The Quest to Cambodia

I planned my trip from Bangkok to Phnom Penh in such a way that it wouldn’t be any hassle or stress (last time I went there by train and taxi, which was rather a hassle).  I bought an e-Visa on the official government website and also booked my bus ticket in advance on 12go.asia - the only disadvantage was that the direct bus would leave Bangkok Mo Chit Bus Terminal at 5 am in the morning.  So at 3 am I got up, took a shower, made sure everything was packed and checked out so that at 3.45 am I was in a taxi on my way to Mo Chit.  Arriving there only 15 minutes later, I made my way to the ticketing counter of the International Transport Co.  I had to exchange my voucher for an actual ticket.  This went very quick and at 4.10 am I was waiting for the bus at bus platform 106.  At 5 am I got a bit worried as the bus wasn’t there yet, but staff reassured me that it was bound to come any moment now.

My bus ticket from Bangkok to Phnom Penh

The bus which should have brought me from Bangkok to Phnom Penh

Indeed, a few minutes late the bus arrived, all passengers boarded and the first leg of the trip to the border at Poi Pet started.  Underway the bus made several stops to pick up goods that needed to be transported to Cambodia.  They even loaded big car parts (a motor hood for example) and placed them in the bus together with the passengers.  It was very calm in the bus though, I think there was a total of maybe 10 passengers on board.  Arriving at the border a tout came up to me and immediately wanted to grasp my passport.  I asked him what he was up to and he said he only wanted to check if I had a valid visa.  I knew he was trying to scam me, but I was curious what he would say as soon as he noticed I actually already had a visa.  Of course he wanted to scam me for 20 USD and he said my visa was okay, but still needed “an official stamp”.  I told him straight in his face that he was a big liar and that he should stop trying to scam innocent tourists.  I grasped my passport and walked to the border post.

Crossing the border goes in fact quite fast, as long as you know exactly what you have to do.  First step is Thai exit checks: Foreign passports on the first floor, Thai passports on the ground floor.  They stamp your passport to confirm you’re leaving the country, just like they would do at the airport.  Next step is to walk across the bridge into Cambodia.  There are also some official-looking touts waiting to scam you, just ignore them and go to the first building on the right side of the road (so cross the road as you’ll be entering the country at the left-hand side of the road).  The first building is where you can buy a visa, the fee is 30 USD and you’ll need a passport-sized photo.  If you already bought an e-Visa, you can skip this step and go directly to the Cambodian Immigration which is along the road behind the big casino, also on the right hand side of the street.  Enter the building, fill out a small arrival/departure card and walk up to one of the officials there.  They will scan your fingerprints and stamp your visa and passport.  The entire process from Thailand into Cambodia only took me 15 minutes.

Toilets during 'pee-breaks'

I was now officially in Cambodia and free to move around.  My direct bus was waiting for me just opposite the casino (I passed it already to go get my passport stamp) and I could board it another 15 minutes later at 10 am.  Surprisingly I was the first passenger boarding the bus.  And even more surprisingly, the driver started driving toward Phnom Penh before anybody else boarded the bus.  Apparently I was the only passenger going to Phnom Penh, all the others just needed to go to Poi Pet.  After departure in Poi Pet I received a small meal (fried rice with shrimps - the kind they sell at 7-eleven) included in my bus ticket.  The bus continued slowly on a bad road through dense Cambodian traffic.  As soon as we left Poi Pet, there was jungle on my left… and jungle on my right with big sugar palms sticking their heads out above all other vegetation.  And there was also an abandoned railway which was currently being renovated for future use.  I even saw that contrary to the last time I was there, they constructed a railway line going all the way down passing the border posts into Thailand, effectively connecting Aranyaprathet in Thailand with Poi Pet in Cambodia by rail.  On the road to Phnom Penh, I noticed that there were still some parts of the line missing and being constructed.

Cambodia is clearly poorer than Thailand.  Shaky wooden houses are build on concrete or wooden poles to create distance between the ground and the house to avoid flooding during the raining season.  Roads are mostly just made out of dirt and the few asphalted roads are in bad condition.  The asphalted roads are in fact the highways, but they just have one lane in each direction, so nothing near a decent highway.  The roads are also in a very bad shape and irregular roadworks are going on everywhere.  The road to Phnom Penh goes all the way around the Tonlé Sap lake and sometimes you get some nice views of it.  The huge Tonlé Sap lake is located at the middle of Cambodia and during rain season covers a surface of up to 16000 m² (almost 9% of Cambodia’s total surface), whereas outside of the raining season it can go down to a surface of only 2700 m² (less than 1,5% of the total Cambodian surface).  During raining season water actually doesn’t leave the lake, but only runs down into it.  Normally the Tonlé Sap river floods into the Mekong, but during raining season the Mekong river is so full that water from the Mekong actually flows into the Tonlé Sap river down to the Tonlé Sap lake, where it cannot flow away.

The interior of the broken-down bus

When we got to the city of Battambang at noon, the bus driver told me I had to change to another bus as something was technically wrong with the air-conditioning of the bus I was traveling on.  I actually didn’t notice anything being wrong with it, but I presume as I was the only passengers they decided to make me travel in an other bus to save on diesel.  After almost an hour of waiting in Battambang, I boarded the other bus and I saw how they loaded all packages from Thailand in the cargo hold of the other bus.  This bus was almost full and made stops at every small village on the road to make people/packages get on and off the bus.  At a certain point they also stopped to have a guy with a big high-pressure cleaner clean a machine part which was in the cargo hold.

After a very long ride I finally arrived at Phnom Penh at 7 pm, one hour later than promised.  I’m on holiday, so that small delay didn’t really matter.  I continued with a tuk-tuk to my hotel for 3 USD (but at first the driver asked me 15 USD to bring me to my hotel - 15 USD is the price you pay for an entire day of tuk-tuk services, not just for a ride - a ride within the city should always cost between 1 and 5 USD depending on the distance and your negotiating skills).  I was received very friendly at my hotel (TeaHouse Asian Urban Hotel), which seems to be some luxurious back-packer hotel.  The hotel has got good wi-fi, a swimming pool, small breakfast buffet, … the airconditioned rooms are medium-sized with en-suite bathroom and are clean, the bed was soft.

The interior of the restaurant where I had dinner

As soon as I checked in and left my luggage in my room, I went out to find a shop for a sim-card.  It was already 8pm so I was quite afraid everything would be closed.  Luckily for me I found a shop which was still open.  I bought a sim-card for 5 USD (with 5,50 USD free credit) and charged it for another 5 USD (as I had to charge it to activate it).  That way I would be able to easily contact my friend Mark in Siem Reap.  The guy at the shop had a hard time activating the 3G on my telephone though, but after 30 minutes he finally managed to make it work.

I hadn’t had anything to eat after my fried rice with shrimp at 10 am, so I searched the neighbourhood of my hotel for a restaurant.  It was quite dark outside and many things were already closed, but I did find a restaurant which was still open and I had dinner there.  It was called Sleek Chhouk and was rather expensive, but I did have a great meal.  The interior was in a very trendy Cambodian/Asian style with low tables and floor cushions to sit on.  I ordered a Cambodian salad with apples and dried fish as well as sweet and sour fried fruit and vegetables with steamed rice.  Satisfied by this meal (but not really by the bill of 16 USD), I returned to my hotel and ended the day.