This turned out to be a genius plan as we were then much nearer the Northern & North Eastern Bus terminal. We hopped in a cab (they are all air conditioned Toyota Corollas) and were at the terminal in minutes.
Finding the ticket booth was easy enough and two tickets to the boarder cost us 212 baht each. The bus was due to leave shortly after we got to the terminal at 7:30am, which gave us just enough time to buy snacks. I bought a bread roll filled with shredded pork which turned out a lot better than I was expecting it to.
On the bus we met a German dude about our age. His name is Manuel and within seconds of meeting we had agreed to share a taxi to Siemreap once we'd crossed the border.
The bus made excellent time and arrived at the stop near the border at around midday. From there the three of us crammed into a tuk tuk with all three rucksacks for the short drive to the actual border. This cost us 80 baht between us.
Once at the border, we successfully evaded the scam emigration office, where the tuk tuk driver had dumped our bags. Sadly there was already a lady there who had clearly paid them money for a form that you get for free at the main border office.
We got through passport control in the departures office and then walked to another office to obtain and fill in our entry visas. The guys there tried to scam us again by saying that we needed to pay an additional 100 baht on top of the actual visa cost of $20. When we refused to pay it they told us to sit down and wait 2 hours before they would process the visas!
We decided to call their bluff. Sure enough, they did process a few peoples' passports who had arrived after us but had paid the extra, but within 10 minutes we had all got our passports back and were on our way to the Cambodian immigration office, where we filled in yet another form in order to finally get across the border. High fives all round.
From here we got the free government shuttle bus to the main transport terminal, which took a few minutes. To our amazement there were no taxis within the terminal walls, so we took a little stroll outside and eventually were approached by someone who agreed to drive us to Siamreap for $40. This was cheaper than the guide book had prepared us for, so we were dead pleased with that result.
The drive to Siemreap was supposed to take an hour and a half. Our driver took about two and a half hours!!! This was incredible, given that most taxi drivers drive like lunatics and that the road from the transport terminal is essentially straight, with just one wide bend. We were gobsmacked.
To make matters worse, he had no idea where our hotel was in town, so in the end we made him stop the taxi by the river, so we could all get out and walk our separate ways to our respective accommodation.
We have agreed to have dinner with Manuel tomorrow night at Angkor Palm, which comes strongly recommended, to compare notes on our Angkor Wat experiences tomorrow.
The Central Boutique Angkor hotel proved relatively easy to find and we were welcomed with iced tea and big smiles. Our rooms is perfectly adequate and the swimming pool very tempting.
We were both desperate to get cleaned up after more than 24 hours in the same clothes!!!
That done, we moved our dinner to 6pm as we were starving.
Dinner was a set menu included as part of our hotel package deal. Spring rolls, glass noodle salad, pumpkin curry soup, fish amok and diced banana and mango in sweet milk. Not bad at all, although because Amber doesn't eat fish we played a game of 'pass the fish-wrapped-in-banana-leaf parcel' every time the waiter turned his back! I'm sure he didn't notice. Amber didn't want to be seen to have left her fish amok as this is considered the local delicacy in Cambodia. Personally I felt it had nothing on Chiang Mai's khow soi.
After dinner we headed into town to find the night market and a couple of cocktails. The night market was much like the night market in Chiang Mai i.e. stalls full of rubbish souvenirs. Deeply uninspiring.
We saw a funny thing. Like Chiang Mai, they have fish pedicure areas in the night market, but here in Siemreap they are using the wrong fish! We walked by shop after shop with people dunking their feet in tanks filled with either African Mbuna cichlids or Tilapia, neither of which are likely to do your feet much good, even if they are starving. We had a smug chuckle to ourselves at the hordes of backpackers trying out this amazing new experience. I'd get a better pedicure from sticking my feet in my 6'fishtank at home!
After a couple of 'Night Market' cocktails, we called it a night.
We have to be up at 4:30am tomorrow to get to Angkor Wat for sunrise. The hotel has kindly arranged us a tuk tuk driver for the day and we'll get a packed breakfast to take with us. How's that for customer service?
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