This page is intended to give you some idea of how we cycled from Siem Reap to Bangkok, with a lot of focus on the last day into Bangkok, and the first day out of Bangkok heading south.

Siem Reap to Cachoengsao: 3 days cycling, 329.8km

Day 1: Siem Reap to Serei Saophoan

The first day out of Siem Reap we decided to cycle to Serei Saophoan, which is the last big town before the border with Thailand. Don’t underestimate how hard this day will be… we did!

The terrain is almost flat, there are a couple of areas of undulation, but for the most part it is flat. The problems we encountered were two fold:

1. Head winds – some of the worst of the journey and really soul destroying;
2. Heat – the head winds did little to cool us and we were absolutely broken at the end of the day.

There are plenty of places to camp, but we had run out of water and food with about 10km to go to Serei Saophoan so camping was not an option. We asked about accommodation in Preah Netr Preah but the locals told us that there was nothing, so don’t count on that. If the thought of cycling over 100km on the first day out of Siem Reap is too much to bear then you could cycle to Kralanh as there seemed to be accommodation there and it is only about 50km.

If you do get to Serei Saophoan then we could not recommend the Nasa hotel more highly. The rooms were excellent, the location is perfect, the staff friendly, they have a large room where you can safely leave your bike, and most importantly; two blocks down on the same side of the road there is an amazing restaurant… don’t miss the banana smoothies!

Day 2: Serei Saophoan to Sa Kaeo

The second day out we crossed the border; it should be noted that there is a LOT of accommodation on both sides of the border. We decided to crack on from the border to Sa Kaeo as we had seen a motel on Google earth, which is where we ended up staying (see map below for all accommodation locations).

Day 3: Sa Kaeo to Cachoengsao

We decided on pushing hard to Cachoengsao from Sa Kaeo so that we would have a short(ish) day into Bangkok. Again, check out our map to find the location of the hotel we stayed at. It was the best hotel we have stayed at, possibly on the entire journey. Everything about it was nice. Also, about 300-500m back up the road on the same side as the hotel there is an EXCELLENT restaurant.

This day was by far and away the worst for traffic. When you get onto the 304 (from the 359) the traffic reached new levels of madness. Some of the worst of the journey! There is a hard shoulder, but the road is full of trucks and they have a tendency to drive right on the white line or in some cases over the white line. They also have a strange habit of swerving onto the hard shoulder all the time, probably coinciding with checking their mobile phones. Perhaps we were being a little precious, we are not too sure, but in the forefront of our minds all day was the thought that this is the road where Peter Root and Mary Thompson (of twoonfourwheels fame) were tragically killed whilst they were #LTD… it is food for thought that is for sure.

Cachoengsao to Bangkok: 1 day cycling, 72.4km

This was a relatively short day with the worst of the cycling coming first thing in the morning when we were still on the 304. Thankfully, if you follow the route we took you will turn off the 304 fairly quickly.

Note: If you zoom in on our Cycling into (and out of) Bangkok map you should see a detailed route marked out. We really recommend this route as it takes in a lot of back roads which are both quiet and beautiful.

The following show a few photos of what to expect on the final push into Bangkok…

Bangkok to Samut Songkhram: 1 Day, 84.3km

We left our hotel at 0600 in an attempt to avoid the traffic; to some extent this worked. We hugged the eastern bank of the river, passing by the Royal Palace, through some markets, and over the Phra Pokklao Rd bridge. The road on the west side of the river occasionally had cycle lanes, but these were often blocked by parked cars etc… Even at 0600 the roads on the west side of the river were heaving.

We made our way to Samut Songkhram; if you follow our map you will see where we cycled and where we stayed. We thoroughly recommend the accommodation in Samut Songkhram; really, really kind people and a super location.

The following show a few photos of what to expect on the day out of Bangkok.

View Cycling into (and out of) Bangkok in a larger map
Note: Clicking on the markers will bring up the related photo.

The following table outlines distances etc… for what we did.

Please let us know if you find this useful by commenting on the page, similarly, if information here is out-of-date please let us know and we will do our best to update it.

Good luck!