This itinerary happened in real life, but I personally and highly won’t recommend it, especially if the purpose is to enjoy and relax on your vacation. However, if you have a day in either of these places due to a layover, a business trip, or any other reason that only leaves you with a day in your schedule, then I hope this helps you.
So, this trip was planned before the pandemic. We were 3 people who bought the tickets, ready to get into a week of adventure to Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia, but were stopped by the virus. And life kept going. I got a job abroad and only have a few days of vacation from time to time. This time came last week of November, for two weeks, I needed to squeeze in meeting friends, visiting my mom’s school, and traveling to those long overdue places on my travel bucket list.
I was thinking of skipping one country. But my itch made us (two of us) decide to go to these 3 countries. This trip was very spontaneous, and we didn’t even consider the war between Thailand and Cambodia. We thought that their border would still be open for tourists (stupid of us). And that added to the challenge of squeezing 3 countries into a 4-day itinerary.
We left the Philippines at 4am (had to travel from Laguna to NAIA at 6pm and arrived around midnight). Arrived Ho Chi Minh airport around 6:30am, and passed through immigration around 7am. Then, we went to Ben Thanh Market (arrived around 7:30am, rode grab to reach the place). Our main goal was to do a Vietnamese food crawl and to explore the city.
And while sipping my first Vietnamese coffee(which, btw was very strong), that’s when we realized that the Cambodia-Thailand border was closed and we would have to either go through Laos (but we didn’t have enough time) or go back to Vietnam airport (because it was cheaper), and fly to Thailand. We decided to go to Cambodia by bus and go back to Ho Chi Minh to fly to Thailand. Moral of the story: be a responsible sponty traveler and do research.
Here, I was enjoying my Vietnamese coffee before realizing that the Cambodia-Thailand border was closed.
Then, once we felt that we had roamed enough, we decided to go to our hotel, take a nap and dress up for our cruise (Oh, di ba, nakapagcruise pa yan sila. LOL.).
I overslept and thought that we missed the cruise, but we didn’t. The Vietnamese were really friendly. We got on the ship, enjoyed the sunset with the view of the city while having a nice drink (the Cruise was booked through Klook, but this post is not sponsored. LOL.).
Later that night, we had dinner, then met my Vietnamese friend, who was very surprised by my visit. And, he had to drive from the countryside to the city to meet us. It was funny how a local was scared to cross a sea of motorbikes. We walked around the city and went to night markets.
Then, we went back to the hotel and rest. We did last minute booking of our bus ride to Cambodia from Ho Chi Minh. We left at exactly 7am and arrived at 3pm in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. We were initially scared of the not-so-good news about Cambodia. But it was a very safe country! We also booked our Tuktuk by Grab to avoid scammers, as recommended by some blogs. We first went to our hotel to drop off our bags and then went to the temples. Recommendation: Book your hotel near the places you want to visit.
Temples close at 5:30pm, so we had to take our pictures outside the temples. We scrolled around. We had street food and then dinner of local food. We tried the Lok Lak and Khmer Fish Curry. They tasted amazing, although it was very salty. I was not sure if they were supposed to be that salty.
We went back to our hotel by Tuktuk. Slept. Then, it was time to go back to Ho Chi Minh for our flight to Thailand.
NOTE: For bus rides from Vietnam to Cambodia and back, you will have to give your passport to the bus operators and go through their immigration at the border.
Back in Vietnam around 3pm. We had a late lunch. We were so hungry, but we were left with Vietnamese money enough for one meal. We had this before the lady told us we could pay by card! So, we had lunch at the airport.
We arrived in Thailand late at night. The next day, we booked a day tour for Ayutthaya. This included a tour guide, van, and entrance fees. We went to temples, old tombs, and a floating market replica.
At the floating market, we rode the boat. Then, we had lunch and ate pad thai satay and mango sticky rice. It was a clear sky day, but very hot! Make sure to wear cotton clothing. In the temples, girls were required to wear long pants/skirts, while sleeveless shirts were not allowed.
We got back to Bangkok around 6pm. It was still warm around that time. We were lucky that the traffic was not too bad. We met a friend doing school, and he brought us to Pratunam Market (as Chatuchak Weekend Market was not open on weekdays when we were there). We had dinner and capped off the trip with mango sticky rice (this was way better than the one we had at the floating market replica.
NOTE: McDonald’s food in Bangkok was expensive compared to local foods or McDonald’s in the Philippines.
Again, this itinerary is not for those seeking a relaxing vacation in these beautiful countries.
larswrites 