May 31: Travel Day, Bangkok to Siem Reap

Wow...Cambodia is so different than Laos. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Up at the ungodly hour of 4:45 this morning to pack and make a 5:55 train to Aranyaprathet, on the Thailand-Cambodia border. Bought a third class ticket for 48 baht, or about $1.25, and upgraded to second class on board for another 63 baht, bringing my ticket price for a 5.5 hour journey to something like $2.50. The train was comfortable, and better than the air conditioned train I had taken the day before. With the fans running and all the windows open, it was actually quite cool inside.

An ambitious tuk tuk driver in Aranyaprathet started running beside my window and negotiating with me even before the train stopped, so I hopped in his tuk tuk for the 6 km trip to the border. He picked up a guy in a kind of brown shirt on the way. I had read about these guys, though I'm not clear on who they work for. His job seemed to be to shepherd my through the process, but frankly, even though the the border is a chaotic mess compared to the border we crossed into Laos, I really didn't need the help, as it's really a very straightforward process to get out of Thailand and into Cambodia. Bought a visa on the border for 1000 baht, which is actually more than the official price of $20, but the guys in the visa section will issue a 1000 baht visa in two or three minutes, but often sit on the $20 visas for hours. It's only five bucks, I reasoned, and while I knew I was making it harder for future travelers, I didn't really want to hang out on the border for two hours, either.

In literally two minutes, I had my visa and was on my way to the checkpoint, where I was quickly stamped into Cambodia then put on a free shuttle bus to the transportation depot. Once there, the guy who had been escorting me tried to sell me a bus ticket (maybe that's his angle?), but I got in a $50 taxi with two Americans and a Korean instead. The bus wasn't leaving for more than 90 minutes, and the $12.50 I paid for my share of the taxi had been planned for in my budget. I was in Siem Reap by 4:30, or just over 10.5 hours, which is considered good for this trip.

While the visa and entry process was easy, Poipet is a stinking, rotting mess and not a good introduction to Cambodia. Neither, for that matter, is National Highway 6, which is in pretty good shape right now, but deteriorates badly in the rainy season. Still, imagine a gravel road after a rough winter, then multiply that by 150 km, and you'll have an idea of the trip. There's a picture of the road, in last year's rainy season, here.

Arriving in Siem Reap, the contrast between the poverty seen on the road here and the huge new hotels being built is stark. Siem Reap seems to be on the expensive side, due to the many well-heeled tourists who are visiting Angkor Wat.