Some of this stuff was on my last trip report, but I thought I would reiterate some key planning points anyways since my last report was categorized as a "thailand trip report".

Tickets, Lodging and Preparation

On this trip, I had some free time in between trips to actually do my own planning. It wasn't so bad.

Airline Tix
I booked my flight from Bkk, Siem Reap, PP, BKK for 12,020 baht on Bangkokair.com. This is a bit pricier than the competing Cambodia airlines (Presidente?) but well worth it IMHO because Bangkok Air is a class act. -- very efficient, newer planes and good pilots . There were no, to little, flights to Sihanoukville from anywhere, so I decided to travel there by car from PP.

If you want to have a travel agent to do all your planning, I highly recommend the following outfit which I have used numerous times with great satisfication.

Thailand Tourist Service (Dynasty Inn) ttstrav@ksc.th.com Tel. 6767507
They have a satellite office at the Dynasty, and their main office is on Soi 4 about 100 meters from Dynasty Inn (same side).

Important Photos & Visa Application (info taken from my last trip).

Remember that you will need a few passport sized photos to obtain the VISA and to obtain a photo ID pass to see all the ruins. The best place I found was at the Kodak Zoom Photo center right in the heart of NANA, next to the convenience store, and across from NANA Hotel, on Soi 4. They took 4 photos of me for 200 baht and did it in less than 10 minutes!

The Cambodian VISA applications are available at the Bangkok Airways terminal in BKK. Fill it out on the plane or in the waiting area.

Pre-Airport Tasks.

My normal routine is to check out of the Dynasty Inn and store my big luggage there and lock up my valuables in their safe. I couldn't get the dynasty this time around, but they still let me use their safe and storage area. The dynasty will store the luggage for free so long as you prepay for your room, but the safe deposit box is 50 baht for a day. 50 baht a day was worth the peace of mind – I left all unnecessary airline tickets, extra cash and non-essential credit cards. Leaving the luggage was a good idea because I didn’t want to lug around all that dirty laundry in Cambo.

Flight to Siem Reap
Remember that Bangkokair has two terminals, international and domestic. Obviously, the terminal you want is international. Some taxi guys didn't know this. The airport tax is 500 baht when you leave.

The planes they use to Siem Reap are the newer ATR 72 (turbo prop plane), whereas the flights to PP from BKK are with their newer Boeing 707 planes. All the planes were relatrively new and the flights and pilots were top notch. I fly alot for a living and can gauge the competency of the pilots by take off and landing. Bangkok air has some good pilots. Flight safety should be a concern in the third world countries b/c you certainly don't want mediocore maintenance, bad pilots, or older, hand-me-down planes that can barely take off. As a point of digression, Mexicana and Korean Air are the worst IMHO, frequent "Pancake" landings and awkward takeoffs occassionally. Thai Airways is very good, as are most U.S. carriers. But, as you know, no U.S. carrier flies to Cambodia. Eva Air and Korean have flights from Taipei and Seoul, respectively, but only 2 or 3 times a week.

Siem Reap Airport & Customs (prior report info)

You will be pleasantly surprised at how modern and clean the airport is. It certainly didn’t look third world. As soon as you enter the airport building, look for the VISA application counter off to the left. Most passengers are part of tour groups who already have their visas so don't follow them to the Immigration counter or else they will just send you back after waiting 20 minutes (which a few guys behind me did). Give them a photo, $20.00 and the filled out application. It took about 10 minutes of very efficient assembly-line service to get the VISA. No demands from bribes here or immunization docs here. After the Visa, since I had no check in bags, I cleared customs and immigration within 10 minutes.

Once again, the Driver from the Freedom Hotel was waiting for me, and loaded my bags into the car, which was a nice Camry. Siem Reap is a very nice city, kind of clean, the roads were nice, the buildings appeared to have been built with some urban planning in mind, and there was the look and feel as if I were actually in Hawaii! The center of town had some very elegant, French style hotels. Lots of tourist hotels and nice restuarants lined the road from the airport to the hotel.

