When Vennes and I first came to Phnom Penh in February of 2012 it was without any knowledge whatsoever of the people or culture.  We simply decided that we going to go and we left the next morning.  We had been to Vietnam quite often and, while we liked it, we wanted to see what opportunities existed in Cambodia.  Vennes wanted to take course work to get her English teaching certification and I wanted to see what business opportunities existed for my import business.

All I knew about the country was that they had been heavily bombed during the Vietnam War and that about the time they were recovering from that, late 70's, the Pol Pot regime killed nearly 3 million people.  For the longest time the country has struggled (as one can imagine) to get it's footing.  Cambodia is still a very poor country and it lags economically behind other countries in the region, such as Thailand and Vietnam, who are booming in comparison but they are transforming themselves and more people should familiarize themselves with this wonderful place.

So, we decided to go on the evening of February 10th and the next morning jumped on a 7am bus taking the 6 hour bus ride to Phnom Penh in the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Riding the bus gave us a great opportunity to see the countrysides of both Vietnam and Cambodia AND it was extremely cheap at $13 USD.  We actually found cheaper places in both Saigon and Phnom Penh at an average price of about $9 USD one way, with the cheapest being $8 each way if you buy both your ticket to go and return at the same time.

During the trip out of Saigon we saw many parts of that city that we had never seen before.  Once we had pulled clear of Saigon, and got closer to the border of Cambodia, the population got sparser and sparser.  Industry of the small cities and towns shrank in relative fashion and you could really tell the stark contrast between Vietnam and Cambodia in terms of building, industry, size of the cities and towns.  The highest level of relative wealth for Cambodians, between the border and Phnom Penh anyway, seem to be right at the border where casinos, hotels, restaurants, etc. are buillding up to capitalize on the travelers going back and forth from Vietnam.

I learned a few years ago to resist drawing comparisons between any two countries in Southeast Asia.  For years I had gone to Thailand for business and to visit the family of the Thai woman I was married to at the time.  When I went to Vietnam for the first time, around 2006, I tried to establish a point of reference for what to expect; What I found was that while there was similarities that the cultures were really quite different.  On this trip I tried my best to erase any notion of expectation and thoroughly enjoy discovering this new place for what it was instead of what I thought it was going to be like.

For hours we really saw very little in the way of real population centers..there was long spaces of empty separated by patches of small, very poor towns in between.

About 3 hours of travel we hit the Cambodia border…..

The traffic between Cambodia and Vietnam is huge….Since there are a large number of foreigners living in both countries…..who have to make Visa runs (we'll post more on that later) every two months there is constant traffic between the two countries which generates a huge amount of revenue..not only for the Immigration Offices…but also for the businesses providing goods and services from and to the border.

For those who need to make a Visa run from either country….the price of a 30  day Visa for Cambodia  is about $20 USD…..the bus company adds an extra $5 USD for taking care of everything for you through Immigration…the price of a 30 day Vietnam Visa purchased through a Cambodia Travel Agent is about $40 USD, and I'm not sure if there are any additional charges from the bus company as I've had a multiple entry Visa up to this point.

The most exciting event of the trip was the ferry crossing over the Mekong River where buses, trucks, cars, motorcycles and vendors are literally crammed together like sardines in a can for the short trip across the river.  The ferries are NOT scary. The operations are very well organized and feel extremely safe.

After nearly 6 hours on the road our bus entered Phnom Penh.  As we meandered our way through the traffic of Phnom Penh, towards our hotel, I couldn't help but be reminded of Thailand.  The style of writing that are on the signs and storefronts look very Thai in nature. Also, there was the familiar sound of Tuk Tuk's that you hear all over Thailand. While the Cambodian version looks slightly different than the Thai version, they still closely resemble their Thailand cousins buzzing around like angry bees, moving quickly and effortlessly around larger cars and trucks.  

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