Bangkok to Cambodia

Whether or not you cycle out of Bangkok depends on how much of a challenge you are looking for! It's doable, best early on a Sunday morning. If you cycle, it's only a three-day ride--to Nakhon Nayok the first night, Kabinburi, then Aranyaprathet. All have inexpensive hotels. Get a good road map in Bangkok, as navigation is the toughest part of getting from city to countryside. Once you are out of the city, riding is easy as the highways have paved shoulders and the terrain is flat. Perhaps another cyclist can suggest a better way.

Public transport alternatives include buses from the Northern/Northeastern bus terminal or Khao San, or you can take the train.

--Bill
www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/asiaoneyear</a>

Take the train to Chachoengsao, or the bus, or ride but its not much fun of a ride. From there spend get on the 304, very busy, and ride to Phanom Sarakham, spend the night at the Phenom City Hotel. P. Sarakham is the friendliest city that I have visited in Thailand. From Phenom Sarakham take the 3245 to the 3259. This is a pretty quiet road that will take you through a part of Thailand where wild elephants are still walking around. When you get to the 317 take that north and spend the night in Wang Nam Yen, there are two hotels there. The next day head south on the 317 then east on the 3067, there are some road over here right by the Cambodian border, like the 3867 which you can take north to 3067 and then into Aranyaphathet.

Riding in and out of Bangkok is OK but I never found really that fun. If you were to ride out to Chachoengsao the first 50km would be pretty urban, then it would be simirural for 40 km with lots of factories.

Have a good trip.

I really like Cambodia, just spent 6 weeks there. The trouble with your route is that you get all the crap in the first couple of days. Firstly, if you don't have a visa you will probably be 'charged' about the equivalent of US$35 at the border, instead of the corect $20. See the Cambodian branch for info on this ongoing scam. Secondly, the road from Poipet to Siem Reap is truly awful. After that it is all great.

Depending on where you are going in Cambodia, a more pleasant route is the southern one via the Thai coast to Koh Kong then a boat to Sihanouk Ville.

Personally I wouldn't cycle out of Bangkok.

Whatever, enjoy.

Greg, not sure if you saw this earlier (currently page 2) post where I wrote a bit about roads in Cambodia.
>>>>>first time travelling on bike, south east asia <<<<<

Would also add that the road from Lao border to Phnom Penh is now all surfaced - an even nicer way to go from Thai, via Lao to Cam.

Thanks for all your help guys. Looks like there is alot of options.

Cycled out of Bangkok once and caught a train once. Cycling out not stressful at all and I found the drivers pretty respectful and gave me plenty of space. Whether you'd bother would depend more on time as it takes ages to get out of the city and obviously thats ages spent concentrating hard. Phnom Penh probably the worst SE Asian city I've attempted to cycle into so far but it's just cos the road from the north is all single lane and the traffic is a bit mad. Leaving to the south was a lot better. If you're interested in wind direction it's been blowing from the south west pretty much since I got here.