Arrival at the Freedom Hotel

The Freedom is a great hotel and the manager, Hak, is very friendly and knowledgeable. If you want detailed info on the hotel, I wrote one in my last trip report 3 weeks ago with a photo of the room.

Drivers are essential

What you will realize about Cambodia, more than any other destination, is that a good, bilingual driver is an absolute must. If you find a good one, they will be your guide, translator and prortector. There are some good ones on staff at the Freedom Hotel.

The drivers charge $20/day, plus extras for long distance travel. Gas is expensive in Cambodia.
Another thing about drivers is that many at the Freedom are certified by the government tourist agency and are insured. I got a good laugh when the driver told me that bandits will not touch a certified tourist taxi (identified by the license plate and stickers) because these Taxi's are under the protection of the police. Keep that in mind.

There are lots of motodops and cars outside the Freedom hotel if you want to use a driver occassionally. They are a hit or miss, and many are not certified.

Currency

There were no ATMS in Siem Reap, but there were money changing booths that take traveler’s checks, cash, Western Union, etc.

The de facto currency is the U.S. dollar, take plenty of ones and fives. They also took Thai Baht at a lot of places as well, but be careful because the vendors like to screw with the exchange rate. Any change less than a dollar is given to you in the Cambodian Riel. Riel is cumbersome because you need a whole wad of it to may for things since $1 equaled about 3800 Riel.

Many of the restaurants and hotels took credit cards, mostly VISA and Mastercard; fewer took AMEX.

That driver certification is meaningless as to weather on not the driver is a crook. The motodop I hired in Siem Riep for $8/day was the biggest swindler I encountered in all of Cambodia and he had all his paperwork and tourist guide certifications in perfect order and in fact was checked for certification at a police checkpoint. He never actually succeeded in cheating me but he sure did try about every 5 minutes though out the day. It was quite annoying. He took me where I told him to but I didn't trust a word of his "helpful advice". I kept him on a very short leash and we got along just fine. I met some very good drivers and very bad driers in Cambodia. The only "tourist certified" one I had was the worst of the lot. I'm sure there are also very very honest and good certified drivers but don't base your judgement of that on a sticker.

I think the certification thing is merely one of many factors I would consider in choosing a driver. The most important thing I was getting at was that some hotels, like Freedom, had drivers "on-staff" who serve the guests. The owner of freedom actually owns all the cars and gets the cars certified and insured. The drivers, for the most part, shuttle guests to the airport and to the ruins.

My driver is dead serious when he says the wanna be bandits will lay off b/c the stickers mean the cars are "protected"; I also noticed that we breeze through roadchecks. All the more reason to utilize these guys.

In Siem Reap I suspect having a driver with a tourist sticker is good. Those cops at that check point did not look friend and we had to stop, I had to get off the motorcycle and the driver had to produce his papers for the cops. Everything was in order with that driver but I suspect there would have been trouble for the driver if not and I could have been stranded.

Outside of Siem Riep I don't think there is any such thing as any sort of licencing of motodops and drivers. If they can come up with a car or a motorcycle, they are qualified to be a driver.

How much are the rooms at Freedom Hotel in dollars. How far is this hotel from the Le Cyrcee Club, Martini's, Sharkey's and 63 St.

Marc,

A couple of hundred miles! The clubs you name are in Phnom Pehn and the Freedom Hotel is in Siem Reap. Here is a good link for hotels in Cambodia ... this is not a travel agency link, but an outfit that prints travel pamphlets.

www.canbypublications.com

Hey Marc, McDijj won't steer you wrong. There are lots of great hotel options in PP. The Hawaii Hotel in PP is actually the sister hotel of Freedom Hotel in SR (same layout and same owner). The cost in dollars was between $20 (standard room) to $30-$35 deluxe room in both places.