I recently got back from a wonderful trip with my parents to Cambodia and Thailand. From Manila we went to Siem Reap, and after a few days of temple running, we went to Battambang (which was the highlight/ the main reason we even travelled) then later in the week we crossed the border by road, to Bangkok.
I'd like to share my Cambodia and Thailand trip in a different way, and that is through travel tips! Based on my experience planning and taking my parents around these two countries, I'll be sharing some tips for those of you who might want to travel to either of these places (or even both) in the near or far future.
1. Booking hotels
When it comes to booking hotels, I really like booking.com just because it will never charge your credit card. You still need to type in your credit card number, but that's just to guarantee the booking. When you get to your hotel, you'll pay them in cash. Booking.com allows you search hotels based on your budget, hotel amenities, ratings etc. Apart from reading through comments of guests, location was very important for me - in each city we went to, I wanted a hotel close to/walking distance to the city center. The website does not only tell you the hotel's distance to the city center, but also provides a map so you can check the other landmarks around.
In Siem Reap I got us a hotel very close to Pub Street, and in Bangkok I went with Khao San road.
2. Money Exchange
Cambodia is like the dollar shop of the world. A tuktuk ride within the city is $1. A fruit shake is $1. A t-shirt with an elephant drawing is $1. An average meal is somewhere between $2-4. You don't need to exchange your money to Cambodia Rhiel because American Dollar is widely accepted. But make sure you keep lots of small bills.
In Thailand it's different - you have to change your money to Thai Baht. I found Thai Baht to be very similar to Philippine Pesos, in terms of coins and paper bills (20, 50, 100, 500, 1000 denominations). It wasn't hard to get used to; I just had to calculate x1.5 to get my Peso equivalence before deciding whether something was cheap or expensive.
3. City Transportation
Our hotel in Siem Reap offered airport pick up. They said they'd send a taxi to get us, but when we met our driver, we were surprised to see him with a tuk-tuk! It wasn't until much later that we learnt that there are no car taxis in Siem Reap or Battambang - it's just tuk-tuks and private cars, so we went with tuk-tuks everywhere. Their tuk-tuks are not noisy or small like the Philippine tricycles; they have open sides so you always get to enjoy some view. One very interesting thing I found about the tuk-tuks in Cambodia is that the drivers have calling cards! Every tuk-tuk driver we had would give us their calling card - with their name, a photo of their vehicle, and some with their own face! and their contact details. This was very helpful in Battambang - we liked our second driver, so we called him the next morning and hired him for the whole day.
From Siem Reap to Battambang, you can either take a bus ($8 per person) or hire a private car ($40). Our hotel booked our journey for us. Very convenient, because you don't have to go to the bus station to buy a ticket or scout around for a private vehicle. We hired a private vehicle because we wanted to reach Battambang early in the morning - if you take the bus, it only has two schedules in the morning (8 am and 10am).
We had a bit of a struggle in Bangkok. On our first day, we had to visit a friend about an hour away from where our hotel was located. There was no train station near us, and we just could not bother trying to understand the bus/commute system so I booked a Grab Taxi back and forth. It was pretty expensive, but we knew we'd just have to do this once. I think if you plan to stay in Bangkok for a long time, then it will be very helpful to learn how to use the MRT/BTS train lines and buses because it would definitely be cheaper. Bangkok is also a VERY huge city...it took us a long time getting from point A to point B anywhere, because of so much traffic jam! It wasn't fun wasting a lot of our time in traffic, so taking the train would really help you avoid that.
4. Tours
At our hotel lobby in Siem Reap, I saw several tour brochures, which meant our hotel could arrange tours - you just need to tell them where you'd like to go. One day, I told them we'd like to rent a tuk-tuk to take us to all the temples. They have their tuk-tuk drivers on stand-by, so we hired one for the cost of $15. If you decide to leave at 5am to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat, then it would cost you $18. That's for the whole tuk-tuk (can take up to 4 people).
