Adding quickly and randomly to Travisimo’s comments…
I traveled with friends for a month from Cam to Vn, Ankor to HCMC then northward to Hanoi/Ha Long bay.
The boarder is no big deal. Friends and I passed through when SARs was just starting and so we, the only westerners, were singled out to fill out a (laughable) health form. “Have you coughed in the last 48 hours?” Get your visas in advance.
Ankor is great. They are still getting finding temples and it is possible to go to some of them. At the same time the 3 ‘main’ loops are worth the time. Start your day very early. You beat the heat and bus loads of other tourists.
We took a bus from from PP to HCMC. Didn’t think the roads were that bad (Peru has much worse). Might depend on what time of the year you are traveling (Dry season for us). I wanted to try the boat down the river but friends had been traveling for months in Asia and were understandably worn down the heat and humidity.
Look around at everything! The sights are cool, but see how folks live. Go to the local markets. The local ‘hardware’ bizarres are amazing. Watch other tourists. Folks from many other countries go there (you wont stand out) and they all have there own tourist ‘style’.
Get ready for the onslaught of people selling you services and goods. Books warn you but it doesn’t really prepare you. Tuk-Tuk drivers, kids with trinkets at the sites, services, goods, drugs and “$10 for 1hr of boom-boom” and on and on … Don’t by from kids as it gives parents more incentive to keep them out of school. At the same time, haggle, haggle, haggle.
Finally, DON’T, again DON’T, eat the tried frogs from the guy, in the van, on the ferry. We said we would try something local. Bad idea. Sure we laugh about my night of discontent now.
More later…