This is gonna be a long one. I'm going to detail what a travel day looks and feels like for us. This particular day is our bus trip from Sihanoukville up to Phnom Penh, over the Cambodian-Vietnamese border and on to Ho Chi Minh City.
0630: alarm goes off. I say a silent prayer that it's a mistake and I still have 6 more hours to sleep. No luck. Carolyn begins to roll out of bed. I whisper that she'll probably have to go on without me. It seems I've come down with an affliction which has cemented my eyes shut. The western world calls this affliction 'sleepy.'
0637: Carolyn gets in the shower. I ask no one in particular why anyone would schedule a bus at 0730?
0642: I manage to fall out of bed and begin personal hygiene.
0647: slather hydrocortisone on Carolyn cause she looks like she's come down with chickenpox because of all the bug bites.
0652: finish packing my bag. Remind my beautiful bride that I love her but the jury's still out on whether I'll be able to make it another 5 minutes before falling asleep. Perhaps my affliction is actually narcasleepy?
0700: walk out of our room right on time. Not sure how we made our time hack. Walk to the hotel restaurant and sit down.
0705: the waitress asks what time we're leaving to which we respond 0730. She assures us there is enough time for breakfast. We order 2 'small breakfasts' which is just scrambled eggs, a baguette (yummy!!!) and hash browns.
0706-0729: fiddle around on the interwebs, look at our watches every 2 minutes and remark that they're cutting it close.
0730: our meal comes. Immediately move into survival mode meaning we stuff all edible morsels into the baguette and shove it all down our gullets as quickly as possible. While inhaling our breakfast I grumpily provide breakfast for a family of Mosquitos who seem to inhabit the chair I'm sitting in. Aren't I nice?
0742: our ride shows up and we quickly finish our meal, pay the bill and check out of the hotel.
0745: the driver happily sings some Cambodian song while displaying the largest smile on the planet. There is clearly something wrong with him since the sun has only been up for 2 hours and he's smiling.
0745-0800: speed around town picking more people up. Chat with the other backpackers about our various travel experiences.
0800: arrive at the 168-sorya bus terminal. 168-sorya is the bus company we're taking to ho chi Minh city today.
0802: load our bags underneath the bus and climb aboard. Carolyn is not happy with how I'm handling the bus tickets so she retakes that responsibility. She complains that we're sitting in the rear of the bus but I happily remind her that we'll be further away from the driver and hopefully out of range of the horn (which they use every 2 or 3 minutes here!!!!!). Bus is older looking with no bathroom but the A/C is kicking!!!!!!! I predict atleast 13 hours of Cambodian karaoke will grace the tv screen on the buss.
0810: depart bus station which is really just a random crappy store in downtown Sihanoukville.
0816: make a random stop at the 'real' bus station. I think we pick more people up but my powers of perception are still foggy.
0849: another random stop on the side of the road. The driver chats up one of the passengers for a couple minutes as we head off again.
0855: bus driver uses horn for the 36th time this morning.
0919: stop in random town to pick up local passengers.
SIDE NOTE: the towns we pass through all look pretty much the same. Filthy stores, trash all over the place being sifted through by cows, chickens, and dogs, smiling faces and of course the ever present fashion trend of Cambodia: women all wear pajamas! We've seen a couple bonus instances of a women wearing Angry Birds pajamas! Score.
0949: pick up and drop off some local peeps.
0956: Cambodian karaoke starts. Our driver must be a closet gangsta cause he turns up the bass to painful levels.
1045: bathroom / food stop. Incidentally, Cambodia is the only country we've been to that doesn't charge you to use the bathroom at bus stops.
1100: back on the road. The person in front of me has taken advantage of my absence and leaned his seat back. Now I get to enjoy the rest of our bus trip with filthy, dirty, oily backpacker hair inches from my face.
SIDE NOTE: why do backpackers generally refuse to wash themselves? Friggin disgusting. I'm routinely grossed out by the lack of personal hygiene displayed by backpackers here.
1126: driver really really loves that horn.
