Friday the 13th

12th and Friday 13th April

Good morning! And in case I don't see ya.. good afternoon, good evening and goodnight!

Siem Reap to Saigon, otherwise known as Ho Chi Minh City, doesn't sound that difficult right? .... WRONG! Rant time...

We payed $50 total for the trip which were told was a VIP sleeper bus overnight from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, where we would change to another bus going to Saigon after an hours wait. The sleeper bus was actually pretty cool, we even got a double bed... (see pic below!).

Being our first experience of this kind we probably only got a couple of hours sleep. We arrived at the bus station in Phnom Penh at 5:45am. This place was chaos, people everywhere, buses all trying to fit into the same spot and only one member of staff behind the desk supposedly controlling all this madness. If that was the case, we would have been lucky.. he was utterly useless and didn't have a clue.. not to mention rude.

Serving all the Cambodians first (who it seemed would just interrupt anyway).

We politely showed our tickets and asked where to go for the bus to Saigon and when it was arriving etc. His bored expression suddenly glistened with a slight element of confusion.

"Take a seat, I will check", so we did.

Yet.. nothing seemed to happen. We spoke again after about 20mins with the same conclusion.

And again a little later to the point where he just said "8am". Fair enough I guess.

8am soon came round and guess what.. no bus! BUT... more staff members had joined the useless guy so we tried our luck with them. Nobody seemed to know when this bus to Saigon was coming and after being told.. "Hold on, I will check" for over 3 hours our patience was wearing thin, we eventually got out of them that they had given our seats to someone else.. yep that's right, they had given our seats to someone else!

After more toing and froing we eventually got hold of a not so incompetent staff member (assuming he was the manager). He explained that yes.. they had given our seats to someone else but were trying to get another company to take us.

"Come back here at 12:30, we will take you to the other bus station so you can get the 1:30 bus to Saigon". We had a few hours to kill now.. so walked to the first hotel we stayed in in Cambodia.. The Sunway, had some expensive drinks, played pool, chilled and tried to make the best of a bad situation.

We got back to the bus station and as promised they took us to the second bus station. We made it very clear we were not paying anything extra for this 'service'.

This second bus station was even more manic and crowded than the last place. (Memories of Delhi coming back!). To our great surprise.. nobody here knew what we were on about either.. trying to explain the situation that the original bus company had supposedly arranged with this other company that we could hop on the Saigon bus, was not easy and they basically told us that they couldn't help.

Tuk tuk back to the first bus station, we arrived at 1:15 (this imaginary Saigon bus leaves at 1:30), after a fair amount of rage (understandable though yeah?) we got it out of them that they sent us to the wrong bus station! "You can never underestimate the predictability of stupidity" - Bullet Tooth Tony (Snatch).

To our surprise the bus WAS real.. we got on it with a minute to spare, somehow!

Of course there was some more confusion with our tickets etc.. but they eventually allowed us to be there!

My advice to any human.. friend or foe would be to avoid Virak Buntham Express Tour and Travel. Dealing with them is more painful than swimming through a sea of needles then crawling through a 20 mile path of broken glass only to run barefoot over rusty nails whilst Jar Jar Binks whispers sweet nothings in your ear for the whole trip. Oh and all of this in a snowstorm.

Feel free to look them up on TripAdvisor if you wish to read my review and plenty more about this company that now tops my 'To Avoid' list.

Right, that's the rant over! Over to you Beffers!

Dan

P.s. Beth's mum Tor made us aware there is another Friday 13th coming up in July. We're staying indoors that day.

Hellooo! Beth here. So yes, eventually we arrived in Saigon at 10pm (8 hours after we were scheduled to arrive) and took a motorbike to our AirBnB where we deservedly passed out.

14th April

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) with our apartment building in the background

Ventured out into the city and found a cute cafe where Dan ordered a coffee. A fascinating contraption arrived! Rather efficiently, it's a single-cup filter with the milk already in the mug. Tasted extremely strong and sweet, we are learning that condensed milk is often used here. The mug was also in a bowl of boiling water, perfect for slow drinkers, ahem Dan ahem...

