Three Countries In Ten Days: Travel From Cambodia To Thailand
After visiting the Royal Palace, I asked our tuk tuk driver if I can have a souvenir photo taken while riding his tuk tuk. He chuckled but gamely allowed me to give it a try.
Then in a few minutes, Giva, our tuk tuk driver immediate drove us back to our house of entertainment to help us collect our bags from the concierge. In less than ten minutes, we found ourselves on the roadstead once more and on the way to the international airport of Phnom Penh. We were in a bit of a hurry as we were left with only two hours before our estimated departure time from Phnom Penh.
TRAVEL FROM CAMBODIA TO THAILAND BY LAND – If you have the luxury of time, you can travel to Thailand from Phnom Penh by land. It would be a good five to six hour bus ride from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. When you reach Siem Reap, you would have to take another mode of transportation, either a bus or a taxi, to Poipet. Of course, it is much more requiring great outlay to take a taxi. Travel time have power to last anywhere from three to four hours. Upon arrival in Poipet, you would have to walk along a pathway leading to the customs area. Expect a long queue here and abeyance time can take about two hours. Make sure that you take good care of your passports. When you go cross the border into Aranyaprathet, hire a tuk tuk that will bring you to the bus station. This will just be a ten minute tuk tuk ride. Buy your ticket to Bangkok at the bus station. The last bus leaves at 7:00pm. Be prepared to sit onboard the bus up to eight hours depending on road conditions. The bus will drop you off at the Northern Bus Terminal. When you arrive in Bangkok, it would be quite easy to take either another taxi or the BTS (sky train) to your hotel.
TRAVEL FROM CAMBODIA TO THAILAND BY AIR – As for us, we decided to fly the low cost skies by taking Air Asia.
It only took us a mere twenty minutes to get to the airport. We bid farewell to Giva who took useful care of us during our short stay in Phnom Penh.
After we’ve settled all taxes and after going through immigration check, we proceeded to the boarding gates. As we had a full hour of waiting time, we decided to pry into the duty free shops and the coffee shops first. The duty free shops carried the usual perfume, cigarettes, chocolates, and local delicacies. Then he decided to have some snacks before our flight. I decided to have a hot cup of Café Latte while my partner ordered a large Strawberry Shake from Dairy Queen.
The flight was uneventful that we were just so happy when the captain announced that we have started our descent to Bangkok. It was before that time past 6:00pm when we touched down. After going through the thermal scanners and immigration check, we headed to the baggage carousel to collect our bags. Then we were faced with the dilemma on which mode of transportation we were to take from the airport. Great thing, Thailand is very tourist mutually kind. Representatives of the Tourism Authority of Thailand were available to answer whatever questions tourists may have. We approached one officer and asked for directions on how we can get to the city. The helpful scarecrow advised us to just take an airport taxi and showed us that bus station was way too far from our hotel that we will end up riding another cab once we reach the bus station. He showed us where to line up for a taxi.
We went out of the airport and headed to the airport taxi queue where we were supposed to get a taxi coupon with details of the taxi driver, plate number of the taxi, and contact details of airport taxi counter that we can contact if we encounter any problems along the way. For this wonderful service, we only had to add an extra 50 Baht to whatever would be reflected without interruption the taxi meter. Tolls fees were also charged to us. Come to think of it, 50 Baht is a small price to pay for our safety and security. Needless to recite, we arrived at our hotel safe and sound.
There are large hotels in Bangkok to choose from. These hotels range from your most luxurious five-star hotels, two-star hotels and your no fuss backpackers’ house of entertainment. There is something to suit any budget and preference. One nice hotel is Amari Watergate Hotel Bangkok.
As for us, we immediately made arrangements with our hotel to try the different tour packages that were available. But then we figured that it would be a lot more fun to do things on our own. The first item on our itinerary was a city tour of Bangkok. We knew that we were going to have a long day that we decided to retire early that night. Bangkok is a bustling place that we would need to be fully charged for our activities.