Due to the success of our last journey with Giant Ibis, we decided to book our transport with them again by visiting their booking office near the night market in Phnom Penh. However, a few days prior to this, we arranged to have our Vietnam visa sorted with a local travel agency. They were located on Preah Sisowath Quay (riverfront) but I’m unsure of their name, it cost $40 dollars for a 30-day UK citizen visa and took a couple of days. It’s important that you sort out your Vietnamese visa in advance! There is an exception to this though as a lot of countries can get a free 15-day visa.
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| Scenic bus ride |
We booked onto the 8am bus departing to Ho Chi Minh City for $18 dollars per person. We arrived half an hour early and boarded the bus in good time and received a complimentary bottle of water and Blue Pumpkin pastry. The first leg of the journey to the border crossing takes around 4 hours with a brief stop during this where they collect all your passports to get the appropriate stamps and to check you have a visa if required. The rep will also get the passports stamped at the Cambodian border control to speed up the process.
There was then a quick stop between each border at a duty-free shop and restaurant for around 15 minutes. This bit got a little confusing as we had a quick look around and decided to wait back on the bus. The bus then left with only half the people on it and it caused a lot of confusion and stress for those who had someone not on the bus! No answers were given when asked to go back and we were dropped off at the Vietnamese border control. I presume they then went back to get the others however I don’t understand why they just didn’t initially wait.
Vietnamese passport control then took a very long time to get through as many people were waiting and only a few members of staff were working. Unfortunately, this room was very hot and it took a good hour to get through this process! Next is the x-ray machine for luggage which again is busy and then you all line up to have your passport checked again. This took a while as only one person was doing this and most Vietnamese people seemed to think they could walk to the front of the queue!
After all of this we got on the bus again and headed for Ho Chi Minh City. We were now driving on a much better dual carriage way to those in Cambodia and were making good time until… As most people know-the buses here don’t hang around. We were driving down a dual carriage way alongside a lorry and both seemed to want a race! However, a minute later, the inevitable happened and we collided with the lorry. Thankfully this was only a small crash, a lost wing mirror and some scrapping of the side but it could have been a lot worse! This highlighted the true danger of travelling on buses in Asia, so please be aware of the risks before travelling around.
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| Very busy in Ho Chi Minh City! |
We carried onto Saigon centre and got dropped near the Giant Ibis agency which is round the corner from the main backpackers street! From here you can get a taxi or walk to a local hotel or hostel, we chose the latter.
In conclusion, this journey was certainly an experience and we were glad to finally arrive! I still believe that Giant Ibis is still a good company to use but be aware of the dangers of travelling on roads in South East Asia.
2 out of 5
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