After Caley left, I spent a couple days in Siam Reap. I wanted to go to Vietnam but in order to get to Ho Chi Minh, I would need to switch buses in Phnom Penh. I didn’t want to take that bus ride again but in order to get to Vietnam it was inevitable. So, after about 3 days in SR I headed to Phnom Penh. I decided I would just spend a couple days there before I headed to Vietnam. Also, unlike in Cambodia, I could not get a visa on arrival for Vietnam. There are many tourist travel agencies on every corner advertising visas but I didn’t want to leave my passport with a random person. (A lot of people do this, but I am too paranoid!) So I decided to would go to the actual embassy in Phnom Penh.
I took the night bus, again! I arrived in Phnom Penh at about 5:30 am and I had no idea where to go. I also had not yet booked a guest house. After about 30 minutes with some wifi, I found a guest house and had the tuk tuk driver take me to it. My guest house eighty8 was great. My room was pretty expensive, costing $18.00 but I was tired and needed a place. The room was this awesome little room with air con, private bathroom, fan and great wifi. After getting settled in, I decided to head to the embassy and figure out my visa situation.
Obtaining my visa was so smooth but expensive! A 30 day tourist visa cost $60.00 USD. I then had the chance to expedite it for an additional $10.00. Since it was Saturday, I would have had to have waited until Monday and then paid for a tuk tuk driver again. Because of this, it made sense to just pay the extra 10.00. And, I got my passport back with my visa in 30 minutes!