Meghan's reconnaissance the day before secured us 5 reasonably priced tickets on the government bus from Bangkok directly to the Thai-Cambodia border. While I don't know exactly what the tickets cost - $5 or so per person - the bus had A/C and the ticket came with a cup of water and some wafer cookies as sustenance during the 4+ hour journey. This certainly beat standing and starving on a 6 hour train journey.
The bus ride was uneventful, due in no small part to the kids being busy on their Nexus tablets. When we arrived, we avoided the scammers at the bus stop who offered us Cambodian visas at inflated prices - $40 USD instead of the $20 at the border proper. While the queues were long and plentiful - we had to line up to leave Thailand, to get our Cambodian visa, and to get our visas checked by Cambodia officials - we eventually made our way to Poipet.
After some haggling with several taxi drivers, we secured a ride in an air conditioned Lexus for the 2.5 hour journey into Siem Reap and our accommodation at the Lotus Lodge.
We finally arrived at our hotel in the afternoon with enough energy to order fruit shakes and a beer or two before lights out.
All in all, this was a long day but a relatively painless experience considering some of the horror stories we'd heard about this overland journey. Many thanks to both the Thailand and Cambodia Lonely Planet guidebooks as well as many travel sites that do a very nice job of outlining the overland options when traveling this route.
- LH
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