This will be my next country stop in my Southeast Asian backpacking journey. My journey to Phnom Penh begins in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
There are a few options to travel to Cambodia; by land, air and sea. The most common, cheapest but time consuming is crossing by land at the Moc Bai/Bavet border. You can also take a flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh or Siem Reap, but it’s not gonna be cheap as compared to travelling by land. Flights by Vietnam Airlines or Cambodia Angkor Air will cost you about more than USD 100. As for now, I don’t think there is any budget airlines for that trip. And plus all that check-in time and airport transfer, you’re just gonna waste more money. Overall, I would recommend one to go by land as you can experience the different scenery along the way.
Now, by land. Remember to book your bus tickets the day or few days before! I strongly recommend to book under the Mekong Express Bus Service due to it’s high reliability. The head office is at 275 Pham Ngu Lao street. Buses to Phnom Penh is USD 15 per trip. Here is the schedule of buses available:
Time Check: 0800
Be sure to arrive at the office early. Bags will be tagged and loaded in the baggage hold. Just present your tickets to the facilitator and find your seat. Bottled drinks and a light snack will be provided. The Cambodian Immigration card will also be handed out, so get a pen in handy.
Journey to the Vietnamese-Cambodian border will take about 2 hours. The Vietnamese side of the border is called Moc Bai. The bus is really comfortable for a nap, so don’t worry much. Buses also have toilets so there will be no pit stops.
2 hours into the journey, we reached Moc Bai. Here, everyone will have to alight and grab their bags and proceed to the immigration checkpoint. Your bus facilitator will collect your passports and you will need to wait for all the passports to be stamped. Your bus facilitator will then call out your names for you to collect your passport and then board the bus again. The advantage was you won’t need to queue and go through the normal immigration process.
The bus will continue the journey for about 500 metres before entering Cambodia. The Cambodian side of the border is Bavet. Here the same process again, except that you need to queue for immigration. Be sure to check if your nationality needs a Visa to enter Cambodia. Only passports from ASEAN countries don’t need to Visa to enter. Visas are available online and also at the immigration checkpoint. If I’m not wrong, it’s USD 20-25 for a 30-day Visa.
Immigration process won’t take that long. After that, we boarded the same bus and stopped at a small eating house for lunch for an hour. Here, VND, USD and Cambodian Riels can be used. Cambodia’s national currency, the Riel is a weak currency and paper money. You can’t change this currency anywhere in the world. USD is the second official currency and it’s widely used in Cambodia. Change lesser than USD 1 will be given in Riel. Just note that USD 1 is equals to 4000 riels. So, if your change is USD 0.50, you will receive 2000 riels.
After lunch,the bus continued it’s journey for another 1 hour and will line up with a ferry crossing over the mekong river. Here, the landscape changes from busy streets and paved roads to unpaved roads, rice fields and run down small towns. Cambodia is one of the world’s poorest countries, so don’t expect to see many high-rise buildings.
After crossing the Mekong river, the bus will take another 1-2 hours to Phnom Penh. The bus will stop at the Orussey Market in central Phnom Penh. Here you will be bombarded by many tuk-tuk drivers offering to send you back to your hotel and don’t worry, they all speak good english!!
I got my driver to send me to 88 Backpackers for USD 3. A tuk-tuk ride will not cost more than USD 5. You can actually haggle for a cheaper price. The roads in Phnom Penh are really bad, with huge pot holes, uneven roads, dust all over, you won’t really enjoy your ride. The Cambodian version of a tuktuk differs from Thailand’s.
Time check: 1600 hrs
Upon reaching my hostel, my driver offered to provide me the transport service to see the Killing Fields and the Genocide museum (the most visited attractions in Phnom Penh). I agreed with him with a price of USD 10. Due to time constrains, we agreed on the Killing fields trip for the day as the Killing fields will close at 1830 hrs. You can get a Genocide museum/killing fields trip tour for a price of USD 15 per tuktuk. Do note that the Killing fields is somewhere far outside town, so that explains the price.
The ride to the killing fields took me about 45 minutes and I must say, the journey wasn’t a pleasant one. The roads were all filled with dust, sand, potholes. 5 minutes into the ride is enough to make your skin feel dirty. Along the way, I get to admire on how the people of Cambodia live in this city. There aren’t many shopping centres here in Phnom Penh, one you would expect in a city. Traffic wise in Phnom Penh is quite bad, but not as bad as Vietnam. There are more cars than bikes, but you wont get to see buses that much. Cambodia seems to lack public transportation. Also during my trip there, I noticed the poverty that’s been living in Cambodia. During a traffic stop in Phnom Penh, there were two half-naked kids running to my tuktuk and offered to sell this necklace which is handmade out of leaves. It really makes me sad on how these kids need to resort to such doings just so their family can survive.
