Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Phnom Penh Sorya, Rith Mony and Thong Ly operate early-morning buses to Phnom
Penh (US$9 to US$10, 11 hours) via Kratie and Kompong Cham. Long-distance bus ser-
vices to Siem Reap or Pakse are also promoted, but in reality this is a scam and you will
be forced to change buses, often with significant wait times, in Kompong Cham or Stung
Treng respectively.
Speedy express-van services pick you up at your guesthouse and head to Phnom Penh
(US$15, eight hours, 6am and 4pm) and Stung Treng (US$6, two hours, around 7.30am).
Organise these through your guesthouse, or alternatively through
Sok Kun
( 011 433939)
.
Call Tree Top Ecolodge to arrange an express van pick-up if coming from Phnom Penh.
From the bus station, various local minibuses depart in the morning to Phnom Penh
(50,000r), Stung Treng (20,000r) and O'Yadaw (12,000r), and throughout the day to
Lumphat (10,000r, one hour) and Kratie (25,000r, four hours). See the boxed text above
for more information on getting to Vietnam via O'Yadaw.
Pick-up trucks head to more remote Ratanakiri villages from the taxi park next to the
market. Share taxis out of Ban Lung are rare.
Ratanakiri's airport has been closed to commercial flights for years.
GETTING TO VIETNAM: BAN LUNG TO PLEIKU
Getting to the border
Opened to tourists only in 2008, the
O'Yadaw/Le Thanh border crossing
(
7am to 5pm) is 70km east of Ban Lung along smooth NH19. From Ban Lung, guesthouses advert-
ise a 6.30am van to Pleiku (US$12, three hours) involving a change of vehicles at the border. These
pick you up at your guesthouse. Alternatively, take a local minibus to O'Yadaw from Ban Lung's new
bus station, and continue 25km to the border by
moto
. A
moto
from Ban Lung to the border will set
you back US$20 (one hour).
At the border
Formalities are straightforward and lines nonexistent, just make sure you have a Viet-
namese visa.
Moving on
Once on the Vietnamese side of the frontier, the road is nicely paved and
motos
await to
take you to Duc Co (20km), where there are buses (15,000d) to Pleiku, Quy Nhon and Hoi An.
Getting Around
Bicycles (US$1 to US$3), motorbikes (US$5 to US$7), cars (from US$30) and 4WDs
(from US$45) are available for hire from most guesthouses in town.
Cheng Heng
( 088 851 6104; 6am-8pm)
has some 250cc trail bikes for rent (US$25) in
addition to a stable of well-maintained smaller motorbikes (US$6 to US$8). Next door,
