While I was traveling through SE Asia, I had made it to Angkor Wat which is located in Siem Reap, Cambodia. These ancient temples are some of the coolest things that I have ever seen. After spending a couple of days in Siem Reap I was starting to run out of time in SE Asia, and needed to make it back to Bangkok, Thailand to catch my flight to Hong Kong. So I went to a local travel agency, and talked to them about my options. I basically had two options to get out of Siem Reap:
- Airplane
- Bus (which I had heard horror stories from other travelers telling me it was the worst ever)
The first option (airplane) is definitely the fastest and most comfortable way to leave Siem Reap, but it is also more expensive. There is only a couple airlines that is fly in and out of Siem Reap, and one of them is Siem Reap Airways. They have 5 daily flights that leave Siem Reap, and go direct to Bangkok. The total of a flight with taxes is $172 US Dollars. (Siem Reap Airways also flies to Hong Kong, Phuket, and Pakse)
The second option is the bus. The bus ticket was only $17 US Dollars. So it was a no brainer that I was going to save myself $155 US dollars by taking the bus even though it was going to take a lot longer. (I was living off $10-15 US Dollars a day, so $155 was a ton of money). So I booked the trip right there in the travel agents office through Neak Krorhorm Travel & Tours Transport.
The bus left downtown Siem Reap at 7am (which is only about 5 blocks long). The bus was sold out which means that I didn't have my own seat, and had to share with somebody. There wasn't even a storage compartment for the bags. Every traveler had to put there bags in the middle of the aisle (which I know that we wouldn't be able to do in the States) so that everybody could have a seat. It was so crowded! This bus was no greyhound bus with your own seat. It was a school bus that had the over sized seats with basically no padding in them.
I was expecting to be able to read a little bit or to sleep most of the way until the boarder crossing into Thailand. Was I wrong! Once we left Siem Reap the road conditions changed dramatically. I don't think that we ever went over 10 mph. The Interstate (country road) had huge pot holes everywhere. Along with the potholes there were other huge ditches cut in the road. The only other place that I have seen roads like this was in Haiti.
Because of the road conditions, the whole bus rocked left and right, and then up and down. Then the bus driver would make sudden stops and you would jerk forward. There was no way in the world I was able to read a book. I couldn't keep a book or my head still long enough to finish reading a sentence. It was impossible to sleep too! I couldn't put my head against the window or the seat in front of me, because if I did my head would be bruised from the bumps in the road.
After 6 hours of going stir crazy in the bus we made it to Aranyaprathet/Poipet, Thailand. I was so excited to get off the bus. My whole body was basically broken from bouncing back and forth. I had to stretch for like 5 minutes. I can honestly say that that stretch of road is one of the worst in the road for a budget traveler! It was almost worth paying the extra $155 US Dollars for the flight!
Once I got off the bus, the boarder crossing was really easy. It took 5 minutes to get through Customs. From there I had to walk about 3 blocks to catch the next bus (that was paid for with the original ticket) into Bangkok! This bus was a greyhound! I had my own seat, a movie was playing, and the A/C was blasting! It was an easy 1.5 hour trip into bangkok! It felt like heaven riding on paved roads! The whole trip took about 8 hours which isn't as long as other bus trips I have been on, but it was definitely one of the hardest mentally to get through!
