Bangkok to Siem Reap - Day Bus

With only a couple of days back in Bangkok, we quickly booked our bus tickets to leave before our visa’s expired. Our next country was Cambodia and we were heading 400km east to Siem Reap! Staying near Koh San Road again, we visited the travel agents we had previously used (see blog Bangkok to Koh Tao) which is located on Chakrabongse Road next to Boots. We booked onto the earliest bus for 800 baht each and had to be at the office for 8am the next morning for pick up. We knew that we could get visas on arrival as British citizens, however make sure your nationality allows this.

The next day we turned up at the travel agents around 15 minutes early and waited there for a good half an hour until our tickets were checked. We briskly walked around the corner to a single decker bus waiting to collect us and boarded. It was quite basic compared to other buses we had been on and we proceeded to head out of Bangkok on the highway with the bus was about three quarters full. I also noticed it was a left-hand drive bus which meant it must have been from Cambodia.

An hour into the journey, one of the guys at the front came walking down the bus saying we would stop in 30 minutes and everyone needed to pay 1,400 baht or $40 US dollars each for the Cambodian visa upon arrival at the border. We were told they would get our visas on our behalf but I knew it was $10 cheaper for each of us to do it ourselves at the border. He said quite clearly, we couldn’t. With little cash, I paid to withdraw more money from a cash machine when we stopped to cover the visa costs.

When we set off again for the final part of the journey in Thailand to the border at Krong Poi Pet, the guy went around collecting everyone’s money and passports from them. This time he said we could do it ourselves but it would take much longer and we would have to get off the bus. Me, my girlfriend and another traveller were the only ones who decided to take this option out of about 30 people on the bus.

When we pulled into the border, everyone on the bus had to disembark from the bus to walk through Thai customs. I’m not too sure what the others did after this but we walked over to the visa building on the right-hand side (read this on other blogs) and saw signs inside for Cambodian visas. Here they cost the standard $30 and a 100 baht processing fee, everyone seemed very nice and gave us the relevant forms to fill in. I had read previously of bad experiences but we had no problems, nobody tried to scam us and it was a very smooth process. Make sure you have the correct change and a current passport photo for the visa.

After this we headed to the Cambodian immigration point where everyone from the coach was already queuing to get stamped into the country. We filled in the entry forms and waited 5 minutes to present our visas and get stamped in Cambodia!

Some final points on the visa process; 

• Everyone must get off the bus to leave Thailand and enter Cambodia.
• It took us only about 5/10 minutes longer to get the visa on our own.
• We saved at least $10 dollars.
• Those who took the quicker and easier visa option had to wait for the others anyway.

After this it took around 2 hours to reach Siem Reap, the roads in Cambodia were much worse than in Thailand yet this was expected. We got dropped off at Neakpoan square (just south of pub street) and got told that we would have a free tuk tuk service to our hotel.

The tuk tuk driver spent a good 15 minutes trying to sell his services for transporting us around Angor Wat the next day, but with only just arriving we had no intention of committing to any plans. It got a little frustrating that he continued to try and in the end, we had to say no and sorry. If you say you’ll think about it, they will turn up at your hotel the next day and wait to talk to you. He then said the tuk tuk was no longer free and we would have to pay… We ended up having to pay $2 but we could of easily of walked. All part of the experience!

Angkor Wat

2.5 out of 5

Phuket to Bangkok – Night Bus

After a few days exploring Phuket, we headed back up to Bangkok before moving onto Cambodia. We were staying in the old town in Phuket on Ratsada Road and found that the bus station was only a 10-minute walk away from our hostel. With being so close, we decided to head over there to buy our tickets instead of getting charged extra by using a booking agent.

Upon arrival at the bus station, we asked a few locals where we could buy tickets to Bangkok from and we were directed to a few different offices until we found the right one! We were given a list of various times and prices for buses to Bangkok. They ranged from around 450 baht up to 1000 baht with a company called ATS which had various times. Bangkok has two main bus terminals in the North and South. We decided to pick a first-class night bus to Bangkok’s South Bus Terminal that was leaving at 17.30, took around 12/13 hours, cost 587 baht each and had aircon and a toilet. There were also options to get a second-class bus or VIP bus.

