Hang Tep Travel - Bangkok to Siem Reap (and back)
- Oct 9, 2017
- 5 min read
We were not going to bore people with the inclusion of this bus journey in the blog, however our experience was so abysmal that we strongly felt others who may consider the journey ought to read this as a warning. The cost of the ticket was 500 Baht (or $15) which we thought was significantly cheaper than the flight and besides we had done longer, more arduous journeys in Madagascar... surely. Boy were we wrong, here is a detailed account of how utterly unscrupulous Hang Tep Travel are. It is important to mention that we had read about all the possible points of being ripped off on the land crossing and felt prepared for these.
First Con: Phoney Visa Payment
Around four hours after leaving Bangkok you will arrive at some place a kilometre before the actual border and be asked to disembark from the bus. The "guide" will then ask you for your passport and to pay a fee of $45 that is around $15 higher than the actual price of the Cambodian visa on arrival ($30). Now bearing in mind that we had read about this we smiled and said that we would happily walk to the border to get it ourselves and meet the bus on the other side. The "guide" suddenly got very aggressive with one of us and threatened us by saying that the bus would not wait on the other side if we did it by ourselves. How professional.
Tip to overcome the first con: apply for the Cambodian e-visa.
Second and Third Cons: ATMs and Dodgy Exchange Rates
Next up the group will be walked by the "guide" to a row of ATMs and in a insufferable, patronising group meeting he will tell you about how ATMs in Cambodia will only dispense USD and charge you a fortune per withdrawal, and that you'll also be ripped off if you wait to withdraw until Siem Reap as prices in Cambodian Riel are different to prices in USD. Instead, you are strongly recommended to withdraw Thai Baht on this side of the border and exchange it (for no commission) on the other side. Of course, when you get to Siem Reap you realise that there is no such discrepancy in the exchange rate and that you can pay in either USD or Cambodian Riel interchangeably, while also being able to withdraw Cambodian Riel from the ATM. So why is he making you take out money now? Well the answer to that leads me to Con number 3. Soon after crossing the border you will make a stop at an "exchange bureau" which we are pretty sure are relatives of the so-called "guide". Here you will exchange all the Baht you took out to the local currency at a much lower (roughly 25%) exchange rate . Essentially you've just been robbed and ain't nothing you can do about it.
Tip to overcome these cons: Keep your USD/THB and exchange it in Siem Reap at a reputable place or just withdraw Cambodian Riel there. ATM fees in Siem Reap are no different to those in Thailand. Know your exchange rate.
Fourth Con: Toilet Breaks
Once across the border, you will make almost half a dozen "toilet breaks" where someone will come on the bus and shout at you that you HAVE to get off. Then once you have used the toilet you will be dragged into the shop and coerced into purchasing something. By stop number 3 we were all fed up. There was no need to stop every 20 minutes for a toilet break and it was obvious that Hang Tep Travel had some sort of deal with these small businesses. By this point we refused to get off the bus, which angered the "guide" some more. To make matters worse, big boxes were being loaded into the back seats and we were asked to squash into the front.
Final Con: Tuk-Tuk to Hostel
Included in our ticket was the transfer from the bus station to the hostel we were staying at. We got off, all irritable at how a 6 hour journey turned into a 12 hour nightmare, and loaded our baggage onto the Tuk-Tuk and showed him the address. The driver seemed friendly enough and asked whether we wanted a tour of Angkor Wat for the next day. After saying that we were pretty tired and would have to think about it first he stopped the Tuk-Tuk and got off. He started to get visibly angry that we wouldn't take his tour and in a bizarre move attempted to convince us that there was no other way to do it. Finally, after a few minutes he started the Tuk-Tuk again and drove us to somewhere near the Night Market, where he stopped and told us to get out. Our hostel was still another kilometre away and by this point it was already 10pm and none of us had signal or maps. We told him that it was included in the ticket that he take us to the hostel and that we did not know where it was. He ignored us, unpacked our bags in a brooding manner akin to a sulking toddler and told us to get off. So we ended up having to walk the rest of the way asking kind strangers for directions.
The return journey
The hostel we stayed at was quite decent (see next post) and so when we booked our return to Bangkok through them we did not expect to find ourselves on Hang Tep Travel again. Unluckily for us this is exactly what happened. The return journey couldn't be as bad as the outbound one as there was no need for a visa and there was no room for currency nonsense. However, they managed to exceed their own ineptitude once more. Having booked the direct bus, which meant our luggage would go through and we would simply have to pass immigration and rejoin the bus on the other side, we theoretically should have had smooth sailing all the way to Bangkok. Instead once at the border we were given red stickers and told to meet the bus on the other side and carry all our luggage through, completely contrary to what we had been told. Once on the other side the bus was not there and we, along with some Russians, were left wandering just what the hell was going on. After around an hour someone came running from KFC to tell us everyone was in there waiting. Another hour passed and 15 of us were all crammed into a small minivan and driven the rest of the way to Bangkok. Not a single person on the bus was happy, having been deceived once more by this shambolic excuse for a company.
To conclude, you might actually be able to find flights to Siem Reap from Bangkok that will end up being cheaper than this fraudulent company. AVOID HANG TEP TRAVEL!
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