On the road again...

Our short two days back home in Phnom Penh were exciting, hectic and pretty emotionally draining (in retrospect, planning a multinational backpacking trip on a whim might not have been the best way to go :P ). We spent countless hours reading, researching and planning our itinerary, talking about and setting budgets for each place we wanted to visit, doing laundry and running last minute errands; walking around the Central Market to get supplies, making two trips to the Vietnam Embassy to secure our Visas and stopping by the bank to get money.

But, considering the short notice, we managed to get everything in order. We booked a bus from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon) on the Mekong Express. Samnang was kind enough to wake up early with us and take us to the bus station. Saying goodbye to him was bitter sweet, he has been so kind to let us stay in his house and if it weren't for his generosity there would be no way we could be going on this phenomenal adventure! Thanks again Samnang!!!!! 

The bus journey was pretty painless and uneventful. We boarded at 8:30am and were immediately served a small box with yummy pastries and a bottle of water. The bus was clean, relatively spacious and even had a bathroom on board! 

Our bus

Waiting to board!

Inside the bus being served a breakfast snack

It took about three hours before we stopped for lunch at a small restaurant just outside the border crossing into Vietnam. We ate some noodles and spring rolls, then were back on the bus heading into Vietnam. The bus company collected our passports and did all the leg work to get our exit stamps and verify our visas. We exited the bus, had our pictures taken and passports scanned as we left Cambodia, then made a short trip to the Vietnam immigration office. The bus company called out each person's name and we walked through the security checkpoint with no issue. Five minutes later, we were all on the bus again, passports in hand and were on our way to Ho Chi Minh City. 

At the boarder crossing in Vietnam!

It only took about 2 hours from the border to make it to the bus station in downtown HCMC. We had made arrangements through email for a guesthouse near the airport but as soon as we stepped off the bus we were approached by a nice young lady wondering if we were interested in a cheap guesthouse just down the street. We all agreed that for $15/night it was worth not having to figure out a way to find our other guesthouse so we followed the woman down a small alley to her families guesthouse, the Backpackers Club. It turned out to be a great find! We got a huge hostel room with 9 beds all to ourselves, it had a bathroom in the room and two showers with hot water! The location was great, near lots of restaurants and shops. 

Our room

The front of our hostel

We were able to wander and get dinner then headed back to the hostel to do some more planning and just relax. 

Hanging out in HCMC

The next morning we woke up early and enjoyed the free breakfast of scrambled eggs, fruit, baguettes and unlimited coffee/tea served family style on a long table with all the other backpackers staying at the hostel. We met some interesting people and were able to swap some great travel stories and advice. Our plan was to check out of our hostel and go to the War Remnants Museum that was only a few blocks away to kill time before we headed to the airport to catch, what we thought, was our 6:15pm flight to Hanoi, but at around 11:00am we got an email from the airline saying “your 2pm flight has been delayed to 3:10 sorry for the inconvenience”. Apparently Sam had booked a different flight then we thought, and if it hadn't been delayed we would have missed it completely!!! Lesson learned-- Sam is not allowed to book our flights from now on! =) Thankfully we had plenty of time to get all our stuff together, grab some lunch and get to the airport.

Even though we only spent 22 hours there, Ho Chi Minh City seemed like a super cool place to hang out, full of character, history and tasty food. It's a sure thing that we'll be paying it another visit before too long. But now, on to Hanoi and Halong Bay!

Woohoo! We made our flight! =)