Singapore-Ho Chi Minh City-Ben Tre-My Tho-Phnom Penh-Siem Reap-Sihanoukville-Bangkok-Singapore
Been travelling quite a bit in the past few years, and I really enjoyed low budget backpacking. I found that the Vietnam-Cambodia-Bangkok way is one of the most economical and viable route in SEA. Very culturally enriching and gastronomically satisfying.
I took a budget flight to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), and stayed in Pham Ngu Lao area. Pham Ngu Lao is the renown backpackers' paradise in HCMC. Plenty of cheap but good hostels that include breakfast. I stayed in Halo Guesthouse which have since renamed itself as of my last trip, but I've forgotten its new name. It served really good Com Tam (broken rice) for breakfast. I don't really fancy rice, but Com Tam makes the list of my favourite Vietnamese food. It is literally broken, rice. The rice grains are not full and often complimented with a slice of roasted chicken or pork and a veg dish.
To save money, you can take the green public bus from the airport to Ben Thanh market and walk to Pham Ngu Lao area, some 10-15 minutes away. Take the chance to have lunch in the food section of Ben Thanh market too. Viet food is amazing. I never really loved HCMC at first due to its bad traffic, but the food supersedes everything.
I met up with my friend and she brought me around in her motorbike. We had seafood at a roadside stall and it was good. HCMC have quite a bit to offer for a short trip which I have covered in my vlog previously. The various museums, Notre Dame Cathedral, post office and many other attractions.
A plus point of staying in Pham Ngu Lao is its accessibility. There are interstate buses departing daily right at your door step. It was easy to book cheap day tours too. I always book day tours if I can only afford a short stay in that particular city as it is the easiest way to see the entire city, and closest local food experience as the guide brings us to local restaurants. I went on the Mekong Delta trip and Cu Chi Tunnel trip.
The Mekong Delta day trip covered brought me to Ben Tre first where I took the sampan, heard a local singer perform over lunch. Visited a candy workshop/factory in a village. The same place also manufactured tonic wines with snakes in it.
After Ben Tre, we also went My Tho. Visited some temples and places in My Tho. As part of the trip, we also spent majority of the time on a boat, cruising on Mekong Delta. I love the rocking motion of a boat/ship/cruise. So it was definitely relaxing for me.
Cu Chi Tunnel trip was very educational to see how the entire system worked and the hardship. Lunch was on site eating steamed tapioca with salt dip. Getting into the hole was easy, but hardest part was to get out. I also got to climb the underground tunnel system, which was only able through crawling or squat-crawl. Not easy to move about at all. A lot of us fell asleep on the bus back to the city. It was tiring.
Set off for Phnom Penh on a night bus after 3 days in HCMC. Stayed in a hostel in the city centre which offered free laundry service. Usually I make my decision of hostel based on free breakfast and/or free laundry. For about 2 weeks' travel, 3 sets of clothes usually suffice as long as you make use of these free laundry services. I forgot the name of my hostel in Phnom Penh, but it was very convenient. My clothes came back smelling fresh and nice too!
There are Naga and Singha rock statues around the city and it would indicate the Buddhist influence and culture. Therefore, the first place to go to is naturally Wat Phnom (Phnom Temple). It is just 10 minutes walk from the city, located on a quaint hill. A small admission fee is charged for foreigners but it is reasonable as the temple is well maintained. There is a main shrine, as well as an open area with a row of medium sized buddha statues.
After which, it will be good to walk back to the city, chill out by the Tonle Sap river which you have a tonne of dinning options. Good place to people watch as well. Locals were playing sepak takraw in the evening, skillfully. There is also the evening wet market too.
For shopping, you may want to visit the central market, russian market or night market (Psar Reatrey), but I find that I can find almost everything at the central market at a fair price. Things at Russian market are more arty, targeted at foreigners. I wouldn't shop at russian market as the price is not fair, and I don't enjoy haggling. For supermarket, you may want to visit Sorya shopping centre for modern shopping mall experience.
Within walking distance in the city is also the grand palace. Ticketed admission. It is closed for few hours during lunch time, so be sure to check its opening hours before heading over. This way, you would have easily spent a day in Phnom Penh.
At night, get a few new friends from your hostel and head over to one of the many pubs along Tonle Sap river for USD4/jug beer. We each had a jug, good time chatting while enjoying the breeze.
Day 5. I tuk-tuk pooled with a new friend, Do, to go to Tuol Sieng Genocide Museum and the Cheung Ek Killing Fields. It was a very intense and heavy experience. We happened to see one of the survivors at Tuol Sieng. There's a lot of local and overseas tourists in at Tuol Sieng, as well as a lot of guides trying to sell their service. Do and I actually found the cheap way out. We were just walking around reading the descriptions but it was so much easier to just walk behind those English-guided tour group. Free tour! However, the guides became so slow at some point, we decided to move on on our own.
Cheung Ek Killing Fields' admission came with an audio guide. It was just walking around and listening at our own pace. But watch out, if you are not careful, you might end up stepping on the bone and clothes fragments of the victims. Yes, they are just on the ground. The centre of the field is a memorial tower where thousands of skulls were displayed. The combination of genocide museum and killing fields is not something i'll like to take in a day again. Too intense.
I prefer strolling along Tonle Sap.
Day 6, I made my way to Siem Reap by bus. Few hours away from Phnom Penh, just take a morning bus will do. Under my new friends' recommendations in Phnom Penh, I got the hostel receptionist to help me phone book the Hostelling International Siem Reap. HISR provided free tuk tuk from the bus terminal to HISR. However, my tuk tuk never arrived at all. I took a motodup to HISR instead. Apparently, the tuk tuk driver went to the wrong place. HISR paid for my motodup ride!
