In preparation for our long-awaited trip to Cambodia, we researched all the travel options from Bangkok, Thailand to Siem Reap, Cambodia. There are many ways to make the trip, from a short flight into Siem Reap airport, to a train to the border then onward via bus or taxi, to taking buses the whole way.
Each of those has pros and cons. There are no shortage of travel story horrors about each land method, and flights were not at all cheap. Whether derailing trains that only go to the border, to the border scams, and the Khao San Rd. buses that abandon you at the border instead of waiting on the other side to take you the next 2 hours into town.
We decided on the bus system as both reasonably priced and simple. Of the variety of buses heading there and back, we found that there is a new bus managed by the Thai government that goes direct all the way to Siem Reap. One bus from the time you get on at MoChit terminal to the final destination in Siem Reap proper. No switching buses, no nonsense of being left at the border or questionable people in your business, and most of the scammy type stops bypassed.
I’ll walk you through each leg of the trip as it went for us. When researching this trip, I heard rumors of this new bus, but there was very little information on it out there. Most mentions of bus trips from Bangkok to Siem Reap on the internet and various travel forums reference the Khao San buses. So I wanted to get this out there to add to the news of the newer bus route. This way was perfect, and could not have gone any better.
One of the main concerns aside from reliable transportation from Bangkok to Siem Reap is the border issues at Poipet. This border has a reputation of being one of the seediest in all of Southeast Asia. If you read too much on the internet preparing for this trip, you’ll scare yourself away from even doing the trip at all, with all the horrors you imagine lying in wait for you at this crossing.
While that wasn’t my experience, and we were only approached by a single child begging through the whole process, that may also have to do with the particular bus trip we took, as I’ll get to later.
Preparations and Research: e-Visa and Bus Ticket
The issue of bribes and fake border stations in and around Poipet is one of the bigger concerns here, and much of it can be bypassed altogether with a Cambodian e-Visa (Be careful with fake sites. This link is the only official government site.)
The official border entry fee is $20 US at the border, but anyone who has been here knows it is $20 US + 100 Thai Baht, according to the handwritten signs the border officers show you. Many will tell you to object and point at the actual wall sign that says it’s $20 US, but since most people tend to just pay the extra 100 Baht, they keep doing it.
That’s if you even make it to the actual Visa checkpoint, and haven’t fallen prey to the many “Official” Visa services all over Aranyaphathet that charge double the actual $20 fee or more.
The Cambodian e-Visa helps alleviate many of these concerns. You get your visa ahead of time after applying online. It took us a day to have pdf files of our approved e-Visas to print and cut out to show at the border. Not only does this do away with the worry about any issues that might come up with being allowed entry, but it basically renders 99% of the border visa scams impotent. If you already have a visa, you don’t need one from the several official-looking people otherwise insisting that you do.
Another nice thing about the e-Visa is that you print it out yourself, so they don’t need to waste an entire page of your passport with a page-sized visa sticker. Very nice if you’re crossing a lot of borders on your travels and running low on space.
They staple the copy onto a page and stamp a small square like any other entry stamp.
So while the e-Visa is $25, you are paying for this convenience. It may or may not be worth it to you. As our first crossing, it was worth the extra 5 bucks for the extra peace of mind alone.
The next preparation for this trip was for our transportation. I actually was getting quite confused about the bus from Bangkok to Siem Reap, as everything I could find on the internet was in reference to the standard Khao San Rd bus companies, and every single one of those said to stay way the hell away from those. Everything from getting left at the border with no bus waiting on the other side to sneaky luggage ninjas sifting through your bags in the luggage bays and stops at 10 different places to grift some business out of it’s customers or “breakdowns” occurring at the same restaurant each trip.
None of these stories sounded fun at all, and the unanimous consensus was to avoid them at all costs.
So when friends told me to check the “new bus” making this trip, I wasn’t sure what they meant. It took a bit of digging to find the one they were talking about, and why I wanted to add to the links to make this trip more widely known. There are already a few helpful write-ups here and here that made my life easier once I found them, but I wanted to add to the news about this bus service, because frankly it was a pain in the ass to find much current info out there aside from those 2 great write-ups.