The coffee contraption and passion fruit juices

A 25 minute walk got us to the War Remnants Museum. This is very worthwhile and taught us a lot about the anti-war movements and the horrific use of Agent Orange during the 1955-75 Vietnam war. Agent Orange is a deadly herbicide containing dioxin which destroyed forests and crops throughout Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Today, it's known to cause cancer, birth defects and mental health issues four generations on from the men and women subject to the chemical during the 1960s. Four generations.

That evening we stumbled upon another Walking Street (minus the poles and velvet curtains of Thailand's Pattaya). Finding a rooftop bar called Sky Corner we ate lasagne and pumpkin soup whilst trying to ignore the mouse-sized cockroach that scuttled under our table...

Looking down on the madness below!

15th April

Our biggest achievement today. Finding the holy grail of crepe cafes, Cork and Fork. An extensive menu of ingredients to build-your-own sweet or savoury crepe. Accompanied with a passion fruit soda and Saigon beer, we were happy as Larry.

We came back here the next day and had the works. Both a savoury and sweet crepe each, sue us, we're on holibobs. As we were paying, a young lad came into the cafe and was eager to learn our names and, presenting a map, asked us to show him where we live and the corresponding country's flag. This was a cute moment and we believe that he was trying to meet as many people from different countries as possible, like a checklist.

The evening of the 16th we headed for our second night bus. It would be incorrect to say we weren't a little apprehensive!

To our surprise, this bus office was clean and had more than one employee and had seats and gave us free water and... we could go on, it was glorious. The main thing was that we had legitimate paper tickets with seat numbers (regardless of the fact we'd been assigned Afghan nationality). We got on the bus at 8pm ready for a 10 hour bus journey north to Nha Trang.

What we've found interesting:

- Motorbikes will use the pavement if there is a slight traffic jam on the road (aka other motorists are stopped at a red traffic light, how dare they) and then beep at the pedestrians!

- Signs in bathrooms state that toilet paper should not go in the toilet but in the 'basket' adjacent. Still haven't got used to this!

- There is significantly less rubbish on the streets than Cambodia.

- The sheer number of karaoke bars and clubs! We often passed solo people walking round with portable karaoke machines, singing their hearts out to passers by or elderly couples in small cafes singing to each other - very sweet!

- We've had NO BITES in Ho Chi Minh. It's a wondrous feeling waking up itch-free each morning.

Advice:

- We'd like to tell you to research the buses beforehand but the reviews are all pretty negative and therefore not dependable. We now swear by The Sinh Tourist bus company and are staying well clear of Virak Buntham Express.

- We are learning however, not to book everything in advance. Booking bus tickets from hostels can be half the price of websites such as 12GoAsia.com (although this is still a great website, so check both).

- Walk places if possible, we came across lovely cafes and streets this way. (Ignore Dan mentioning McDonalds in the video below, don't fret we did not enter).

- Don't take it personally if people seem dismissive or rude. We had an experience where a lady refused to sell us some passion fruits from a large basket on the pavement. Feeling confused at the time, after speaking with other travellers there does unfortunately seem to be a theme. A couple were trying to buy avocados and were also declined the sale. Prejudice, maybe, but I also do understand. The wars here involving white people happened very recently in the world's history, people are hurting.

Fave comment:

Looking like quintessential tourists (backpacks on, sandals velcro-ed, harem pants flowing) we were hesitating to cross a road. Waiting for a gap in the traffic is like waiting for... I forget... Anyway, a man passed at a leisurely pace, smiled at us and said "just go, don't panic". Since then we've become rather fearless, motorbikes and cars expect people to be in the middle of the road. They are ready to swerve. So we just walk. Halves your journey time!

That's all folks!

Drop us a comment below :)

Love,

B&D

- Bus tickets from Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh $50 (£34.10) for both of us

- AirBnB for 3 nights £56.81in RiverGate Residence

- War Museum 80,000vnd (£2.54) for both of us

- Bus from Ho Chi Minh to Nha Trang £16.13 for both of us

- Cork and Fork first trip £8.10, second trip £12.74

The temperature ranged from 35-38 degrees C.

Our route from Ho Chi Minh to Nha Trang (the red arrow). A screenshot from the 16th at 00:44. Still a long way on the bus to go!

Night bus from Ho Chi Minh to Nha Trang with The Sinh Tourist bus company. Beth could just about stretch out fully, Dan was not so lucky!

At Cork and Fork, the crepe cafe. Dan obviously in heaven!

Motorbike City! (Ft. a bemused Dan).