HISR is the cleanest and most cosy hostel I've stayed in in Cambodia. They have got free computer kiosk, hot shower, pool table and bicycle. There is a night market opposite the hostel as well. It is so near to action yet quiet enough. 5 mins walk to the old market, and 5-10 mins walk to the pub/city area. USD0.50 beers are a norm in the pub area. Decent stuff at unbeatable price. Go try roadside bbq stalls as well, it's nice. In the city area, the gem is Siem Reap Night Market. Usually we would expect night markets to sell very generic stuffs at overhyped price, but not at Siem Reap Night Market. Thumbs up. Get the Cambodian scarf at USD1. It's versatile and handy for backpackers. Got a fishermen pants at USD7, and it was so comfortable and useful; elaborate later.
There is a market similar to Phnom Penh's central market in the city area as well but I can't remember the name. There, you can buy things like counterfeit North Face backpacks. Not sure about the prices but don't get knock offs. Go get some reasonably priced magnets as souvenirs instead.
Day 7 I cycled to Angkor Wat before daybreak. Think it was 5 plus in the morning. I followed the directions that the hostel receptionist told me the night before. Just keep cycling. After I got my admission ticket, I was supposed to go to Angkor Wat's reflection pool to view the sunrise. But I cycled the wrong way as there's no road signs. I cycled so far off the original track, and ended up at the foot of Wat Bakheng, where I met an Australian tourist who intended to hike up Wat Bakheng to watch the sunrise. Her tuk tuk driver told her that was the real deal, but none of us had got torchlights with us. So we took turns to light the path with our handphones, and I followed closely to her butt. We hiked with caution and talked in the dusk.
Up at Wat Bakheng, were only three other photographers. But the sunrise was amazing.
I loved Angkor Wat. Go and take more photos! I enjoyed climbing up and down, and cycling around the 20km track too. The hostel receptionist told me it's very near to cycle to Angkor Wat, but didn't tell me about the 20km loop! What's worse was not the loop, it was the traffic to battle when cycling back in the evening. The busy traffic and dusty road.
Anyway, the fishermen pants was very very useful especially for this trip. It was comfortable enough for cycling, easy for hiking, climbing up and down the steep steps, and cooling for the hot and humid weather. Don't know about its aesthetics, but there was a group of local girls who requested a photo with me. I was too embarrassed I quickly disappeared after the photo. HAHAHA!
There is a long bridge into Angkor Wat, built over the reflective pool. If you're lucky, you might notice this lady who is standing by the ledge selling something called palm juice. She hangs bamboo containers on the palm tree collects the nectar if I'm not wrong. The drink was exactly what you needed to cool yourself down. It tasted like green bean soup to some extent but just so cooling.
Oh yes, if you're cycling, just park your bicycle at the start of the bridge. If children touts come about to charge you USD2 for tending your bicycle, just say that you are calling the tourist police nearby. They will go away and leave your bicycle alone.
I was on my Facebook not knowing where to head to next as there was still about two days to spare before meeting my friend in Bangkok. Just then, my Cambodian friend on Facebook recommended me two destinations: Mondulkiri and Sihanoukville. Mondulkiri was too far away from the border into Thailand, thus Sihanoukville was a practical choice. Moreover, I love the beach, sunshine and beer. Sihanoukville is home to the country's beer brewery.
Day 8. The stopover to Sihanoukville was at Kampong Thom where I had lunch at a local coffeeshop. Nobody spoke English but they had an English menu!?! So I had fried noodles. When the noodles came, I thought it was the wrong order. They were so generous with the vegetables, it formed a 'mountain'. It was very tasty.
Sihanoukville literally meant King Sihanouk's holiday 'ville'. Occheuteal beach have a plaque stating that it is the most beautiful bay in the world. It has got a long shoreline, including Otres beach and few others. Beautiful sunset, great chill out place. I just settled in a good pub, beach chair and had beer and food all day there. I stayed at Utopia where it's only USD7 per night. Decent stay, happening people. Exclusive beach town. So Day 8 and 9 were spent on the beach.
Day 10, I took the overnight bus to Bangkok. Wasted a few hours as I didn't know that the bus would have to go back to Siem Reap first to transfer into a more luxurious bus. If I had knew about this, I could have planned to go Sihanoukville first then to Siem Reap. Anyway, the bus took us to the border crossing at Poi Pet, Cambodia. By foot, we will have to follow the others to the custom where the crossing will bring us into Arayaprathet, Thailand. Spent all your Cambodian Riels before you cross, be prepared to lose some money as a lot of Thai currency exchange won't buy your riels. An effective currency to use in Cambodia and Vietnam is USD, stock on that.
By the way, I left out this. The border crossing of Vietnam into Cambodia is at Moc Bai. See the tall and long statue below. That is Moc Bai.
After border crossing into Thailand, I was instructed to get into a squeezy van. I swear that was the worst ride I had so far. I felt like vomitting by the time I reached Bangkok. Good thing was that the van ran on CNG, so it had to stop every two hours or so to refill on gas. God sent breather. Advantage of the van was that it brought us right into Khao San. Saved additional travelling time.
Spent another 3 days in Bangkok before flying back to Singapore for Chinese New Year! Visited the usual places in Bangkok and met my good friend, Rainbow! =)
So that concludes a 13-day trip. Low budget as food and accommodation was cheap. Inclusive of transport, food and accommodation, daily average budget was about USD30-40 only. Sometimes higher, sometimes lower. Like in Sihanoukville, USD7 (bed) + USD8 (food & beer) x 2 days + USD 28 (overnight bus to bkk) = USD58 for 2 day 3 nights!
To be able to go backpacking is really a good experience. Go ahead and plan your trip. Stay safe and explore.
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