Our journey from Thailand to Cambodia

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Feb 3, 2006

It's been a while since our last entry at Koh Chang, Thailand 泰国.

Our plan is to go from Koh Chang to Trat, stay one night. Then go to Koh Kong, Cambodia, stay another night. Then take the morning ferry to Sihanouville, Cambodia. Then find transportation to Siem Reap.

We left Koh Chang on Jan 27, 2006. We boarded a pickup songtaew on the main road (80B) to the ferry dock. The ferry took about 35 minutes and we arrived in Laem Ngop ferry dock. From the dock, we took a tuk-tuk (100B) to the next biggest town of Trat. In Trat, we found a guesthouse (200B, Residang Guesthouse) that has an ensuite bath. In Trat, we did a bit of shopping.

Originally, we had planned to go to Koh Kong in Cambodia and stay one night there, then take the ferry boat to Sihanouville the next day. This is because the first bus from Trat leaves at 6 am. It takes one hour and a half to reach Koh Kong. The ferry leaves at 8 am. It seems there will not be enough time to catch the ferry and we will need to stay in Koh Kong for one night.

We found an agent that will sell us the bus ticket from Trat to Koh Kong, transportation from the border to the ferry dock and the ferry ticket. The bus will pick us up from the guesthouse at 5:30 am, thereby making enough time to do the immigration routines, and get to the ferry before 8 am. OK, we liked the idea of not having to stay one night in Koh Kong.

On Jan 28, the minibus picked us up at 5:30 am, then get to the border at around 6:45 am. There are a total of 7 foreigners, including us, on the minibus. The Thai border opens at 7 am and we got through the immigration with no problem.

We walked across to the Cambodia 柬埔寨 border. The official Visa fee is US$20. We have heard from different people that the Cambodian immigration could ask for more many people paid 1200 Thai Baht, which is US$30. So, we were prepared to pay that much. In front of us, a more seasoned traveller insisted that he has paid $20 for the previous 3 times. The immigration did not say anything and just ask him to wait outside.

When it is our turn, the Cambodian government asked us to pay $45 for both of us. As we were prepared to pay a total of up to $60, we were happy to settle at $45. Later, we found out we could have tried to settle at $40.

After the visa is made, the seasoned traveller told us to fill out the arrival and departure form and get an entry stamp in the next window. I am glad he advised us, otherwise we would have left the visa area without stamping.

Now the fun part begins.

As our ticket includes transportation from the border to the ferry dock, we were waving our ticket to every Cambodian who came to ask whether we need transportation to the ferry dock.

One young man says he will take care of us, and then he asked us to hop onto two motorcycles.

We were expecting to be transported by a truck or a car, but not a motorbike. He assured us that we will not need to pay him.

So, we hopped on the motorbikes. Two minutes later, after starting the motorbike, he told us we will need to pay the bridge toll. As our transportation is paid for, we insisted that he take us back to the visa area so we can meet up with the other foreigners. The two motorcyclers did not take us back. Luckily, we have our roller luggage and we walked back to the visa area.

Two foreigners have found someone that will take them to the ferry dock with a car, and so we want to travel with them. We all hopped on.

Suddenly, one man came forward and try to hit the driver. I guess they were competing for our business. Another man came forward and asked us why we want to go with the driver, since we "bought" the ticket from his company.

At this point, it is 7:50 am. We do not care which company should transport us. We just want to go to the ferry dock.

Finally, the man (who says the ticket is from his company) gave some money to the driver and let us all leave.

We got to the ferry dock at 8:10 and the ferry has not yet departed. We got onto the ferry, finally.

Another 10 minutes later, the other three foreigners (from the minibus) arrived. They too, have a story to tell. Their driver was so slow and just needed some more money as incentive to drive faster.

Anyway, the ferry departed (25 minutes later than scheduled) and we arrived in Sihanouville at around 1pm.

In Sihanouville, we got off the boat and found the pier to be real dusty and the area is not paved. I want to look for a telephone so that I can call the guesthouse to ask them to come pick us up. Unfortunately, there are no telephones available. So, we paid US$1 each to ride on a motorcycle to go 1.5 km to our guesthouse (Mealy Chenda, $8).

We had planned to get our Vietname visa in Sihanouville. Unfortunately, we did not time our arrival well and are one day too late. Because of Vietnam New Year (Tet, which correspond to the Chinese New year dates), the Vietnam consulate is closed and will not open until 7 days later (Feb 3)

So, we decided to leave Sihanouville the next day.

We found a bus company (Ho Wah Genting) that has a bus that goes to Phnom Penh at 7:15 am, then change bus (12:15 pm) to Siem Reap.

We arranged a motorcycle driver to pick us up in the morning to take us to the bus station.

Since we have a bit of time left before dinner, we decided to check out the beach near our guesthouse. The beach is called Victory beach.

After being in Koh Chang, Thailand, for over 2 weeks, with access to a beautiful beach, we were very disappointed with Victory Beach. It is dirty, with a lot of garbage, and lined with vendors. We are glad we did not plan to stay here.

