The air outside of Phnom Penh airport felt like Indian summer. In fact, not much looked different.
There were touts everywhere, locals almost swiping up my backpack and essentially ensuring I followed them to their tuk tuks or cabs. But this was a moment I had prepared for not just from my upbringing in India, but by pouring over tonnes of articles on how to travel on a shoe string in South East Asia.
I was prepared to haggle, but the people of Cambodia weren’t new to it either :). I knew what the locals pay for the distance I had to travel and refused to pay any more.
After many attempts, one tuk tuk owner succumbed and dropped the fare from 30$ to 5$, provided I agreed to share the tuk tuk with 2 more people. This was not a problem, as Cambodian tuk tuks are super spacious and practically open air. Almost immediately we found two Australians headed in the same general direction.
Phnom Penh was meant to be a stop over, one night of stay before I left for Siem Reap. And so, I asked the tuk tuk driver to take me to the newest hostel in town near the river front. New because – they are eager to get good ratings, are generally cheaper in the first few months of opening, new = cleaner for sure and lesser likelihood of bed bugs.
I arrived at a one month old hostel Happy House 19. Happy it was, run by a friendly family, still smelling of paint and beginnings of sporadic art threads on it’s walls initiated by previous traveller.
Everything about backpacking was new. The kind of streets it took you to, the kind of services it offered and also the kind of ‘jugaad’ it expected of you.
I booked a bunk bed in a mixed dorm, for 3$ a night.
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