travel to Siem Reap Cambodia from Malaysia by train ..part XIII

{Lone Ranger Finding His Loving Wife}

......continued from part XII

After I'd done my pre-plan in Bangkok, I started moving on to the next destination - Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia, a country located at the east of Bangkok.

Before I checked out from Bangkok, I read on a time-schedule of the train going to eastern part, which is Aranyaprathet to be specific. This town will connected tourists to the border of Thailand-Cambodia.

Bangkok train Eastern Line Timetable

As you can see in the timetable above, there was only 2 trains available everyday. Either be it 5:55am or 1:05pm. Definitely I chosen the earlier one because I could reached Cambodia early. And for your information, the Cambodian immigration check-point is closed in the evening time. So, if you reach there late after it closed, then you have to stay an overnight in Aranyaprathet.

NOTE: Tourists may request a piece of this timetable at ticket counter in Hua Lamphong railway station

So, I have to wake up very early on the next day. Before that, I need to book a hotel in Siem Reap, Cambodia. You probably may curious why this ranger didn't book early (always have to wait til last minute) and get a cheaper price. Well, it's a say in Chinese "we don't know what may happen tomorrow" , hopefully the good thing comes. I normally book the first hotel for my first destination early in advance if my itinerary is split into various destinations. Then I will do my second and next hotel's booking once (if) I have reached the first destination.

So, I scrolled on my smartphone with a slip of my early written shortlisted hotels on the other hand, and chosen this ..(advice: do the shortlisted before you travel, write it down on a piece paper) 

Bayon Boutique Hotel, Siem Reap price at RM146 per night @ agoda.com

After booked the hotel, then I have to pre-book a taxi. This is a must because I must reach the rail station before the train departed at 5:55am. So, I kept on scrolling on my smartphone and found two useful taxi-booking apps to be downloaded. 1. GrabTaxi and second one I forgot the name & had deleted it recently. 
Tell you what, I almost unable to book any taxi even with that two apps. Probably it was too early for taxi driver to response to the request on apps, or probably the pick-up time was too early. So how? Never mind, there's still a plan B where I could take the afternoon train. 
However, I never given up and kept clicking the request button on the apps every 1 hour, while on the hand I intercom the hotel Receptionist to ask for if there was any hotel-connection's taxi available. Normally some hotels have good connection with taxi or private cab to transport tourists, but unfortunately the Receptionist replied (after an hour) that no driver respond. Never mind la, keep trying ...
Finally, until 3am plus, I succeed to get a driver's respond on the GrabTaxi apps .. (blessed!)

Grabtaxi booking

Then I could rest at least for an hour before check-out.
The driver was punctual to arrive at the hotel front door at 5:00am and driven me to reach at the Hua Lamphong railway station at around 5:10am. Blessed ! I must thanked this driver, I even given him extra tips but he refused to take "No tips, No tips." . Wow ! Met a good guy early in the morning, sign of a good brighter day. 

It is about 300km from Bangkok to the border of Cambodia. The train from Hua Lamphong railway station to Aranyaprathet only cost me 48 Thai Baht (less than RM6) for this long of distance, would you believe ? However, then I started very curious what-type of train is it ..

Bangkok to Cambodia border train ticket @ 48TB

The 48TB train looked like this ...

Hua Lamphong rail station Lone Ranger's selfie @ 5:30am 

Hua Lamphong rail station @ 5:30am

Hua Lamphong to Aranyaprathet train internal view

Hua Lamphong to Aranyaprathet train internal view

Not bad, comfort, with adjustable chairs and toilet insided. I checked on other coach of the train, and found that adjustable chairs were not available on all coaches, so tourists have to be smart & 'sit tight' early on your chair before it fly off ~

After I 'sit tight' and bit of tired without enough sleep, I slowly falls asleep...

Until midway, the rain flaws in splashing my face and waken me up, then I pulled down the wooden window besides me and continue my 'train-sleeping journey'.

