Wallenda Posted March 19, 2008 Report Share Posted March 19, 2008 If you take the bus from BKK to Siem Reap, make sure to get a hotel that has internet so you will easily be able to book your flight back, which you surely will want to do after that trip from hell. One thing to keep in mind: the guy at Tales of Asia has a guesthouse in Siem Reap and goes back and forth to Bangkok a few times a year at least. When he says the road is good now, it means it's better than when you used to have to get out of the pickup truck and help push waist-deep in mud. Compared to any road in your country, or in Thailand even, that road is unbelievably horrible. You were warned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robaus Posted March 20, 2008 Report Share Posted March 20, 2008 After midnight landing, try Mr T taxi service. He'll meet you at the airport. 1000 baht to Pattaya, plus I give him a 100 baht tip. Do archive search in transport section. 1. Unless you have a keen interest in archaeology and ancient Khmer culture, a one day ticket (can use from 4:30 pm the day before) and a good motorbike taxi/tuk tuk driver is enough to see the main temples. 2. Lots of cheap GH along Soi Bukhao, Pattaya. The Sawasdee Seaview is in a handy spot between 2 regular baht taxi routes(Beach Rd and 2nd Rd), but stairs to climb if on 4th floor. Recommended Gogo bars: For lots of pretty (but pricey??) girls: Happy, Peppermint For friendliness: Sisterz For sheer filth: Whatâ??s Up, Windmill, Baby Dolls, Lollipop, X-Zone 3. For island try Koh Chang on your way into Cambodia. 4. Get an evisa for Cambodia. At current exchange rates, it beats the hassles of immigration mafia at land border crossings, who ask for anything from 1000 -1200 baht for visa. If flying to PP, then you need a $20 note, but may have to queue. Up2u. As others above have suggested, the quickest/easiest way is Air Asia BKK to PP. Then 5 hour VIP bus to Siem Reap. The boat upriver interesting too, but doesnâ??t always run if river low. Wear lots of sun cream or youâ??ll fry. But if, as I do, you prefer scenery to clouds, do a search on the LP Thorn Tree forum South-East Asia Mainland. Try keywords scam Poipet and scam Koh Kong. Lots of good info and travel tips. My recommendation: do the Cambodia trip in an anti clockwise direction Pattaya>Trat[side trip Koh Chang]>Koh Kong>[ side trip Sihanoukville]>Phnom Penh>Siem Reap>Poipet>BKK to avoid the taxi mafia hassles in Poipet. Heed the advice of Gorshar ?, the GH owner in SR, on how to beat the touts in Poipet, if you go that way. Donâ??t take the scam bus! My route: Be at junction of Pattaya Klang (Central Rd) and Sukhumvit Rd by 6am. The locals will point you in the direction of the direct Trat bus that passes by any time soon. Sometimes full of students, but they all get off 10 minutes down the road. If you miss it, you can bus hop to Trat via Rayong and Chanthaburi. [optional side trip to Koh Chang]. Continue on minibus to Hat Lek/Koh Kong border from same Trat bus station where you arrive from Pattaya. You could be sitting in Koh Kong by 12:30 downing a cold beer. Mr Motoâ??s is not bad value, run by a wild kiwi Douglas ... only swimming pool in town. If the new road and bridges are completed now, itâ??ll be a quick ride on to PP from KK. Otherwise, have a night in KK, a wild west border town with a small p4p scene. Then take a very scenic run through the Cardomon Hills crossing 4 rivers by ferry to PP. 5 hours from PP to SR. After Angkor, taxi to Poipet. In taking this anti clockwise way the Poipet taxi mafia have now lost their ace card (your desire to get to SR same day, rather than have to spend the night in shithole Poipet â?? although I find a certain fascination in such Sleazevilles; I actually enjoyed a night there once :hubba:). Cross border yourself, tuk tuk or motorbike to Aranyaprathet, and youâ??re back onto good Thai roads in time for a night out in BKK. Good luck, mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night_Rider Posted March 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2008 Thank you. You really came through. I'll enter all this info in my Touch tomorrow between flights and post back on my experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dddave Posted March 20, 2008 Report Share Posted March 20, 2008 [quote name=robaus You could be sitting in Koh Kong by 12:30 downing a cold beer. Mr Motoâ??s is not bad value' date=' run by a wild kiwi Douglas ... only swimming pool in town.]