aran-poiphet

while this blog, summed up all the possible choices, this is how arms and i managed to cross the border and get to siem reap from bangkok. from tales of asia's list, we chose to catch the gambler express.

1. from bangkok's suvarnabhumi airport, we took a cab to go to bangkok's lumphini park. (if you're arriving earlier than 12 mn, take the airport rail link, alight at makkasan/asok station, take the blue line to go to lumphini station. then, walk towards lumphini park.)

2. in front of u chu liang building, we waited for the 2 decker buses (gambler express) between 4 to 5 am. the buses didn't have english signboards so better ask people which bus actually go to aranyaprathet or simply aran. the ride to aran would cost 200 baht.

3. we reached aran at around 8 am. the bus dropped us off in rongklua market in aran. from there, we walked towards thai immigration, right side of the market. beware of the touts who would ask for 200 baht as payment when they accomplish your cambodian immigration card.

4. get your passport stamped in the thai immigration and walk towards the cambodian side of the border. here, you'd already encounter taxi drivers who can drive you all the way to siem reap. but during our trip, these taxi drivers went missing when some IDed guy from the government came up.

5. no visa needed (due to the ASEAN treaty), so we got our passports stamped by the cambodian immigration.

6. from the immigration counter, we were led to an ordinary bus that drove us to poipet's taxi terminal. we paid 500 baht per head to share a camry taxi with another passenger.

7. we arrived at siem reap shortly before 1 pm. got to a tuk-tuk to bring us to bun kao. we stayed in siem reap for 3 days and 2 nights.


on our way back to bangkok, we chose to get in a bus that would drive us from siem reap directly to bangkok.

1. we asked the other hostels where bun kao is located and reserved 2 seats for USD 8.5 per head.

2. at about 7 am, the driver picked us up to get to siem reap's old market, in front of ta prohm restaurant, where the bus was stationed. after almost 2 hours of waiting, we were finally on the road. after another 30 minutes of stopover in poiphet's international tourist terminal, we arrived in the border town shortly before noon. we took our bags and headed to the cambodian immigration.

3. long queue awaited us in the cambodian immigration and also in the thai immigration on the other side of the border.

4. after getting our passports, we were herded to a van that brought us to one of aran's hostels/bus terminals. we had lunch and before 2 pm, we were on our way to Bangkok.

5. shortly before 6 pm, we were in bangkok already. since we stayed in the siam area and the bus would go to khao san, we got off the bus near airport rail link's hua mak station.

6. we took to BTS and alighted at phaya thai station, costing 30 baht per head. then boarded another train in the sukhumvit line to go to siam square.