Cambodia - eVisa, currency & transport itinerary

Highway AH11/NR4 from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville

As most of you, my readers, know that I like to plan my own travel itineraries as I believe in traveling like a local & most of trips are for budget travelers like myself. I don't believe in traveling with a tour group as their trips are mostly limited to the touristy attractions, even if some of the more attractive & popular destinations are missed & there's always a hurry & time-limit. In this post, I will guide with the steps required for obtaining Cambodian e-Visa (T) for Indians.

I started planning for Cambodia after receiving the Karma voucher in Goa last year. You all must be thinking what is Karma voucher & how it made me plan a 😲whole 12-day itinerary in Cambodia? Well, I'll share more details in a separate post. 😉

Visa information:

Indians have the option of getting an e-Visa (T) or visa on arrival for Cambodia. Till 31st December 2024, the Cambodian tourist visa(e-Visa T) fees for Indian citizens was $36, but from 1st January 2025 the fee was reduced to $30 per person. More details can be found at the government website eVisa, Kingdom of Cambodia. Please be vigilant that there are many fake website offering Cambodia visa & they are called out by the Kingdom of Cambodia even on their official website.

For visa on arrival, Indians can obtain only at designated entry points in Cambodia which are:

• Phon Penh Int'l airport
• Siem Reap Int'l airport
• Sihanoukville Int'l airport
• Land border crossings with Thailand, Vietnam, Laos but keep in mind, not at every land border crossing.
• I have witnessed people who have reached Cambodia via bus from Thailand and/or Vietnam but they were not allowed to enter Cambodia as it was not the designated land border to obtain visa on arrival (for more details refer to the government website https://www.evisa.gov.kh/home )

Even with e-Visa (T), the entry has to be through designated borders/airports, else you will be asked to return. Both the visas are valid for a 30-day stay in Cambodia.

For those of my readers who like to plan a little bit ahead to avoid any dispensable inconveniences and have a relaxed trip (after all, that is the motto of every vacation, isn't it?), if you want to obtain an e-Visa from the government website, try to apply 30-35 days prior to your departing flight. I applied almost 2 months prior to my flight & I was compelled to send multiple reminder emails to them on below email ids to approve & share my e-Visa. I finally got my e-Visa 1 week before the traveling date.

• info@evia.gov.kh
• 123@evia.gov.kh
• evisacambodia@evisa.gov.kh

The plan was to arrive at either Sihanoukville or Phnom Penh, but the flights were limited & pretty expensive to Sihanoukville starting from approx. INR 39500 from Bangalore. With no other option left, I got tickets to Phnom Penh from Bengaluru instead costing INR 26971 per person from Royal Thai airways website. Of late, I have observed that paying a bit more for international flight tickets by booking directly from the airways saves you of the unnecessary hassles viz. collecting your check in baggage if it's not a direct flight & if PNRs are different, going again through the pain of security clearances, roaming around becomes restricted as one has to carry the check in luggage along, obtaining a separate transit visa for the transiting country which is an additional cost etc.

The reason for such high flight cost is due to the peak tourist season in Cambodia which starts from February to September, while the lean season is from end October to January. When I was browsing hotels/AirBnB's & flights for Cambodia, I observed the stark difference in the prices.

We finally landed at Phnom Penh international airport at around 8:25 am (local time) with a layover of 1 hr at Suvarnabhumi International Airport. This time too, we had a really ugly experience at BKK Airport, just like last time 3 years back. Lack of proper communication, the airport staff is unable to communicate in English, frisking passengers as if they have committed a great sin by arriving in Thailand. 1 hour layover is good amount of time for a traveler to reach to his/her succeeding gate for the onward flight but the airport staff & trainee at BKK Airport made it sure that the transiting travelers don't get to reach their next gate on time & they miss their flights. The BKK airport ground staff deliberately made me & a few other passengers, who were supposed to board the same flight to Phnom Penh, wait

• in the unnecessary SINGLE queue of passengers for checking the ticket & "guiding" them to the correct gate, by blocking all other exits.
• in the long queue of checking the "ticket" AGAIN prior to security checks, to confirm whether the traveler/tourist has come to the correct gate.

