I have a hometown friend T who I’ve been close with since elementary school. We’re like childhood friends, and we’ve often traveled together since our student days. Even after becoming working adults, we coordinated our vacations and continued our backpacking adventures.
One day, we embarked on a backpacking trip starting from Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, aiming to reach Siem Reap in Cambodia. The time difference with Japan is minus two hours. Upon arrival in Ho Chi Minh, we delayed our watches and phones by two hours and started our journey.
Since we arrived at the airport at night, we stayed at a nearby hotel. The next day, our first task was to find a guesthouse. After securing one, we headed to the local travel agency “Sinh Tourist” to book transportation to Cambodia. While walking around the city at 10 AM, we noticed people just starting to have breakfast and thought how late mornings started in this country.
At Sinh Tourist, we booked a shared bus to Siem Reap. Since we had some time, we joined a Mekong River cruise in the afternoon. The experience reminded us of Disney’s Jungle Cruise and was a fantastic way to feel the local atmosphere.
At night, Ho Chi Minh becomes even livelier. While walking, a woman on a scooter approached us, saying, “Drugs? Drugs?… Girl?” Clearly suspicious, we tried to escape, but scooters are fast. She persistently asked, but we politely refused and managed to get away.
Vietnam is full of scooters, and there’s not much concept of crosswalks. At first, it was scary, but we gradually got the hang of reading the traffic flow.
Later that night, even children were still eating dinner outside past 10 PM. We were surprised by the cultural difference and went to bed early to prepare for the next day.
The following morning, the hotel front desk called us. “The bus has already left,” they said. We had made a critical mistake with the time setting. Our phones had already auto-adjusted to local time, but we had manually set them back two more hours. For several days, we had been living on “Vietnam time – 2 hours.”
Thankfully, the hotel kindly arranged an alternative bus to Phnom Penh, and we quickly changed our plans.
Unexpected troubles are part of the beauty of backpacking.
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