15 December 2015. Giant Ibis to Siem Reap

I'd booked the 12.30 Giant Ibis bus to Siem Reap as reviews on the internet spoke highly of their service. They even pick you up from your hotel and take you to the terminus from where the big bus leaves.

Or do they. The instruction was to be waiting at 11.30. I was. Still waiting at 12.00, In asked the hotel to give them a call. "They're on their way". 12.20, still no pickup; another call; same response. I must admit I'd lost faith by now and fully imagined the main bus bowling along its merry way with me lost in translation. But no. At about 12.35 ther pickup bus arrived. I was the last pickup and we rushed through Phnom Penh with the driver getting instructions or advice from the guy at the back.

So we all piled onto the big bus and off we went. I must admit it was not a luxurious as the reports suggested and luckily I wwas sitting next to someone thin. The road - equivalent to the A1
or A5 - was tarmac for sttretches but also compacted soil for stretches - which meant that the verges and houses for a good 50 metres from the road were covered in red dust. The poor people living there must love it.  So I was glad to have chosen the bus and not one of the minivans.

The view was lovely - mainly countryside and what looked like a flood plain - very flat and fertile.

We arrived half an hour late - as we had set off - and luckily my tuk tuk was there to meet me. The hotel seems lovely and in the same modernist mold as the one in Phnom Penh - but this time I am on the top floor which is more to my liking.

The town of Siem Reap, at first glance, seems great fun - very touristy, in the way of Chiang Mai, Luang Prubang and Hoi An.