On Jan 29 (Chinese New Year), the two motorcycle drivers did not show up to pick us up. Fortunately, there is one driver nearby, and took Phyllis to the bus station (with two luggage, one in front with the driver, another on Phyllis's lap). Gary will walk to the bus station (but later got a ride from the same motorcycle driver after dropping off Phyllis, for more money, of course).

We got onto the Phnom Penh bus, which left 30 minutes later than planned and arrived in Phnon Penh 金边 at 11:45 am. We waited a bit and then hopped onto the Siem Reap 暹粒 bus, which made two lunch stops and arrived in Siem Reap at around 7 pm.

The tuk-tuk driver in Siem Reap offered to take us to our guesthouse for US 25 cents. Our guidebooks says that many tuk-tuk drivers offered a very low price so that we can hire him for our Angkor tours. So, we took his offer.

We checked into Smiley's Guesthouse ($5), which is quite nice. Somehow our tuk-tuk driver disappeared (probably shooed away by the people in our guesthouse) and we were not able to hire him for our Angkor tours.

We arranged with another tuk-tuk driver to take us to see the sunset at Angkok Wat the next day.

In the evening, we found a Chinese restaurant that offered decent meals at comparatively good prices (about $1.5 per dish). On subsequent days, we found another Chinese restaurant with great service and even cheaper drinks! (50 cents for a can of cold beer, everywhere else sells at least US$1)

On Jan 30, we went to the bank to exchange some traveller's cheques. One bank has a big sign that says ATM. As all guidebooks says there are no ATM's in Cambodia, we were very eager to try it out. Unfortunately, the bank's sign is premature and there is no ATM.

At 4:30 pm, our tuk-tuk driver came to pick us up for our Sunset excursion ($3 for the ride). We bought our Angkor Wat ticket and decided to take a one week pass for $60 (One day $20, three day $40). There were a lot of people who came to see the sunset. I guess because of Chinese New Year, there are more tourists from China, Hong Kong & Korea.

We went to a hill called Phnom Bakheng and had to climb up a steep road, sometimes over small rocks. Some people rode on the elephant to go up ($15 each, $10 to go downhill). At the top of the hill, it was like a circus. There are so many people !!! I guess a sunset is enjoyed when there is peace and quiet. Not here. Everyone jockey for a position to watch the sunset.

After the sun began to set, we decided to start walking down the hill. We followed the people and then all took the easier way, i.e., the way the elephant took to go up the hill.

We met up with our tuk-tuk driver. After fighting the traffic, we went back to our guesthouse and arranged to start early next morning.

On Jan 31, the our tuk-tuk driver picked us up at 7 am and we went to pick up some water (75 cents for 6 bottles of 1 liter each) and some famous Cambodian baguettes (25 cents). The baguettes have a bit of coconut flavour and very tender. (Later we found out the baguettes should only cost 12.5 cents each).

Because of Chinese New Year, we wanted to go to the temples with fewer tourists. We decided to take the so called "grand tour circuit" (a bigger loop around the Angkor Wat area). So our driver took us to Preah Khan to start our Angkor tour 吴哥.

We visited five temples, and took a full day to cover what most other people would take one half day. We paid the tuk-tuk driver $12 for the day.

On Feb 1, we visited Kbal Spean, which is a longer way away from Siem Reap. It is famous for its rock carvings on the river bed. We also visited two more temples on the way back, Banteay Srei and Banteay Samre. Both of these temples are quite worthwhile to visit, although they are a bit far and cost more -- $23.

At night, we found an agent that will arrange for our Vietnam visa and promised that we will get our visa by Feb 7 in Phnom Penh. Hopefully it will not take too long.

On Feb 2, we visited the famous Angkor Wat itself and are impressed with the majestic and enormous temple. In the afternoon, we visited some sites within Angkor Thom, the ancient city of Angkor.

After three days of visiting the temples, we are a little bit tired and decided to just take a half day the next day.

On Feb 3, our driver did not show up, probably the price he offered was too low, and he found other customers willing to pay more. So, we found another driver and visited the sites in the Roluos area. They are called Bakong, Preah Ko and Lolei.

Shortly after noon time, we returned to Siem Reap, had lunch, took a shower, and then went for a massage.

Our Angkor ticket is valid till Feb 6. In the next few days, we will probably rent an electric bike and revisit some of the temples. Then we will go to Phnom Penh (around Feb 7) and then move onto Saigon (around Feb 8).

So, we will not report until after we reach Phnom Penh, or after we reach Saigon.

One thing we noticed in Siem Reap is the comparative large number of Hong Kong and China tourists who visited Siem Reap and Angkor on their own, without joining tours. They just use the guidebooks, written in Chinese, probably bought in China. Many also came with package tours.

There are also many Korean tourists who joined the packaged tours, but many also came on their own.

Any of our friends and relatives who are contemplating Cambodian and Angkor Wat can consider a "do-it-yourself" tour. The immigration part will not be as difficult (as we have experienced) if you fly into Siem Reap or Phnom Penh.

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