Angkor
Battambang
Beach
   Beach+
Bokor
Cambodia
Democracy
Mekong
Phnom Penh
Phnom Chisor
Ratanakiri
Siem Reap
Sihanoukville
Tonle Sap

Child
China - Cambodia
Currency
Dance
Food
History
Khmer
New Year
    Festival
Prison Khmer  
    Rouge
Tomb Raider
Travel
Vacation
Women

Cambodia Travel "Motodops", Buses, Taxis and Cheap Flights

In the last few years travel in Cambodia has become much less arduous than in years gone by with the continual improvement of the roads. Buses taxis and 'Motodops' (shortened to moto's) are running at faster speeds and they are not the body shaking, teeth rattling odysseys anymore for the most part.

The major exceptions would be the route from Poipet to Angkor Wat probably one of the worst road and the overland route to Sihanoukville from Bangkok via Trat Thailand.

With more Cambodia tourism, which has been growing in double digits for many years now, the flights and air routes into Cambodia have more potential passengers, which have increased the competition, which has resulted in some of the cheapest flights to Cambodia in quite a while.

Cambodia trips using buses both the mini bus and the big commercial busses are getting to be a higher quality, and new bus companies are forcing the older companies to improve their equipment in order to compete.

Taxis like wise are improving as the western tourist demand a better quality, you can be fairly certain of getting a taxi is not that adventure travel anymore and inside Cambodia travel meets a minimum standard that has much improved from the old days, means everything is ready for your Cambodia vacation especially when doing a Cambodia tour to. If you want to have hot nightlife you better try Phuket nightlife.

I remember one time that they had taken the seat belt and secured it behind the molding of the door frame, making it totally useless, this kind of modification was not

Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar or Burma.

The nearest discount travel destination to Cambodia is for sure Bangkok Airport which also somehow serves as a regional hub for discount flights.

As always in Cambodia remember to be vigilant when you travel if it seems wrong often times it is trust your intuition and do the smart thing. Author Fred Tittle at Asia adventure tours, http://www.ecosea.com

Sailing in Cambodia and Thailand - Deserted Beaches

and Aquamarine Seas.

Traveling by road from Bangkok via the ferry from Laem Ngop to

We arrived at Thida's base at Salak Phet where she was moored by the side of a Thai seafood restaurant. Thida is a 44 feet yacht built in Pattaya, Thailand in 1986 which was to carry us on our journey through the sparkling waters of the Gulf of Thailand for the next 6 days.

As the captain and assistants stowed the luggage for our Cambodia trip and made final preparations for the voyage, we had a delicious lunch with great Thai food.  Captain Ralf joined us for a beer bearing the same name as the island '“ Chang. A glance at the Cambodia travel chart quickly reveals the origin of the name as the island is shaped like an elephant's head, 'chang' being the Thai word for elephant.

We were drinking elephant beer on Elephant Island. We discussed options for the impending cruise and, decisions made; we cast off at 8pm just as the full moon was rising over the mountain and picked our way across calm, silvery seas of the Gulf of Thailand through the small islands that make up the Koh Chang archipelago. 4 hours of atmospheric, moonlit cruising under power later, we dropped the anchor and chain into black, shimmering waters of a very sheltered bay on the south western tip of Koh Kut The plan was to head for Koh Tang which was as far from home port that

 we would travel and then slowly work our way back to Koh Chang. This was the reason for the 4 hour trip to our anchorage and why we needed an early start in the morning.

Dawn broke around 6am and very soon afterwards the rattle of chain as the winch hauled up the anchor signaled our departure from our very scenic anchorage. We set a course of 155 degrees across the Gulf of Thailand to Koh Tang under steady throb of the Volvo Penta engine.

The wind direction was south east prohibiting the use of sail as we had an estimated 14 hour journey through the Gulf of Thailand at 6 knots to reach Koh Tang. The early morning cloud that was to be an almost daily feature gradually dissipated leaving behind 

a hot blue sky. Wind and wave height increased gradually slowing our speed and lengthening our journey until we decided that Koh Tang was becoming just a little beyond our comfortable reach for that day opting instead to raise sail and head East for Koh Rong.

With jib and mainsail aloft, Thida steadied in the beam seas providing a more comfortable journey as we sped across the now Cambodian water at 6-7 knots.

The next day the travel was to round the point and motored a few miles down the eastern side of the island

and took the dinghy ashore to visit a fishing village. The village epitomised how the fisher folk of Cambodia had lived remote from the mainland for hundreds of years scratching a living from the sea. Our curiosity with the village was equally matched by the villagers themselves who seemed happy at seeing such strange visitors.

