Living in Phnom Penh, me and my roommate decided to take a weekend off and go to Ho Chi Minh for Water Festival. We both never had the chance to go to Vietnam so the 4-day weekend was for us, a perfect occasion. Also, we learnt that the trip from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh by bus was only 9$ so it was an easy decision!
We chose the company Kumho Samco for our first leg of the journey, and left at 3PM on Saturday. We had heard good things about this company, and it was also a good price. The meeting point was easy to find and we did not get have trouble finding our bus. After few short stops, we arrived at the Cambodia Vietnam border, time for us to get our Vietnamese visa, which is free for most Europeans if your stay is less than 15 days. We stopped at the border during 1h overall, and then we arrived at Ho Chi Minh as planned, at 9:00PM!
We stayed in an Airbnb in district 1, very close to the city centre and right by the party street, Bui Vien. The first night we were very tired from the trip so we just had dinner in the party street and a few drinks and went home to rest for the weekend of visiting Ho Chi Minh!
We started our Sunday by visiting Ben Tanh Market, where we bought some souvenirs to take back to Phnom Penh. Then, we went on to visit the Independece Palace, the Cathedral of Notre Dame of Saigon and the Post Office. In the afternoon we visited the War Remnants Museum, where we learnt a lot about the Vietnam War. At night, we went to the Air360 Sky Lounge for drinks with a crazy view of Saigon at night. Then, we went clubbing in Bui Vien street an met a lot of backpackers and travellers. Nightlife in Ho Chi Minh is crazy!
We spent the next walking around the city, seeing the riverside and the city hall. At night, we had dinner in a rooftop, and went out in Bui Vien again. We had met with some friends from home who were living in Ho Chi Minh. In our last day, we would have wanted to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels, but unfortunately the last bus to Phnom Penh was leaving at 3PM so we didn’t have time.
After enjoying these 3 days in HCM, we had to go back to Phnom Penh. We chose to book another company for our bus from Ho Chi Minh. For the same price of 9$, we took the bus with Khai Nam, which we liked less than Kumho Samco. We also heard that Sapaco Tourist is a good company serving the Vietnam to Cambodia bus route.
All in all, we really enjoyed our trip to Ho Chi Minh. Had we known going from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh by bus was so cheap, we would have done it before! People expect that crossing the border from Cambodia to Vietnam is expensive but it doesn’t have to be. We would definitely recommend Ho Chi Minh and hope to go back soon! Thank you CamboTicket for making it possible!
You can check out our trip with this video we made with our GoPro!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L64Hj_35UFA
Pauline is a young French expat living in Phnom Penh. She is a very good customer from CamboTicket and we wanted to thank her for sharing her trip with us! Bonne chance!