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Asia

3 best ways to reach Delhi Airport

by VV July 25, 2016

written by VV

T-3 is 15 kilometres away from New Delhi railway station area, whereas T-1 is about 16 kilometres away. In this post, you’ll get to know about the 3 best ways to reach Delhi Airport from the city.

Delhi Airport, also known as Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport is situated in the south-west of the city. It has two active terminals – Terminal 3 and Terminal 1 (T1D/T1C). Terminal-3 (popularly known as T3) should not be confused with International airport as it also hosts domestic operations of Full-service airlines. Terminal-1 is used for Domestic flights of Low-cost carriers (GoAir, IndiGo and SpiceJet). T-1C is used for Arrivals and T1-D for Departures.

July 25, 2016 1 comment

Travel Guide

How to get a Tourist SIM in Nepal

by BN June 10, 2016

written by BN

Getting a SIM in every place you go is a must nowadays! But how to get one? So while visiting Nepal I had the same thought that how to get a tourist SIM in Nepal !!

Locally when I go anywhere in my home country it has become a habit to use maps for directions. I drove my car to Kathmandu in June 2016 and had no clue about the roads and places to visit. To save myself from the hassle of going to cyber cafes or using untrusted Wi-Fi here and there, I decided to buy a local SIM in Kathmandu. Being the host of the only International airport in Nepal, Kathmandu becomes the starting point of many international tourists, which makes Kathmandu a very crowded and busy city.

June 10, 2016 0 comment

Travel Guide

Popular tourist scams in Cambodia

by VV May 15, 2016

written by VV

”I’ll get the visa for you ma’am”

Cambodia is infamous for its border scams. Travellers have landed into major problems while crossing the border overland. When it comes to visa, Cambodia offers Visa on arrival facility to all nationals. Though, I recommend e-visa for first-time travellers. Apply, pay and get it online and cross the border without needing anybody’s help. Check this – How to get a Cambodian Visa

May 15, 2016 4 comments

Travel Guide

Useful travel websites in Thailand & Cambodia

by VV April 24, 2016

written by VV

Like everything travelling also has its pros and cons. Getting into a tourist trap can be the biggest nightmare on a trip. Be it anywhere on the globe, you may encounter someone who may try to rip you off. But with some advance information you can get prepared to tackle such situations. Always take help from the internet. Watch videos and read articles posted by travellers themselves. I am sharing links to some of the useful travel websites in Thailand & Cambodia. The information is based on my experience of a backpacking trip to Thailand and Cambodia in March 2016. You can avoid landing into tourist traps with their help. Do comment below if you feel some vital information is missing here.

April 24, 2016 0 comment

Travel Guide

How to get a Cambodian Visa

by VV April 1, 2016

written by VV

Visa on Arrival

A Cambodian visa

Cambodia offers Visa on arrival facility to all nationals. That means a citizen of any country (barring few) can obtain a visa on arrival for tourism and business purpose. Though I recommend getting e-visa before you start your trip. Apply online and get it from here – https://www.evisa.gov.kh/. The Single entry visa cost 30 USD. Add 7 USD for e-visa processing fees. I entered Cambodia from the Poipet border. (How? Check this video or the playlist to know). Paid the requisite fees in USD and got the visa pasted in half an hour.

Though be careful from the people who try to offer undesired help. They may offer help to fill up the form or get a free taxi to somewhere nearby or hotel arrangement, etc. Try to ignore them. They may be touts or some fraud travel agents. Tourists travelling to Cambodia have landed into big trouble because of these people. Even I had a horrible experience with a similar person who was trying to offer his ‘help’ at the visa counter. He tried to manhandle me when I refused to take his taxi.

	Tourist Visa	Business Visa
Visa Fee	USD 30	USD 35
Duration	30 days	30 days
Extension	Possible	Possible

E-Visa

Cambodia government also provides the facility of e-Visa. All eligible nationals can apply for a Cambodia tourist visa online. The advantage of E-Visa is that the tourist is not supposed to approach the Cambodian Embassy. What all needed is Just an internet connection and a credit card. Fill up the form online, submit it and pay online. Authorities will email your visa. Print it and produce at the immigration counter when entering Cambodia. After crosscheck, the authorities will paste a visa on your passport instantly. You are not supposed to make the payment again. As mentioned above, the cost of a Single entry e-visa is 37 USD.

Hotels in Cambodia

Booking.com

April 1, 2016 0 comment

Travel Guide

Cambodia post bus – Cheap and reliable way to travel

by VV March 28, 2016

written by VV

There are direct buses from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville operated by different private bus agencies. Giant Ibis, Virak Bunthan, Capitol tours are major players. The distance of around 220 kilometres between both the cities is covered in 4 hours. As soon as you come out of the jam-packed roads of the city of Phnom Penh, the sprawling countryside of Cambodia takes you to another world. I took the ‘Cambodia Post’ bus from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville.

March 28, 2016 0 comment

Reviews Travelogue

Unbiased Review : Giant Ibis – our bus from Siem reap to Phnom Penh

by VV March 25, 2016

written by VV

Our first bus journey in Cambodia was from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville. We took this journey in March 2016. Till then, there was no direct bus service between these two cities. We had to break the journey at Phnom Penh. We chose ‘Giant Ibis’ because of its good reputation. As advised by the travellers we purchased the ticket directly from its office to avoid landing into tourist traps. The bus from Siem to Phnom Penh takes 6½ hours . Fare was 15 USD. Here is a review : Giant Ibis – our bus from Siem reap to Phnom Penh

Time	Address
Day service	Street 99, behind old Stadium, Siem Reap
Night service	#252, Street Sivatha, Sangkat Svay Dangkum (near old market roundabout), Siem Reap

Dos and Donts – Giant Ibis

GIant Ibis ticket – Siem reap to Phnom Penh

Reach at the bus terminal at least 30 minutes before the departure time. Though they also offer complimentary pickup service to passengers staying at one of their partner hotels. Your luggage will be put in the baggage cargo area of these buses. We recommend you to personally monitor the process to ensure your bag is not manhandled. Never forget to take your baggage tag from the crew attendant. This is the only proof to reclaim your bag after the journey. (Read : how you can avoid landing into one of the travel scams in Cambodia)

Once the bus departs, the crew attendant will distribute a bottle of water and a cold towel. As we took the night bus, we were also provided blankets. Please contact this Crew Attendant for anything you need during the journey.

