We awoke early from our deep slumber packed up our trunks and headed down to our waiting Tuk Tuk. We had booked ‘speedy’ the night before and he was waiting to zoom us to the bus station for our next leg of our journey. We purchased our tickets for the large transport vehicle, commonly called a bus. The vehicle was fairly modern with air con to keep us from over heating. For payment they took pieces of paper off us to the value of 190 baht ($7 aussie money) Tracey had gone in search of food and found some local merchant selling basic boiled egg and rice. While waiting for our transport we meet a couple of innocent young girls traveling to the Kingdom of Cambodia as well. Upon conversing with them they mentioned that they should not pay anymore than 1500 Baht for their visa. Considering the real price is $25 US we realised that they would be prey to all the con artists and scamsters so we took them under our wing. The bus trip was fairly straight forward and hardly any people on the bus. The trip took about 5 or 6 hours with a stop for some basic food. As we were got closer we thought we would have to get off at the bus station but the bus girl told us to stay on and we would get to the border. The bus finally came to a stop in front of the gate to the “Border market”. The bus girl pointed us in that direction and we were off towards the border. Instantly the touts and scamsters pounced. We told the girls to ignore them and headed towards what we thought was the border crossing.
On the way we managed to help the girls get some U.S Dollars and a cashed out what we could ourselves. We wandered along avoiding the wanna get you a visa guys but realised we were not on the right path. Trace set off to get directions and after telling them we all had visas they were happy to point us in the right direction. We had just missed the right turn a few metres back. Along this part of the road they still have loads of visa agents trying to scam your money, ignore all of them and just keep walking to the crossing. On the Thailand side it was simply a matter of having your paper work and passport reaady for stamping. No problems there. Once out the door we simply walked to the door and it was clearly marked to Cambodian immigration. We had to go through a little office for our health check which involved filling in a form and having a talk to the lady behind the counter about Wagga. Once through there we waited for the girls to get their Visa. They had no problem $25 U.S and a 15 minute wait. While waiting for them we went to the duty free zone and grabbed a bottle of Vodka. (We discovered later you could buy it cheaper at the mini-mart). Once the girls had their Visa we headed across a big area that had the duty free shops and a Casino. You have to walk to a little office on the right hand side and fill in another form and wait in line to get your passport stamped. You have to bare in mind that their offices don’t look like anything you would find in Australia. No real problem just had to wait your turn. Once out the other side you have to fend off the guys trying to put you on the free bus that takes you to the middle of nowhere and taxi touts after their commission.
We battled our way through and found a guy who owned the car and negotiated $30 USD. This seemed to be a good rate as we had read a lot of people were paying $40 USD. We shared with the girls so it was a good way to go if you can share the cost. As it’s about and hour and a half in the taxi. Surprisingly Cambodia is really flat and there is not much between the border and Siam Reap. Make sure the taxi takes you to your motel and don’t pay in advance so you get to your motel. Our guy was ok with only a stop for gas and another stop for a beer as we mentioned we would like to try the local brew and he seized on that opportunity. When we got to town he did not know where to go but we made him drive around until we found it. We split the cost with girls and bid them farewell. A Tuk-Tuk driver pulled up to see if we needed a lift to a nice motel for only $15 US with pool. We said no thanks as we were ok. We headed to the motel that we were going to catch up with some people that we had meet in Laos but all of a sudden they had no cheap rooms left only deluxe at twice the price. No thanks. We hailed the Tuk-Tuk driver and he took us to the Tanei Guesthouse to check it out. Well it was basically brand new nice room with fridge and good bathroom and a pool. When we said yes they tried to charge $20 USD but Trace waved to The Tuk-Tuk driver and yep we got it for $15 USD. He probably gets a commission but he didn’t charge us for the lift there and it was a great room. We booked ‘Mr Wait’ (Wait Luosa) the Tuk-Tuk driver for our temple tour. Then we simply hit the pool and had some spring rolls and hung around after our day of border crossing we just needed to chill out.
Tanei Guesthouse, #017, Steung Thmey Village, Svaydangkum Commune, Siem Reap Province, Kingdom of Cambodia Ph: 855-92-865-150/ 855-12-757-867/ 855-63-966-545(USD15 Aircon, Hot Water, Wi-Fi, Pool and Very clean – excellent place to stay just a couple of streets back off the main road!)
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