Bus Terminal 2 ??

The day we were leaving Phuket, we left our hostel an hour before departure and walked over, picking up a few snacks from a 7/11 on our way to the bus station. When we got to the bus station, we were again pointed in several directions as there seemed to be some confusion about our tickets. In the end, I went back to the office where I bought the tickets from and asked where we needed to wait. Then we discovered our mistake…

With only had 45 minutes until our bus left, we had apparently gone to the wrong bus station! We hadn’t realised Phuket had another bus station. I think the language barrier when buying the tickets may have led to us not realising. Anyway, we were now worried we might miss our bus as we were told it was quite far away and would take at least 30 minutes in current traffic. The only taxis around the bus station were motorbikes and with there being two of us plus backpacks we didn’t fancy this. We headed down the road and managed to find someone who was willing to take us in his car for 300 baht, not 100% sure if it was actually a taxi or not!

Anyway, we were now on our way to Phuket Bus Terminal 2 which we now know is 6km north of the other bus station. Traffic was very busy and we thought we would probably end up missing our bus. However, the driver was a very nice chap who knew we were in a hurry and took a few local shortcuts and we turned up just in time! We quickly found our bus and it left literally 2 minutes after we boarded it. A very chilled day nearly turned into a nightmare!

The journey itself wasn’t too bad, the bus was very empty and you got given a little snack and drink. I would try picking a front seat for the extra legroom. We asked about moving seats but the lady attendant was adamant we couldn’t move even though half the coach was empty. By 10pm, we decided to move seats anyway as it was much comfier to sleep across two seats.

The journey went quite quickly with a little stop early on for some food and drinks and we pulled into Bangkok’s South Terminal not long after 6.30am. I would recommend going to Bangkok’s South Bus Terminal if your heading towards the Koh San Road area as your only about 5km away.

Now we headed over to the taxi rank which were asking 250 baht for a short drive to near Koh San Road, of course this was massively overpriced even with morning traffic. In the end, we managed to get them to use the meter however this backfired on us. We were taken a very long way to our hotel instead of using the direct route and got stuck in terrible traffic on the highway. This meant the drive took well over an hour and cost a similar price to what he asked for at the start. Unfortunately, at the time I didn’t have my offline maps loaded on my phone to point out that I knew what he was doing. Oh well, we learnt from this mistake and finally got to our hotel around 8.15am before exploring Bangkok one final time until we headed off to Cambodia!

Not a bad overnight journey, plenty of space on the bus and we learnt a valuable lesson about taxis in Bangkok.

Time for a beer!

3 out of 5

Koh Tao to Koh Samui – Ferry

After a fun week of diving in Koh Tao, we reluctantly moved onto our next stop… heading south to the island of Koh Samui. After a successful journey with the travel company Lomprayah when travelling to Koh Tao, we choose them again for our short journey to Koh Samui.  We booked tickets at a local travel agents at Sairee Beach for 600 baht each for the 12.30pm departure from Mae Haad Pier to Maenam Pier, Koh Samui. A few other companies offer ferry tickets for a slightly cheaper price but I believe Lomprayah is worth using for the extra 100/150 baht.

Another ferry ticket

The morning of the ferry we got a taxi down to the pier an hour in advance to check in. This once again cost 100 baht each for this short taxi. The pier was very busy and we joined the back of a long queue and thought we might end up missing our boat! We just about made it to the counter to collect our tickets and stickers as the boat pulled into the pier. We stood in a very crowded and hot area waiting for everyone to disembark the ferry before we could make our way down. Please take your time when heading down to the ferry as a lot of people are pushing to get there first!

Finally, we made it onto our boat and sat on the first floor at the back where we had plenty of room. The journey took us just under 2 hours with a stop at Koh Pha Ngan. The journey was very smooth and offered some lovely views of the sea and smaller islands!

Awesome views!

We arrived at Maenam pier in the East of Koh Samui around 2.30pm and used the main shuttle / minibus service on offer at pier. We were charged 150 baht each to Fisherman’s Villagae (Mae Nam Beach) in the North of the island. It took a while for us to get seated on a minibus because there was a lot of confusion as to where our guesthouse was! After switching around we finally got onto the right one and set off.

