Katie, Will and us spent our last night in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, in a hotel overlooking the river. A little nervously it must be said as the lack of gun laws and tax make it home to gangsters from all over Asia. Even the hotel warned us to leave weapons in the hotel safe and not take them into the rooms. To steady our nerves (good excuse as any) the four of us had lunchtime beers in the lovely Riverside Restaurant.
After walking along the river and admiring the Grand Palace for a while, we became thirsty again and headed to the Foreign Correspondance Club, now an expensive bar, for a cocktail as we watched the sun go down from the balcony. After seeing night fall over a very hectic Phnom Penh we headed for the
Friends restaurant which is a little llike Jamie Oliver's concept for his restaurant '15' in London. It is run by teenagers formerly of the street and now trained as chefs and waiters and the only difference between Jamie Oliver's concept and the Cambodian formula seemed to be that the Cambodian children capatalise on the opportunity and embrace it with enthusiasm unlike the English street children in the documentary. The food, Asian tapas, was wonderful and with 15 dishes between the four of us, we demolished such delights as Cambodian chicken curry, fish salad and mango chicken with as much enthusiasm as we had - which for Cambodian food, is lots! It turned out to be the best meal we had eaten in Cambodia and as all the profits went to a good cause, the digestion was easier than normal too. We were really sad to leave Cambodia which had turned out to be an unexpected gem in our Asian journey's crown to date and is certainly a country that we would love to visit again. So with that, we waved a goodbye to the couregeous and lovely Cambodian people and caught our 6am bus to Vietnam.
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