Khai Nam Transport

The bus is reasonable, but it can be a little uncomfortable for taller people, as some seats don't have enough space to fully stretch your legs, and we were unlucky (I'm 1.73 tall). A few seats had the material (fake leather) a little damaged, but my seat luckily had its cover intact. The air conditioning can be strong at some times and they don't provide coverings on the bus, so I suggest you take a blanket or sweater on the trip as it can be cold. There was a small bottle of room temperature water free of charge at each seat. The trip was relatively uneventful, but none of them spoke English, so communication is limited. You get off at stops, for example, without knowing exactly how long you have to break to eat or go to the bathroom, or even when they take your passport, without telling you what will happen, when they will return it, what you should do, if you have already arrived at the final destination or not, then you end up getting a little lost and going with the flow without knowing what will come next. When we arrived at the final part of the journey, about a little less than an hour before reaching the center of Ho Chi Minh, we would need to get off the bus and take the final journey by Van, but I believe that due to their lack of organization, there were no enough seats in the Van, and we had to wait for the next car. They said the next car would arrive in 15 minutes, but it actually arrived 2 hours later. At least, halfway through this journey (after an hour of waiting super tired in the heat) the employees at that bus stop kindly made us wait comfortably inside an air-conditioned bus and gave us fresh water, they were very kind and polite. In the end everything worked out and we arrived at our destination. Important: If you need a visa to enter Vietnam (this depends on your nationality), only board the bus if your visa is approved, as visa on arrival is only possible when you enter the country through the airport. When entering by land, by bus or car, there is no way to obtain a visa on the spot and you have to arrange the visa in advance.

The overall trip was quite ok. We arrived about 2 hours late mostly due to traffic and the time spent when crossing the border. The bus does not have a lot of leg room, but it’s manageable. Also, we had enough brakes, they provide slippers, water and a free lunch. You will need to leave the passport and the visa (if required) when leaving PP, and they will help with the visa procedures. When exiting Cambodgia I had to personally go to the office, and when entering Vietnam you need to take your luggages and go through customs (there is a line for groups). Also, you will need to change the bus at some point. The communication in English was limited, so I mostly followed what the other passengers were doing. Overall, it was a good price value for the journey.

Border crossing was smooth but my bus arrived almost 2 hours late

I read that the use of horn was excessive, and it really was. I was okay with the “aggressive” driving as it meant we would arrive faster but the first hour, the driver must’ve honked at least 100 times. AC didn’t fully work in the back. As we entered it felt nice and cool but in the back we were sweating for the whole duration. At least we had the whole row of 5 comfortable laid back seats to ourselves. My travel buddy would give it 2 stars due to mostly the heat but also other aspects, like the lack of communication skills… no English was talked nor understood (like I already read before). Border process was fast, yet unorganized. Our passports were taken at the beginning which was okay for me as this is seamungly common procedure here. We had to take out our bags to cross the border which was conveyed by shouting go go go (no first calm contact just immediate shouting like we were hostages) and then pointing to the back making discomforted noises as we were leaving without our bags… other than these “minor” incidents (for me it was manageable yet frustrating, for my buddy it was hell) the ride was quick, booking was easy and well organized, and it was cheap. We left where we were told and arrived where we should. Pauses were every 1-2 hours, which felt enough. I would do it again, my buddy wouldn’t, make of that as you will. Hope this helped.

The air-conditioner did not work very well. The ride was very hot. But, we arrived at the destination 30 minutes before I expected, so I was pleased with that.

No explanation of taking our passports and why, though I had read some other reviews prior to getting on so had an idea myself. We got on and off the bus a number of times even for the last 30 mins of the journey, we had to switch buses. Getting Vietnam visa was smooth (we had our evisa)

We left on time and unexpectedly there was lunch included, which was great (some meat with rice and fried egg). I did take the bus which left Phenom Penh at 10:30 am. I can not necessarily recommend this time as we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City when there was the worst traffic as everyone was driving home from work. Other than that, the ride was okay, they will take your passport for border crossing and you will have to walk across Cambodia Exit and Vietnam Entry. The driver honks a lot but I guess this is just how they do it here to let people know that they pass by. Would book this trip again!

Maybe the best organized bus trip we've had in all of South East Asia so far. The border crossing was especially well organized and fast. The stops along the way were sufficient and the seats comfy enough. As an extra, they had a free shuttle service from their head office in Ho-Chi-Minh City to District 1 where our hotel was located, so we didn't even need to order a Grab for the last bit of the journey, which we liked a lot.

They honestly took care of everything regarding passports and it's free lunch included. There was a language barrier so I was paranoid but I honestly had no reason to be. Thank you to the Driver and the main guy handling the passports. You did an amazing job. Just make sure you print a copy of your Visa prior to getting on bus.

Eventhough there are not so many information available about the trip and the border process, it went pretty smooth. Your passport will be taken away from time to time to process all the passport of the passengers a the same time. But will be given back when you need it (before going through the scanning at the vietnam side). We also got free food before the border. In the edge of HCMC we changed bus from sleeper to seater and continued to the center where we dropped off. I can only recommend them, but be prepared to go with the flow all the time.

The paperwork was quite confusing for the foreigners since they take the pasaports and nobody informa of anythibg in english and you have to basically believe that your passaport IS going to ve returned to you . If nobody IS going to speak english, It would be helpful to provide the instructions os what IS going to happen regarding the stops (how long are they taking and at what time and all the paperwork experiencia in the border going Up and down from the bus a thousand times, changing bus when arriving Nom Pen...) in the confirmation mail.

The bus was comfortable and the staff were very helpful. The visa process was interesting but easy. Basically you give your passport and money to one of the bus staff and they sort the visa for you at the border. We were a bit stressed that we didn’t get our passports back right away, but we eventually did get them back when we stopped for dinner on the Cambodian side. Free dinner was a great addition to this trip.

Driver beeped horn every 20s, no communication between staff and riders especially at the border where we were instructed to pass over our passports and visas with no attempt at informing or explaining. Bus itself was fine.

Going from HCM to PP took us 9 hours (and not 6) leaving at 5 am. This was not a very good experience. If you want to use this option you can go, but don’t be in a hurry: you know when you leave, you don’t know when you actually arrive. The staff of the bus is very helpful, trying their best. But still the border controls took overall almost 2 hours and the overall trip was just too long. Please also consider that they take your passport away 2 times and you need to be prepared to stay without passport for 1/2 hours which can make you very uncomfortable.

The driver honked the horn every fifth minute. We did not get any information about what to do, when to have breaks, how long etc. etc. I know that they say, the arrival time CAN be affected, but we arrived two hours later than expected. No possibilities to charge on the bus.