But when some of us travelers were repeatedly telling them that we don't have time as our next flight will depart in next 30 minutes, they didn't try to listen & understand & their communication skills were abysmal. Hardly anyone of them could understand & speak English, that too in an international airport..!! I approached some other airport staff out of desperation & somehow managed to skip the 1st queue, but alas I could not skip the 2nd queue - thanks to communication gap & basic civic & common sense. Most of the airport staff were busy in their phones, scrolling reels & tiktok videos, which really amazed me because I thought only my fellow countrymen have this habit of endlessly staring at their phones for no reason.

We were the last to board the flight departing to Phnom Penh, thanks to the BKK Int'l airport ground staff & finally the flight took off. The carrier was a standard one, just like the domestic flight carriers in my country.

Cambodia is only 1.5 hrs ahead of India & both Thailand & Kampuchea share the same time zone (I know it's weird right? Ideally they should be in different time zones). As soon as you enter the airport, you have to go to a different section (tourists who are carrying e-Visa) & get something like this from the designated iPads kept at the airport. 

You must have this (pic given on right) with you on your phone as long as you will be in Cambodia.

Currency in Cambodia:

The currency in Cambodia is Cambodian riel & the conversion varies from:

• $1 = 4000 riel (in Koh Rong, Koh Rong Samloem, islands)
•  INR 1 = ~45.5 - 46 riel
• $1 = 4200 riel (in Sihanoukville, at some restaurants, pubs of Phnom Penh)

Although the Kingdom & government of Cambodia encourages its citizens to utilize the local currency riel in everyday financial transactions, but people prefer $ over riel. It is ALWAYS recommended to carry a good & large amount of $ in cash before arriving in Cambodia as this country still conducts on & prefers cash transactions over digital modes of payment.

I used to get bewildered during any kind of cash transactions as it was extremely protracted & misleading superficially. The locals don't take any digital mode/s of payment & travelers pay the $ in cash, the change or the balance amount is returned in a mixture of $ & Cambodian riels. Be ready to dedicate a good 5-10 minutes for mental maths exercise & calculating everything in $ & Cambodian riels. Also, if the balance amount is 100 or 600 or 1100 riels or so on, be mentally prepared to lose out the 100 riels balance EVERY TIME. 😢

If, you are lucky & some restaurants/pubs/marts/malls/shops accept credit card as mode of payment, they will charge you 3-5% every transaction; but this also very ambiguous as 2-3 shops didn't charge the extra from me in Phnom Penh & Siem Reap. In Koh Rong and the other numerous islands, they will surcharge 5-7%.

There is a concept called "cashback" counters in Cambodia which basically means one makes an online payment or POS payment (+ 5% surcharge) and the counter will give you that amount in $. They are available everywhere in minimarts, malls, reputed shops etc. The ATM's in Cambodia also charge you 5% for withdrawing cash from their kiosks/machines. You get the option of withdrawing in US $, Cambodian riels, Canadian $.

Carrying cash before arrival:

• If you are budget traveler, carrying ~$500-550 is enough for one person which will cover your transport - within & between major cities like Phnom Penh or Siem Reap, food (excluding shopping & paying for accommodation if you haven't pre-booked your budget stay in hostels/AirBnB/hotels via booking.com, agoda.com etc.), tickets to enter various attractions, minor shopping.
• if one is shopping for casual clothes in Phnom Penh or Siem Reap, the cost varies from $2-3 for shorts & top each, $3-5 for full cotton pants/trousers - hopefully you get an idea how much extra you would need for shopping.
• if you are fan of brands, you will get many 1st hand copies of various branded products. I was surprised to observe that the locals are crazy about Hollywood styling, clothing, wearing & carrying 1st copies of Gucci, Chanel, LV, YSL, Prada. Branded 1st copies always cost >~ $10-14, I could not fathom when I noticed some locals wearing branded hoodies, sweatshirts under the scorching sun at 37 deg C in Phnom Penh. But personally I felt the products are more genuine in Thailand than in Cambodia.

