Day 43: Bangkok to Siem Reap

Travel day! The process actually started yesterday when we boarded an overnight bus from Chiang Kham to Bangkok at 5:30pm. Arriving in Bangkok at 4:45am we scurried to the bus terminal and bought a ticket to the town of Aranyaprethet next to the Cambodian border crossing in Poipet. We departed at 5am, made a little food break midway where I got some tasty sticky rice and taro bundles, and arrived at the border around 9:30. 

Land crossings into Cambodia are notoriously sketchy and can result in huge scams for unknowing individuals. Having read a detailed article, Andy and I felt confident in our abilities, but I was still a bit concerned, it was my first border crossing after all!


Nevertheless, it went without a hitch, we stamped out of Thailand, found some free bathrooms in between Thailand and Cambodia, bought our Cambodian visas (unfortunately they skipped a page in my passport, it is all a jumbled mess now!) and filled out our immigration papers with ease. Then we took the free shuttle bus to the bus station, but since we didn’t want to pay the $48 for a taxi on our own we hung out with the taxi drivers for a bit, waiting for more backpackers to come split a cab with us.

Andy got in trouble for taking this photo in the visa room!

I thoroughly confused all of the Cambodians by eating peanut butter from a jar. They all stared and then starts guessing. Sugar? Honey? I let them smell the now empty jar and they then seemed to understand. They were also confused by my age and Asian face since I said I was American. This gave Andy the chance to educate them that America isn’t all blond hair and blue eyes (like him) but its also people like me, people like them, and many more. At the end of the little lecture the drivers relented and said okay, your nationality is American, which I agreed with.
A pair from Spain and France joined up with us and off we went to Siem Reap. Driving in two hours later I was less than impressed. A dusty town with seemingly little to offer, we checked out a few hostels before settling on the nice Millennium Guest House and then set out to find food.

Some street noodles and a lassie from an Indian place so that we could sit somewhere later and we were ready to go rent bikes to head to Angkor Wat, buy our 3 day pass and watch the sunset! For $3 we rented some cute old bikes for a day and headed out. It is pretty confusing here as they use both the USD and the Cambodian Riel, but when I took money out of the ATM they only gave me the option of USD. Yet sometimes for change you will get the Riel! And they don’t seem to use American coins, only bills. Whatever!
About an hour later we arrived at Angkor Wat and went over the bridge to see it…under construction! Quite a bummer.

Nevertheless it was undoubtedly beautiful, but I am really excited to see the temples that are being reclaimed by the jungle! Some of them were used in the filming of Tomb Raider and a bunch of Indiana Jones movies! That will come tomorrow when we head out to catch the sunrise early in the morning.
We enjoyed a peaceful ride back, and it’s amazing how the peace of biking really changes your perception of a place. Siem Reap was instantly transformed into a cute little town with a good mix of tourists and locals and I look forward to exploring it more over the next few days.