Having already covered getting from Phnom Penh to Saigon how does one go about doing so in the other direction? Well it turns out that it is a whole heap of “same same, but different”.
How to get the bus from Saigon to Phnom Penh
There are buses that go from different parts of Saigon, but the best place for this is District 1 of central Saigon, with the Hoang Phi Hotel being being quite literally next door to the bus station.
Tickets cost 500 dong, which is about the same as $20 if not a little bit cheaper. If you are smart you can leave early morning, if you are of medium inelegance at about 12, or if you are silly about 3 pm. I took this one.
There are also other departures, as listed…
Crossing the border from Saigon to Phnom Penh by bus
This is a truly beautiful bus crossing and much much less hassle than flying through the hell on earth that is Saigon International airport.
Basically the drivers take your passports and then pay a bribe to skip the que, with you being the overall beneficiary. Sometimes corruption works flatly in your favour.
During this leg you get off the bus twice and unlike when coming the other way do not have to have your bag scanned like a poor drug smuggler.
Journey time, distance and view
When traveling from Saigon to Phnom Penh the journey time will vary greatly depending on which time off day you travel, but varies between 5 and 7 hours, which might sound a lot, but includes short lunch and pee stops.
Once you cross into Cambodia you ar fretted by a plethora of casinos with 3 lunges written, Khmer, Vietnamese ands Chinese. These have gracious names like Le Royale and Macau Resort, but seem pretty tacky and are also surrounded by dirty hotels that will cost like $20.
I have yet to sample this border area, having only checked out the town of Prey Veng, but it is firmly on my to do list.
And at the end you get dropped on downtown Phnom Penh, near enough street food and BKK1 for those wishing to continue with the party….
And that is the skinny on getting the bus from Saigon to Phnom Penh.