June 2017, safely arrived.

We left Stavanger airport at 12.30 Friday morning, flew first to Stockholm and then an over-night flight to Bangkok. we then picked up out transfer to Phnom Pehn arriving here at 08.45 local time or 03.45 Norwegian time. Everyone except Tom Kenneth slept at least some of the way.

Today is the only free day we have and we need to get used to temperatures of over 30 degrees centigrade and humidity of over 85% which is very different from the cold spring we have had at home.

The first thing we did was to jump in the hotel pool to cool off.

After a long time swimming and relaxing under the bamboo sunshade which covers the pool area, we decided to go and find something to eat. Trip advisor has given us lots of exciting restaurants to try on our trips here. They have all been local food and all very good. Today's was no exception, we ordered six dishes to share between all six of us and everything was delicious.

After we had eaten we had a walk around the city in the area of the royal palace. As we wandered the sky turned black with rain clouds. It is the start of the rainy season here and when it rains it is more like standing under a shower than it is like the rain we get at home. Today was no exception but thankfully it passed quickly leaving us wet and warm: and splashing around in warm water heated by the paths and roads it landed on.

Splashing around in water that is as warm as a bath was a new and fun experience for the younger members of the team.

We wandered along the edge of the river and sat for a while to look at the point where two major rivers become one, the Tonlé Sap and Mekong which flow through the delta areas of Cambodia and Vietnam before joining the South China Sea.

There were two small boys with a very sharp knife and a coconut which Åshild was fascinated by. What she hasn't yet noticed is that all the Cambodian people, especially the older ones stare and stare at her. All Cambodian children are born with dark hair and it remains black. Åshild has true viking colouring with white-blond hair, something which I think is very rare here. They stare as if they cannot believe their eyes before breaking out into a huge smile. 

Studying the boys with the coconut.

We caught a ride in a tuctuc back to our hotel, all three children, and some of the adults could not keep their eyes open and had to be shaken awake when we arrived.