THE CLIFFNOTES

What Our Route Was
Siem Reap, Cambodia to Sihanukville, Cambodia

Which Bus We Took
Hotel Bus Virak Buntaham

How Much We Paid
US $18 pp

How Long It Took
12 hours

Where We Bought Tickets
At our hotel in Siem Reap on the same day of travel.

What Else You Should Know
-If you are travelling by yourself, book two beds. Each “bed” is basically half of a very narrow double bed, without diveders. It’s small and sharing that tiny space with a random stranger would probably suck.
-Eat dinner before and bring snacks on the bus
-Assume there is no wifi even though it is advertised
-The roads are really bumpy and full of potholes.

THE STORY
A few days ago we decided to take the plunge into an overnight hotel bus, from Siem Reap to Sihanukville.

We could’ve flown for about 7 times the price and 7 hours less. However the flight was during the day, and would’ve gotten in the way of our activities and we really wanted to see what it was like.

It was a scary, uncomfortable, interesting experience. I’m glad I did it but wouldn’t do it again.

The actual bus is old but clean. The beds are very narrow, same width as regular bus seats, but configured into bunk beds.

The length of the beds is also minimal. I was barely able to stretch my legs all the way, so most men couldn’t stretch their legs all the way at all.

There is no bathroom inside the bus, but the make a couple bathroom stops along the way.

The bus doesn’t go terribly fast, but doesn’t go slow either. Most of the way it felt like we were driving on an open road. A few times I felt like the bus had just gone off the road and we were going downhill. Some other times I heard loud horns and felt the driver jamming on the breaks. Every time I would just hold on to Blaise and prayed for the best.

So it is not the small space, the old bus, or the fact that there was no bathroom that would keep me from doing this ever again; it is the fact that I thought I was going to die several times during the journey, and I’m not quite ready for that.