1239: Carolyn leans over and whispers that we have a 30 minute layover at the Phnom Penh bus station. I immediately see where she's going with this. You see the bus station is a hop skip and a jump from the Lucky Supermarket which just so happen to have cool ranch Doritos!!!!!!! We formulate a plan where Carolyn scouts out a defensible position to look after our bags while I make my way over to doritos heaven. I say defensible because the tuk-tuk drivers are particularly aggressive in phnom penh. So much so that the bus companies place a mobile barrier up to help protect passengers as they get their bags.
1300: arrive at the bus station. Operation Cool Ranch begins. Carolyn maneuvers to a corner table and I make my way to the grocery store.
1320: The store is packed but I succeed and return triumphantly with our Doritos and a chocolate croissant bonus!!!!
1340: board our bus which is super nice and grab our seats. The bus has a bathroom but it's built for midgets as its about 3 feet high and maybe 1.5 feet wide. Emergency purposes only I think.
SIDE NOTE: we purchased our tickets from one of the ubiquitous travel agents in Sihanoukville. The tickets had our seat assignments. We got our follow on tickets this AM which also had seat assignments. Keep in mind that not once did anyone go near a computer. People simply called someone and viola, we have tickets and seats. Not once have we had any issues of double booking or lost booking or anything. Things just seem to work out.
1345: depart Phnom Penh for Ho Chi Minh City.
1400: bus attendant passes out water for everyone ... VIP what what!!!!
1530: take ferry across Mekong river. Double decker VIP bus on a rickety ferry over the Mekong. Exciting!!!!!!
1600 - 1648: snooze.
1730: stop at bus station for bathroom break and snacks. Carolyn finds a western toilet stashed away at the rear of the place. Carolyn 1, squat toilets 0!
1736: order vegetarian rice (i.e. rice with only vegetables). Get pork added as a bonus. Explain that I want NO meat and learn that there is no such thing here.
1738: order 2 waffles from a guy on a motorcycle. Who knew breakfast came on 2 wheels???
1750: depart bus stop.
1754: pass the first pawn shop we've seen in SE Asia. Shortly after we see a ton of casinos. I guess gambling is a universal problem.
1803: stop at Cambodian border. Get off bus.
1805: pass through Cambodian immigration, get finger printed.
1807: Carolyn persuades Cambodian driver to mail our postcards. Winning!
1820: drive to the Vietnamese border.
1823: exit bus, collect all bags and enter immigration building. Stop for quick photo :)
1829: pass through Vietnamese immigration. Bags go through x-ray machine.
1831: exit building officially in Vietnam!!!!!!
1832: begins to rain .... We're still outside.
1845: bus pulls up and we get onboard Waiting for our passports.
1850: passports are handed back.
1853: Vietnamese immigration officer comes on board and checks our passports.
1855: depart border.
2110: arrive in Ho Chi Minh City!!!! Of course it's pouring out!!!
2113: grab our bags and orient ourselves to where we are.
2114: cross street and go to ATM. Put rain covers on our bags.
2116: start walking, looking for our hotel (which we did not Pre-book).
2129: find hotel in back alley. They have 1 room left for $20/night including breakfast. Win!
2133: put our bags down in our new room approximately 15 hours after we left our last room.
2140: walk to a nearby pho place (noodle soup). Still raining by the way.
2200: finish dinner. Walk around the area.
2211: get the best fruit shake I've had in SE Asia; Carolyn gets a damn fine hot chocolate.
2217: see our first circle K!!!!! It's not seven-11 but it'll do!
2224: offered marijuana for the 2nd time in 3 minutes.
2249: in for the night. We're both pretty wet and in need of a good hot shower.
So there you have it. A travel day in SE Asia, complete with a border crossing!!!
Pics:
1) us leaving The Cambodian side of the border.
2) me with our first bowl of pho in HMCM!
3) bus station in Sihanoukville.
4) Vietnam border crossing.
5) our first bus from Sihanoukville to phnom Penh.
6) Mrs Blue after the ATM in HCMC.
7) Mrs Blue in our new hotel!
8) our bus from phnom penh to HCMC.
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