CAITA Day 5 Bangkok-Siem Reap "Life in 3rd World"

Day 5 18th Oct BKK – Siem Reap 315 Km

Today our destination is Siem Reap, Cambodia

We started at 6am from BKK as we are concern about the infamous traffic jam. We drove towards Chon Puri, on the Hw 7, and then we joined Hw 304, and eastwards on Hw359
We stopped at 730am to refuel. We took in 39.75 liters. Thus we topped up a total of 132.95 litres and traveled 1028km from Bukit Kayu Hitam averaging 7.73km/l

We arrived at Aranyaprathet at 10am.

The border crossing was quite an event. Clearing Thai Customs was smooth, but the headache started when we crossed over to Poipet Boundary Post.

Here is Poipet, the scene changed completely. The roads after the CIQ were immediately in a state of disrepair. We droved 125km of unpaved roads, pitted with huge potholes, - there were more potholes than flat road. The max. speed we could do was 30km/h. The car really suffered from excessive bumps and vibrations. I am sure the car aged 2 yrs from this treatment. To make matters worse, we were subjected to 15 flood crossing – one of which was so bad, that we could feel that the car float and pushed by the swift flowing water.

The rest of the tarmac rd leading to SiemReap was paved but in poor state.

We finally reach our City Angkor Hotel at 515pm, making it 11 hours to cover 315km

Tomorrow, our destination is Phnom Penh

Ps, we have to wash the car before entering PP otherwise a fine will be imposed

Cheers
William & Harold