Just after Christmas in 1859, the French explorer Henri Mouhot left Bangkok to explore the uncharted regions of Indochina. It took him a year of hacking through thick undergrowth, fending off leopards, leeches and wild elephants before he arrived at Angkor Wat, the jungle-smothered complex of temples deep inside the Kingdom of Cambodia.
This is the story of how I got there and back and why I choose the path I did…..
There were a couple of options I considered based on all my research which was:
• Take a 1 hour flight into Siem Reap straight from Bangkok either on Bangkok Air or Cambodian Angkor Air. While this seemed convenient and straight forward, I never did find a ticket for less than $200 one way even though I checking a month ahead.
• Or, break up my journey into two pieces. The first stretch from Bangkok to the Thai border by Bus, Train or Taxi; Cross borders and then the second stretch from the Cambodian border into Siem Reap (the closest town to Angkor Wat) by Mini Van or Taxi.
While I really did want to take the train from Bangkok’s Hua Lamphong Station to the border town of Aranyaprathet, everyone I ran into kept telling me how slow the train is. The train runs twice a day but the one to take and not get stuck at the border overnight leaves at 5.55am. While tickets are only 48 Baht, the train isn't air conditioned and takes 5 ½ hours.
I could hire a taxi for around 2000 Baht, but eventually decided I was going to take a bus as the Mochit Bus Terminal was quite close to my Bangkok hotel and the government buses did sound reliable.What I heard was that buses take between 3 to 5 hours and tickets range from 160 to 300 Baht based on the type of bus and how well you bargain. I also realized that taking a bus from a travel agent all the way to Siem Reap was a bad idea as they change from bus to mini van based on the number of people and the border stop can be over 3 to 4 hours since they wait for a large group to finish immigration and get lunch making the journey much longer.
So, at 5:30am I left for the Mochit Bus Terminal went to counter 22 paid 243 Baht for a 6am bus to Aranyaprathet. The station was well organized and while everything is written in Thai, it isn’t too hard to find what you need.
Four and a half hours later, I arrived at the border town of Aranyaprathet; there’s a turn off saying border 5 minutes before the bus station and had I known better I’d have probably gotten off there; Since I didn't, I took a Tuk Tuk back to the border from the bus station.
Typically, the drivers start off at 80 Baht for that 5 minute ride and while, I guess the right price to pay is around 50 I didn't argue much and paid 60. Of course the Tuk Tuk dropped us off at a ‘Visa office’ where they wanted to arrange everything from visas to a taxi into Siem Rep; I politely refused all help but did pick up the Cambodia arrival form and left.Thailand immigration is a long long queue and took over an hour. It was then I realized that not taking the train was a good idea cause once the train reaches at 11:35 the queue gets even longer.
Crossing Borders
I was quite excited as I've never done this before, you literally walk across the Thailand border, 200 meters through ‘no mans land’ and then walk across the ‘Kingdom of Cambodia’ border. It was also there that I met Samrat, a Cambodian student who spends time at the border. He was trying to be helpful so he kept making suggestions as to what I could do, talked about the local culture as well as the difference between the Cambodian and Thai people. He was definitely not what many travel websites described as annoying touts. In fact, none of the people around like him were annoying, just helpful and working for a small tip.
Cambodia immigration takes just about 5 minutes and is hassle free. I’d already paid the $25 online for an e-visa which I got in 1 day the earlier week. Post immigration a free shuttle bus takes you to the main Bus Station in the Cambodian border town of Poipet. Since there aren’t many tourists there, buses and mini vans don’t leave that frequently as they wait to fill up.
Taxis charge $12/person to Siem Reap while buses charge only $9. A taxi would wait to have 4 passengers before leaving unless you agree to book the whole one for $48 and leave right away. Thanks to the long line at the Thai immigration, I’d met enough people who could share a cab so we left right away.
It was a little after 12:30pm as we pulled out of the Poipet bus station and travelled 152 kms along a very very straight road with bare fields on either side. I arrived in Siem Reap in less than 2 hours and checked into a hotel just outside the town center. Local currency here definitely USD so I didn't even need a money changer.
There are a bunch of resort spa hotels on the road entering the town, the town center has many quaint smaller ones and then there's a few closer to the temples. All in a 15 minute radius of each other.
Of course I wasn't going to rest, I had to see Angkor Wat right away…. What I discovered is that while you can get a Tuk Tuk to drop you off for $2-$4 based on your bargaining skills the best thing to do is hire one for $20 a day or $10 for half a day and they take you everywhere you want to go without any hassle.
15 minutes later, I picked up a 3 day entry pass to the Angkor Wat Archeological park. This is valid for all the temples in that area for multiple visits on any three days in a week, perfect since I intended to see the sunrise and sunset from various locations and I had tons to discover.
Coming back was fairly easy. For one the town center has several tour agents offering trips to Bangkok that leave all day and night. As with everything here I discovered you can even bargain and get a good price for the ride; the lowest price I was offered was $9 all the way to Bangkok! My only concern with this was while most of them say they reach in 8 hours, some seemed to think it could take upto 11 due to the border crossing. So, I finally decided to break my journey up into two parts just as I did coming in.
I got one of the tour agencies to arrange a taxi to the Cambodian border for $25 (and no sharing needed). The cab picked me up right on time the next morning and in less than 2 hours, I’d finished Cambodian immigration and was back at the painful Thai immigration point.
.jpg)
After walking across the Thai border, there were plenty of Taxis offering to go into Bangkok for 1900 Baht. The taxi takes only 3 hours so is the fastest at that point, but since I had time I decided to look for buses which meant going to the Aranyaprathet Bus Station first. I kept walking till one of the Tuk Tuks followed me agreeing to the 50 Baht I offered for being dropped there and I have to say I had the most perfect timing ever. As I was pulling into the Bus Station, the government bus service that dropped me was just driving out. I waved at the driver wondering if he’d stop and yes, he actually did stop so I jumped on and paid the 234 Baht onboard for my ticket to Bangkok.As I got on I realized that even if I missed this bus, there seems to be many more that leave every hour or so. I hoped the bus would drop me at the closest point to the airport so I could take a cab from there, but it seemed easier that he just drop me back at the Mochit Bus Station.
Travel between Bangkok and Siem Reap was extremely hassle free, yes it did take a good 9 hours each way but it cost me less that $40 round trip. And absolutely, Cambodia was so worth the journey.
