Buying a car for $500
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Just 250 km away from Ho Chi Minh City is Phnom Penh - a car paradise where cheap ones priced at a mere US$500 are on offer in addition to chic Camry and Lexus vehicles.
Tico cars from Korean Daewoo are sold at only $500 each while secondhand ones from Japanese Toyota made in the 1990s are priced at US$5,000-10,000, still a song compared to Vietnamese prices.
Visitors can also choose luxury ones like a Roll Royce worth over $1 million.
With such a wide price range, cars are so popular in Phnom Penh that even schoolgirls drive them to schools.
In Vietnam, a high school student possessing a motorbike could be considered coming from a well-off family.
The Cambodian capital is dotted with numerous garages and filling stations to meet the demand. Vietnamese car repairers are a popular choice for Cambodian car owners there.
Compared to their Vietnamese pals, petrol stations in Phnom Penh are a nice surprise with clean-up toilets and mini cafes offering drinks and snacks during a fill-up.
Another surprise comes from the smooth traffic flow with few gridlocks. Thefts are not common and according to SGTT, you can park your car along the pavements for a night long without worrying about any bad things happening to them.
Roadside shops or stores have guards cum car signalmen who receive a tip at around VND4,000 each time they help drivers redirect their cars.
Policemen are also a relief for Vietnamese drivers in Phnom Penh when they fine driving mistakes at around $1-5 each without issuing the tickets.
