Otres 2 to Phu Quoc

After a late goodbye dinner with our hosts at Honeymoon Guesthouse on Otres 2, it was an early morning for an 8:00 am departure for Phu Quoc. When last in these parts we traveled Phu Quoc to Sihanoukville on a van-ferry-bus complete package purchased on Phu Quoc. It went poorly. Some may recall it from the 2014 blog (if not, it is available here). Perchance if I mention it involved Kim in a fist fight with one of our drivers it may come more clearly to mind. In an effort to avoid such excitement on this trip, we booked only the van from Otres to Ha Tien, a town on the border between Cambodia and Vietnam, as well as the departure point for the Superdong fast ferry to Phu Quoc. Our plan was to get to the border, cross into Vietnam, make our way by taxi to the pier (11 km), and purchase passage on our boat of choice - we did not trust that a booking in Sihanoukville would result in our actually getting on the boat we desired. Our plan unfolded flawlessly through beautiful Kampot and on into Kep, a Cambodian town on the water about 40 km from Ha Tien. I was in a seat abutting the driver's, facing towards the back of the vehicle and enjoyed not the driver's view, but a view of all the other passengers as, on an all too regular basis, they clenched the sides of their seats, wide eyed in terrified anticipation of a very high speed head-on collision, which blessedly, never actually occured. The woman who sat facing me, our knees touching, vomited into a bag all the way to Kampot. However, for all of our journey to Kep there were exactly an equal number of passengers as there were seats in the van. Remember, this is Cambodia. That's a win for our team.

We departed Kep with 4 more passengers than there were seats. While 3 of the new comers squeezed into the laps of existing passengers, one poor soul enjoyed the trip to the border between our feet, crammed into a small corner of the floor and leaning against the side sliding door. So, funny thing. We arrived Ha Tien with 19 in a 15 passenger van. A group of 5 Germans traveling with us, because they had a great deal of luggage, had purchased 10 seats on the van from Otres 2 to accommodate their baggage. That's a win for team Champa Travel.

We arrived at the border in good shape. It's 11:30 and the last boat for Phu Quoc leaves at 1:15. An hour forty five to cross into Vietnam, taxi to town, buy a ticket to board the ferry and we are on our way. Getting our stamps to exit Cambodia is quick and problem free. It a takes about 20 minutes to fill out our medical information cards, pay the $1.00 fee for filling it (both of which are complete bullshit, un-required border scams, but refusing to go along adds half an hour of arguing to your crossing), and submit our passport to receive an entry stamp into Vietnam. It turns out that all the people we are travelling with are also going to Phu Quoc via the Superdong, so we hitch our wagon to the Vietnamese fixer who is organizing the border transit and transport to the ferry. Good thing, too, as there are exactly zero regular taxis waiting on the Vietnamese side, only motos. Our fixer has gathered together our travel group, as well as six or eight other travellers, and leads us (around 25 by this point) to a roadside canteen to await the "bus". Moments later, a 7 passenger minivan arrives to take us to the pier. A dozen souls, with all their luggage, got into that van. Kim, I, and the rest were too slow to make it aboard, but instead were told to wait 5 minutes for the next bus, while the fixer headed back to the border to guide more travelers across. At this point, we are cool. It's noon so we have an hour and a quarter to get to the ferry and the next bus will be here at in five minutes, right? At ten to one - still sitting at the roadside canteen with no transport in sight - we, and all of our fellow travellers who did not get on "bus" #1, are feeling less than cool. Kim is talking about starting to walk to town while I go on a motorcycle taxi into town to find a regular taxi which I would then have return toward the border, picking her up and then..... Yeah, we are less than cool.

It was into this tempest that our fixer then returned, a handful of other travellers in tow. Our group is 22 strong and a 15 passenger van soon arrived. We all got in that van, our luggage on our laps. I had the luggage of two other travellers on my lap along with my own. 

To the pier! No. To the fixers office. Remember those 12 folks who crammed into the 7 seater? They are cooling their heels at the office. It doesn't matter. You either wait at the border or at the fixers office. Either way, you don't have a clue what the fuck is going on.

Next, another 12 seater arrives. Ten of us are ushered aboard and it heads for the pier. We are all nervous. There are ten of us in a twelve seater. We have room. We are comfortable. What's up? But it's the real deal. We zip across town, arriving at our boat exactly two minutes before it departs.

*****

The crossing to Phu Quoc, one and one half hours, is un-eventful, as is our taxi to the Moon Resort. Sorry. Appended is a photo of our digs on Otres 2, followed by a shot of the Superdong, a view of our Phu Quoc beach, and the view from our cabin porch.