MysTerry Travels: Cambodia-Vietnam in 3 Days

We are rich out there, want to count millions? Visit these places.

So we only had three days - spend one of that traveling and you'll get one day for each country. Honestly, there were some misunderstanding with the booking because when they told me about the trip they said five days, well, they were not looking at the time frames of the booked dates. I just realized it was only three days when I got the copy of my ticket. Since we bought it on a piso fare (you pretty much know the airline) I really can't complain as I know how hard it is to book such seats and just made plans to just fit our three days with whatever we can do with the country's main attractions. My advice, check the actual time and date of the tickets before you say yes if you want a longer vacation because I had 4 days of leave from work but can only enjoy 3 of them and that is just sad.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the trip due to the fact that there - we can travel cheap. What's expensive is the travel tax and terminal fee - where is the government spending all these money? Travelers should organize one rally at Mendiola one of these days - let me know, I'll definitely join. Alright, enough of the rant I'll make a separate blog for that :). To let you know how cheap my travel was, I spent roughly around 7k PhP minus airport bogus. I'll give you an outline with my expenses at the end of my blog.

We left Tuesday night (July 2) - 19:45 MLA and we arrived at around 22:00 at Cambodia, we have a 1-hour time difference so basically the travel time is 3 hours - my farthest air travel so far. We checked in at Velkommen Guesthouse and prepped ourselves to have dinner in what they called the "Pub Street" and we had the experience of riding a "Tuk-tuk" to take us there.

The next day - we woke up early to begin our half-day tour of their temples that was supposed to commence at 8:00 but we were a bit late. We are a group of 8 so it wasn't expensive for us to be on a group tour - where we hired a van but I envy those who rode in their rented bicycles. The van cost us 65 USD but you can rent a bike for 2-4 USD for the whole day, however, if you think bike is just too much effort and you want to save your energy you can rent one Tuk-Tuk for 12USD for one whole day (if my source was right :P). We were advised to not wear shorts (I wasn't planning to wear one anyway) but we saw some ladies wearing shorts and they were allowed to view the temples but you can not get into some places they consider "holy". This thing is not advisable for kids, specially if they don't appreciate history unless they love walking because it involves a lot of walking and more walking.

We were done with the temple tour at around 14:00 so we got back to the guest house while my other friends inquired about the buses bound to Vietnam and we have agreed to take the bus leaving at midnight. so we still had time to sleep a bit. Little did we know that we are actually going to ride two buses and that we had to change buses at Phnom Penh where we have to wait for almost 2 hours for the other bus to take us to Saigon. If I had only known - which I did not, I would prefer to stay in Phnom Penh for half a day and take the bus to Vietnam at noon so we can catch the early Chu Chi tunnels tour the next day. To sum up the travel time - 6 hours Siem Reap to Phnom Penh and more or less 5 hours from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh (formerly Saigon) including stop overs and Boarder Checks.

Saigon, which reminds me of Lea Salonga is a city of Motorbikes. There are more Motorbikes than cars, and they ride it like a boss - you know they drive it like crazy (lost for words :P). We arrived at Saigon at around 13:00, rested at MyMy's guesthouse and then at 16:00 left to try their french influenced dishes which is more like American to me, or are these dishes the same? I loved the bread from the restaurant - Bready, and yes you read it right, it is indeed Bready, (sounds like Freddy :P) recommended by the Inn Keeper at MyMy's guesthouse (both our cambodia and vietnamn hostels can be found at hostelworld)..

After the dinner we went to explore their night market, I was hoping to find a bag for hiking and traveling the same but I did not really like the stitches and overall quality of bags there so in short I didn't buy anything. We went home and while they go out to have some drinks, I stayed in the guesthouse and slept. And yes, I'm not really into night life, just in case you wanna know. :)

The next day we had to wake up early again because the bus for the Chu Chi tunnels is leaving at 7:00. The trip to the Chu Chi tunnels is a bit long - around 2 hours and 30 minutes. We had a stop-over at a factory of sorts where they make hand maid Vietnam products, where we also had our brunch.Buses is for 5USD (100K Dong), while the entrance is 90 K Dong. Of course you will have a tour while the guide tells you about their history which is really awful and makes you glad you are a Filipino but would make you appreciate Viet Cong's patriotism and there's a free snack/lunch whichever term you prefer where they served cassava and tea. :)

It was the only scheduled activity we had for the day and rest was to be spent buying "pasalubong", but I decided to visit their war museum by myself and it was worth it, well, not that I enjoyed but I get the chance to get a glimpse of how horrific their war was. The Museum closes at 17:00 daily and the entrance is 15K Dong.

I spent the rest of my day at the night market after eating at KFC - yes I have to try this :).and just made sure to be back at the guesthouse at 19:00 to prepare for our flight back home.

Please see below for our itinerary and summary of expenses:

Day 0 - July 2	19:45	Flight
	22:00	Arrival	Taxi to guest house- 10 USD/8pax; Hostel 2USD/night
	23:00	Dinner	3-5 USD depends on your choice; Tuktuk ride - 8usd/8pax (back and forth)

Day 1 - July 3	6:00	Wake Up Call
	7:00	Break Fast	3-5 USD
	8:30	Temple Tour	Van - 65 USD/8pax (with free bottles of water); entrance - 20USD
	12:00	Lunch	5-10 USD
	13:00	Resume Temple Tour
	14:00	Ride back to guesthouse
		Rest, eat, slepp	food at 3-5 USD but still depends on your appetite

Day 2 - July 3	0:00	Ride Bus to Phnom Penh	28 USD, this includes the bus to Saigon
	6:00	Arrive at Phnom Penh	Hostel 30USD/ 8pax 2nights
	6:30	Biscuits for breakfast :P
	8:00	Ride Bus to Saigon
	12:00	Stop-over	Lunch 7-10 USD
	13:00	Arive at Saigon	Taxi to gusethouse - 4usd/8pax
	14:00	Early Dinner	5-10 USD
	17:00	Night /market

Day 3 - July 4	7:00	Left for Chu-chi Tunnels	Bus at 5 USD back and forth
	8:00	Stop-over (breakfast)	3-5 USD
	9:30	Arrived at Chu-Chi tunnels	Entrance 90K Dong (20K Dong = 1 USD)
	11:30	lunch-snacks (depends on you)	free - cassava and tea
	13:00	Ride back to City
	15:30	Dropped off at War Museum	Entrance 15K Dong
	17:00	Early Dinner	5-10 USD