Category Archives: Motorcycle

Day 193 – Kampong Cham

Crossing the first of the two great rivers in Phnom Penh

Time to get moving again. After two days in Kampot, we now looked northwards…and to the East. Distances are not too great but since 80 kmh is the fastest we usually can go, it still takes time. For now, we ended our stint to the South and went back up again. Not wanting to end up in Phnom Penh for the night, we had set our eyes to Kampong Cham instead.

It was a good day for riding even if the weather is back up to over 30 degrees. Most days are okay as long as you are in the shade but riding on the roads, perpetually having the sun shine on your helmet makes you heat exhausted and drowsy quite quickly. So we stop for water breaks every now and then. Though Cambodia doesn’t have the always convenient warungs of Indonesia, it has small, garage-sized shops everywhere along the roads. These shops sell everything you might lack: From cold drinks to soaps and shampoo, a pen, some cookies, you get the jest. They all have an ice box (often literally) outside; the fancier ones sell ice cream, the more regular ones just cooled drinks.

Almost there, but the fatigue has hit pretty hard.

So after an hour, we stopped at one of these and bought two bottles of cool water. The owner made some chair appear for us in the shade, so we plopped down and downed our water. Since this is also the “break from the bike” time, we hung around. So the owner came to talk to us. His English was really good and he was very interested in what we had seen so far in Cambodia and where we still planned to go. It always makes people happy when they realize you are actually interested in seeing their country and are not just stopping at Angkor Wat before being lorried out to Laos. He recommended the East to us again and said people are even more friendly there. When we asked him about his English, it turned out that he had worked with an NGO, had to speak English all day while helping former drug addicts. But now he’s more of a businessman and advocate for Cambodia.

We left him to continue our journey but stopped in Phnom Penh for lunch, then continued. It took us until 4.30pm to arrive at the Mekong Hotel. There, the most amusing thing was the security guard, trying to help us carry in our luggage. The panniers are too heavy for most but he still tried without complaint, although the 40 kg obviously nearly broke him. Dinner was had in another training restaurant with lovely staff. It was yummy, even though it was out of its signature black pepper squid dish, to Flo’s dismay.

: Crossing the first of the two great rivers in Phnom Penh

: Phnom Penh is the one capital we came through that still feels less developed.

: On a rural road in eastern Cambodia

: Almost there, but the fatigue has hit pretty hard.

: Hard to see, but see the IV on the scooter – not the first time we’ve seen this,

Day 192 – Argh, argh!

Dragged ourselves out in our “sleeping” cotton shirts 🙂

We had planned to go on a little ride-out to find a lookout and hill station in the Bokor National Park. But once we had taken our breakfast at our still lovely guesthouse (we had decided to stay one more day, by the way) did the stomach demon strike. And that was it, pretty much.

We dragged ourselves out two more times to get food – Lunch at the Epic Arts (no experiments) and dinner at a more forgettable expat pizza joint in town, but that is it. A lot of sleeping, a lot of watching youtube.

No – honestly, that is it. So why don’t I use this to give an update on our more recent thoughts on the route from here on out and on our changing plans?

Why?

We had no illusions that all big plans we might have come up with in New Zealand had to have a level of flexibility when it comes to execution. Over the last two months, this has evolved and grown a bit beyond minor details. So, what are the issues? Why change?

First, because frankly, we have run out of money. Even though we have received incredible support to keep us going, we felt that we should at least consider cutting it a bit shorter to reduce our future outstanding obligations.

Further, we have felt an increasing pull to “come home” – to a single place for a good long while. Not so strong that we want to pull the plug entirely, but strong enough. We are both pretty sure that this will be a once in a lifetime trip and we would cut future adventures down to 1-3 months maximum.

Most importantly and urgently requiring a change of plan though was the fact that we realised that we do not want to go to Pakistan. Most importantly through Baluchistan. After a lot of talk it boils down to this: We do not want to risk our lives and more importantly the lives of some poor soldiers just to draw a line on a map. We, for now, have no pull towards Pakistan and would only be there to get to Iran.

There are other, minor bits: Nepal, our other big highlight, is in crisis right now with no clear end in sight. Myanmar required an expensive guide and can be well done some other time on smaller bikes. India is a mixed bag, but the long list of horror stories from the road (including fatalities) are playing into it as well.

The Plan 2.0

Right. So our new plan is to complete the Cambodia – Laos – Northern Thailand loop, then do Bangkok and fly either from there or from Kuala Lumpur to Dubai. Then we would do a little loop through Oman to visit Nina’s best friend and her lovely husband and come back to Dubai to take the ferry into Iran. Persia is, after Laos, the big “want to go there” item on our list.

