Cong Truong Quach thi Trang

Phnom Penh > Ho Chi Minh

I woke up a little anxious as I had an hour between returning my bike and getting on the bus to Vietnam. I got reception to call the bike place and I got my passport back without a hitch (phew). I ordered a grab and headed to the bus station. Once I was in the grab I got Alfie and Daisy (who had been in the city since before 6am) to order me some breakfast to go from the place they were at. I arrived with plenty of time.

Our bus was kinda funky. It was a sleeper bus with half seats half beds which were luckily just long enough for me and was fairly comfortable to lie on - only issue was that we couldn't sit up straight. Oh well. The breakfast was a bit difficult to eat on a bumpy bus half lying down but I made it work though I was incredibly stressed about the pot of soup spilling everywhere. I tied my trash in a bag and hung it on a hook praying the soup didn't go rogue.

Just before the Vietnam border we had some complementary lunch. For being our last Cambodian meal it was also the worst. The rice was wet and boiled and the pork was like a well seasoned slab of leather. When we got to the border we all hopped off our bus with all our luggage and walked through. Starting by queuing in the regular line our guide told us to use the VIP line. That's how cool we were. After making it through no man's land and into Vietnam we boarded our bus again and headed towards Ho Chi Minh City.

With no longer working SIMs we eventually got off and abused the bus companies WiFi to 1) find an ATM without withdraw fees 2) find somewhere to buy a SIM (unsuccessful) 3) order a grab to our accommodation.

When we arrived at our accommodation our hope of a lovely 2 bedroom private apartment fizzled and we slowly walked into a rundown concrete apartment complex that looked likes God's toilet paper after a dodgy curry. We find our host and her first look is very confused. Bad sign. She takes us up another flight of stairs and opens up a small 1 bed studio. She says she can bring another mattress in and discount the price. Not wanting to find another accommodation at this time, we agreed. Atleast the room itself was fairly clean and seemingly bug free.

She leaves and we laugh at the shithole we had booked. Atleast it was only for 1 night and we could find somewhere else for the next couple nights. We still hadn't got a SIM so we ventured to a local cellphone store and got a SIM each for pretty much no money. After that we were free to explore so we headed to the Bui Vien Walking Street which seemed to be the main street for bars and clubs. We chose the first place we saw and went for the inaugural local beer tasting - this time one called Tiger. It was okay and we sat right on the road for a while saying no to every person trying to sell us some trash.

It was now time for food. Being in South East Asia I've been determined to try some cheap Michellin recommended / star food so I downloaded the app and selected "on a budget" and headed towards the closest place that served Pho - a popular Vietnamese noodle soup dish. It was pretty busy but we got seated and I ordered the classic beef. My review is... meh. It was good individually, the beef was soft and the noodles were even softer but the flavour was a bit plain. But I'm not the biggest soup guy so who knows. I did order a strawberry shake which was so so good.

After that we headed back to our crack den where I fashioned a pillow for my floor mattress and after showering we got to sleep.Read more