Before daybreak on April 18, I made my way to Changi Airport for my flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia, marking what would be the start of three weeks of solo travel across Cambodia (Siem Reap, Phnom Penh) and Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hoi An, Hue, Ninh Binh, Cat Ba, Hanoi). Leading up to this day, I had every desire to plan out this journey more or less to the hour. Nonetheless, quite intentionally, I had only booked this departure flight, my return flight from Hanoi to Singapore, and my first night’s hostel. Of course, with enough research, I would more than generally know what to expect from each part of this trip and be able to detail my itinerary based on the dizzying abundance of online reviews and recommendations. However, since I was traveling alone, it wasn’t necessary to plan everything out. In this way, I could minimize the possibility of regret and adapt and adjust along the way. I ended up forgoing a few places that I was originally interested in visiting (e.g., Nha Trang, Mui Ne, Ha Long Bay and Bai Tho Mountain, Sapa and Fansipan) in favor of a more relaxed three weeks. Rather than chronologically detail everything like prior blog posts, I will summarize and highlight a few experiences to keep these last posts from becoming longer than they are already. Visa Application For the Cambodia Visa, I opted for the $30 Visa-On-Arrival. Contrary to some concerning reports online, the process was painless and efficient. Upon arrival at Siem Reap Airport, you may hand in your visa application, passport photo, and passport, and watch as an assembly line-like row of officials process your visa. The separation of duties with payment means that there is no scamming and that change is provided. For the Vietnam Visa, I planned to apply for it in person at an embassy in Phnom Penh. However, I heard that dealing with the embassy was known to be troublesome and sometimes cost more than hiring a travel agency to work with the embassy. For a 1-month single entry visa with 2-day processing (which includes the current business day, essentially meaning within 24 hours), I paid Cina Travel a fee of just $2 for a total of $42. Transportation In Cambodia, locals assume I’m Cambodian. In Vietnam, locals assume I’m Vietnamese. As much as I appreciate people speaking to me in Khmer or Vietnamese, I inevitably can’t keep up this chameleon-ing act without speaking their language. As a tourist, I must face all the perks of my unescapable status. As I make my way around the city, I meet motorbike taxi drivers at every street corner (and sometimes far away) bombarding me with questions: “taxi?” “moto-bike?” “where’re you going?” and locals subsequently guessing my ethnicity or where I’m from: “Japan?” “Mom, Dad…Korea?” Rather than hiring one of these eager drivers, I found that Grab, in this case, GrabBike, offers more reasonable (and non-negotiable) fares. For example, in Siem Reap, you may hire a GrabRent Remorque for $20 for 8 hours, which is usually much cheaper than directly hiring a driver off the streets. Further, walking and biking are also cheap and enjoyable ways to get around in the city and in more rural areas. However, some areas have no connection or no drivers nearby for Grab. In these cases, it isn’t difficult to find locals willing to give you a ride for a price. Most often, the initial price will be extremely high, so it’s important to remain stubborn and either respectfully refuse their offer repeatedly until the price becomes reasonable, or find multiple potential drivers and have them bid against each other. You know you’ve reached the reasonable price when they get annoyed, call you crazy, and walk away when you ask for an even lower price. I’ve listed the transportation options I took for longer travel segments and their respective cost in USD and time spent: Singapore to Siem Reap | One-Way Flight (Malaysia Airlines) - $87.64 - 3hr 5min with 2hr 55min layover in Kuala Lumpur Siem Reap to Phnom Penh | Cambodia Post VIP Van (government-owned) - $9.00 - 5hr 30min Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City | Giant Ibis Bus - $18.00 - 5hr 30min Ho Chi Minh City to Da Nang | One-Way Flight (Jetstar) - $62.78 - 1hr 20min Da Nang to Hoi An | GrabBike - $4.72 - 40min Hoi An to Da Nang | GrabBike - $4.85 - 40min Da