A posse of Cambodian children soon followed our every move and gently jostled each other to gain prime position whenever our cameras were raised to take a photo. This was followed by laughter and squeals of delight as we showed them the result. The adults also got in on the act usually transforming a toothy or toothless grin into a solemn, proud pose for the photo before breaking out into the same grin again.

We moved on our Cambodian cruise with a good wind to reach the port of Kampong Som or Sihanoukville to give its most recent name. The port was established in the 1950's and is also Cambodia's major coastal resort with several beautiful beaches of its own once frequented by the pre Pol Pot middle class of Phnom Penh.

The captain had radioed his Cambodian agent as we approached who was waiting with the necessary official papers.

There then followed a troupe of Cambodian officials representing various agencies, customs, health, immigration etc. each of whom received their 'gratuity' for ensuring the smooth processing of the necessary official documentation. 

Actually we were registered as entering and leaving Cambodia on the same day which effectively meant that we did not have to stop in Sihanoukville again on our departure from Cambodia. Official business over, we spent some time exploring Sihanoukville before returning to Thida now lying serenely anchored off one of the beaches.

That evening, we ate excellent seafood and soup cooked by ourselves on a table top BBQ at one of the Cambodian beachside restaurant for U.S. $3 each accompanied by the local Anchor (the 'ch' is pronounced as in 'cheers' which differentiates it from the rival Angkor beer).

On our Cambodia travel tour we anchored off the fishing village in Koh Samit which, although Cambodian territory, was founded by Thai fishermen deciding as a precaution against collision to leave the navigation lights on in preference to the anchor light and hit the sack. A squally storm had us back on deck at around 3am to let out more anchor chain. Satisfied that the anchor was holding it was back to bed 

until around 5am when a tremendous crash brought us hurriedly on deck again just in time to see a fishing boat reversing off the stern and speeding away at full throttle. Initial thoughts of giving chase were soon sensibly discounted given our location, as we inspected the damage which appeared to be all above the waterline. Under the eerie glow of the aft, white navigation light that appeared to have acted as a magnet for the fishing boat as it seemed he had headed straight for it.

Our inspection revealed that the bathing platform was smashed the ladder having completely disappeared, the aft safety railing had been partially wrenched from the deck, one of the davits was gruesomely twisted at an angle pointing away from the boat and there was a deep V in stern where the fibreglass and teak had been splintered. It could have been worse as it appeared that the fishing boat had almost mounted our stern at an angle with the help of the bathing platform, rather than a full blooded smack by his prow.

We had been sleeping inches from where he hit but thankfully no-one was injured and he had also missed the dinghy with outboard engine attached. We assume that the captain of the fishing boat was drunk, which would appear to be a regular occurrence judging by all the empty liquor bottles we saw in the fishing village in Koh Rong and it was the only explanation we could think of for smashing into a yacht anchored under full navigation lights. Sleep was abandoned as we waited for dawn to recheck the damage which proved to be no worse than we already thought so we motored off in light drizzle across a dead flat sea.

The drizzle was gone by 9am and the sun came out to cheer our passage to the north eastern coast of Koh Kut, an island to the south east of Koh Chang, and another delightful bay where we stopped and swam and explored as before. We were now back in Thai waters and moved to a deep water bay to moor against a rickety landing stage by a restaurant of sorts in a fishing village. Dinner consisted of some of the freshest crabs and prawns, deliciously cooked Thai style with chilli and other spices, that we had ever tasted. We anchored in this deep bay undaunted by the previous night's events and had a thankfully peaceful night waking to warm sunshine on the last day of our adventure.

It was not so far from Thida's base and so we had time to stop for snorkelling and swimming at Koh Rang a popular day trip for these activities before briefly visiting beautiful Koh Wai. We arrived back at Salat Phet and had lots of time to reflect on our voyage during the 6 hour road and ferry journey back to Bangkok.

Memories of this trip will always linger '“ shimmering, silver, azure and aquamarine seas, powdery, white beaches, crystal clear waters and friendly Cambodians not to mention something that went "bump" in the night!

Visit my website for access to Cambodia pictures of the trip.

Author Kevin Hellon has a website offering accounts of other interesting places to visit at http://kevinhellon.googlepages.com/home

Indochinese countries promote overland travel tours.

In 1989, following the end of the Cold War and civil wars in Indochina, then Thai Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan advocated transforming Indochina ''from a battlefield into a marketplace.''

The slogan, once dismissed as a mere pipe dream, has gradually become a reality as governments in the region work to improve infrastructure and facilitate the movement of goods and people.
Earlier this year, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam jointly organized a 33-vehicle caravan to tour those three countries by land -- the highlight of the journey being a visit to Cambodia's famed temples of Angkor, a World
 Heritage Site.

It took about four hours to traverse the 150-kilometer stretch of torturous road between the Cambodian town of Poipet, on the Thai border, and Cambodia's travel major tourist hub of Siem Reap, also in the northwest of the country.

