Farewell Cambodia. Crossing to Ha Tien, Vietnam

All good things must come to an end. We’ve now left Cambodia (reluctantly) but will be filled with many memories: the tragic history, the breathtaking temples of Angkor Wat, the surprisingly large number of great (hipster style) cafes, the smiling children shouting hello, the tranquility of Kampot and the river, the evil monkeys (everywhere!), the 50c beers and of course the awesome taste of Kampot pepper that goes well with everything!

Cambodia is a country with a tragic past, a lost generation, a low life expectancy, much poverty, low education and still some restrictions of rights and freedoms of its people. It is getting more attention from guidebooks and has a steady flow of tourists and expats. It deserves more! This country should be in your must see list: it’s well set up for tourism, is good value and gives you real perspective on life! There is a reason we saw so many expats who visited and never left.

Daz’s Hot Tips: Cambodia edition

1. Allow time to see more than just Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Sure these are essential to learn the history and see the ancient temples but you need to get out to see more of Cambodia. Highly recommend adding Kampot to any itinerary.
2. Ignore everything you read on the Web about the difficulty of transport. It is super easy, quite comfortable and cheap. Mini buses (we used Giant Ibis and Mekong Express) were clean, modern and reliable. 
3. Have Kampot Pepper on everything (black on meats and seafood, red on desserts, fresh green whenever you can as this only lasts a few days so is really something you can’t have elsewhere).
4. Get in a tuk tuk or hire a bike and hit the countryside – be it around Phom Penh, Siem Reap or even better more rural in Battambang or Kampot. Be prepared to wave a lot.
5. Don’t touch the monkeys.
6. Be dressed appropriately for temples, despite rules being enforced I saw too many tourists still showing a bit too much skin.

Cambodia Beerometer: 75c to $1 (happy hour as low as 50c).

Crossing from Kampot to Ha Tien, Vietnam

We had planned to bus back from Kampot to Phnom Penh and make our way to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam (we had even bought bus tickets, a $9pp waste that Jen has reminded me of many times) but being so close to the border decided to do the more remote and Southmost land crossing. Google had plenty of warnings about how difficult this would be but once again we discovered the real world is so much easier then the Internet will lead you to believe.

We arranged the transfer using Kampot Tour and Travels for $18pp. This involved a 1 hour mini bus ride to the Cambodian border, about a 30 minute wait at the border during which time our passports were taken from us by Kampot Tours who took care of exit and entry procedures, then a 15 minute ride to Ha Tien (a border town we had very low expectations for but was a nice place to spend a couple of hours). From Ha Tien you can arrange tours of Mekong Delta, jump a bus to HCMC or, in our case, our $18 included ferry tickets for the fast Superdong ferry to Phu Quoc island. A quick, painless border crossing – just make sure you already have your Vietnam visa and $2 each for random admin fees at the crossing.