Getting from Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Penh (and return)
· Updated · BootsnAll
Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh are about 230 km apart and linked by one of the most travelled land routes in Southeast Asia. Plenty of people do it as a straightforward hop between two stops on the same trip.
The bus, which is what you want
Direct buses take roughly six hours and start at around 10 dollars, with the better operators charging perhaps double that for a more comfortable coach. They carry you and your bags the whole way, with no change of vehicle at the border.
The route runs out of Saigon on Highway 1A to Moc Bai, crosses into Cambodia at Bavet, and continues on National Road 1 into Phnom Penh. The border gate is open 08:00 to 20:00 every day.
At the border everyone gets off, walks through the Vietnamese exit hall, walks across, and does Cambodian entry. The bus staff shepherd the group and usually collect passports in advance to speed the process, which feels alarming the first time and is normal.
Visas
Cambodia issues visas on arrival at Bavet to almost all nationalities, and there is an e-visa if you would rather arrive with it done. Bring US dollars in cash and a passport photograph.
Coming the other way into Vietnam, the e-visa is now open to every nationality, up to 90 days, 25 dollars single entry or 50 multiple, through evisa.gov.vn. Around thirty nationalities are exempt entirely for 30 or 45 days. Get this sorted before you reach the border rather than at it.
Budget some small dollar bills for informal charges at the crossing. It is a well known feature of this border and the amounts are minor.
Flying
Under an hour in the air, several flights a day, and the fares are usually modest. Given that the bus takes six hours, flying is a reasonable use of money if your schedule is tight.
Against that: both airports add an hour or more at each end, so the real saving is nearer three hours than five, and you miss the Mekong Delta countryside entirely.
The river route
The alternative worth knowing about does not go through Moc Bai at all. From the Mekong Delta you can cross by boat at Chau Doc and continue up the river to Phnom Penh.
It takes longer and costs more. It is also a completely different experience: stilt houses, fish farms and the river traffic of one of the great rivers of Asia, rather than a highway. If you have a spare day, spend it on this.
Arriving in Phnom Penh
Buses drop at company offices around the city rather than one central station, so check where yours terminates before you book a hotel near "the bus station".
Two things to see, and they are not light: Tuol Sleng, the school the Khmer Rouge turned into a prison, and the killing fields at Choeung Ek outside the city. Go to both, go early, and do not schedule anything cheerful for immediately afterwards.