As the dry season had begun in the region, farmers could be seen harvesting rice from golden paddy fields. Children carried farming tools to go work in the fields while others fished in ponds.

Most of the shabby houses along the dusty road were covered by reddish dirt and built on cement stilts, presumably to keep them dry during floods.

The western part of Cambodia was formerly under control of the now-defunct Khmer Rouge, held responsible for the deaths of more than 1.7 million Cambodians during their harsh rule in the late 1970s. It was only in the last decade that guerrillas gave up their arms and the area was opened up to outsiders.

According to Cambodian Tourism Minister Lay Prohas, construction work on the road from Poipet is scheduled to be completed within two years.

''Although it's a dirt road, you can do 60-80 kilometers an hour. It's quite comfortable,'' he claimed. ''But soon, within one to two years, traveling between Thailand and Cambodia from Poipet to Siem Reap will take only two hours.''

Cambodia has secured a soft loan from Thailand to improve the road at a cost of some 1.7 billion baht (about $42.5 million). ''We're politically committed to this project,'' Lay Prohas said.

The Cambodian government plans to build more roads for Cambodia travel tours linking Siem Reap to towns on or near the border with Thailand, including between Siem Reap and O'Smach, and between Siem Reap and Anlong Veng, he said.

Siem Reap is a fast-growing Cambodia travel town that welcomed about 500,000 tourists in 2004, a year when Cambodia as a whole received 1 million tourists. The tourism minister estimated 35 percent growth last year and projected that by the year 2010, Cambodia will have 4 million tourists, about half of them traveling to Siem Reap.

"On their Cambodia travel statistics, 50 percent of tourists choose Siem Reap. Therefore, the government is actively improving our infrastructure,'' he said.

Sompong Sanguanbun, Thailand's consul general in southern Vietnam's economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City, said the Mekong region has huge potential for economic growth and Indochinese countries are keen to accelerate free-market reforms.

''In the next five years, we expect to see more intraregional land transportation and travel within this region,'' Sompong said.

As part of the Indochina's so-called East-West Corridor, tour operators have recently begun overland tours from Thailand's northeastern Mukdahan Province to Savannakhet in southern Laos and across to the central Vietnamese coastal town of Hue.

To travel from Thai border town of Aranyaprathet into Cambodia, travelers have to switch to Cambodian buses on the other side of border in Poipet as the two countries have not resolved traffic impediments. Thailand uses the left-side-of-the-road driving rule while vehicles in Cambodia and Vietnam drive on the right side.

''It's not convenient for passengers and we hope to be able to check through in the near future,'' said Ho Vandy, president of the Cambodian Association of Travel Agents.

Currently, 45-seat air-conditioned coaches operate two roundtrips daily between Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City. It costs $10 for a one-way ticket. The service is set to be expanded to Siem Reap.

To facilitate smooth traveling in the region, authorities admit they need to improve not only transport routes but also visa and immigration procedures by harmonizing border formalities for travelers and vehicles.

Sompong said Mekong Basin countries participating in the Greater Mekong Subregion scheme, or GMS, are drafting a regional agreement on harmonizing international driving licenses and license plates. The six GMS members are Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, along with China's Yunnan Province,
''I hope that through the GMS and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) collaboration, we'll be able to solve all the problems,'' he said. ''If we successfully tackle the problems, it'll be easier for the people to make use of the (Poipet to Siem Reap) road.''

ASEAN leaders agreed in 2003 to grant visa exemptions for ASEAN citizens but until now that vision has not been materialized. Cambodia, for example, has not agreed to give up its visa requirement for Thai and Vietnamese visitors.

Under a basic bilateral agreement between Thailand and Vietnam expected to be signed in the near future, Vietnamese cars will be allowed to enter the northeastern part of Thailand through Route 9 of the East-West Corridor, which passes through the Lao Bao border gate between Vietnam and Laos, through Savannakhet and then to Mukdahan.

Likewise, Vietnam will allow right-hand-drive cars from Thailand to enter the central part of Vietnam, according to Sompong. The Thai consul also pointed out, however, that Vietnam still has no agencies to issue international driving licenses.

Some tour operators in the region have expressed concern that overland tourism in the region might attract merely backpackers, but authorities say that among backpackers are those who have potential to revisit the region when they become wealthier.

But a tourism expert who requested anonymity said it will be an uphill task for countries in the region to promote the overland tourism among Mekong countries.

''It is the policy of government. It is a political-driven project rather than a market-driven policy. It is not truly realistic, but the state tourism agencies have to carry on their promotion campaign efforts,'' the expert said.
COPYRIGHT Kyodo News International, Inc. COPYRIGHT Gale Group