To Siem Reap from Bangkok

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This is one of the trips that have so many warning for different scams that you actually start to expect something to happen!

I was’n in any hurry, so I decided to take morning (5.55am) train from Bangkok to Aranyaprathet. The train takes about 6 hours and there is only 3th class seat available. So I was at the train station little after 5am to get ticket and to find correct train. No problems, not so many people at the station yet.

The train was OK, and few local people tried to talk with me with out success. No common language. There was on Spain/Japan couple that I met in a train and we decided to share tuk-tuk and taxi to Siem Reap. The view was not that special so taking a bus is an option for next time.

So we get to Aranyaprathet about on schedule and then we took a tuk-tuk to the border (40 bath = 1 USD or less). The driver tried to take us into the travel agency and next to Cambodia tourist office but we stayed in the tuk-tuk and said ‘border!’, so finally driver took us to the border. That was funny, because no one in the tuk-tuk was really sure where to go but we decided to go to the border directly.

In border we ‘check out’ from Thailand and then bought Visa from Cambodian custom (20 USD or 1000 bath). No scams even tried here, which was a bit of a disappointment. No much queueing here!

BUT you still need to fill the immigration paper and queue to other Cambodian border office and there was a queue! It took about 1 hour to queue and of course there was possibility to pass queue’s with some additional fee. I did not see anyone take that offer.

When finally in Cambodia, it was easy to travel rest of the way to Siem Reap either with Bus or with Taxi. There is ‘free’ shuttle bus to bus center that locates outside of the town, and from there you can take a buss (9USD) or taxi (40-50USD). Most likely you can get a taxi with cheaper price from the Poipet (town in Cambodia side). The road to Siem Reap is really good.

In Siem Reap taxi took us to a tuk-tuk station where we took tuk-tuk to town. The price was already included in the taxi price. Our driver wanted to take us to see different guest houses, but we decided to stop in the town and have lunch. And we did.

Trip from Bangkok to Cambodia border cost for me 70 bath (1,5 USD) and it was really easy trip, so think twice before taking mini bus from Khao San Road. And total trip cost was 11,5 USD and it started in a morning 5.55 train and we were in Siem Reap at 3 pm I think.

Taking the normal route train/bus instead of tourist bus gives new experiences and it is a fun way to travel. Of course you need to know the prices and normal scams before hand so you know how to react if something happens. And something will happen!

Pasi

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Photos

Googbye Bangkok
Although I like Bangkok, I was quite happy to leave the City this time

Open 'boom'
I have no idea why there was these 'booms'. Our train was standing in a middle of the road and boom was still open...

view from train
A lot of palm trees and rice fields (maybe)....