After that, we would travel on to Istanbul, as a sort of unofficial end point and dash, broke as we are, back home across Eastern Europe.

All of this will probably cut two months out of our trip, making a perfect early summer return date. If all goes according to plan … 😉

planning …

Day 187 – The road leads to Phnom Penh

No trouble for the K60 scout

Battambang has been a relaxed stop but now it was time to go to the capital: Phnom Penh. As we had already experienced hostels being booked out due to the high season, we had booked ahead. Our room was secure for three nights (so we would get two full days in the city) and we “just” had to get there…it is about 300km to the southeast.

Starting early-ish to take the pressure off the day, we cruised along the main road for an hour and a half. The only annoying part was that the GPS kept crashing; we had put a new audio book onto the SD card and it couldn’t cope with the format. So, we only had each other’s company for the day. Woe is me. =P

After 1 1/2 hours, we stopped at a roadside shop to get a cold drink and sit somewhere more comfortable than the bike. Again, Cambodia blew us away with its friendly people as the shop owner asked us if we wanted to join into his lunch. So short after our own breakfast, we were not up for it but it was very nice of him to ask. His family, including kids and elderly people, was around, probably living in or behind the shop. An old lady sat down in a hammock after lunch and dipped her baguette into her milk coffee with visible pleasure. Some old colonial habits die hard.

Back on the road, we continued to cruise along at 80kmh. Rocinante approved muchly of the speed as the temperatures didn’t rise as high and fuel consumption was at an all-time low (as we discovered at the end of the day). Overall, temperatures have been amazing lately, dropping a bit under 30 degrees with a wind so that it feels nice and chilly on the bike.

One of 140 floating villages on Lake Tonlé Sap

When we made it close to the shore of Tonle Sap, the largest lake of Cambodia, we decided to take a detour and actually look at it, instead of just passing by. As soon as you turn off the main road, the seal disappears. A road of red dirt lead to the horizon but it wasn’t even a challenge for the Heidenau tyres. It will be a totally different story in the wet season though…

The further in we got, the poorer the people and the houses got. There is no deluding yourself that Cambodia is not a very poor country. At the end of the road, basically before it leads into the water, longboats are tied to the shore. Some are used to ferry tourists to the floating villages on the lake but they all look like fishing boats as well. A bit of a fair was being constructed, too, which gave the whole place an even more depressing touch.

The road will be cool once the 4 lanes are sealed …

Lunch was unspectacular; afterwards, we continued our ride. Close to Phnom Penh, the whole road turns into a construction site. Everything was red dust. It flew everywhere from all the cars and trucks using the road…the bike and us were covered in a layer of red when we arrived at our guest house. The guest house is on the cheap end of the spectrum but close to the riverfront and the middle of town. When we walked towards our “dining for a cause” restaurant a bit later on, we realized that “the middle of town” is also “the middle of the red light district”. Sex tourism must still be a big thing as there are so many bars and clubs catering to it. Also, the house rules of our guest house have some disturbing points listed from “no child molesting” to “no kidnapping”. 🙁

National brew – and finally cheap again. 1$ for a draft

Dinner was lovely in the not-for-profit restaurant Veiyo Tonle which is another training restaurant; this time, it also supports 24 children with food and school supplies. Wanting to spend a bit more here as it is for a good cause, I ordered “chocolate lovers’ tea” as dessert. Unfortunately, due to Chinese New Year, the company who makes the cookies had already closed down for the holiday and didn’t provide the fresh cookies so I couldn’t have it.

: One of 140 floating villages on Lake Tonlé Sap

: Nina in the temporary township at the water’s edge.

: No trouble for the K60 scout

: Longtails waiting for fares

: This all looked really out of place here?

: No rice during the dry, but cattle herds all over

: The road will be cool once the 4 lanes are sealed …

: National brew – and finally cheap again. 1$ for a draft

: Our Cambodia standard, lime on ice

: Interesting but tasty clams in Cambodia. They used aniseed as a spice

: One of the three hotspot streets for prostitution in PP

Day 185 – Demi-Anniversary

Yummy breakfast

One of the reason why we didn’t mind too much that we had booked an expensive night rather than two is that today is the sixth month-i-versary or demi-anniversary. After being on the road for six months, sleeping in a freezing tents, moldy cupboards or scorching shoe boxes, this one night was well earned.

So we slept in, making good use of the noon check out time. Breakfast was included so we feasted on scrambled eggs, baguette, muesli with milk, a croissant with pineapple jam, fresh fruit, orange juice and of course tea and coffee. It was a very enjoyable breakfast.

