The Japanese manager of the Iroha Garden Hotel greeted me when I arrived at my last hotel of this trip in Phnom Penh. He may have to suffer some of my attempts at learning Japanese! This hotel is another stylish place with kindly staff, it feels sheltered from the pandemonium of Phnom Penh, but a little frayed around the edges. The Iroha Garden Hotel’s room safes are not big enough for my laptop but that didn’t matter. The manager made helpful suggestions as to how I could use the spare time I have in Phnom Penh.

I left the Montra Nivesha without seeing Para, a member of staff who had been especially helpful. A shame. But all of the staff had been quite proactive. I also failed to leave a tip, there was probably a tip box somewhere I blindly missed. It had been a very nice place to stay in, if only I could have reliably got hot water for the shower, but I had the same problem in the last two places.

It took five and a half hours to reach the Iroha Garden Hotel from Siem Reap, a journey full of visions I failed to capture and will forget all too soon. 4 primary school children resolutely progressing together on one motorbike. Pigs seemingly piled one on top of each other in a truck. Coach drivers trying to crush luggage into the luggage hold. Minivans full to overflowing with people and bags. Motorbikes going the wrong way along the road. A clutch of roadside stalls selling what looked like sections of bamboo. Rice paddies. Ornate Buddhist temples with colour schemes that suggested the Tele Tubbies had been at work. The driver stopped twice for a comfort break, the second time at what might pass for a Cambodian service station where women were touting round what might have been cooked grasshoppers. Nearly everywhere stalls selling food.

The Japanese boss had recommended Kinin as a Khmer style eaterie so I headed there. Not quite what I expected, lovely ambience, the place had an art gallery of contemporary local artists, a garden shop (!), and roaming cats. But it was more of a cocktail bar I felt. The food was fine, and it had a very helpful English manager who kindly used her Grab to order me a ride home, I was rightly embarrassed when I understood she was paying for me! My Maya eSim didn’t connect there, I tried one the next day from Holafly which worked in more places in Phnom Penh.