Trip Report to Siem Reap Dec 2018

[Guest]

Siem Reap

My plan had been to take the train from Phnom Penh up to Battambang, with the recently reinstated service. however, it is suspended until January for line repairs. So I decided to go to Siem Reap instead.

I took the well reviewed Giant Ibis bus service from Phnom Penh.

This costs $15, compared with the $7 for a regular bus, like Sorya, whom I have used in the past.

The Giant Ibis bus was very disapointing and I cannot recommend it. OK, there were no additional stops for passengers, but the bus drove at a snails pace & took 7 hours, on fairly quiet Sunday roads. During the trip, we were overtaken by at least 10 other full size buses all of which went away from us at quite a pace. Charging a premium price for a slow bus is a strange business model.

 

And in case anyone thinks slow is safe, well the other Giant Ibis bus at our lunch stop had crash damage at the REAR of the bus. The price of being a rolling road block.

I have been perfectly happy with the cheaper buses on the 10 or so trips in Cambodia previously and will be going back to them. Giant Ibis sucks.

 

Hotel

I stayed at the Aspara Dream Hotel. This was booked at short notice and was $17 a night. Compact rooms, swimming pool, good location, with excellent coffee shops nearby and a short walk to the centre. Room safe, no problems with joiners. However, a big demerit for the "cleaners", who see their role as to wake people up before 9:00 am, so they can fiddle around, not clean anything properly & sit in the corridor on their smart phones later on in the morning.

Since the closure of Ei8ht Rooms, the gay accommodation is all in the $60, $100 or even higher range. In Cambodia, acceptable rooms elsewhere can be had for a lot less than this.

 

 

 

Bars

Mrs Wong. I think this is the longest surviving gay bar, but it's customers are so diverse, it's unrecognisable as a gay bar.

Barcode: A real gay bar. Unfortunate lady boy shows. Some cute boys amongst the customers.

Heaven & Dreamboys. Large bar further out of town. Fan cooled, which is fine in December. At least a dozen staff, some very cute. Shows are OK with mix of shirtless boys and the dreaded ladyboys. I was advised that all of the staff were available, but wasn't really in the mood as a twisted ankle was causing some pain (thankfully OK next day).

 

Saunas

I did not visit Blue Hatha Spa, as some poor google reviews reminded me of the terrible massage I received here about 5 years ago.

 

MENs Resort & Spa. $5 entry (for people not staying at the hotel). Padlock loops on the lockers, so you can use your own padlock.

Very nice facilities, done to a high standard. Not many customers when I arrived at about 17:30, but quite a few locals were arriving just as I was changing to leave at 19:00. None of them were quite cute enough to persuade me to change my plans. I cannot imagine this business is particularly profitable, with lots of capital sank into it and not much evidence of many customers, despite very nice facilities.

 

At least one other male spa has either closed, or at least lost all internet presence since my last visit.

 

Phone Apps.

The first lad on the apps asked for just $20, so I invited him around. Seeing him, I decided close inspection of the ID card was needed. The birth date was in Khmer numbers, but I already had a character table saved & once I figured out it was a 199?, all was OK. He was very sweet, but a little short on performance. $20 was fair though.

 

The next lad said he was a top. Then he said he could bottom, when I said I was top. Also, he could do kissing and cock sucking. He quoted $40, but I said I already had another lad for $20, so he immediately dropped the price to $20 & we continued the conversation on another night.

 

Then (summarized):

Him: "You can fuck me if your dick is not too big"

Me: "Can you do mouth to mouth kissing for a long time ?"

Him: "Can do kissing if your mouth is clean"

Me: "If you come here and kiss a lot and suck my cock until I come, you can have the $20. If you find some excuse not to, it is $0"

Him: Interactive "No. Lucky for me."

Me: "Kiss & suck $20. No kissing and no sucking $0. I don't pay $20 for showing up."

End of conversation. Someone who promised he could do everything was not prepared to meet on the basis that the customer actually expected him to keep his side of the bargain to get paid.

 

Look out for excuses ! Incidentally, had he asked for $30 and committed to provide the promised services I would have been happy. He lost all interest when I made it clear he really had to keep promises to get paid.

 

Massage

I saw loads of cute lads in a mixed massage place on pub street. Walked in and asked for a MALE masseur. Was shown upstairs. A noisy Russian couple also arrived, but thankfully they were put off, probably by the very thin curtains that did not offer much privacy. A female massuse arrived. I sent her away & then another female one arrived. I sent her away and left. This place got 3 customers upstairs & failed to complete a massage & earn a fee from any of them.

 

Then moved onto a place around the corner. There are 2 mixed massage places next to each other and I had my first ever oil massage at one of them on an earlier trip. I still remember his first massage stroke all the way up my leg and butt crack. Anyway, I spoke directly to a lad outside the other shop and had a fairly good massage with him. I asked for 90 minutes at $12, but got 60 minutes and they charged me the 60 minute rate of $8. Tip $15. Maybe the staff priority is to earn tips for themselves, rather than massage fees for the business ? Anyway, I was content.

