Bangkok Air mail
The trip between Bangkok and Siem Reap should be relatively easy. After all, it is stronger than 400 kg. An hour by airplane should be easy and very cheap on the continent boasting cheap air travel. Think again. Bangkok Airways seems to dominate here, the price is very high for such a short trip. At the time of writing, when checking the flight two weeks before the trip, the return value of about 17,000 THB will be displayed. I am sorry, but for an hour flight the amount beyond $ 500 is exempted.
Drive
In the case of a holiday, this is not an option. Car rental companies will not allow their cars to leave Thailand and enter Cambodia. Because business processing becomes a nightmare, even borrowing a friend's car is very difficult. It is possible with my car, but documentation is not easy. Make sure that you have all your ownership documents with you and prepare to be messed up for several hours, perhaps before being refused. Some people drive to Aranyapraphet and leave a car there and take a taxi but I will not do it.
Bus travel
The choice to fly is to get on the bus. The fare seems to be cheap enough, it is easy to get a one-way bus ticket of 900 THB in any booking from a travel agency in Bangkok, this can be upgraded on the Cambodian border to complete a trip by a taxi . The bus leaves from Bangkok at 7.30 AM and if the luck is good the driver may know Bangkok enough to find the highway, but we were not! I thought that he was looking for a hotel for further pickups, I kept silent as he stumbled across the highway exit while going around for more than an hour. He stopped twice on the way to refuel. These mini-buses run with liquid gas, and for some reason it took 15 minutes to refill the tank each time.
When you reach the border, they do a cute little scam. They stop at the store you are told that you have to fill out a visa form. Then they will try to make you pay 1300 THB for your visa. Please do not take in this. We politely refuse to say you pay at the border. Doing so will save you about 700 THB.
The borders are honest disasters. It involves 300 yards from bus to Thai immigrants, walking 300 yards across dirty and picky immigrants to immigrants in Cambodia, and then going to another 300 buses therefrom. At this point I pointed out that I wanted to pay a higher grade and take a taxi. We were waiting for the man to find two more travel companions to fill the taxi. Finally I paid 1200 for taxi and my travel companion a total of 1200, and I had a taxi to myself. It was definitely worth it.
Returning from Siem Reap to Bangkok is much cheaper if you book with Siem Reap. 300 THB seemed like a real bargain, so I decided to take a bus instead of an upgraded taxi. We were gathered by motodop at 7.30 and drove to the town's travel agency. Here, about 70 people backpackers participated before walking to the two buses parking at the corner. The bus was full, but initially it seems perfectly appropriate. I fell asleep with calm. This is totally impossible, mainly due to the fact that the driver sings his horn every 20 seconds for the next 5 hours. He also chooses to stop every hour so that the store can try to sell everything from food to clothing. He arrived at the border at 1 pm stopped the bus 100 yards away from entering the country and was just facing the general direction. We were lucky because we knew a lucky place. I departed to hurry and beat quickly at the beginning of a huge queue. We passed by, picked up and taken by pickup truck to the same store they tried to sell high price visa to us. We ordered some food because we were told that the bus was 45 minutes. It was very tasty, which meant that we missed the first bus we took with the passengers we did not buy food soon.
Several stops later, we arrived at the outskirts of Bangkok and the bus was told that we only stopped at Khao San Road a few miles away from where I wanted. We had to argue with the driver to bring him in near Bang Na so that we could take a taxi. It took more than 11 hours for each door. It is an average speed of 22 miles per hour!
Train trip
From Hualamphong station in Bangkok it is possible to use the train to Aranypraphet 6 Km at about 50 THB from the border but it departs at 5.55 and takes 6 hours. But at the border the train stops and there is no train from Poipetto Siem Reap so you need to acquire tuk tuk to the border itself and overcome a major mistake in immigration and use the other bus or taxi. .
Overview
I think that it is unbelievable in today and in the times that traveling to one of the most desirable destinations in Asia is very difficult. There are many stories through buses that begin within a year. I will not hold my breath. That is not the only way things happen here. The Thai government and the Cambodian government do not talk to each other very much. Anyone who benefits from the monopoly of air travel will not be able to go so easily and the same situation will continue. It was only recently that the way to Siem Reap was sealed. In many ways the easiest way to move between these two cities could be to fly to Phnom Penh This will take an hour and a half, it will cost about US $ 275. Let's use the Mekhong Express bus at about US $ 12 for a comfortable 5-hour trip. This of course gives you a few days' choice in Cambodia's capital
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