Travel Day: Ho Chi Minh City

The busload of forty or so backpackers I traveled with was unceremoniously dumped at the Bavet/Moc Bai border crossing to take care of the requisite paperwork for the journey onward to Vietnam. Just like any other land crossing I’ve gone through so far, it’s more or less a simple affair. First step was to check out of the country of origin (Cambodia in this case), handing over the departure card I filled out in Poi Pet when I first entered the country. The officer at the booth checked over the details, stamped my passport to void the visa and ushered me toward the gated border separating Cambodia from Vietnam. So far so good.

After a brief walk, I stepped into the building on the Vietnamese side of the border to fill out my entry papers. A “helpful” member of staff blocked my path as I reached for the forms and insisted he fill them out on my behalf. I told him I was quite capable but he stood firm. Admittedly, I caved and let him do his thing, but as he finished up, he sheepishly looked around and then demanded a dollar (wahn daw-laah) for services rendered. This type of thing, I’m sure, isn’t standard practice and because he looked around before asking, he was probably doing something he wasn't supposed to. So I mustered the loudest “one dollar??!?” I could, making sure it was loud enough for the higher ups to hear, which prompted him to back down and push me to the visa line.

As far as first impressions go, I’m really hoping this isn’t representative of my upcoming experience in Vietnam, though I’ve certainly been warned of this type of thing.

A silly sign on the Cambodian side of the border (Bavet):

I met up with Andrew and Jo (or Jonus, as Andrew calls her) a couple of hours after my arrival in Ho Chi Minh City. We wandered around the backpacker district’s alleyways for a cheap room, finally settling on one run by honest owners (it's actually quite surprising how things work here).