By the end of the year, or even a few months earlier, a 6.5 kilometer extension linking the border towns of Aranyaprathet, Thailand and Poipet Town, Cambodia, should be complete.
As things are now, you can almost take the train from the Thai capital to Cambodia, you have to get out a few kilometers from the border at Aranyaprathet station, take a motorcycle, tuk-tuk or taxi to the border and cross the border on foot before picking up another form of transport on the other side.
It’s not the worst but it’s certainly not convenient and makes for a sweaty, multi-legged journey
However, Cambodia has committed to completing the construction of the short, but crazily convenient, link by year’s end.
From Poipet Town, which offers little except for the mass of casinos at the border that cater to Thai daytrip gamblers, it’s just a two-and-a-half hour bus trip to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat.
Cambodian Public Works and Transport Minister, Sun Chanthol, inspected the train site in Poipet on Tuesday and confirmed that the project is, ahem, on track to be completed by the deadline, according to the Khmer Times.
“We plan to complete this project by the end of the year and it could be finished by either October or November,” Sun said.
The minister said the rail link between the two countries will be good for tourism and that it’s opening might help to boost bilateral trade to USD15 billion (THB526 billion) by 2020.
We think it’s going to boost the ease of us getting out of the city and sitting down in front of a happy pizza in Cambodia.
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