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Today and in the following days, I will be posting Siem Reap travel tips.

Tip No. 1: Bring a camera. This tip needs no further explanation.

I regret that these are all the photos I could take with, and store on, my phone -

 

 

Tip No. 2: Study flight routes, canvass travel fares and book flights in advance.

For any trip, you should find the best way to get there. In our case, I learned that there are no direct flights from the Philippines to Cambodia.  You need to take a flight from the Philippines to Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore and from there to Cambodia.  This could make traveling to Cambodia expensive.  After studying flight routes, I found several budget airlines that offer affordable fares.  

To get to Cambodia, Padma and I took a flight from Manila to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia via Cebu Pacific, and from there, took an AirAsia flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia.  By taking those flights, we paid about half of what we would have paid for airfare had we taken non-budget flights for the same route.  Of course, taking budget flights means that you have to pay extra if you want food to be served to you on the plane, the plane leaves at odd hours of the day (red-eye) and you cannot request a toothbrush or blanket on the flight.  I did not mind these minor inconveniences as the flight time was not too long and I saved a lot of money that could be put to better use like shopping.

Canvass rates of various airlines months ahead of your trip.  As not many people book their flights in advance, more flight options are available. Some airlines also offer cheaper fares for those who book in advance. Booking in advance could help you manage your expenses as well.  If you charge your airfare to you credit card, you could slowly amortize the cost of the tickets.  By the time you are ready to leave for the trip, you would have available credit on your card to spend during the trip.  I would not, however, recommend this scheme to those who have difficulty managing their credit card payments.  Instead, you could make full payment for your tickets in in cash, and in the months before the trip, save money for the trip itself.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 9:38 am and is filed under 'Pinions, Siem Reap, Cambodia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.