This morning finally I was able to take my bus to Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam a day late. In the lobbby of the hostel I waited for the bus to arrive. The was another guest from Taiwan also travelling with me. A tuk tuk arrived and we were both loaded onto it with another western passenger. He drove a block around the corner to where the express buses load by the river. This time the bus was much nicer than the one from Siem Reap. It was a two story bus with seating on the upper deck. The lower deck had a short height, windowless, and used for luggage storage. My seat number was the front windscreen seat which someone commented that I was lucky. I didnt think so, knowing that there wouldnt be seatbelts, that I'd be the one crashing thru the windows when he slams his brakes at high speed. I needn't have worried as the bus barely moves above 60km. The bus went south along the river and retraced my route past Wat Oulonom, The Royal Palace, and Independence Monument. Video : Bus driving thru Phnom Penh http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNDBWloJ vBM The sign post said 250km and this was a six hour bus, so that meant an average of 50km/hr again. I could have taken an airasia flight but I'd rather just spend $10 on the bus to save money, and this route was more reliable than the Bangkok>Siem Reap line which was full of scams along the border. As we drove out of the city the road was a single lane paved road mixed with tuk tuks and motorcycles. I thought I'd be able to sleep on the bus but he kept sounding his horn all along the way to warn off smaller traffic ahead. We never reached speeds over 60km. After about an hour the road ended by a ferry port. From my front window I could see a barge crammed full of cars and foot traffic. Next to us another 2 story bus pulled up. How were we both going to fit on the next barge with cars and pedestrians. You often hear of boats capsizing in this region due to overcrowding. I had to just hope it would be safe. The PP>HCMC bus runs hourly in both directions and they all take this route. The bus was full of mainly westerners and I'd never heard of any accidents from the barge crossing before. Somehow the two buses squeezed together onto the next barge along with cars, foot traffic, vendors and animals. It becomes a mini bazaar as they go from each car and vehicle selling their wares. It was a short five minute crossing and we were safely across. 2 km from the border we stopped at a restaurant. I bought a pineapple for $1 and a coke for $1. There were two small girls asking for money so I gave them each a 1000 bill but I should have given all my money as there were no other chances to exchange money and I as left with two small bills after. As we drove towards the border one of the bus attendents then collected all our passports. I thought he was just checking if we had a Vietnam visa but we didnt get them back. I was told they would take them for processing. I hate all these pages being wasted with entry/exit stamps and thought they would waste another blank page rather than let me show them where to stamp on a used page. We then had to collect our luggage from the bus and enter the immigration building. This was a badly designed building with a massive duty free shop taking all the space cramming us into a small passage on the side. Another bus with passengers and luggage all piled in. As we were all being pushed towards the immigration counters I wasnt sure what to do if my turn came and I didnt have my passport. After a long wait somebody had a stack of our passports and started calling the names out one by one. I rushed thru the people when my name came so I could get my passport back. Surely enough they had stamped a blank page but I was just glad to get my passport back as it was an uncomfortable feeling being at a border crossing with no passport. Back on the bus the sign said HCMC was 80km but it still took 2 hours to get there with traffic as the bus would barely move the closer we came into the city. The highway was now double lane in each direction, with a motorbike lane in the shoulder. There was even street lighting. Vietnam seemed more wealthy than cambodia in terms of their road infrastructure but we were only doing 60km speed at most. The bus finally let off in a busy tourist area and a person from the bus who lived here pointed me in the right direction. Vietnam has no tuk tuks just motorcycle taxis. Already the vultures started hounding me. I had a large bag with wheels, how was I supposed to fit that with two passengers on a bike? Then a lady rushes right to my face and starts screaming in my face 'EIGHT DOLLARS, EIGHT DOLLARS'! $8 for what? A room? A lady? A massage? A meal? Clothing? Do you even know what I want lady? I have a reservation and want to find my hostel. Then I want to get something to eat. I've just been on an six hour bus with not much food. I dont want you screaming $8 in my face as soon as I step off the bus when I dont even know what $8 is for and didnt ask you for anything! My hostel was situated in an alley between two parallel streets. There is a third street intersecting the two streets and the alleys run inbetween all three streets. Fortunately the hostel gave good directions. The room was really nice and a big step up from Cambodia. But I had only paid $13 for this room. It was the top floor room, windows and curtains on both sides, large double bed, ensuite bathroom, mild hot water included, fridge and cable tv. I had kept emailing them that I would be arriving a day late and finally get a confirmation email from them. However now they were insisting that I had to pay for four nites, not three nites, and that they didnt get my email. When I said to log into my email to show them the mother told the son that she did get the email as perhaps he didnt know and was the one who spoke some english. Also they only wanted payment in VND not USD so I had to find somewhere to exchange money. I knew there were some halal restaurants so I tried to look for them. One looked expensive but I found one that had a five item combo for $2.75 and would take USD. The meal included chicken curry, choice of rice or roti, daal, coke, and dessert. Dessert was infact a white kiwi, not indian mithai. I also found a travel agency that was able to exhange $40 USD for local money. I also booked the Chu Chu tunnels tour with them the next day for $5.