/quote Last fall, a friend reported MOTO BAR's pool drained with Doug claiming he was finished with it. While some of the new road's bridges are finished, one of them was reportedly just started so at least one raft ride awaits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robaus Posted March 21, 2008 Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 ddave, Thanks for the update. Poor old Douglas. I've had several afternoon and night wild drinking sessions with him. He had the right idea when he started up about 4/5 years ago.. a farang friendly bar/GH in a natural stopover town, where travellers often had to break their journey, making a visa run from Pattaya a bit more user friendly. But he was sometimes less than diplomatic when dealing with the locals. Last time I was there, a year ago, a business partner had bought a share. The new bloke seemed to be a bit more savvy in his dealings than Douglas. Maybe Night_Rider will post any latest news if he passes through KK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night_Rider Posted March 23, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2008 Well the 12:30 idea was on the nose for getting to Siem Reap. Plane landed at 12:05 and I was in my guesthouse 12 hours later. I gave serious consideration to Robaus endorsement of Air Asia to Penom Penh and a bus from there. When I was sitting in the airport I found an open Wi-Fi spot and hit their website but they had no information about flights in the next 24 hours advising only that you call. That meant overnighting in Bangkok and arranging onward travel. I chose the overland option and took a taxi to Mor Chit bus terminal and waited about an hour for the bus to Aranya Prathit. I really lucked out in as much as the first bus was 3:30 and I thought 5:30. For 215Baht I got about three hours of sleep and was at the border at 7:30. I avoided a scam for a tuk tuk to the boarder who wanted 150 baht and avoided him dropping me off at the visa vendors. But then I screwed up. I'd read Tales of Asia about the Visa scam but a tout stood in front of the window pointing out that I didn't have photo. ToA said 100B would fix that but he wanted 1100B and I handed it over right under the sign that said US 20 for visa. I even offered him $20 and 100B. I was ready I can only attribute it to jetlag. I split a $45 Camry taxi to Siem Reap but they tried to play it again by stopping off for currency exchange at 1000 riel to the dollar and tried to stop at the tuk tuks outside Siem Reap to be driven god knows where. Got past those scams. My part was $15. Should have used the yellow shirt mafia at Poi Pet. They're supposed to be more reliable. My god that is not a road to Siem Reap. I'll give kudos to our driver. He didn't hit the potholes and much as just tough their rims. He was moving hard. I don't know how long that Camry will here but it gave it's all to get us to Siem Reap. You'd think that road saw five years of Allied bombing rather than a bit of rain. So I arrived at my guesthoust from the international airport at 12:30 the next for a cost of $695B and $15. I'd likely have had to leave Sunday with Air Asia and I was already touring Angkor Wat then. I priced those aircon buses to Penom Penh and they run $5. Air Asia was 699B + tax so I well may do that to return to LOS and Pattaya. I think it's strictly a short stay here as I can find no P4P and I'm anxious to hit Pattaya. I think I've settled on Honey Lodge as home unless anyone has had a bad experience. Angkor is really a couple days I'd say. It's just massive and the individual temples really do have character of their own. I'm beat from today's walking but I think I"m going to give it one more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night_Rider Posted March 23, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2008 BKK airport to Pattaya around 5PM? Is the express bus to Sukhumvit then aircon to Pattaya the best/cheapest option? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallenda Posted March 23, 2008 Report Share Posted March 23, 2008 Just curious, what were return flights from BKK to Siem Reap going for? It's a shame they gouge on that route. The choice would be a no-brainer if it cost the same as BKK to PP, or even slightly more. I did that road from Siem Reap to Poipet once -- never again. Gordon at 2 Dragons/TOA was telling me it's good now (at the time), that he did it all the time. Shortly after hearing this, I found out the truth was very much otherwise. Just imagine how bad it USED TO be, if Gordon thinks it's good now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wonderlust Posted March 23, 2008 Report Share Posted March 23, 2008 There's a public airport bus that goes directly to Pattaya but most people recommend the Bell Travel Service which will take you from the airport to your hotel for only 150 baht. They don't have a website but their email address is rrc_bus@hotmail.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robaus Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 Thanks for the update, Night_Rider. Glad you managed to avoid some of the scams. I recall an Air Asia office at the airport (or was that at the old Don Muang??) where you could possibly have bought a ticket on the spot for that day's flight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.