So upon reaching the Killing Fields, I had to pay an entrance fee of USD 6 with an audio guide. The audio guide is available in many languages. Here you will just need to follow the directions as stated by numbers and hear to the what the audio guide explains. There are 18 checkpoints in the tour. Be sure to follow the sequence and hear the audio guide.
This is one tourist attraction that is really deep and emotional. You will get to understand on how the PolPot regime caused the death of nearly 2 million people. And not forgetting, this is only one of the many mass graves in Cambodia. The rest are probably inaccessible due to them being deep in the forest and covered with mines.
It is here in the Killing Fields where most of the Cambodians were tortured, mutilated, and being buried in mass graves. It is said that about 15000 people actually died here. Ammunition was expensive in those times, so the Khmer Rouge used tools to mutilate their victims. Victims were clubbed with axes, hammers, spades and even babies were victims. It is said that babies were smashed on the tree trunks to ensure a quick death.
I only took these 3 photos of the killing fields. Most of it were just plains of fields and mass graves. The memorial stupa here houses many skulls of the dead and they show on how those people are killed. It’s really a sad and place to visit after hearing about the history.
After the killing fields, I went back to my hostel for a rest and later have dinner. Overall I would say Phnom Penh is quite a safe place to visit. Locals are friendly and most can understand English. Most signage are in khmer and english. ATMs can be found easily and they all dispense USD.
Day 2
The next day, I managed to find a tuktuk driver right outside of my hotel for the Tuol Sleng genocide museum trip. We agreed on a price of USD 5. Do note that the genocide museum is in Phnom Penh itself. The journey there took me about 15 minutes.
Admission fee was USD 4 per person. Here you can hire a guide but it will cost you more.
The genocide museum was initially a high school converted into a prison and an execution centre during the Khmer Rouge regime. It is said that about 20000 people were executed here and we then brought to the killing fields for mass burial. Only 12 survived this prison due to having skills that are seen beneficial to the Khmer Rouge.
What gave this museum an eerie feeling was actually the pictures of the prisoners, the tools displayed to torture, the remaining cells of what is left. There are also a few rooms with a metal bed frame with dried bloodstains with a picture on how the prisoner was found when the Vietnamese invaded Phnom Penh. This is also one attraction that will give you the creeps.
A good 1-2 hours is enough for you to complete everything here. Near the exit of the museum, a survivor of the genocide is there selling a book written by him. There are also other books retailing at USD 10 on the Khmer Rouge regime.
So that’s all for the activities in Phnom Penh for me. I got a ticket to Siem Reap for USD 12 and is scheduled to depart at 1230 hours on that day. I rushed back to my hostel, pack my stuffs and head over to the bus station.
You can arrange your bus trips to other parts of Cambodia through your hotel. I got my ticket to Siem Reap in Ho Chi Minh City when buying the HCMC-Phnom Penh trip. I still recommend Mekong Express Service for this. The only downfall is you have to be at the bus station in Phnom Penh for your outgoing journey. The Bus station is somewhere north near the riverside. I got a tuktuk there for USD 2. Remember to arrive there early!
Prices wise in Phnom Penh, it’s quite reasonable. My hostel cost about USD 7 per night and you can eat out for about USD 4-6 per meal, depending on your preferences. I had my dinner at the KFC restaurant near the riverside. A meal there cost me about USD 3. If you are daring enough, you can try the street foods and I bet they will cost much more cheaper.
You can survive on USD 15 per day if you are on a budget constrain. Nightlife in Phnom Penh is not that much as Ho Chi Minh City or in Bangkok.
Just a few hours in this city, I actually felt comfortable here, despite the dirty streets. My only mistake is due to time constrains, I didn’t plan on staying in Phnom Penh for long. I strongly recommend at least 2 nights here in Phnom Penh to experience most of the stuffs here. I would love to come back here again to see the other attractions Phnom Penh has to offer: Royal Palace, Central Market, Independence Monument and more.
Next, I will venture to the ancient city of Siem Reap!
Redd Wanderlust 