Sihanoukville, Cambodia > Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Day 99
What a day ended up being 12 hours door to door. We left Sihanoukville at 7.45am and headed for Phnom Phen, we arrived about 11.30am. Ana our travel agent told us there would be no changes etc of our bus. Well we had to hop off and the bus didn’t leave PP until 1.15pm, so we went across the road for lunch and we probably had the best meal we have had in Cambodia.
We hopped onto our second bus and head for HCMC. The day was very dark and gloomy and we had patches of rain on the way. The highlight of the trip was crossing the Mekong River….by barge. The bus drove onto it and then off the other side with all of us on it. Our bus driver must have been from Thailand as the bus hurtled along the road only slowing for farm vehicles and cattle that he couldn’t wiz past.
At the border before we were allowed off the bus our temperature was taken for Swine Flu, it was really strange as only the foreigners on the bus were tested, none of the locals were touched. The process was fairly painless, we had filled in all of our forms prior and our bus boy had sent them all in while we were getting tested. So all in all it was a pretty quick border crossing, no shonky officials trying to bribe you or anything.
We arrived in HCMC at 7.15pm and it was bucketing down, luckily by the time we were dropped off it had stopped. Once again we didn’t really know where we were going to be dropped off but it just so happened it was the same road we had found a guest house on. So we just walked a couple of hundred metres and found a bed for the night down an alley way at Hoang Phong Hotel for $17US per night including breakfast. This place is full of little back alleys and laneways.
Dinner was fantastic, fresh spring rolls and Vietnamese Pancake with chicken, shrimp and fresh vegies…..absolutely delicious!!! The restaurant we ate at had 271 items on the menu and that didn’t include drinks and sweets…..amazing what they can produce in 1 kitchen (Thailand was similar).
I think we are going to love Vietnam. We have only been here a couple of hours and already we have a great feel for the place.