Getting Around Cambodia

From Trat you can catch a bus to Hat Lek, then Sawngtheaw to the border at Cham Yeam, which is a dirty, grubby one street border town. Avoid the locals who will offer to help you and walk towards immigration, process your papers, then bargain with one of the motorcyclists to take you to Koh Kong. On the way you will pass over a bridge where you will be responsible for the toll fee. The m/bike journey will be around 10 kms and bargain hard and you may be able to get there for less than 100 baht.

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CAMBODIA
To get to Cambodia I got the bus from Saigon and I always used the bus then to get from city to city..When in the cities I either walked, hired a bicycle, or a "Moto". These were my forms of transport and found all to be reliable and inexpensive. I must say the busses were extremely comfortable on the long trips ie: Saigon - Phnomn Penh, Phnomn Penh - Siem Reap, Siem Reap - Phnomn Penh and Phnomn Penh to Saigon. The bus stations were located in the centre of the city and handy to all the accomodation that I had organised...Also when I got off the bus I hired a "MOTO". The transport was just a breeze.
I obtained my visa at the border.

BUS STATION. Location in Siem Reap is behind the City River Hotel

I flew from Bangkok to Siem Reap on Bangkok Airlines.
Be aware that upon leaving Siem Reap, there is a pretty hefty US$50 departure tax, that is not included in tickets!
Visas can be purchased upon arrival at Siem Reap's modern little airport.

We are lucky to be able to travel with this new Boat service that operates route from Siem Reap to Phnom Pehn and vice versa. It currently offered an unbelievable USD15 fare. With these price, the service are 1st class, with luggage check in, air condition, large comfortable seats, free flow of beverages, lunch, english movie on large screen TV, pillow, blanket, etc-etc.... If I'm not mistaken, it's operated by a japanese company. It feels more like travelling on a plane than on a boat even complete with a smilling and helpful 'boat-hostess' . You have to plan your trip though, as the boat will operate on alternate days....

Update Nov 2003: My aunt just came back from her Cambodia trip and according to her, the USD15 fare promotion is off now. The current fare is USD30 one way.

I didn't enter Cambodia this way, but apparently the bus from Bangkok to the border is a scam itself, they will charge you more for the visa and practically force you to head to the TOURIST LOUNGE, from where you take overpriced buses that get you o Siem Reap very late to help tuk tuk drivers charge you a lot of money...
Unfortunately, there is very little you can do because tuk tuk drivers are the only option to get to the city, and yes, the BUS STATION is very far from the city center! They seem to have done it on purpose!
The best way to come from Thailand is to take the 5.50am bus to get to the border at around noon and take a SHARED taxi to a place called Sisophone I think, and from there there is cheaper and direct transportation to Siem Reap...Unfortunately, I think for Cambodia everybody has a different experience...so that's what I found out...I entered from Laos and there was a guy who worked at a hostel in Siem Reap downtown, who offered us a room for US$4...we always look for the cheapest hotels, so the price was appealing to us...What we did is that we asked him for a discount on the tuk tuk (since they always their tuk tuk driver-friend)...so he said, if we liked the hotel and stayed there we would pay only US$1 for the tuk tuk (it helped that we shared the tuk tuk with other travelers.) We did stay at their place and it was fine for us! I hope this helps you... Good luck!

Two options
1) Paramount Angkor: USD15
2) Virak Buntham: USD17

We took Virak Buntham, as it advertised itself to be a luxury bus. Honestly, nothing luxurious about it except that it has a toilet in the bus. The toilet was relatively spotless and they did clean it up halfway through the journey.

You can get the tickets at any of the travel agents in Siem Reap. Most of the guesthouses will be able to assist in purchasing the ticket. TIP: If you opt for the Virak Buntham bus, please ask for seat no 21-25. The seats are the closest to the bus toilet and have extra leg space for additional comfort. Further, try not to get the seats at the back.

The bus we boarded was a 36 seater. It was sufficiently comfortable and blankets were provided. My only complaint was that halfway through the journey, the driver started to switch off the air-conditioned system for a duration of 15-20 minutes before he switched it back on. This happened till the near end of the journey. It was indeed annoying to say the least, i felt sweating at one point, not helped by the blanket wrapped around!

The journey took around 11 hours, with a 30 min stopover in Phnom Penh.

LUCKY! LUCKY! RENT MOTORCYCLE SHOP
PHONM PHEN CAMBODIA

We rent 2 bikes for 8 days, candles didn't work, no motor oil, electricity cables were really bad, and they told us everything was checked and perfect wprking. 8 days later they asked us 30 dollars each because we broke a small turn light. Even if we payd more than 100$ to fix up our motorbikes during the trip...
Bad service, BAD bikes, BAD staff working there.

LUCKY! LUCKY! MOTORCYCLE RENT
PHONM PHEN CAMBODIA

We rent 2 bikes for 8 days, candles didn't work, no motor oil, electricity cables were really bad, and they told us everything was checked and perfect wprking. 8 days later they asked us 30 dollars each because we broke a small turn light. Even if we payd more than 100$ to fix up our motorbikes during the trip...
Bad service, BAD bikes, BAD staff working there.