Ride to Cambodia

I've been dreaming of this ride for more than 2 years. I actually didn't expect to get to go anytime soon , but a happy series of circumstances made it possible..

Let me tell you a story.

Come ride with me.........

Day 1

Early morning along the Malaysian highways 

A R&R break as the day was going to be brutal

Another break along the way, See the wet roads.

It kept raining ,then hot ,then rain again...throughout the 1st day

A short break in Dan Nok after the border crossing.

I wasn't riding alone......  : )             (Yes,there is a story there)  

More rain in southern Thailand.

Nice and hot here...north of Songkla

Getting close to my destinaton

After slightly more than 850km i reached my destination of Surathani

Nice parking

Nice room,.....check out the balcony

cool view.After some food and a massage.I promptly crashed as the next day was also going to be fun.........not

Day 2

Welcome to Australia.............don't ask me.I also don't know?

Seen on the way to Chumpon

Nice and sunny, great roads. Time to ride...

Look at that sky & road......

nice huh?

griffin's ride....in the wilds of Thailand

Along the way north i had to stop and take a pic of this....look at the girl for comparison

Dark clouds ahead. A short break before the rains.

Bangkok. Anti bike  traffic rules means we can't get onto the highways.

So we have to take this.....

The barge from Petra pier...       See the elevated highway in the background?

To cross the Chao Praya river.

Bangkok was bad in terms of traffic but thanks to great advise from my fellow riders i got through it relatively easily. It was almost night and i had to find a hotel. I didn't want to go out of my way to find a hotel so i pulled up in one along the way.

See the cars in the individual parkings.

See the boards blocking the number plates.

If i have to tell you what this hotel is you need to get out more often  : ) 

My very own garage.

No pics of the room as the verrrrrrrry large mirror in it would have been blinding with the flash on  : )

600km with the Bangkok traffic thrown in. Not too bad actually.

Day 3

Early the next day i left Bangok and headed east. 

Nice roads. Empty in the early morning.

After a few hours i reached this.

Welcome to the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Poipet.   Dusty.  Keep right please.

Crossing the border was rather fast.All in about 25 mins. Thailand and Cambodia both.

looking back at the casino in no mans land between the borders.

Cambodian customs. A bit away from the immigrations

Time to ride again.

Miles of flatlands

This is FJR country     : )

Kept reminding myself......keep right.

Nice weather. Nice roads.  Not so nice a few years ago.

Had to tape up my lights.

After a couple of hours i reached Siem Reap.

Now the fun starts.

Victory gate.. with the FJR

By the moat

Terrace of the leper King 

Looking for lady Croft...

Ancient Ponds and fountains

A bigger temple.

View from the top.

FJR in the historic city 

Next to the Bayon.

Another view of the Bayon

inside......nice.

This is the picture i rode thousands of kilometers for.

my bike infront of the Angkor Wat.

my dream for the last 2 years.

The moat around Angkor Wat.

The next few shots are of the Angkor Wat proper 

Miles and miles of carvings 

This truely is a awesome  place 

My room in Siem Reap

nice. The hotel is owned by a ''fixer'' in Siem Reap who was my back up in case my original plan to get into the Angkor complex didn't work out.

didn't need his help in the end but it was good to have a back up, just in case.

Private parking  : )

A nice end to the day.

Pub street. the main tourist drag.

Free apsara show    mmmmmmmmm      : ) 

Day 4

In the morning i headed south.

Initially the roads were nice , but i took a parallel road which lead through the country side.

Another way of saying i got lost     ; ) 

Cambodian kampung houses

I have to say the FJR took every thing that was thrown at it and rode it through. from mud roads for kilometers , to miles of gravel and miles of rock , the bike just sailed through.

Pit stop and had a nice chat with the locals

On the outskirts of Phnom Phen

Took the back roads due to my earlier detour

After having fun with the Phnom Phen traffic i finally reached my hotel.

Ok parking.

A couple of sight of the streets of Phnom Phen

I wanted to visit here...

I'll let the pics speak for themselves.

Its not a happy place, but better we remember lest we forget and repeat the mistakes of the past.

See this pic

Now read this.

After that experience i went around Phnom Phen

The main park

The esplanade along the river

looking onto the Tonle sap river

Thats the Mekong river in the far end

And here is where the two rivers join

Meet up with a fellow ADVrider at his bar

ADVrider wheels Cambodian style

My host..Quealy  aka Jacl-Kampuchea

How else to end the day?   : )

Back to the Billabong Hotel and crash. I was supposed to stay in phnom Phen for 2 days but since i've had a look around , i knew i would be bored the next day. 

Day 5

The next day was nice and bright

Making my way north

The city of Battambang

Tres cool

Out of Cambodia and into Thailand took about 25 min again    : )

Nice parking at my hotel in Aranyaprathet.

The staff  were really nice and had a good time there   .

Day 6

The next morning i rode from the above border town through Bangkok. crossed the chao praya again and finally stopped and took this pic after Samut Songkran. 

After some hours i reached my destination of Hua Hin .Its cloudy thats why the sea in the horizon is not clear. 

Nice hotel.

Cool parking

A few sights and sounds from around Hua Hin.

Nice beach.

Cool wheels.

Normal touristy streets you would seen in any Thai tourist area

Day 7

After enjoying Hua Hin the bike called me and we hit the road 

I left the highway at Chumpon and headed towards Ranong.

If you take the best of TTkong, Ulu yam and Frasers and stretch it into a 110kn long road you would get this road .Frickin awesome

I only stopped cause i saw this nice waterfall

This is where i came from

This is where i'm going.

it still gives me chills  : )

finally ...Ranong

Nice rooms again

Good parking, now time to explore.

So whats the atraction of Ranong?

This....... That Myanmar there

Zoom

Max zoom. Hope to ride there someday  : )

nice island on the Thai side

Andaman Club quay

Some funky ?army outpost.

Day 8

my trip is almost over. Since i skipped a day in Phnom Phen i could have stopped at the death railway near Bangkok.

But i decided to keep that for another ride north as this was mainly heading east.

Nice roads in southern Thailand

After 550km i reached Dan Nok. Rested here for a night. the view from my room .Malaysia is behind me and Thailand in front

Nice hotel

Day 9

After all this days(sic) its good to be home. 

I didn't switch on the GPS on the outbound Malaysian leg so the total distance is just above 5000km

Here is the route. green for the stops there and red for the stops back again

I waited and hoped for this trip for more than 2 years. No one but another biker will understand why we have to ride. was it worth it. ????

HELL YEAH.

Go out there and ride. Get out of your comfort zone and make your own road. 

A favourite saying i 've heard before.

''we are stuck between the regrets of the things undone in the past    and  

the fear of the things in the future''

Ride safe , ride far.

Cheers.