Bus to Kampong Thom

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Today we headed to Kampong Thom, a small town which is used as a base to visit the nearby Sambor Prei Kuk temples (recently made a world heritage site). Our bus wasn’t until 1230 so we got to enjoy another leisurely morning first.

After breakfast we packed, I went for a swim in the rain, we read a bit and then checked out. For some strange reason you cannot buy a bus ticket to Kampong Thom. Instead you buy it to Siem Reap and ask to be dropped off early. We struggled to find out where the drop off point is but it’s opposite the Arunus Hotel in the centre of the town for all the bus companies.
We travelled with Giant Ibis again, finding them professional, safe and comfortable, albeit more expensive than the alternatives.
They loaded our bags last and told us when we had arrived. We had no issues with the journey.

Once in Kampong Thom we checked into our very cheap but pleasant guesthouse and then tried to find food options. We failed to find anywhere that does a reasonable western style breakfast but did find the ‘love cafe’ for a delicious dinner. It’s all western food but well done and reasonably priced. Alternatively The Third Cafe does local foods at a fair price.
(For breakfast there are a number of places that do eggs and bakeries with yummy pastries depending on preference)

Fed we headed to bed. I was worried not having any air con would make it a struggle to sleep. It was actually plenty cool enough, even in our mosquito net. Instead it was the local dogs keeping us awake - ear plugs have been retrieved for tonight!

We also booked with Giant Ibis from Kampong Thom to Siem Reap a couple of days later. I’m not sure I’d recommend this. No one was able to tell us when the bus was likely to arrive. We were told to ring and confirm or seats on the day, which we did but no one in the office was sure why. We were then told to wait in the Arunus Hotel Restaurant and ring them again when we got there for an eta. When we rang again they still couldn’t give us an approx time of arrival or even let us know if the bus had left on time.
Our bus was due to have left at 845. It arrived on the opposite side of the road to the restaurant (fortunately we’d waited there instead) around 1pm.
Once on board in randomly stopped twice with no one getting on or off before reaching our final destination. The journey was comfortable and the driver good but waiting was unnecessarily stressful.
There were loads of minibuses and buses passing through Kampong Thom and you can get a ticket there. They probably won’t be as comfy as the Giant Ibis but it’ll be a lot less stressful.

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