From Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, you can easily travel to many places in Asia. The same goes for Siem Reap, a large city in western Cambodia. Cambodia borders Thailand so you will have to cross the border. In this article, we share the easiest and cheapest way to travel from Bangkok to Cambodia and provide more information on the important things to consider.
From Bangkok to Siem Reap
By far the easiest and cheapest way is to take a bus from Bangkok to Siem Reap. The bus takes 8.5 hours including several breaks and the border crossing. At 07:45 each morning, the Giant Ibis bus leaves Bangkok (Google Maps location of the bus station can be found here). It is recommended that you buy your tickets for this route online at least 2 days in advance through 12GO.Asia. Be sure to book the Giant Ibis bus! This one is a lot roomier than the other buses on this route, you can almost lie down in the bus and there are many stops. This way, the bus ride doesn’t take so long at all for your feeling.
So the bus leaves at 7:45 a.m. Be at Giant Ibis at least 15 minutes in advance so you can “check in”. After entering the bus, you get a can of iced coffee and a croissant. The bus driver will tell you exactly what the day looks like and what you need to arrange for your visa in Cambodia. You can either apply for an e-visa in advance, which you must have printed with you, or arrange for a visa-on-arrival. The bus company helps you arrange the visa-on-arrival and it goes very smoothly. Read all the information about Cambodia’s visa here.
You are given a small piece of paper on the bus that you must fill out with your information, you turn this in, along with your passport and $40 to the bus driver. He then arranges everything for the visa. If you don’t have dollars you can also pay in baht. The price is then 1400 baht per visa. Please note that there are no atm’s so make sure you have dollars or baht with you!
After 2 hours on the bus, you will arrive at the first stop. Here you can buy some food and drinks and there is also a toilet break. Be sure to carry a toilet roll or tissues because there is (almost) never toilet paper at these toilets. After 10 minutes, the bus moves on. At 12:30 you will arrive at the border crossing. Here is another bathroom break and the bus driver here arranges visas for Cambodia. You don’t have to do anything for this yourself. You drive 5 minutes further and there you actually cross the border. First you have to pass an office that puts the exit stamp for Thailand in, then follows another office where you get an entry stamp for Cambodia. The visa for Cambodia says you don’t have to leave the country until 3 months after entering but the stamp shows the correct date (30 days after arrival). Be sure to always keep the date of this stamp!
After the whole group is through this you all walk on to the bus. On the way, you can immediately see the change of scenery: colorful buildings are everywhere in Cambodia. When you enter the bus, you get lunch from the bus company: fried rice with vegetables and egg. You now drive another 1.5 hours, stopping here for a pee break and possibly buying some fruit. After this, it is only 1 hour until you arrive in Siem Reap! Upon arrival at Siem Reap bus station, many tuktuk drivers are waiting to take you to your accommodation. Welcome to Cambodia!
Tip: book your bus tickets in advance through this website and choose the Giant Ibis bus.