The new service had been long-rumored around here. That the Thai authorities growing weary of the same stories I was reading online that there was no actual safe transportation to Siem Reap from Bangkok. It appears it was started and stopped at least once before, but I can’t really speak much on the history. I appears it was officially launched in Feb 2013.
We were able to buy tickets online at Thai Ticket Major after finding more info and deciding it was a legit ticket office. We could have picked up our tickets the morning of at the bus station or at any of their locations ahead of time. Since I wasn’t too sure about all the new places we’d be going that morning, I went ahead and picked them up when I was there to see a movie already (the office is next to the movie theater, though there are many others). They had my order, and printed out tickets for us.
You should see something like this if there are seats available. This is the trip you want.
Ordering was simply a matter of picking the date and destination in the form. Coming from BKK/All as the departure and selecting “Siemreapt / Sa Kaeo” as the destination. The bus leaves daily at 9am, and will show you only one option if there are any seat available on the day you selected. The 750 Baht price is the same for any day.
Now that we had our Cambodian Visa and bus tickets that took us all the way to Siem Reap in hand, all we needed to do was show up the morning of, and get on the bus when they said it was time!
Bus Station at Mo Chit
It seems every time I’m around Chatuchak park, someone is lost and looking for the bus station. It’s not really near the BTS and MRT stations there, but it’s on the other side of the parks to the Northwest. Mo Chit BTS station and Chatuchak MRT stations are next to one another by the park, so either train is fine to get there.
Any taxi in that area can get you to the terminal. Just say “Morchit Mai?” or show them a photo of the building and they will take you there. There’s probably a better way to say it, but my Thai is terrible.
Once at the station, you don’t need to go to the ticketing windows if you did what I did, but if you still need to pick up tickets, you’ll go to the correct window to get them as instructed on your ticket receipt or here on their map link. It should say “The Transport Co. Ltd.” at the window.
Once you have your ticket you can do whatever you need to do before you leave. There is at least one 7-11 and several other vendors in the station, so you’ll have everything you forgot to bring or eat that early in the morning.
Your bus will meet you at platform 106 on the ground floor, and is easy to find.
A lady came around and checked tickets and marked our bags as we waited.
Once the bus was ready, they told us to get on. Ours was full that day, so we were glad we bought the tickets ahead of time. Pro tip: Seats C9 and D9 recline further and nobody is behind you. We were told ahead of time, and picked them. Best seats on the bus!
The bus itself was nice. They fed us a light snack and gave us water. After a couple of hours, we stopped for a smoke break at a gas station complex. The restroom on the bus is fine, but it’s easier to use one that isn’t bouncing down a Thai road.
Closer to the border, there was a short stop at a military checkpoint. A soldier got on and looked for Burmese stowaways according to the “Royal Thai Army Burma Task Force” sign. It took 30 seconds or so. The only other stop was a brief stop to resupply the bus with snacks and water. No untoward sales pitches or anything up to this point.
Border Crossings Shenanigans
Once in Aranyapathet, they did stop at a shady border stop to get suckers to do their visas. We already had our e-Visa, of course. We told a few passengers that this was not an official visa place, but those who didn’t know and bought the service here paid 1200 Baht for their Cambodian Visas (about $38 US).
The building was a block from the actual border, literally on the other side of the wall of their property, and the runners from this place just ran a scooter to the same place we’d be going next to get passports stamped, then returned from the other side of the wall.
Those of us who knew what was up just waited on the bus or got out to stretch legs. They didn’t like pictures taken inside the building. You can grab an arrival/departure card for Cambodia from them to fill out on the bus while you wait. This is the basic entry/exit form that most countries need when crossing their border (you should have the departure form from Thailand in your passport already when you entered).
After the runner got back with everyone else’s passports, the bus started up and went around the wall to the border to drop us off.
We were given neck badges so they knew how to find us in the chaos. There was not a lot of instruction from the bus people as to what to do, and several confused passengers asked me for help at different stages.
Stamp out of Thailand
We got funneled through to stamp out of Thailand. Get into the line for either Thai or foreigner passports, and it curves around the left side of the road into the building shown in the photos below. We got an extra line just for us with the neck badge people, so that went quick. No photos in here! Lots of signs say so.
