Laos #3: In Which I Return to Phnom Penh

Vientiane was good: it actually got cold, so I picked up a sweatshirt and a scarf, because the long sleeved things I had brought with me from Phnom Penh were not enough. We were planning on a trek of sorts through the Bolaven Plateau to see some waterfalls and such, but all of the packages ended up being too expensive for our budget, so we passed. Instead, we walked around the city a bunch, really got a feel for it, and spent a nice full afternoon in Talat Sao, the biggest market in the city. We spent an afternoon at Buddha Park as well. Buddha Park is this big field, full of statues of Buddha and related characters from the stories.

The big story of this half of the trip did not happen in Vientiane, however. From Vientiane, we moved on to Vang Vieng, the backpacker town in Laos. The main activity in Vang Vieng is tubing down the river. After a day of tubing, we went out to dinner. I took some cash with me in my camera case, which also had my passport in it (thank god, but keep reading), but left my ATM and credit card in my room. When we returned from dinner, my cards and the rest of my cash was gone, along with the little bit of cash that the other girls had left in the room. We switched guesthouses, but still I saw stuck in Laos with no money, and no way to get any money.

By our last day in Laos, I still hadn’t figured out how to get any cash to get myself out of Laos and back to Cambodia. I was rushing around, using my last few kip (and some of my friends') to make desperate phone calls and send panicky emails – to no avail whatsoever. With an hour before the bus to Cambodia was supposed to leave, I realized I had stuff: an iPod, two cameras, and two memory cards, and stuff can be sold for cash everywhere, at almost any time. So, I asked at the internet café if they knew of a place where I could sell electronics, and the guy behind the counter directed me to a place called “Essop”. I looked everywhere for “Essop”, but had no luck finding it, so I checked in a different internet café. This time, they told me the place was called “S-Hop”. Though I did not find anywhere called “S-Hop” during my second jog around Vang Vieng, I did happen upon a place called F-Shop: a dusty little shop filled with used iPods, cameras, cell phones – exactly the place I was looking for. 15 minutes and some hard bargaining later, I had sold my iPod, my small camera, and two memory cards for $100.

By the way, bargaining while panicking, with someone who doesn’t speak English is not fun. At the end of the transaction, the owner’s wife came out from behind the counter, put her hand on my shoulder, and said, “Ok?” with a really concerned expression on her face. I looked at her with a face that probably looked like I was about to burst into tears (because I was – so happy that I could go home, and still so stressed) and said, “No, I just really need to get home.” She looked so confused, but patted my shoulder and gave me a smile and a “Thank-you!” It was nice though, to finally have someone recognize that I wasn’t quite alright.

After the bus ticket from Vang Vieng to Phnom Penh, the exit fees from Laos, the entry fees and visa for Cambodia, and the tuk-tuk ride from the bus station to my apartment, I was left with one, single US dollar to my name.

And, to be honest, I have never loved a dollar, or Phnom Penh, more in my entire life.