Before going to any of the temples, you have to buy an Angkor Pass. The driver will take you to the Ticket Center, where you can choose to buy either a 1-day pass ($37), 3-days ($62) or 7 days pass ($72). At the ticket booth they'll take your photo, then issue a card which will serve as your entry ticket to all the temples.
We didn't do the sunrise tour - we left the hotel at 10 am, and started with Angkor Wat, then we went to Ta Prohm (a very interesting place, temples eaten by the forest!) then Bayon (my favorite - because of all the sculpted faces), and then to Phnom Bakheng to catch the sunset. There are plenty more temples to visit, but for one day this is just enough. Each temple complex is very huge - you'll be walking and climbing a lot (especially at Phnom Bakheng).
Our driver didn't speak much English, but he was able to just tell us the names of the temples and point them on our map. Outside each temple you will find people standing infront of the gate, offering walking tour services. They'll walk with you and offer explanations and tell you stories (some speak other foreign languages like French and Spanish!) They would usually charge $10 to guide you through that temple. We didn't want stories, we just wanted to walk through, feed our eyes and take photographs.
We were a different kind of tourist in Battambang - we went for a guided tour. When we got to our hotel, I googled "places to visit in Battambang" and the famous Phnom Sampov (killings cave) came up. We called a tuk-tuk driver and paid him $15 to be with us the whole day (we even had a few hours lunch/nap break). Our main purpose of going to Battambang was to visit the newly inaugurated Local Bahá'i House of Worship, but we would go there late in the afternoon just before sunset, when the weather was cooler, so in the morning and afternoons we went around.
In Bangkok, moving around wasn't as easy as Cambodia. Our hotel and nearby travel agencies did not offer Bangkok city tours (except for night city tours). So I got a map and selected a few places I wanted us to visit, then I approached a tuk-tuk driver, showed him the places we'd like to go and asked how much he'd charge us. He asked me for our price, so we thought 500 baht would be good enough, and he agreed. He took us to the Marble Temple, Wat Intharawihan (to see the 32-meter tall standing Buddha statue), Wat Saket (my favorite - the Golden Mountain) and Wat Pho (the reclining Buddha). Not all places have an entry ticket - the Marble temple and standing Buddha statue were free, but the entrance fee at the Golden Mountain was 20 baht and the reclining Buddha 100 baht. My only complain - traffic!
5. Food
Between Siem Reap and Battambang, we enjoyed the food in Battambang the most. We were walking around one afternoon and saw a place called White Rose. The names of the dishes were written in Khmer, and had a little English description but no photos. It was very hard to decide at first, then my Dad looked over to his side and saw a nice dish on the next table. He told the waiter he wanted that same dish, and it turned out to their traditional beef Lok Lak! I also spotted a waiter carrying a plate with beef and broccoli so I told the waiter I wanted that same order, then my Mom chose something from the noodles section. The food was divine, paired with free refreshing green tea (oh yes, all restaurants offer free green tea on the tables, and will even give you a glass with ice if you ask). We went back there the next night for traditional barbecue.
Bangkok was quite a food trip, because our hotel was on Rambuttri street, which is FULL of restaurants and street food left and right! Every night we walked up and down the street and pecked on different things, but the two things we made sure we had every day was Tom Yum Good (hot and sour soup with shrimps) and grilled squid. There are restaurants and street food vendors offering everything, from shawarma, to barbecue, to spring rolls, to stir fried rice, to Vietnamese sandwiches, to noodles, to sticky rice and mango, to scorpions and crickets :)
6. Shopping
In Cambodia, we did our shopping in Siem Reap - specifically at the Night Market/Art Center Market (they are right beside each other). There are hundreds of stalls in the area that pretty much sell the same things (clothes, jewellery, sweets). What I didn't like was the you won't find price tags on any of the items, you have to ask how much. This always means they jack up the price for foreigners, and you'll need to bargain. For a pair of Cambodian harlem pants, for example it usually goes for $5, but believe it or not, we were able to bargain all the way down to $2. It also depends on how many you buy - the more you buy, the more discount they'll give you. Most of the clothes have pictures of elephants, and I found that very unique. These were the kinds of souvenirs I bought (pants and shirts that just had elephants).
