Indochina(Thailand/Cambodia) - Post No 3: Bangkok to Phnom Penh (650km)

21 November 2010

Let me just put it out there before I forget the details. Pretty excited to have crossed one border with my bike, so the prospect of crossing another today has gotten me all pumped up. Furthermore we had 1 day off while waiting for the bikes to arrive.

Breakfast at the hotel

As it was Sunday, we expected traffic to be lighter though taking into consideration the time to cross the border and the long ride ahead we still had to leave pretty early. So we made our way to Thai-Cambodia border crossing at Trat.

When we reached the border, it took us about an hour to cross due to all the documentations and what nots. I would also like to say this:

1. I wouldnt mind living in Thailand

2. I want to work for Thai immigration

3. I want to be based in Trat

Why do i say the above? while going through our documents the lady officer was also having her hair done. Yup, she's asking us details like our age, what we do and so forth and a girl was standing next to her doing her hair, as there's 11 bikes to go through, by the time she got through everyone her hair was nicely braided. Of course this does not affect me as I have no hair, but I'm pretty sure I can get someone to give me a back rub while I cheerfully go through people's passport, and if I don't like anyone's face I'd still smile while I tell them to bugger off...haha

Last fillup before crossing to Cambodia

View from place we had lunch before crossing border to Cambodia

In action starting today

Yes...it seems you can also get your hair done in this building...hehe

This also marks the last bit of road that we'll be riding on the left as from this point onwards it's left hand drive all the way till Laos.

Once you enter Cambodia, the first thing you see is a casino, seems like it's govt's way of attracting foreign money.

Little hut on the right is the checkpoint to officially enter Cambodia

Cambodia!!

 Once you enter Cambodia, you're presented by huge space all along the roads, population seem sparse and it's just greeneries that you see. The road is considered ok, though littered with potholes that has the capability to launch you into space as you somersault off your bike if you happen to hit a big one fast enough. It took us a total of 294km or riding the trunk roads of Cambodia before we see the first traffic light which is in Phnom Penh.

It's illegal to have your lights on during the day, as we have no off switch we cover  with towel.

passed by a lot of bridges, i believe this was Koh Kong 

It rained + i got to remember to ride on the right.

A quick break that turned into a long one as we lost a couple of riders

Cambodia soil baybee!!

Unlike the road leading into the city, Phnom Penh just exploded with people. It's like a scene from war of the worlds where machines just plucked all the people in the countryside and dumped them in Phnom Penh. It was just a sea of people and small bike. I was hit a couple of times by people riding 4 up on kapchais. 

Even though it's just overnight for us, i noticed some quirks of the Cambodians.
1. They ride motorcycle and hold their helmet instead of putting it on(seems they put it on when they see police)
2. If they want to come out from the junction or from slip road they'll just do so, even though they see you coming.
3. They hate spotlights, most of them will flash at us non-stop as we had ours on at night.
4. It was also weird to pay for petrol in US Dollars when I'm not in the States.
5. The abject poverty is very apparent. You can see that they're poor.

Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh at night - notice absence of tall buildings

Riding through town to reach our hotel was just so tiring that I was flat that night. The though of riding the next day filled me with dread. I could do with another day's rest before riding to Saigon.

* Fuel Consumption
1. Bangkok - Chon Buri 212km 355baht 10.9liters
2. Chon Buri - Trat 147.4km 270 baht 7.57liters
3. Trat - Hat Lek 77.6km 140baht 3.59liters
4. Hat Lek - Phnom Penh 296.4km 14.35USD 12.37