Facilities in the Giant Ibis bus :

Airconditioner	Yes
Sleeper seats	Yes
Toilet	Yes
Free Bottled Water	Yes
Free WiFi	Yes
Online Ticket	Yes

Buses from Sihanoukville

My experience with Giant Ibis

Duration of the journey from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh is 6½ hours approximately. There are two night buses by ‘Giant Ibis’ (as on March 2016) between these two cities. One leaves at 10:30 PM and other leaves at 11:00 PM. As per the information provided to me, the basic difference between these two buses are the seats. The bus which leaves early has flatbed, whereas, in the later one upper half of its seats are slightly elevated. The seats are arranged in a 2×1 manner, which means the left side of the aisle has two joint beds and the right side has a single bed.

After a comfortable overnight journey in an air-conditioned bus, we reached Phnom Penh early morning. Albeit, we could not travel with ‘Giant Ibis’ up to Sihanoukville as their connecting bus was already fully booked.

March 25, 2016 0 comment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOt_1aqqEe8

Travel Guide Videos

Video : Crossing Poipet border in evening

by VV March 12, 2016

written by VV

Out of the several border openings between Thailand and Cambodia, Poipet border is quite popular amongst the tourists. We took this route to go Siem Reap from Bangkok. We traveled from Bangkok to Poipet border (Aranyaprathet station) in a train, which is also the cheapest way to reach Poipet. From there we crossed the Poipet border. I am sharing this report to inform that crossing Poipet border in evening is not very common. There is a lot of information on how to cross the border, but I didn’t see anything which mentions the closing time of the gates.

So after this trip, I can say that the crossing Poipet border in evening in possible till 10 pm. Poipet border is open from 7am to 10 pm daily. Though you should avoid crossing the border very late unless you are staying on the border. You may not be able to get any vehicle to reach your destination. This is what I faced after crossing the border after 7:30 pm. The international bus terminal was closed by the time we reached there. Also, after this, I faced my worst nightmare of Cambodia trip.

How to reach Poipet from Aranyaprathet train station

After getting down at Aranyaprathet station at 6:30 pm, I took a tuk-tuk with some other tourists. We were 4 people and paid 20 Bahts per person. It took 10 minutes to reach the border. Be careful from the touts who may approach you when you are nearing the border. Instead of taking us to the border gate, our tuk-tuk driver took us to a shop by saying that it was the visa office, but we had already been warned by tourists about them. Remember this is one of the biggest tourist trap around Poipet border. Read about the useful travel applications before traveling Thailand and Cambodia to avoid getting ripped off by touts.

Getting a Cambodian Visa

We asked the tuk-tuk driver to take us directly to the immigration office. After reaching there the Thailand immigration office and departure gate are on the left. It took us 10 minutes to complete the immigration formalities on the Thailand side. After crossing the gate keep walking and you’ll see the Cambodian visa office on the right side of the road. Cambodian authorities took another 20 minutes to process the visa. They charge 30 USD as the visa fees. US Dollars are happily acceptable everywhere in Cambodia, even by government authorities. So don’t waste your time and resources in getting the Cambodian Riel. At 7:30 we were done with all the visa and immigration formalities and ready to do the next lap of our journey. Watch this video to know the whole process.

Benefits of subscribing ‘Tourist Helpline’ on Youtube

Youtube channel of ‘Tourist Helpline‘ has been created to help tourists around the world. You can subscribe to the channel to get more meaningful and informative videos based on travel and tourism. Press the bell beside the subscribe button so that you can get a notification email as and when a video is uploaded on ‘Tourist Helpline’ Youtube channel.

You can click here to subscribe the channel. The language of the videos is English.

For people knowing Hindi, Subscribe to the channel here, where you’ll get most of the travel related information in Hindi.

March 12, 2016 0 comment

Travel Guide Videos

Video : Crossing Akhaura border on foot

by VV March 28, 2015

written by VV

Benefits of subscribing ‘Tourist Helpline’ on Youtube

You can click here to subscribe the channel. The language of the videos is English.

For people knowing Hindi, Subscribe to the channel here, where you’ll get most of the travel related information in Hindi.

March 28, 2015 0 comment

Travelogue

Crossing Akhaura border with a free visa

by VV March 8, 2015

written by VV

For me, getting a Bangladeshi visa was a cakewalk. And the best part was, It cost me absolutely FREE!! Yes, the Bangladesh visa office (Assistant High Commission) located at Agartala did not charge anything to grant me the visa to enter Bangladesh. (video : Crossing Akhaura border on foot ). Read this article on crossing Akhaura border with a free visa.

Why did I plan Bangladesh trip

Actually, due to some circumstances I had to cut short my North-East India trip 4 days earlier. So I had two options to return Kolkata. Either travel all the way to Guwahati and Siliguri or just cross Bangladesh and reach Kolkata. The first way was approximately 1550 kilometres long, whereas the second was just 450 kilometres. Meaning the second way was shorter by 1100 kilometres. Also, the later option offered a bonus opportunity of getting a new country visited.

March 8, 2015 9 comments

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