Highway One - Route to Vietnam

Hello everyone,
after packing everything for our road trip, we set off on the roads on Saturday morning. More precisely, on 'Highway' 1, a road that has less potholes than the rest of the roads in Cambodia;) Here it was not uncommon to see a bus overtaking a truck on a single lane road, which in turn was overtaking a scooter. After a short stop at a gas station, where we had lunch, we continued the first 120 kilometers to our intermediate destination Svay Rieng. We decided to stay overnight there before heading to Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam the next day. Since we still had some time, we worked on our Camilla a bit and bought some spare parts for the journey ahead. As some welding had to be done as well, we went in search of a workshop and discovered a shed in the backyard which welded the parts back onto our vehicle. In the process, we discovered that the Cambodians are a very friendly people, even if they may not always smile as much as the Thais. The 'workshop' didn't want to accept any money for the repair, and when we had to replace the bulb of a turn signal the next day, they also didn't want any money for it. In the evening, we went out for dinner and each ordered a dish, only to realize a bit too late that in this restaurant, you order one meal and everyone at the table shares it. But that way, we already had breakfast the next morning;) After that, we hit the road again and headed towards the border, narrowly escaping a police check because the police officer recognized us as tourists too late. When we reached the border, we weren't quite sure what to do at first, as there were no signs. However, the locals all got off their motorcycles and pushed them, so we did the same. After receiving a nod from the security guard, we knew we were on the right track. At a checkpoint, we finally spotted a sign saying 'Exit Stamp' and went to it to get our departure stamp. Then we had to drive the 200 meters in no man's land to be able to re-enter Vietnam. Once we arrived there, we tried to hide our Camilla a bit, as we had been advised to do so when entering with a motorcycle. Since we didn't know what to do again (no signs again), we went into the building to pick up the entry stamp. There, we had to pay another $4 fees (but it was probably more like a bribe for a faster line) to get the stamp. When we returned to the motorcycle, we pushed it past a local and a border police officer, who of course wanted to see our passports again. Luckily, we had already picked up the stamp and were allowed to continue pushing. After successfully crossing the border into Vietnam, we made a short stop to calm our nerves. For us in Europe, it is almost unimaginable that you can't just drive across a border like this, but here you even have to make sure to adhere to the opening hours and not arrive too late, otherwise you can't simply enter anymore... After the border, we continued to Ho Chi Minh City, where we immediately got a Vietnamese SIM card and checked into our hostel. Since there was an overbooking at our booked hostel, we even got a 15% discount at another hostel in the same chain:P
See you then,
Malia