It didn’t take too long to arrive at our guesthouse with a few stops along the way. I think the driver thought he was a racing car driver with wheel spins and plenty of overtakes! This became much more normal after a few weeks of travelling.

Overall, we reached our destination in good time, however make sure you give yourself enough time at Mae Haad Pier in Koh Tao!

4 out of 5 

Bangkok to Koh Tao – Bus and Ferry

I’ve decided to write about a few of my earlier travels across Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. The first journey we undertook after arriving in Thailand was to leave Bangkok and head towards the island of Koh Tao for some scuba diving! With us staying near Koh San Road in Bangkok, we had plenty of choice with how to travel to Koh Tao but make sure to beware of scams!

Lomprayah High Speed Catamaran

We chose to use the recommended Lomprayah High Speed Catamaran service which includes bus and ferry travel. Their main office is located on the corner of Rambuttri Alley next to Koh San Road. Upon recommendation from a friend, we booked our tickets from a travel agent located on the main road next to Boots on Chakrabongse Road. This cost us 1,000 baht each which is slightly cheaper than the online price, for the 6.00am departure. I’m sure if you look around you might be able to find a slightly cheaper deal.

Luggage Rules

On the morning of our departure from Bangkok, we had to sign in at the Lomprayah office at 5am and exchange our booking receipt for travel tickets. We received stickers to wear and some to put on our backpacks to ensure we got onto the correct bus. 45 minutes later and the bus arrived just down the road from the office. 

Pink stickers for Koh Tao

The coach itself wasn’t too bad for our first experience of transport in South East Asia and the coach journey down to Chumphon pier was comfortable. Upon arrival at Chumphon pier, we had 15 minutes to buy anything from the shop and use the bathroom before boarding the ferry to Koh Tao.

Plenty of room on the bus

The ferry was very busy inside with people using it to get to Koh Tao, Koh Phangan and Koh Samui. We decided to sit outside on the first floor of the ferry towards the back. We had much more room here and enjoyed a sea breeze sheltered from the sun.

We arrived on Koh Tao at Mae Haad Pier, not long before 3pm. From here, we shared a taxi with two others up to Sairee Beach for 100 baht each which seemed reasonable.

Overall the journey was a good first experience of travelling in Thailand and probably the best way of reaching Koh Tao from Bangkok.

4 out of 5

Bangkok to Yangon - Flight

Before you do anything you must apply for an E-Visa for Myanmar (Burma). It costs $50 and takes a day or two for approval.

So do we fly or get the bus from Thailand to Myanmar? We decided a month in advance that we would fly as prices were only around £30 including free 15kg hold luggage.

The two main companies offering flights out of Bangkok daily to Yangon were AirAsia and NokAir at similar prices however you have to pay extra for luggage with AirAsia.

We booked tickets for the 10.25am NokAir flight from Don Muang airport in Bangkok. We decided to get a taxi not long after 6 to beat the rush hour traffic. We advise you not to get a taxi around Khao San Road and instead walk just a few minutes to the main road to flag down a taxi. You can alternatively book a minibus service with various travel agents.

After a couple of taxis wanted 500 baht upfront we finally found a taxi to use the meter. We knew the cost should only be around 250/300 baht. We also got the choice of going on the highway or not which costs 120 baht extra in toll charges. We did this however you don't need to at that time of the morning as the roads were very quiet.

All international flights leave from terminal 1.

Check in was available 3 hours in advance and was quick and efficient. You must have your Myanmar E-Visa approval letter printed off to show them. Passport control to get stamped out of Thailand took quite a while as they only had a few members of staff working. Try and go to the foreign passport control section furthest to the left as they had more staff counters available. Remember to fill in your departure card beforehand!

Don Muang airport had plenty of shops and coffee/food outlets including Boots, Starbucks and McDonald's. There is also a lot of currency exchange counters however you can't get Mynamar Kyat from any of them.

Boarding didn't take too long and we got a shuttle bus from the terminal to the plane. The outside of NokAir planes have a fun bird design!

Interesting plane design!

