By Land Vehicle
- If you are coming to Siem Reap from Thailand by bus you will most likely
first pass through the Rong Klue market in the Aranyaphratet district of
Thailand. This is a flea market that sells an eclectic variety of items,
many of them used or copies of name brand items - things like sunglasses,
clothing, and cheap imitation jewelry and watches. Poipet is the seedy
border town that lies on the Cambodian side of the border. The reason you
will pass through Rong Klue market and Poipet is that the main Cambodian
road to Siem Reap begins in this town. Be aware of pick pockets on both
sides of the border - if you are alert and aware of your surroundings you
almost guarantee that you will have no problem with these criminals.
In the Rong Klue market on the Thai side of the border "Street
urchins" will run up to you and beg or try to be your "tour
guide". They will quickly approach you with open umbrellas in hand -
if you let them walk next to you - they will demand payment for their
service of providing you with shade. In mid 2003 a Cambodian group
kidnapped several Thai children and held them for ransom.
Before you actually enter Cambodia you will be approached by tour guides
who will offer to "guide" you and provide transportation to Siem
Reap. Your guess is as good as the next persons as to which tour guide to
pick from. The guides will not let you tell them you want to travel alone
- they will surround you until you pick one. One transportation company is
Hangtap Tours - they offer mini buses and Pickup trucks. I used them for
the ride from Poipet to Siem Reap which cost $10. However, with Sara Tours
I only paid $4 for the return trip (their Phone Number is: (855) 12 833
252. Something to be careful of is what happened to me when using Hangtap
tours. This company waited about 90 minutes to leave after I arrived and
as a result we arrived in Siem Reap quite late and well after dark. They
dropped us off at a hotel and told us it was unsafe to walk around at
night and it would be best for us to stay at this hotel. Unfortunately it
also happened to be raining. This is problem you might run into if you
leave Poipet late in the day.
Be aware that the mini-buses or pickups will NOT leave Poipet until they
are full - and by full this means every available seat in the bus is
filled, including the uncomfortable pull out seats which effectively fill
up all the aisles. This may mean you might have to wait for an hour or
longer until the driver can find more tourists. If somehow you make it
across the border to Poipet without having been finagled into
transportation on the Thai side of the border, be sure to check out your
seating arrangements before you commit to transportation.
It will take about 45 to 60 minutes to cross the border. You have to pass
through several small buildings, first the Thai customs and then the
Cambodian customs - getting stamps and filling out forms as you
go...typical border paperwork. The cost of a visa is $20 to enter Cambodia
- you can either get this before your trip by mail if you have a Cambodian
embassy in your country, or you can get this at the border. If you decide
to purchase your Visa at the border be sure you bring 1 or 2 small
passport size photos with you, otherwise you will be charged an additional
amount (around 200 baht) (a photo of yourself is required for the
Cambodian Visa). If you don't have a photo, you have to pay for one, but
in my experience they do not take a photo of you, they just pocket the
extra money. The Cambodian visa takes up an entire page in your passport.
The road to Siem Reap from the border seemingly starts out ok - mostly
paved - just a few potholes which the driver can easily avoid - but then
it goes from ok to unbelievably bad. Quickly it goes from pavement to dirt
with many large potholes - if its the rainy season you might even have to
drive partially out into the fields to get around flooded sections or
particular bad potholes and holes in the road. In the dry season the
layers of dust are everywhere and after driving this route you will be
looking a little dusty. By bus this road is
excruciatingly slow. The total distance from Poipet to Siem Reap is only
152km. The bus I was on took over 7 hours to cover this distance
(including 2 rest stops for bathroom use and snacks). This was voted the
2nd worst road in all of Cambodia by readers of Lonely Planet. Humor comes
in handy during the particularly bad sections of this road. When you hit a
nasty pothole and you and everyone else on the bus goes flying into the
air, the situation becomes almost funny, and you wonder if potholes can
get any worse!
Many of the buses are in very bad shape - you might even be sitting on
springs where the cushion used to be or on hard seats. Some buses have
cushions. For this ride you definitely want a seat that has some padding
on top of it.
You can take a truck/pickup to Siem Reap in which you will be seated on
benches in the back of the truck. This is a bumpy ride to be sure - its
probably faster than a bus but if it rains it can get quite miserable. The
truck driver should have a tarp that he can give you to put over yourself,
but this only helps so much. During the rainy season, especially if you
are traveling this road in the late afternoon or night you might want to
consider taking a bus instead of a truck.
By Plane
- Flights are available to the international airport at Siem Reap from
most major SE Asian cities. Aside from the higher cost the great advantage
to this is you avoid the terrible Cambodian roads and you will save
yourself alot of time. One way flights from the Siem Reap Airport to
Bangkok run about $145. Some of the guest houses and or travel agencies in
Siem Reap can arrange airfare for you. Photos of the Siem Reap airport are
available here: www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~ito-nori/rep/rep100.html
In & Around Town
As of press time it is currently forbidden to rent motorbikes to tourists for use outside
the main part of Siem Reap. The main reason for this is that there are
still too many unexploded land mines and its not good to have tourists
accidentally running over these. Many areas around Siem Reap have still
not been cleared of Land Mines.
If you rent a motorbike you will be driven by a driver. A motorbike rental
is about $7/day. Tuk Tuks are another option - these run about $8 day for
unlimited use - driver included. You can also rent regular bicycles.