On and off, there were hawkers hopped into the train while the train stopped-by at some intermediate stations. Hawkers kept asking passengers to buy food stuffs. Blessed, I hadn't taken any breakfast, I bought a bowl of rice with a piece of omelette ( 荷包蛋 ) and a plate of steamed groats chicken ( 香料辣肉碎 ) . Wo! Tell you what, you must try this, the groats meat was so aromatic with little spicy. Delicious! Stomach full already, then I continued my dream ~~

photo courtesy of yourkrabi.com

After about 6 hours on the train, the train finally reached at the Aranyaprathet station. I hopped onto a 'songthaew' (a passenger truck), and it driven me together with another 3 passengers to the immigration checkpoint at the Thailand-Cambodia border.

It was only a 5-10 minutes drive, cost was 50TB, the 'songthaew' stopped aside, and the driver fingerly-pointed the direction to show me the building of Thailand Immigration checkpoint where is 100 meters in front. 

Thailand Cambodia border map. Click onto the map to enlarge.

So, I just followed the queue but still have to be smart. Some locals (residents near border) will queue on another 'fast lane', maybe their process is faster without passport ? maybe.. For expats, we have to walk up to another floor level in the building (marked as no." 1 " in the picture above ) for passport process.

After the Thais officer chopped my passport, I walked down from the floor. Then ...... I KNOCKED MY HEAD onto an overhead column which was not 'over'head high enough.

picture illustrated similar to the overhead column

While I was turning left from a corridor (after walking down staircase from departures upper-floor) to follow to a narrow corridor, I accidentally knocked my head onto an edge of a column (which is similar to the column edge as illustrated in the picture above). KhongG !! Then I used my fingers to knead on the pain part, Ops! Wet! Bleeding already... and quite a lot. 

So how then ? Now I had already 'considered' out of Thailand territory after passport 'chopped', where to go ? clinic ? or at least washroom .. ok .. no panic.. I made up my mind to cross the border first, then try to get help in Cambodia territory.

Argg! First blood in no way

I used my handkerchief to press on the bleeding part, then kept walking.. and passing by a bridge while there were a lot of locals with motorcycles pursuing tourists to take on their rides to reach to the Cambodian Immigration checkpoint which is 400 meters away. 
I had read on website that tourists have to be extremely caution while passing by this bridge because of scams, conman and thieves. 
However, a few of the locals were kind enough to offer me help to tight up my wound to stop the bleeding, and they'd never for any money.

So, you see... there is always some good persons around too; think positively.

There were a few casino buildings along the way. Whatnot, Poipet, is a city permitted with casinos in Cambodia.

Then, I reached a queuing site near the Cambodian Immigration counter. Before that, if you are not a tourist from Asean countries, you might need to apply for Visa. The visa counter is just 100 meters before the immigration counter (see the map above, marked as No. " 2 " ) . For Malaysian or other Asean, just walked straight passing the Visa counter and follow the queue.

There you are, after the passport stuffs, then you are permitted to entry Cambodia.
Blessed! With great heart, I had gone so far away and crossing to another country which is thousands miles from home ~ ~

Then I have to find a clinic to check my bleeding head. I asked the locals around the roundabout area, and found it very strange that seem nobody had a correct answer for "doctor" or "clinic" .. But I never given up, finally a pharmacist storekeeper direct me to a clinic (or small hospital) which is not too far from the roundabout. It seems that it should be more easy to find a pharmacist than a doctor in Cambodia.
After waiting for almost an hour in the corridor outside the clinic, a casual-look-alike-farmer doctor came down from upper floor and treat my wound. After he done a proper clean up & injected a tetanus ( 破伤风针 ), but no need stitches ( 缝针 ), then he asked for 5 USD. 
In Malaysia, the only few things we proud to have is its medical benefit which our government subsidy for medical treatment in any government-run clinics and general hospitals. So, we pay only RM1 (equivalent ~USD0.25) for usual treatment in government-run clinics, or else if you can't wait long, then just pay RM50 (roughly) in private doctor-clinic.

So, there you see, every place has its good & bad element. Thinks positive, open your heart, open your eyes and you'll see different thing.

... to be continued

(click, back to episode 1) travel to Bangkok->Siem Reap from Malaysia by train ..part I

(current page) travel to Siem Reap Cambodia from Malaysia by train ..part XIII

(click) travel to Siem Reap Cambodia from Malaysia by train ..part XIV