Filling up your scooter in Cambodia

Roadside Petrol station in Siem Reap

Renting a scooter in Cambodia is easy, the biggest challenge is whether you have enough petrol in your tank to get you to your destination (and get you back!) – but you needn’t worry.

While there are a few regular looking petrol stations in Cambodia, the majority of the filling stations are small roadside racks of one liter recycled bottles that are very convenient for for keeping your motorcycle topped up.

Large Petrol station in Siem Reap
Large Petrol station in Siem Reap

During our trip we rented bikes, and no matter how far we ventured out of town on our sightseeing expeditions we were never more than a kilometer away from one of these filling stations, which is really useful when you don’t know how many miles to the gallon (or KM) your scooter does.

Roadside Petrol station in Siem Reap
Roadside Petrol station in Siem Reap
Young lads getting their scooter filled with petrol
Young lads getting their scooter filled with petrol

Entrepreneurial restaurant owners and small convenience stores all seem to do a side business selling petrol, and most of them proudly display a basic tubular framed rack filled with recycled glass bottles on the road side so that you can drive right up to refill.

Roadside Petrol station in Siem Reap
Roadside Petrol station in Siem Reap

The current going rate for a liter of petrol is 4,000 riel (one dollar), although when we were in Phnom Penh we saw it for a little bit less.

Recycled Pepsi Bottles for Petrol station in Phnom Penh
Recycled Pepsi Bottles being used at a roadside Petrol station in Phnom Penh

I loved this branded Pepsi bottle petrol stand that we came across in Phnom Penh. This vendor obviously takes pride in their branding efforts – and good to see that you can also buy half a liter (in a recycled water bottle).

Not to be outdone … this petrol vendor in Kampot has also jumped on the branded Pepsi bandwagon, although their rack is slightly more rustic.

Recycled Pepsi Bottles for Petrol station in Kampot
Recycled Pepsi Bottles for Petrol station in Kampot

Recycling in Cambodia

Cambodia doesn’t appear to have a robust recycling infrastructure in place, so it is good to see that bottles are getting recycled at these roadside petrol stations.

Renting a Scooter – Quick Facts

  • Average price across Cambodia for renting a scooter is about $4-5 per day.
  • When scooters are rented via the guest house or hotel you don’t have to provide any additional ID or a drivers license (as the hotel already have a copy of your passport on file).
  • If you rent a scooter from a travel agent, ticket shop, restaurant or anywhere else other than the place you’re staying you’ll usually have to leave your passport as collateral.
  • We were never asked for a driving license. Not once.
  • Insurance? What insurance?

Tips for filling up when you're renting a scooter in #cambodia. Share on X

Flashpacking through Cambodia ebook cover for Baby Boomers on a Budget
Flashpacking through Cambodia

Flashpacking through Cambodia: For Baby Boomers on a Budget is my latest Roving Jay travel guide full of travel tips, advice, and sample itineraries for flash packers who want the back packing experience without foregoing some of life’s creature comforts – like a comfortable bed, a hot shower, free wi-fi, and somewhere to plug your electric toothbrush in.

I spent almost three months backpacking around Cambodia in 2017/2018 to research this travel guide, and I share insights and first hand knowledge of tourist traps and off-the-beaten-path discoveries. We ate street food, drank 50c beers, and travelled by train, bus, minivan and tuktuk to identify the best ways to get from A to B.

If you’d like to receive a free Review Copy ahead of the general public release, please click here.

Here’s my Cambodia posts on this blog:

 


 

Author: Roving Jay

Jay is a project manager who swapped corporate life for a nomadic existence as a travel writer. She works with authors and entrepreneurs to help them achieve their self-publishing goals and reach their target audience through content marketing. Jay has published a series of travel guides, a travel memoir, and nonfiction books about travel writing. She housesits and volunteers around the globe with her husband, a Hollywood set painter, and she’s never more that 10 paces away from a wi-fi connection.

9 thoughts on “Filling up your scooter in Cambodia

  1. I love scooter rides and that too in a tourist location. I would definitely hire scooter when I visit Cambodia. But it is good you have given tips on refilling fuel here. This looks very different here, as petrol are sold out by shops on road. They have petrol bottles available on road-side stalls which I have never seen before. They are recycling Pepsi bottles in a very unique way.

  2. Thanks for sharing such beautiful information with us. I am waiting for your next article. Thank You So Much for sharing such a great List of Blog Commenting Sites to do sumptuous Backlinks, Which will help to grow organic ranking in the Search Engine……….

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