Arranging our bus from Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia (the town that Angkor Wat is in) was fairly easy. However, we had read ridiculous scam stories about the trip so we were very cautious with the whole booking situation. We read about plenty of scams, including but not limited to:
- a bus taking you the 'long way' (10 hours instead of 6) to an obscure border crossing so that you get to Siem Reap tired and restless, forcing you to stay at a guesthouse that pays a commission to the bus company
- tuk tuk drivers trying to scam you to pay a lot in order to drive you to the border, even though the bus drops you off within walking distance of the border (but, in some cases they do drop you further away, and then you DO have to pay a driver a hefty penny to get you to the border!)
- visa scams when you get off the bus trying to get you to pay about 3 times the cost of the visa to process it for you 'faster & better' even though you can go to the border and do it all yourself with no problems whatsoever--simple visa on arrival setup at the border.
- once you cross the border, a free shuttle bus takes you to a 'travel depot' where you can arrange your onward travel to Siem Reap from there (we were sort of forced to fall for this one!)
- depending on what government official gives you the application form at the border, he may or may not charge you for it ;)
What we did to avoid as much of this as possible was what we read in our book and on various forums-- go directly to the bus station in Bangkok, pay for a cheap bus to the Thai-Cambodian border, then arrange onward travel to Siem Reap from there (apparently there is lots to choose from). We bought the ticket to the border at the Eastern bus station in Bangkok, close to the hotel we were staying at for the night. It cost 220Baht (=$7). it was the local bus but it was quite comfortable (I seriously have no complaints after that AWFUL Myanmar bus ride!). We got to the border just after
1pm and did as we were told- we ignored the touts trying to sell us organized visas and the tuk tuk drivers trying to drive us to the border. We marched to the border & followed the signs for obtaining a visa on arrival. We found it all easily & quickly. The line up to get out of Thailand took about 10 minutes, then you walk through no-mans-land for about 5 minutes to get to the Visa on Arrival office. There, you should get an application form (for free!) & you fill it out, staple a passport size photo to it (we had a collection of these for the year) & pay the $20 USD fee. Then you wait less than 10 minutes as the Cambodian visa is stamped into your passport. After that, you wait in another line before you are officially allowed into Cambodia-this line took about 20 mins. Overall, a fairly painless process!! I was told we would see a lot of beggars at the border, but I didn't see much actually....
After you officially enter Cambodia, there is a free shuttle bus waiting to take you to a travel depot where you can arrange the next leg of your trip. I had read about this mini scam in forums--they purposely provide this free shuttle bus in order to take you a few kilometers outside of the city so that you have no choice but to use the services at this travel depot which are more expensive than if you stayed in town and found a travel agency. However, it was only considered a mini scam because there is frequent transportation to take you where you want to go, it just might cost a few extra dollars. We made some friends with other people in line who were planning to take the shuttle, so we just went with it, not really caring if we paid a few extra dollars in the end. When you got to the depot you could easily tell it was designed strictly for tourists and that prices were higher. However, we ended up sharing a cab with a Canadian guy for $12/person which got us there an hour earlier than the bus for only $3/person more, so we went with it. In addition, it left right away and we didnt have to wait for it to fill up like the bus. Obviously, we paid more than we probably should have, but it didn't hurt our wallets too much... They told us to change our money to Riel because of the great rate of 1:3800 and that it would be worse in Siem Reap. Rate in Siem Reap was 1:4000 so clearly a money making scam at the border....