The flight took 1hr 10min. You get given arrival and custom forms to fill in upon arrival at Yangon airport. You also get a small snack box with water and a muffin.

After landing at Yangon airport, immigration control was very quick for foreigners as the majority of people on the flight were from Myanmar. You hand all your paperwork in and after a few minutes you get stamped into Myanmar. At the airport you have a few currency exchange counters to get some Kyat and also there are some ATM machines available.

After going through customs with your bags you can easily get a taxi to downtown Yangon at the taxi counter for 8,000 kyat which takes about an hour in traffic.

Downtown Yangon

5 out of 5 

Kanchanaburi to Bangkok - Minibus

This was a fairly straightforward trip. On the main street called Maenamkwai Road there are plenty of travel agencies or hotels offering tickets for a reasonable price to Bangkok. Minibuses leave every hour to the Independence Monument, Bus Station and Khao San Road.

We booked to the latter for 160 baht per person via minibus that included pick up. We also asked about luggage after our other journey (previous post). He said for luggage you pay an extra 120 baht to buy another seat whilst backpacks are fine. I said to him we had  big backpacks but he didn't seem to understand so we just payed for one extra seat for the luggage.

The next day we were picked up promptly by a minibus taking us to the bus station in Kanchanaburi. Before boarding the bus the person who sold us our tickets earlier that morning saw our big backpacks and said we shouldn't of paid for another seat. Before we knew it he rushed off to get the 120 baht we paid to refund us which was very kind as he could of said nothing.

The next minibus we boarded was very nice with leather seats and plenty of room even with our backpacks inside. We probably waited a good 30 minutes for them to fill up the bus with locals before we left for Bangkok.

The journey to Khao San Road took about 3 hours with minimal traffic midday. We did stop once just outside Bangkok for 15 minutes for fuel.

4 out of 5 

Sukhothai to Kanchanaburi via Bangkok - Day Bus

After two days in New Sukhothai, we were ready to leave and head on towards Kanchanaburi. With this not being a very common route of travel we had a few various options. We could opt to take the most direct route, which involved changing buses or we could head towards Ayuthaya or Bangkok and change.

We decided the safest bet was to get a bus to Bangkok and travel onwards from there. We managed to book a bus in New Sukhothai through our guesthouse-who went to get the tickets from the bus station for no extra commission which was a nice gesture!

The timetable of buses offered various departures between three companies with the earliest at 7.50am. We decided to use WinTour buses again (even though the last one wasn't great) as they had a first class bus leaving the bus station at 8am. This cost 310 baht each to Bangkok.

We arrived at 7.45 and waited around half an hour until the bus showed up. We boarded the bus with only one other foreign couple and the rest locals. We were given seats upstairs at the back of the bus presumably as we wouldn't be getting off anywhere before Bangkok.

This first class bus was fantastic and very new! The reclining seats were very comfortable, we were given water and snacks and the two screens showed a fast and furious movie further down the bus. We had seats 12a and 12b however if possible get 12c and 12d as your in front of the emergency exit and therefore have lots of leg room!

Nice modern bus

Screens showing Fast and Furious

This bus only stopped a few times for locals to get on and off throughout the journey with most coming around arrival at Bangkok. We also stopped once around midday for a 20 minute break. Here we redeemed a 20baht voucher we got with the ticket for some local food.

We arrived into Bangkok northern bus station around 3.15pm. From here, we tried to locate buses going to Kanchanaburi and after asking around for a while managed to find a minibus. We bought tickets for 120 baht each for a bus leaving at 4.30pm.

We boarded the bus around 4pm with our big backpacks to find that they had no storage for them on the minibus. The only option was to put them on a seat which they weren't happy about and wanted to charge us money for. We declined (as did another backpacking couple) and said they saw we had big backpacks when we bought the tickets and after some huffing and puffing, they filled up the remaining seats and we left 15 minutes earlier than scheduled. 

Not much room on the minibus!

With traffic we got told it might take over 4 hours to arrive in Kanchanaburi but thankfully it only took 3 hours. The driver really couldn't drive and we were all really crammed in but oh well.

Sukhothai to Kanchanaburi via Bangkok cost 430 baht per person with the first part of the journey being much better than the 2nd!

4 out of 5