Morchit To Aranyapratet - When Is The First & Fastest Bus?

[mrdome]

On Sunday, April 25th I plan to go from Bangkok to Battambang (and possibly all the way to Phnom Penh) by bus. I hear that a bus from Poipet to Battambang only leaves in the morning and I am looking to get a fast bus that takes more like 3hrs and 45 mins and not 5hrs.

The first bus is at 3:30 am it says on several websites. Is this the one to take? I'd love to hear from those who have done this and continued on to Battambang.

Thanks.

[TerraPosse]

I have just been to PP 2 weeks ago on that route. I took the bus from Central Bang Na (alternatively from Lumphini opposite HSBC bank) in the morning. these are buses taking punters to the casinos. The fare to Aranyapratet is 200 Baht and the bus drops you right by the market at the border crossing.

To get the buses to Battambang or PP in Poipet you have to leave on the bus BKK 6 am at the latest. Earlier is better of course. These buses go every half hour or so from 3 or 4am apparently. The last bus to PP (via Battambang) leaves Poipet at 10am I was told this time but I took one at 10.30 last September.

Now to the tricky bit of getting to the bus and not being overcharged in Poipet. After the Cambodian Immigration there is a free shuttle bus that used to drop you off at the bus station in town. Not anymore. This shuttle will take you to some special tourist bus station 9km outside of town. There you can either get a bus or a shared taxi to your destination at a somewhat inflated price no doubt. I didn't stay long enough to find out and took the shuttle back to the border post.

Walk or take a motodup (but do agree on a reasonable fare before [1000 or 2000 riel at the most] because they are asking for truly ridiculous money like 1000 Baht...<deleted>) along the main drag. Both GST and Soraya have their 'bus depots' along this road a few hundred meters from the border where you can (should be able to) buy tickets (GST is first on the left and Soraya a bit further on the right hand side). Tickets to PP here cost 8 U$ if you buy at the bus station they cost 15 U$. Don''t ask me why...TiC. Once you found the Soraya depot then the local bus station is near. Turn left at the next street and 100m or so just over the next crossing there is the bus station on your left hand side.

HTH

[tigerfish]

i travel to poi pet on a regular basis. depending where you live you can catch one of the many buses/coaches to poi -pet that take mostly thais to the casinos there.

i catch my coach from (big-c, central bang-na) at 5.30am in the morning, it costs 200baht and only takes 2 and 3/4 hours to get there. which is just wright because the border doesnt open until 7am. another good thing is that you are dropped virtually at the border, with only a short walk to be made, where as most of the buses stop in aranyarpratet, meaning that you then have to fork out more money for a taxi, tuk-tuk, or motor cycle.

i know these coaches start their journeys well inside bangkok so you have enough time on your hands you could give them a call and pre book.

company names, heng-heng, pc tours and many more dont have them to hand wright now along with tel no.

also you could try jack golf tours i know they have a coach that does a visa run for farangs, maybe you could pay to go on their bus, or they could help you out with some useful tel numbers.

[beejoir]

Get a Taxi, 2500 baht, easy.

[mrdome]

Thank you for your detailed replies. I have thought about the casino bus and will actually be staying near Lumpini the night before but thought these would get to the border too late for the last bus to Battambang.

beejoir, before I pay that kind of dosh just to get to the bloomin border, I'd just fly to PP and get it over with.

However, I fly so much already and would actually like to see a bit of the countryside and may even decide to stop in Battambang, so I've decided to do the overland thing.

[TerraPosse]

Just as an a aside, where you planning to get your Cambodian visa in advance or at the border? There is a whole other money-generating exercise going on with that too.

I must say crossing Aranya to Poipet is a real obstacle course of scammers and touts of all coloeur. Strangely enough coming back you can buy a bus ticket in PP for the whole way PP to BKK and there won't be any hassle going back across that border. If you go for a visa run, getting a visa in the Thai embassy in PP just make sure you have some time at your hands.

Contact me if you need to know more details.

[mrdome]

I wanted to get the online visa to avoid that hassle, TerraPosse.

I used to visit that border plenty of times in 2001 when I lived in Bangers.

[TerraPosse]

I wanted to get the online visa to avoid that hassle, TerraPosse.

I used to visit that border plenty of times in 2001 when I lived in Bangers.

Try it but I recently read a few posts on forums with people having difficulties with the e-visa site.

But definitely a good idea to get it beforehand.  They like to ask for 1000 Baht as visa fee at the border as well as in the embassy.  If you insist to pay 20U$ they will still try and scam you out of a few hundred Baht extra (under the pretext of a fee for 'express' visa...hhmmm) . It took me about 20 min of friendly banter to convince them I ain't paying a Baht more than the 20 U$ it costs to get the Visa.  Having a few Cambodian Visas in my passport helped to convince them that I knew what the score was.

[mrdome]

Used to do many visa runs to Poipet and eat in one of the casino's for free after a Malaysian clued me in about exchanging enough to get a food voucher. The border agents will want their extra income, that's for sure.