• If you are a backpacker, $400-450 is just enough for you covering stay, food, transport (might need a little bit more if you are shopping). You can get stays starting from as cheap as $8 per night in Siem Reap, which is a more tourist friendly town than Phnom Penh.

• For those readers who believe in luxurious travel, a little bit of idea on the transportation costs:
• if you want to travel to Siem Reap from Phnom Penh & vice versa, a private AC car will cost $80-90 one way. The cost of traveling between Sihanoukville & Phnom Penh is more or less the same in a private AC car. (you can also travel by air among these cities).
• The advantage of traveling in a personal vehicle is that one has the flexibility of making sudden detours, explore unexplored locations with the help of Google Maps.

After exiting the airport, we took 2 separate local sims:

• Metfone - cost $8 for unlimited calls within Metfone circle & 40gb data + $1 for making calls outside Metfone circle.
• Cellcard - cost $8 for unlimited calls within Cellcard circle & 20gb data + $1 for making calls outside Cellcard circle.

Personally, I found Metfone providing better service & internet speeds, even at remotest locations than Cellcard. I had no mobile network when I was staying in the islands - Koh Rong & Koh Rong Samloem. To be honest, Cellcard mobile network was appalling even within Phnom Penh & Siem Reap.

Transportation:

Vireak Butham is the largest bus fleet services in Cambodia. I bought my tickets online from Camboticket prior to arriving in Cambodia but I will recommend my readers to buy their online tickets directly from their website. Alternatively, you can also go to any Vireak Butham bus counter & purchase the tickets directly (picture with prices & time attached on the left) - present only at Phnom Penh international airport & multiple kiosks, shops, counters are spread across all over the country in Sihanoukville, PhnomPenh, Siem Reap, Koh Rong. No counter is currently available in the newly launched & operating Siem Reap Int'l airport.

• They also have ferry services operating between the islands like Koh Rong, Koh Rong Samloem, Koh Kong, Koh Kood, Koh Smach & other Cambodian islands north east of Gulf of Thailand, under the brand name of Buvasea.

For transporting around the cities like Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Sihanoukville, I strongly advocate that travelers download PassApp before entering Cambodia or can use the wifi at the international airport to download it. Remember that this PassApp can be used ONLY with Cambodian phone numbers - it does NOT allow other country mobile numbers to be even registered. Instead of Uber, Grab is the next popular, but more expensive than PassApp, online transport booking app. Let me provide you an example of how much the price difference is between these 2 apps.

• a 3.4 km Auto/Tuktuk ride, in the evening, costs ~$0.5-0.75 on PassApp & ~$1.7-2.7 on GrabApp.
• a 1.5 km Auto/Tuktuk ride, in the afternoon, costs ~$0.5 on PassApp & ~$1-1.4 on GrabApp.
• Remorques, a unique vehicle - a 2-wheeled wooden carriage seating 5-7 people pulled by a motorcycle & found only in South East Asian countries, are more expensive than Autos/Tuktuks as they are considered an attraction & tourists do their touristy things for social media. The speed of these remorques are much less than Autos/tuktuks.

One can also hire cycles & explore the city cycling - getting some exercise & exploring simultaneously. There are good cycling tracks in Phnom Penh city center & Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, is also home to many expats from different countries.

After buying the sims, we took a taxi-ride costing $9 to the Vireak Butham bus station, located ~14km away from Phnom Penh Int'l airport, from where we had our 12 noon bus to Sihanoukville, and then ferry to Koh Rong Samloem in the evening at 5 pm. The Vireak Butham buses to Sihanoukville and/or Siem Reap are like tempo travelers that are available in my country, the difference being the buses were of far superior quality with impeccable seats, facilities like - curtains, working ACs, tinted glass to keep away the direct sun rays- present onboard, water bottles for each passenger, proper seat belts. While I was thrilled to observe all these after sitting in the bus, my excitement was short-lived when the driver, despite starting on time, was continuously absorbed in his mobile phone watching reels, texting & voice chatting on IG, FB all through the 3.5 hrs journey to Sihanoukville.

And I thought this happens only in my country. 😔😠😞😖

Keep reading to know about my next destination in the itinerary.

AH11/NR4