Ian Kershaw

Review of BUVA

In short: A very very poor experience. Avoid Buva ...

In short: A very very poor experience. Avoid Buva Sea. It was almost a con.

If you'd like the longer version, read on:
Buva is apparently the "new" ferry company and I'd strongly recommend avoiding them and going with one of the two more established companies (Speed Ferry Cambodia or Cambodia Island Speed Ferry).

On the way to the island we were delayed by 3 hours, lied to when we asked when the next ferry would be (so that we wouldn't get on another boat with another company), and they tried to con us into taking a slower ferry via Koh Rong on our way to Koh Rong Saloem (we'd paid for the fast ferry direct to Saloem). Indeed, they even took us to another pier and it was only there that some honest employee told us that it was not in fact a direct ferry and that it would take over 2 hours (it was supposed to take 30 minutes). We had to literally block the driver from driving away and leaving us there, and force him to take us back to the main pier (Serendipity) and the boat office.

On the way back, we were delayed by "only" 40 minutes, but another couple on our boat had been waiting for an earlier boat that had never showed up despite the fact that they confirmed the day before. They were therefore three hours late.

I realise it's a ferry service in Cambodia, so you need to cut it a bit of slack on timeliness, but the real failing was the service of the staff: They flat out lied to us, would not give us a refund because we'd bought our tickets in a different office (told us to take a tuk tuk to the other office to get our money back), tried to put us on an indirect slow ferry, wasted our time, messed us around.

All in all, very close to a con. Do yourself a favour and go with a different company.