In Bangkok, our hotel was very close to the popular Khao San Road. Also at night, it's filled with stalls selling souvenirs and clothes. We didn't find the clothes in Bangkok interesting, because they're just like what you find in the malls in the Philippines. So what we bought instead were local snacks like dried fruits, dried shredded squid, krispy rice (and even fried bamboo caterpillar for my brother!)
7. People
I personally found Cambodians to be extremely nice and hospitable. People drove bikes carefully, everyone was smiling, people speak in a soft and kind tone, people are always willing to help, no one got angry when we bargained too much (haha). Cambodians are very happy, laid-back, kind-hearted people. I know they've gone through so much in recent history, so it's amazing to see how people the people are. Well, at least for the little I've seen in Siem Reap and Battambang.
It was quite a different story in Bangkok, and maybe it's because of the language barrier. Everyone in Cambodia tried their best to speak English and communicate, but not many locals in Bangkok spoke English. There were a few vendors that got angry at us for a little bargaining. My favorite encounter was with our first Grab taxi driver - he is a retired soldier, and with the very little English he knew, he told us stories about the times he served in Iraq!
8. Crossing the border
Apart from dealing with the scorching heat, crossing the border was probably the next hardest part. I read about this border-crossing deal so many times and most of the comments and blogs I read warn everyone to be careful of visa and tour scam on both sides of the border.
Through our hotel in Siem Reap, I booked a direct bus "Hang Tep" to Bangkok. It costs $18 per person. They told me it's a direct bus, and we don't be changing vehicles after the border. It took about 4 hours to reach the border, (Poipet) then we all had to get down the bus, go through the immigration and find our bus on the other side of the border. The first office was for exiting Cambodia - we fell in line, gave our passport, got our photo taken and finger prints scanned. Filipino passport holders don't need a visa, but surprisingly an immigration officer asked my Mom for 100 baht. My Mom got angry and said "What 100 baht? I wasn't aware of any payment." The officer didn't say anything, let her pass and didn't ask me when it was my turn.
We walked a long distance to another building, then we had to carry our luggages up a flight of stairs and fall in a very long line. My Dad's right arm is in a cast (he broke his wrist several weeks ago in Nigeria), so we approached an officer and asked if there is a special line for people with disability! He was quickly brought to another counter, but they did not let my Mom and I follow him, so we both went back to the long line. A few minutes later, my Dad called us because I was holding our hotel and Bangkok-Manila booking papers, so they called us to join him, had a look at all our papers and that's how we all skipped the line!
When we got to the other side, we met our bus leader and he told us to wait under one shade until everyone was out. This took nearly three hours! Well, after two hours, our group was complete, but then we were given another one hour to have lunch. While waiting, I found a bank to exchange currency to Thai Baht and buy some lunch. When our group was complete, we were brought to a mini van (15-seater van). I got upset and told our leader "I specifically booked a DIRECT BUS because I wanted to avoid changing vehicles!" The leader gave so many excuses, he said that our bus is delayed at the Cambodian border, it would take several hours. We were 12 passengers, plus the driver, squished into the mini van. Everyone was clearly unhappy because the leg room was little (I think only my parents who sat in front with the driver were comfortable).
It was a 4-hour drive from the border to Bangkok and we were all dropped off at Khao San road, just a walk away from our hotel. The bus ride from Siem Reap to the border was nice - we started at 9 am, and enjoyed the view. But from the border onwards (within Thailand) it wasn't as pleasant. With all the waiting, and evening traffic in and near Bangkok, the whole journey took nearly 12 hours.
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So this was all just based on my personal experience. You'll of course have a different experience if you ask travel agencies to do everything for you. Just like when my family and I did a Euro-tour a few years ago, we prefer to fly into one country then plan our next move on a day to day basis. We feel that this way, we have more time to explore rather than being at the mercy of a tour guide's watch. I hope you found these tips useful. If you have questions, feel free to write me a message through the message box on the right side of the page :)