1

Road is great

2

Taxis only no buses from what I hear, expect to pay about $15-20 to SR. Please report back as to how you get on.

3

Thanks. We plan to do it on Novemeber 19th so will let you know.

4

Here are details for anyone interested in crossing the Thai/Cambodian border at Chong Jom/ O Smach border.  We used public transport.

Made this crossing today.  Except for a corrupt man selling visas it was a piece of cake.  We left Surin at 6:50 on a lovely bus.  The times posted don't match the actual departure times, so ask at the ticket booth labeled "Surin -Chong Jom" (in English!)  Cost was 60 baht ($2) per person.  Great road, and an hour and a half later the bus dropped us right at the border.  There were four farange crossing from our bus, two Estonians and us.   We were walked to the visa booth by a man hoping to sell us onward transport.  He was very helpful.  We did the paper work, pulled out $22 US and handed it to the visa man.  The two women ahead of us agreed to pay the 1000 baht demanded and had no issues.  As this comes out to over $30 US we stuck to our guns and insisted we had no baht and that the price was $20 (the official price)  and added a $2 bribe.  The visa guy insisted equally hard that we had to pay 1000 baht each.  We insisted we couldn't, as we had no baht,, and he finally murmured that $25 would be OK.  If he were pocketing the extra $10 to buy rice for his kids I wouldn't mind in the least, but this bastard was dripping in gold jewelry.  We still came out about $12  ahead of the Estonians.  Then we walked across the road to get our arrival/ departure card.  Filled it out, got it stamped (no charge!) and we were on our way.   At this point our helper introduced us to a driver with an air con Toyota Camry.  We didn't have much leverage to bargain as there weren't many cars around, but he came down a bit, and we settled on 2200 baht for all four of us with delivery to our hotels in Siem Reap.  This took about 2 1/2 hours as we missed a turn and backtracked a bit.  Great road the whole way.  Wouldn't hesitate to do this again.

5

Great, report thanks for that. So many people never report back on their findings. Taxi seems a bit steep, but like you said you're not always in a position to bargain. Cheers

6

We had asked around in Surin about share taxis in O Smach. We heard everything from 1200 to 2500 baht for two people. We asked our hotel in Siem Reap to arrange something for us, but they never replied. A fellow in Surin who said he had the name and number of a driver also failed to come through, though both are options you could try. Safe journeys.

7

We have done the Surin-Siem Reap trip too and tell our story: Surin to border 60 Baht with Minibus, leaves every 30min or so from the bus station in Surin town. At the border just forget about ANY facilitator and go strait through to VISA booth on the left side and fill out the VISA application form: Type "T" for tourist @ 20 US, Type "E" for business @ 25 US. Luckily no corrupt officer on duty. Then you cross the street and go to Immigration booth where you are handed out Arrival Card and Departure Card. Fill out and hand over to the officer who will stamp you in. No fees paid.
For the transport to Siem Reap you need to be a little lucky at the time you arrive. Quite a few taxis (5) available when we arrived, price was 1200 Baht or 40 Dollar for 4 Persons with a quite new Camry. Nice trip. Driver delievered us each (we were two groups) to our hotel downtown. Talking to other travellers in Siem Reap you could squeeze it down to 1000 Baht.