Once out of the Thai exit checkpoint, you’re basically into the no-man’s land of debauchery that is the border area of Poipet. You can get into many casinos there for the several blocks between checking out of Thailand and before you ever get to a spot to officially enter Cambodia. All you need to do is walk over the bridge on the left side like in the photos. If you still need a visa, the real building is the small tan building next to the Khmer-style decoration over the road, on the right side. Photos in the section below for reference.
It was here that one begging kid approached us, and we were quick to shut that down. There were a few others milling about, but they seemed to ignore us when they saw our badges. I could be putting too much on that, but I got that impression from about a dozen people in this area: don’t mess with the people with the badges. Not because we are better or something, but because we already have transportation all the way to Siem Reap, so there are fewer scams to run on us.
Find Visa for Cambodia if still needed (Skip if e-Visa or you paid a tour office for one already)
The actual Cambodian visa office is here in this photo. If you need a visa for Cambodia, didn’t get an e-Visa, and made it past all the fake official visa offices, this is where you need to stop to get a Cambodian visa. It’s the only official place to get one at the Poipet border, and the only place you actually need to go if you made it this far without a visa. You won’t be able to enter the country at the next stop without one.
We waited with a few people who listened to us at the fake spot, and they got their visa here after filling out the quick form and paying the fee and bribe ($20 US + 100Baht). It took them about 10 minutes total. The official told me to just go up the road when I told him I had an e-Visa. He could do nothing for me there, and I needed nothing from him. The e-Visa bypasses this office and line. “GO DOWN STREET!” he begrudgingly told me without a way to get my extra money.
Stamp entry into Cambodia
This is where you need to go to officially enter the Kingdom of Cambodia. Walk further up the road on the right side of the street. It was further than I thought. Not that it was a difficult walk, but just that there were so many casinos and places to go in between that it was ridiculously insecure as a border. We did see our bus waiting by the side of the road in this area, and our driver waved us forward to the border station ahead.
We finally entered the cramped room to get stamped into Cambodia. There were 4 windows to get stamped. We waited to get stamped in with the others. The line moved reasonably fast, and we were probably there waiting for another 15 minutes at the most. I’m sure different days would make for different wait times.
The procedure is smile for the official, hand them your passport with Visa and completed arrival/departure card, and wait for them to scrutinize it while you stand there smiling and friendly. When directed, they’ll have you look into the camera for a photo, then direct you to use the scanner for fingerprinting. First the 4 closed fingers of your right hand, then right thumb, then repeat the process for the left hand.
Get Back on the Bus
Once stamped in and walking out the door, we just walked back the way we just came to where the bus was waiting for us. We got into the same seats we’d had since we left Bangkok, and settled in for the rest of the trip as the driver pushed forward and into Cambodia! You’ll see hordes of tuktuk drivers and other touts waiting for people to come through the gates into the country, but you’ll be passing by on the bus.
The remainder of the trip was uneventful. The countryside was beautiful. We had more food and water, and didn’t make any stops until we were pulling in front of a travel agency in Siem Reap.
We’d made a reservation with the wonderful Seven Candles Guesthouse that was recommended to us by our friend Iris (who we met at a wonderful guesthouse in Vientiane, Laos months ago). That place deserves a whole post in and of itself, so here’s a link to my review on TripAdvisor.
Seven Candles had a tuktuk driver waiting for us where the bus dropped us off at the Nattakan Cambodia Co. Ltd., just north of Pub Street in Siem Reap. The address is 22 Sivatha Road, if you want to let your guesthouse know where to pick you up. We arrived sometime between 4-5pm.
Once I saw the guy holding up a sign with my name on it, I knew we were good. The bus people immediately take your luggage out of the bays and carry it into the office, so you’re forced to walk through the throngs of tuktuk drivers determined to get you to wherever you’re going.
If you have a reservation, your hotel or guesthouse will pick you up free of charge, so don’t be shy about asking. Otherwise pick a guy and see which guest house he works for. He’ll be happy to get you there!
I’ll add a series of Cambodia bus posts here. This one is long enough as it is. But we had a great experience both from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh and back from Phnom Penh to Bangkok on different companies.
Just a small taste of the magical scenery looking out the window of your bus bounding down the road through rural Cambodia.
Direct Bus from Bangkok to Siem Reap – The NEW Bus Route is a post from: Live Collar Free