Approaching Angkor Wat over a bridge, crossing the moat

A bit of lounging and blogging later, we had to pack up already and move to our next accommodation. Check in was no problem but it was only 12.20pm again, the hottest time of the day. So we decided to have a bit of a siesta before leaving at 2pm. We had left Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom for our last day at the complex and I was anxious to get a good look at them.

Angkor Wat is a tourist magnet so you cannot except a quiet walk around the premises. However, after having seen the crowd at sunrise, we were positively surprised by how much space you still got. You start by walking over a bridge which crosses the moat and leads to the entrance comprised of three gates. On the inner premises, you cross quite a bit of space with a first a library and then a pond on each side before the walkway leads you to the actual temple of Angkor Wat.

Through the first gate, looking towards the temple itself

Starting from the terrace, the galleries are decorated with massive bas-reliefs so we spent a good while circling the building to look at all of them. Here, the knowledge that we had gained through our museum’s visit in combination with the information in the Lonely Planet gave us a good insight. We actually had a lot of fun trying to find the important gods in all of the battle scenes. Flo even managed to find another couple without any kind of guide or information sheet to whom he explained two or three of the bas-reliefs.

bad times for the Vietnamese … but they will remember this, don’t you worry …

The order in which we looked at the scenes was as follows: The battle of Kurukshetra, the army of Suryavarman II, Heaven & Hell, Churning of the ocean of milk, Vishnu conquers the demons, Krishna & the Demon King, Battle of the Gods & the Demons, Battle of Lanka. This will probably tell you nothing but it might clearify the order of our photos in the gallery a bit. These scenes seem to be unrelated at least in so far as they don’t tell a continuous story but rather many, many battles. After finishing this round, we were tired already. Going up into the inner part of Angkor Wat, we re-discovered the crowds, all queuing up to climb the last stairwell into one of the towers. Given how long the queue was, that it was 4pm already and that the late afternoon light was very pretty, we abstained from the last level. Instead, we went back outside to take more photos of the whole complex. Then, we also had to move on to Angkor Thom.

Rocinante and Bayon in the late afternoon light

Angkor Thom is an even larger complex than Angkor Wat as it was a whole city inside a moat and walls once. Given the time, we rode Rocinante straight to Bayon which is the largest temple in the area. It was already tinged in a beautiful yellow light so I took pictures of the bike and the temple. We were still all bas-reliefed out so we skipped this round and went straight up to the towers. In Bayon, the remarkable feature are the large faces adorning the towers. They looked awesome in this special light. Flo even gave one of the faces a hongi. 🙂

Tired but satisfied we left the Angkor temple complex after visiting Bayon. Yes, there is a lot we haven’t seen but there is also a lot we managed to see in just three days. We are quite happy with our time here.

: Yummy breakfast

: Chill-out areas by the pool

: Approaching Angkor Wat over a bridge, crossing the moat

: Through the first gate, looking towards the temple itself

: Between main gate and “the” pond

: well organised – but as always, grunty foot soldiers at the bottoom

: Eight galleries of this magnitude around Angkor Wat

: bad times for the Vietnamese … but they will remember this, don’t you worry …

: of course, the “noble” officers command from their mounts

: These ragtag guys were Siamese mercenaries pressed into service. Barbarian auxiliaries as cannon fodder …

: Sinners tormented by Asura on their way to be judged (and go to hell)

: The nobles on their way … nothing to fear here, straight to heaven

: Heavenly mansions for the good guys … of course.

: Churning of the ocean of milk, asura side

: Churning of the ocean of milk, Vishnu as turtle holding up the mountain

: Churning of the ocean of milk, the gods’ side

: One gallery was a later addition and apparently they got rubbish at carving in the mean time

: Vishnu is “riding” on his favorite mount Garuda … I say this is not riding …

: Different story. The army of the Monkey God has some anger management issues.

: Finally inside

: Not keen to stand in line for an hour, though

: Still plenty of Jungle remains within the moat and outer wall of AW

: Same place by day

: epic memories

: Sun setting over the moat of Angkor Wat

: Arriving at our last temple in the complex

: Rocinante and Bayon in the late afternoon light

: A guarding lion with a “Bayon” plate

: Enter and be awed

: Getting up levels

: Up close to the faces carved into the towers

: Hongi

: Sun was setting as we were leaving

: Trying to find dinner…

: …was quite hard. Not a lot of food stalls

: A sewing corner

Day 183 – Temples, towers and taverns

There was not much time to take a breather or think about the near future in the last couple of days, with all the worries about the bike. Now that we made it here, it became both evident and pressing that we did not have formulated any kind of further plan or done our research for the temples of Angkor. Over dinner last night, a plan evolved. We would go for a 3 day pass and stay either 3 or 4 days in Siem Reap.