 

Tonle Sap

I hired a tuk tuk to go down there for $10. Stopped off at a temple on the way. Upon arrival, I was directed into a boat shed packed with Asian tourists & quoted $40 for a boat tour to a floating village, which I figured was no more than 2km away. I declined and walked out of the side door. Walked down the road and found another floating village, not infested with tourists. It's remarkable how the smallest kids play around in boats here.

I have done all the main temples, plus a lot of the outlying ones, so didn't visit any other than the one on the way to Tonle Sap this time.

 

Departure

I left via taxi to Poipet for $40. I wanted to catch the 13:55 train in Aranya Prathet & figured the buses would be too late. Left 7:55; Arrived Poipet at 10:20. The road is transformed since my first visit. Thern it had massive holes up to a metre deep that the car drove through. Now all smooth tarmac and we got up to 70 mph at one point.

 

Short queue at Cambodia customs, <15 min. Long queue at Thai customs, 2 hours 6 minutes !!! Had I arrived on one of the buses later, it could have been worse. Next time I will not exit via this border.

 

100 baht for tuk tuk to Aranya Prathet. 20 baht for train to Kabin Buri. 33 baht for train from Kabin Buri to Bangkok next day. The train is good value & was on time. At some of the quiet stations, it stops for as little as 15 seconds.

Interesting to see how developed the agricullture looks on the Cambodian side, with large fields and rice harvesting machines buzzing away. On the Thai side, it's small fields looking desolate as the rice crop is finished for the season. Only nearer Bangkok is there any sign of a "winter" crop of rice in Thailand.

 

 

Gay Accommodation. There is a printed gay Cambodia booklet which I picked up in one of the bars. Whilst a presence in the booklet guarantees nothing, advertisers of accommodation in Siem Reap are:

Arun Tiny House

The Aviary City Hotel

The Cashewnut Villa

Dom Boutique Hotel

Jay House River Park

Men's Hotel & Resort

Mulberry Boutique Hotel

Natura Resort

Urban Residences

Rambutan

3 Monkeys (Gay men only)

Viroths

[Davidsteel99]

Thank you z909 great report.

[pong]

Nice and informative report, also from PnPn.

As for BUS from Aran-> BKK: these are plenty and also run till around dusk (from there) plus that there are now at least 3 thorugh buses direct from SR to BKK, though of course you have to leave the bus at border for the checks-and reboard same bus other side. One of these is again Gt Ibis. Big buses, vans and the casino-buses (direct to near Silom-mostly Bon Kai area) start from Aran/Kleua border, buses take 4 hrs vs train 6.

On a site ''movetocambodia.com, then google for the blogs, you can find all the info.

As for me-it still seems the best performing KHmer guys are to be found here in BKK!

[Guest]

I like train travel. No messing around, no eating stops at the restaurant which pays the biggest back hander. Just smooth progress.

 

Also, I think there is considerable value in NOT arriving at this border on a bus as it avoids a whole bus load of passengers in the queue for Thai immigration.

[ChristianPFC]

Great report!

 

100 baht for tuk tuk to Aranya Prathet. 20 baht for train to Kabin Buri. 33 baht for train from Kabin Buri to Bangkok next day.

All trains (two per day) from Aranyaprathet go all the way to Bangkok. You mean you stayed in Kabinburi for one night? But why?

 

I once had boy business there, so I spent one night in Kabinburi. But there is a disadvantage: the railway station is a few km out of town.

[Guest]

I stopped in Kabin Buri mainly to break the trip up. Had I gone all the way to Bangkok in one go, that would have been over 12 hours travelling in one day (from Siem Reap) and I would have arrived at night, so not seen so much out of the train.

 

The hotel in Kabin Buri was about 2 minutes walk from the station and staying in a place with naff all to do gave me a chance to catch up on reading, trip reports etc.

 

Of course I could have just flown to Bangkok, but you see so much more by train.

[Terry4]

Great report!

 

 

All trains (two per day) from Aranyaprathet go all the way to Bangkok. You mean you stayed in Kabinburi for one night? But why?

 

I once had boy business there, so I spent one night in Kabinburi. But there is a disadvantage: the railway station is a few km out of town.

Love your blog Christian,

Can i ask are you retired from work ?

[vinapu]

This costs $15, compared with the $7 for a regular bus, like Sorya, 

The Giant Ibis bus was very disapointing ......... Charging a premium price for a slow bus is a strange business model.

 

probably they employed logic that  premium is charged for  letting  passengers to be longer on the bus

[vinapu]

I like train travel. 

# me too

[Terry4]

I go either by train or bus, unfortunately im not rich like most of you guys on here who dint seem to even have to work , i have to go to work everyday to save

[vinapu]

 unfortunately im not rich like most of you guys on here who dint seem to even have to work , i have to go to work everyday to save

don't look for compassion , at least not from me