Since I had arrived a day earlier than my brother in Ho Chi Minh, I spent the whole day walking around the city. I had a blast getting myself immersed in a new place which hurriedly became familiar to me. From crossing the street with a sea of motorcycles whose drivers never slowed down, I had become an expert in not getting run over after a few attempts. I had also politely rejected motorcycle drivers' and rickshaw operators' offers of rides, as I just told them, "I am just walking around."
Phnom Penh de Sarapen: Border Crossing | Cambodia
Which I did before retiring to the guest house and waited for my brother, who arrived early morning the next day. After a short nap, we went out to the then-awakening city of Saigon and had a quick breakfast in order to catch the 6:30 AM bus going to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. A day earlier, I had already purchased two one-way tickets to Phnom Penh which cost $10.00 per person at the Sinh Tourist located on De Tham Street—which was just beside both Bui Vien and Pham Ngu Lao.
I had taken a million bus rides in my life, but that one was special as it would be my first time to cross a border into another country. There was a little apprehension as I was worried that the immigration process at the border would be strict, and paranoia of being a Filipino—who was always suspected of overstaying—clouded my worry bubble for a few seconds. However, the process was a walk in the park; as fellow members of the ASEAN nations, we did not need a visa to enter Cambodia, and all we did was line up and wait for our passports to be stamped by both the Vietnamese and Cambodian immigration officers.
The Overland Journey to Moc Bai
The trip from Saigon to the border took around two and a half hours. So for the first couple of hours, we passed by the ensuing towns and cities of Saigon, where I saw more motorcycles driven around as the ride of choice for people going to work. If you thought the streets of Manila were already filled with motorcycles, then you had to think again, as the ratio would probably fall to less than one to ten when compared with that of Vietnam.
The Bavet/Moc Bai border was just one of the many borders travelers passed through to enter Cambodia. That was the most popular, as many tourists from Saigon took that route, thanks to the many Saigon to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap bus trip offerings from the many ticketing outlets in Ho Chi Minh.
After the border stop, the bus parked at a nearby cafeteria for a quick lunch, and all of a sudden one would feel the change of countries emphatically because you could not use your Vietnamese Dong anymore; rather, they accepted US dollars. My brother bought a can of Pringles for US $2.00 and two Pepsis in a can for $1.00 each. Like Filipinos in other parts of the globe, we did a quick mind Peso conversion. Forty-two pesos for a can of soda; hmm, a bit expensive yeah, compared to the twenty-five to thirty pesos sold back home.
Crossing the Mighty Mekong
After a short while, we were back on the bus again and rolling along the countryside of Cambodia. I saw a large mass of rice fields and wondered how much of those green lands had a landmine still planted and left unexploded. A long stretch of the field was engulfed with water, probably the remnants of the flood that had besieged Cambodia two weeks earlier.
Then, after another hour, the bus rolled onto a barge at the Neak Loeung Ferry terminal for a short ride across the Mekong. The river crossing took around ten minutes, and the transition was done smoothly as our bus and other vehicles rolled out, the awaiting passengers, motorcycles, and other vehicles rolled in, and the barge went back to the other side after a few minutes.
Then it was more countryside again and pockets of small towns in between. The sight was nothing peculiar, as it easily mirrored the countryside we had back in the Philippines. Rice paddies, small houses, people walking at the side of the streets, people waving at the bus. However, there were more kids riding their bicycles going to school, and it was nice to see some of them grouped together wearing their shimmery white-colored uniforms pedaling in unison at the side of the road.
Tuk-tuks or the auto-rickshaws started to appear at the towns we passed by. In the Philippines, we had our own version which we called "tricycles," while in Cambodia, it was a motorcycle with a passenger cabin (could fit in four people) with a roof attached in its rear. It offered a convenient ride, as I would find out later on; if you were only two passengers, you could sit side by side and stretch out your legs over to the opposite seats, and you were like riding a smooth-ass car.
Arrival in Phnom Penh
Finally, at around 2:00 PM, after a trip that lasted over seven hours, we rolled into the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. At the bus stop, we bumped into a friendly tuk-tuk driver named Prahn, who eventually became our tuk-tuk driver for the rest of the day and the other time when we went back to Phnom Penh after spending three days in Siem Reap.
"Where you from?" Prahn would ask us. My brother said, "We're from the Philippines." "Oh (he motioned punching his two fists), Manny Pacquiao, I love Manny Pacquiao." It turned out he watched Pacquiao's fights, which were shown in Phnom Penh on a cable channel a few days every time he fought.
Finally, at around 3:00 PM, we settled in a lovely guesthouse which Roomorama provided for me, called the You Khin House, located near the Russian Embassy and was only a walking distance from the city's main attractions. After getting a short rest, we took a walk and introduced ourselves to the city of Phnom Penh. After all the hours, the butt-numbing bus ride, and the border crossing—the trip was worth doing, and all the things I saw and experienced between transporting from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh were everything that made traveling truly addicting.