We immediately started with another fail. After obsessing for what Nina assures me was “forever” over where to stay the remaining two nights, I ended up with this beautiful place. Pool, chilly atmosphere – upper end of our budget, but we stayed very cheap last night, right? Well, it turned out the reason I found this gem was that I only booked one night – at the price of 2 of our usual digs. No wonder the place is that nice :). We made it up by adding another night at the super cheap dig to even things out. To be fair, for $13 NZ including breakfast, it was a good deal. The breakfast was not too shabby, if lacking variety and we have paid more for much dirtier rooms in Indonesia.

After all the trouble, she’s given us…Rocinante made it to the temple complex!

We cleared out our panniers, geared ourselves light and headed out towards the temple complex of Angkor. Angor Wat is just the most famous of many temples, monasteries and other massive projects in the larger area of the former Khmer capital of Angkor. The area is vast and to explore it, some form of transport is required. Which led us to hoping and crossing our fingers that we would be allowed to go in with Rocinante.

The 3 day tickets come at a fair price of $40 US per person – given the international reputation of the site and everything else being so cheap. Even better than getting our tickets with no hassle was the confirmation that we could indeed explore the area at our leisure with our bike. Wohoo!

Following the three day exploration advice from the Lonely Planet, we left the mighty Angkor Wat aside (other than the glimpses while passing it, since that is the way to go) to explore the north east of the area. First on our list was Preah Khan.

Most impressive

This temple was build in the late 12th century and was dedicated to both the Buddah as well as the Hindu gods Brahma, Shiva and Vishu. It was definitively a good start, although we were still a bit lost regarding the iconography. Maybe the most impressive bit so far were the carvings on the entrance bridges we passed. Rows of humanoids engaged in a “tug-o-war” using a Naga for a rope. This symbolises the “churning of the ocean of milk” – a piece of religious mythology that we will have heard more often by the end of this day than we may ever have asked for.

Preah Khan’s most interesting feature is a two story building with columns that looks pretty out of place here. It looks like it fled ancient Greece to live in exile here with the Khmer. Then again, there must have been knowledge about the Persian and European realms beyond India, so one can speculate.

Large water basin with a tower with four water basins around it

After a little refresher, we moved on to Preah Neak Poan, a small tower set in a lake within a massive Baray. Barays are massive rectangular water storage basins that formed part of the Khmers irrigation systems. The Baray and the moats surrounding the larger temples have been cleared and flooded once more and are in my mind as impressive feats of engineering as the temples are.

It was time to head back for lunch. We decided to treat ourselves a little bit and go for one of the “dining for a cause” recommendations from the Lonely Planet. The “Marum” is a training restaurant, training young Cambodians up to western standards in hospitality. The staff was great and the food even better – even though I am still a bit on the fence about the core premise here. It felt very neo-colonial to see young and bright people train hard only to archive the proper “servant” rank for my dollar laden western desires.

Food porn!

Nina’s comment: Half of the staff is also trained in cooking in a restaurant kitchen. Also, even the waiting staff is learning English and, in the hospitality section, this can only be an advantage. Also, the food was so yummy. I had decided on “Marum” because it offers a range of vegetarian foods. In the end, we ordered three vegetarian tapas: rice paper rolls filled with grilled pepper and goat cheese with a tamarind dip (Flo’s favourite), smoked eggplant dig with Indian crackers (my favourite) and a very solid, earthy hummus made from lotus, jackfruit and coriander with baguette. I even got a to-die-for-chocolate cake with passionfruit syrup as dessert.

With plenty of time left in the day, we were thinking of hitting one of the museums around. Unfortunately, the Landmine Museum was a bit too far out to be reached in time, so we settled on the much more expensive Angkor National Museum.

Only picture of the museum as taking the camera inside would have cost extra

The experience was good, all in all a very modern museum experience – something I would expect and enjoy back home as well. Then again, around here it felt a bit out of place at times. Why do I pay $3 for a fancy audio guide when you could train and employ scores of Cambodians as personal guides for the same price? Instead, technology is used to funnel funds past the locals right into the foreign investors’ pockets. Be that as it may, the only criticism about the exhibition was that it may be focused a bit too much on the religious aspects of Angkor and the Khmer at the cost of some broader historic context. What about agricultural base? What about the systems of slave labour? Still, we left two hours later with a huge info-dump that would help us interpret what we will see in the temples tomorrow and the day after. No photos by the way, since even if we would have payed $2 extra camera fee, pretty much all the relevant exhibits had a no photography sign next to them …

Then, it was time for an early night – we had decided to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat tomorrow morning. The alarm was set for 5 am …

: Ticket office. 3 day passes include a photo on the ticket which just looks bad

: After all the trouble, she’s given us…Rocinante made it to the temple complex!

