was a very enthusiastic version of WALTZING MATILDA which made us smile followed by a huge round of applause from us.

THE LOVELY HOUSES BUILT ON STILTS

Straight after our school visit we continued to walk around the village and was invited to go into one of the locals homes- the houses are all built on stilts due to the severity of the flooding each year which reaches up to 4 feet in places, then it was onto a silk weaving area of the village we all watched in pleasure as the ladies in the village were working making scarves, quilts etc all brought by tourists from the ships, you are advised by the cruise tour managers to barter with the locals and try and bring them down by 50%, but it is so hard when you know how little money they have anyway- in fact one lady in our group offered them more.

OUR SILK WEAVING VISIT

The ship arrived late in the afternoon then made its way to the capital city as with every night we had a meeting at 7.00pm with cocktails in the Saigon Lounge this is always to discuss the following day’s excursions and times etc, the process is always done to a high standard with lots of information & humour.
The entertainment for tonight was a traditional dance on board the ship from the Khmer children all arranged by the APT Travelmarvel group, an excellent show lasting for about 45 minutes then it was free time and a chance to go out to the Phonm Penh city night life – which Ive got to say totally stunned us – it was more like Ibiza in August, who would have thought it? the bars were full to the brim even at 9.00pm.

The best was to come in my opinion anyway- us girlie’s all headed for the massage parlous and had fully body massages all for only $4.00 each bargain.

AS ALWAYS IF YOU THINKING OF A MEKONG RIVER CRUISE OR ANY KIND OF CRUISE LET ME KNOW

I WILL ALWAYS LOVE TALKING TO YOU ABOUT IT.

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DIRECT NUMBER ; 0800 408 6120