Nang to Hue | Vietnam Railways SE4 - $3.27 - 2hr 41min Hue to Ninh Binh | Vietnam Railways SE4 - $20.81 - 10hr 31min Ninh Binh to Cat Ba | Booked via Tam Coc Bungalow (bus-boat-bus) - $13.11 - 4hr 30min Cat Ba to Hanoi | Cat Ba Express (bus-boat-bus) - $11.00 - 3hr 30min Hanoi to Singapore | One-Way Flight (Scoot) - $59.00 - 4hr 30min Accommodation From hostels to hotels to homestays, there is an overwhelming number of options for accommodation. I typically booked via Booking.com upon filtering by price and reviews the day before arriving in a new city. Aside from my stays in Hoi An and Hanoi, where I spent extra (about $20 per night) for some peace and solitude, I stayed in dorm rooms (about $3 to $7 per night) with anywhere from 4 to 24 beds arranged as bunk beds. In hindsight, if I wasn’t recovering from a fever in Hoi An and spending much needed time in Hanoi to regroup in preparation to leave Vietnam and then Singapore less than a week later, I would’ve preferred staying in a dorm room. Some nights, only a quarter of the beds were occupied, but regardless, it was inevitable that I would meet interesting travelers along the way. SIEM REAP Before I could freely venture Cambodia and Vietnam, I needed to complete a group Bank Management term paper (analyzing Qudos Bank using the CAMELS framework and comparable banks as benchmarks). Rather than spending this time in unchanging scenery, i.e., my room in Singapore, I dedicated most of the first three days in Siem Reap to this endeavor, spending hours at a time in nearby cafes and biking (rented $2 per day) to the Angkor National Museum and War Remnant Museum for breaks. The day before leaving Siem Reap, I hired a local tuk-tuk driver to explore Angkor Archaeological Park, beginning at sunrise with Angkor Wat and followed by Bayon, Baphuon, Ta Prohm, and more temples and terraces than I could handle before retiring for the day by early afternoon to enjoy more beef lok lak, fish amok, Khmer fried chicken, and red curry. I learned that my driver lives in housing costing $20 per month and wants to go to university but doesn’t have enough money despite having no children or wife. The prior night, I had dinner with 31-year-old Matias Yoon, a torchbearer for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics with plans to travel for two years, beginning in South Korea and onward to Vietnam, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Nepal, India, and further westward around the world, in an attempt to ‘renew’ his perspective after his last job working a night shift. PHNOM PENH In Phnom Penh, I spent my time in and around the National Museum of Cambodia, Wat Ounalom, Sisowath Quay, Wat Phnom, the Central Market, the eerie and disturbing Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and Choeung Ek (Killing Fields), the Independence Monument, the Statue of Norodom Sihanouk, and the Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument, ending with a traditional dance show by Cambodian Living Arts at the National Museum of Cambodia. In the hostel, I met Cosmin Mee. Originally from Austria, he flew to China two years ago to learn Shaolin kung fu before moving to Cambodia to teach English. HO CHI MINH CITY Crossing the Cambodia-Vietnam border was an experience of lax security, an empty duty free building, and an abnormal amount of casinos. Upon arriving in Ho Chi Minh City, I had a bowl of beef pho at Pho Quynh and sampled local dishes at Cyclo Resto before mapping out the next day in preparation for an exhausting full day of walking and sightseeing. The day included visiting the Ben Thanh Market, Saigon Square, Cathedral of Notre Dame Saigon, Saigon Center Post Office, Independence Palace, War Remnants Museum, and Tao Dan Park, as well as a few cafes for the heat and lunch and dinner at Pizza 4P’s and Bun Cha 145. During my stay in the hostel, I met an English teacher who was from Norway, probably in his early 20’s, and is now based in Ho Chi Minh City. The next morning, I took my flight to Da Nang. Comments are closed.
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ABOUT ME
Keng-Chia Chao BBA Candidate in Finance, Accounting, & Management Information Systems Shidler College of Business, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Archives
May 2018
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