We left Phnom Pehn via Highway 1. not the smoothes roller in the universe but alltogether we were in Neun Kham at the ferry in no time. Instead of taking the ferry accross the Mekong towards the Moc Bai border (that seems to have a bit of a reputation for bribes and bikers) we took the dirt road to the right from the ferry landing. That's south on the west bank of the Mekong. It turned out to be one of the nicest roads in Cambodia to see the real everyday life. The overly friendly people with the scarfs, the ox carts, the wooden bridges (in all ranges of decay) and the Mekong as wide as we ever saw it.
A lot of prose, I know, but that's because there's nothing to say about the actual border crossing (apart from our Minsk stalling again at 2 km before the border ;-)). Easy as picking your nose.
There's no real landmark to see it, but about 1.5 kilometres before the border is customs on the left side(which you can safely pass) and about 300m further on the left side is the police station. They stamped the passports and were very interested in the bike, or at least how much we paid for it. Other than that, they didn't care. We do need to add here that we had the bike declared as temporary export on our exit document upon leaving Vietnam. And it's a vietnam registered one.
The vietnam side acted toughm but they simply checked the papers and that was it. Stamps set at all done. When we asked about the motorbike, the official simply answered that Chau doc is 35k along the asphalt! Zereo bribes, zero toughness.... Maybe we were lucky with the very officials that day, but we believe that they're so used to patrolling the river that they don't mind about the odd biker.
Apart from the ease of the crossing, the road is so much more fun than highway 1.
After a short trip in the Mekong Delta (nice, but the cambodian side was so much more beautiful) we're in Ho Chi Minh City now, serviced the bike, and preparing the last leg of the trip, due north. Hopefully the floods in Hue won't stop us.
Happy trails!
A lot of prose, I know, but that's because there's nothing to say about the actual border crossing (apart from our Minsk stalling again at 2 km before the border ;-)). Easy as picking your nose.
There's no real landmark to see it, but about 1.5 kilometres before the border is customs on the left side(which you can safely pass) and about 300m further on the left side is the police station. They stamped the passports and were very interested in the bike, or at least how much we paid for it. Other than that, they didn't care. We do need to add here that we had the bike declared as temporary export on our exit document upon leaving Vietnam. And it's a vietnam registered one.
The vietnam side acted toughm but they simply checked the papers and that was it. Stamps set at all done. When we asked about the motorbike, the official simply answered that Chau doc is 35k along the asphalt! Zereo bribes, zero toughness.... Maybe we were lucky with the very officials that day, but we believe that they're so used to patrolling the river that they don't mind about the odd biker.
Apart from the ease of the crossing, the road is so much more fun than highway 1.
After a short trip in the Mekong Delta (nice, but the cambodian side was so much more beautiful) we're in Ho Chi Minh City now, serviced the bike, and preparing the last leg of the trip, due north. Hopefully the floods in Hue won't stop us.
Happy trails!
)]. I'll look forward to your next post!!