19th February: Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Kaja was still ill, which wasn’t a good situation ahead of a six-and-a-half-hour bus journey. We had some breakfast, or at least I did, and jumped in a tuktuk across Phnom Penh. This doubled as Kaja’s tour of the city!

We’d snagged the final two seats on this coach and were at the back, but the seats were spacious and comfortable. There was no toilet though, but thankfully Kaja’s nausea remained until control. The coach collected a group of youngsters on a tour and then crawled south of the city. Our final crossing of the Mekong was over a spectacular cable-stayed bridge.

It took almost 5 hours to reach the border, time I passed trying to predict summer festival line-ups! After getting stamped out of Cambodia, we went to have lunch whilst the bus company dealt with Vietnamese immigration for us. The shops at the border all had empty shelves. After some fried rice, we took our bags through the scanner and collected our passports. It was that simple!

Back on the warm bus, Vietnam was immediately very different from Cambodia. Big US-style trucks pulled shipping containers along roads with separated bike and bus lanes. It feels cleaner and wealthier, with lots of red Vietnam and communist flags. Continuing southeast, the sun set over the giant rice fields.

We should’ve arrived in Ho Chi Minh City at 16:15 but it was almost 19:00 when we were dropped into the chaos. Fortunately, the hotel was only about 800 metres away and Kaja just about managed the walk. The are no tuktuks here and, with snarled roads, walking was the best bet. I ventured back out to find us snacks and was relieved to discover that food is cheap here and that spending on card is now an option again too! Tomorrow, we will hopefully explore the alleys of Saigon.