Cambodia Holiday – Journey to Siem Reap

Having pondered for a while, we decided that we would make the journey to Siem Reap after all. Having spent USD $20 on the entry Visa, we noted that it would become an expensive trip to come back just to see Siem Reap and the surrounding areas. So we might as well squeeze the visit in during this trip 🙂

We investigated that a bus ride would only cost USD $6 for a single journey, per person, or USD $9 for a return journey, per person, and that it would take 6 hours each-way, we decided to go with the return journey as the very least we knew we had something sorted before we arrived. I think it could be 12 hours well spent, if we managed to utilise the time wisely (make something good from a bad situation). We decided to take the the 15:15 bus, and we would be picked up from our hotel at Phnom Pehn (which is an added bonus) to the Central Bus Station (which we didn’t realise was just down the road from our hotel). Our hotel had booked us a stay at their Sister Hotel in Siem Reap, Angkor Saphire Hotel, and also arranged a Moto Tuk Tuk pick-up from the bus arrival point to the Hotel. The hotel’s supporting service was excellent! So we had the end-to-end journey sorted to Siem Reap! Marvellous!

On the way up, the road became a bit bumpy, which was pretty strange as the roads were generally in good nick in and around Phnom Penh. I think the coach must have picked up a puncture, as the driver started driving very slowly and carefully and making frequent stops at what appeared to be odd-job / tyre repair stalls along the way (we must be losing time on our journey).

We eventually stopped off at one just outside another town we passed, and it took another 20 mins or so for the coach to be jacked-up, and the tyre replaced with the spare. It was an interesting sight to watch, and hats off to the driver for the task in hand, I didn’t realise the responsibilities of the driver was this significant! So we continued along our way, probably about 50 minutes behind schedule now.

The bus stopped about 1hr 30mins away from Siem Reap, and it appeared to be a pit-stop (food) break. We purchased a couple of rice and stir fry dishes, and it was actually very tasty, and for USD $4 each, it was a pretty good sized portion.

The landscape was quite interesting, with a plentiful supply of rice-paddy fields on the extremely flat lands.

We eventually made it to the hotel, and the first we did was SLEEP! Well we knew we had a very busy day ahead of us!! 🙂