2012 Indochina Tour - Day 2

Saturday 15/12/12 - Day 2 - Phattalung to Bangkok

This will be like series of 1st for us as this is the first time we are riding into Bangkok and also the first time that I'll be riding 900 odd kms in one go. The longest distance I've ever done before that was 700 kliks. So knowing what faces us we started off early, about 7am.

Looks like another wet ride for us.

What's odd was there were sighting of strange creatures lurking around our bikes

Another one of those creatures.

Many might think that with 900km to go we would blast our way, tearing through the hiways like a cat with its tail on fire, however that is very very far from the truth. You see we keep our speeds around 100-120kmh on the hiways, it's just that we take a longer time. If you're the type to do 150 or 160 avg speed, you would hate riding with us.

There seems to be a Harley gathering going on somewhere coz we would be bumping into huge groups of em on the hiway. Beautiful machines, but you can't pay me to ride that 900km. My ass would literally leave my body and kill me.

The other thing that I screwed up was that I forgot to check my fuel cap after filling and it appeared that I had forgotten to close it. Shit....over 70,000km done on the bike and I still make a rookie mistake. Easily a few litres spilled out of that tank. Humph! so much for conserving petrol.

It's actually on long rides like this that your are free and alone with your mind. Well I can't speak for others, but this is when I feel somewhat at peace. No distractions. Thinking about what I wanna achieve in life, where I want to be, should I get married (my parents will say yes you fool!)  and all that mumbo jumbo la. You know, when you're in the saddle for hours and hours on end there's plenty that you can and will think about.

Attack!...(after 6 hrs on the bike you then to go a bit wonky)

We were warned to stay of the hiway into Bangkok with these words from Husref's friend "Whatever you do, stay the fuck off Hiway 34!"....hehe ok boss! So it was hiway 35 all the way for us until we joined the road to Phra Pradeang and after that it was all the small roads before we joined Rama III heading our way to Sukumvhit Rd. If you're not aware, Sukumvhit Rd is pretty much the central of Bangkok and boy did we feel the traffic.We were stuck on it for an hour just to move 300 meters. Even the small kapchais and scooters got stuck so let alone us.

That's us on Sukumvhit Rd

Silly boy!

Immense relief came to us as we turn into Soi 8 and head up to our hotel. We stayed at Citadines, a very nice place. It's RM250 a night which is definitely wayyyy over our budget but Husref said he's buying so, after 900km and 12 hrs on the bike I am not going to argue.

Yummy PadThai Gung for dinner.

The original plan was to head into Sihanoukville, Cambodia the next day but during dinner we decided to swing by into Pattaya for a night. I guess that's the beauty of a flexible travelling plan. Husref has never been there and the last time I was there was in 1990 la. So why not eh?

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

Indochina(Thailand) - Post No 2: Bangkok

20 November 2010

There's no riding today, phew as i slept at 3 last nite. We just need to get our asses to the the airport for the 2pm flight to Bangkok. The bikes were expected to arrive at 4pm, which is just nice as we'd be arriving at 3pm. Just a little bit anxious as it's a good 24hrs that i am parted from the bike, but  a quick call before we boarded confirmed that the lorry is en-route. 

Tons of gear going on the flight

AirAsia sure knows how to pick em

Hadyai airport - definitely modern.

We checked in Chaba hotel near the airport and not even half an hour later the bikes arrived. Now I had stuffed my wet jacket and pants in the panniers, so the thought did occur as how bad it might smell after 24hours being cooped up in there, well....we'll soon find out.

Before that, I'd have to reserve my respects for the transporter, the same guys loaded the bikes, which took about 3 hours to finish, drove 1000km, yes, in case you thought I got wrong, i'll spell it for you, one thousand km from Hadyai to Bangkok and 24 hours later seems to be still fresh and strong to unload the bikes. I wouldn't be surprised if these people pissed napalm.

The hotel

Unloading

The courtyard filled up quickly

Back to the jacket, after taking out from the panniers glad to find that it doesn't smell so bad, then again I could have lost all my senses, and in these kind of circumstances, that's just fine by me.

Over dinner, we went into a discussion on how we're getting out of here to make our way to Cambodia. We had 7 Garmins at the dining table and I kid you not almost all had different routes going to the same place, so we're just going to use 1 instead of confusing ourselves.

Behind the hotel 

Tomorrow bright and early we'd be shooting off to Cambodia to spend a night in Phnom Penh and thus the adventure continues....