: This bridge leads across an artificial moat, decorated with the “churning of the ocean of milk”.

: This forest is INSIDE Angkor Thom. We left this temple for the last day but had to cross it to get to the ones a little further out

: Arriving at the north gate of Preah Khan

: Another example of the “churning”

: The moats are impressive. This one has been cleared, others still have trees in them

: Most impressive

: Lions guarding the gate

: The temple that looks suspiciously Greek

: Intricate carvings can still be found everywhere

: Hand is just for scale. Look at the patterns on the cloth…so much work!

: Or these decorations on the plaster

: Frieze of dancers in the hall of dancers

: But even here, nature started to reclaim parts of the temple

: Rocinante is still here as well, waiting in the shade…oh, wait…

: Moat to the next temple…this time not cleared

: Large water basin with a tower with four water basins around it

: And, of course, more decorations

: A long wooden pathway leads to and from Preah Neak Poan, over the moat

: Looks very pretty

: Dining for a cause..,with lime juices as a refreshment

: Food porn!

: Feast of tapas

: To-die-for-chocolate cake! YAY!

: Only picture of the museum as taking the camera inside would have cost extra

Day 182 – Into Cambodia

We started later today than we would have liked to. Our hostel offered breakfast with the room but my request for vegetarian food broke the system. After taking away Flo’s food as well, we were left waiting for over 30min with nothing happening because the staff person spoke very little English and seems to have thought that we simply didn’t want breakfast. Without dinner last night and a delayed breakfast, I was getting hangry real fast. Luckily, I only had to complain once for things to move in our favour…

On their way to Cambodia

Getting to the border was only a matter of about 50km now. So we prepared as best as we could with a full gas tank, a passport photo of each of us and US$20 for the visa on arrival. Trucks started to queue but the border for “normal” people was moving very quickly on a Monday morning. And then it turned out that Cambodia should be my least liked border crossing so far. For some reason, there is a rule that only one person can accompany one vehicle. Thus, Flo was going through the “vehicle” lane and had to deal with his visa and the bike stuff while I was left to my own devices going through the “passenger” lane. Of course, there are not a lot of cross-over opportunities between the two which made me nervous.

Last shot – we tend to not take pictures to avoid hassle at the border

Getting out of Thailand was no big deal at all (well, I can only speak for myself). They looked at the passport, took out the departure card, stamped it and off you go. Then you leave through a special exit, get herded through a pedestrian lane with a wall at one side and a fence at the other and arrive at a tent on the Cambodian side. While walking around confused, I was called over to a desk inside the tent that said “Quarantine”, was sat down to fill out the “Visa on Arrival” form and had my passport photo stapled to it. Armed with this form, I moved into the building on the other side of the road to pay my fees. Costs for the visa have gone up to US$30 now which was all well and official but then a “stamp fee” of 100 Thai baht was collected, too. While the US$30 have even been stamped onto my visa as the cost, I am pretty sure that the 100 baht are a form of systemic bribe. Or a way to get a better wage. However, there was no way around it so I paid it; it’s the equivalent of NZ$4.

When I met up with Flo again, he was still fuming about the “stamp fee”, even if it isn’t a lot of money. I guess that’s what you get for crossing at Poipet which is the main throughfare from Bangkok to Angkor Wat. Many tourist buses cross the border here as well so it might be more tempting.

Anyhow, we made it to Cambodia! Wohoooo! With a visa for “30 days”, from February 1st to March 1st. *lol*

Most of Cambodia is made up of pancake flat silt from the Mekong and Tonlé Sap

From the border, it is a mere 150km to Siem Reap, the city which is sustained by the tourism at Angkor Wat. Many differences to Thailand became apparent straight behind the border. For example, traffic is slower, overloaded trucks and bikes are common and the landscape is very dry and savannah-like. All in all, it reminded me a lot of the Indonesian islands in the East that we have been through. Also, very noticeably, Cambodians are interested in our travels which wasn’t the case in Thailand. So people ask us where we come from, if we have ridden the bike all the way and are just generally excited that we are visiting. This makes them genuinely NICE. 🙂

With roads being worse again and traffic generally slower, we stopped at a tourist diner along the road for lunch. Two tourist buses were having their lunch break here, too, so we overheard some of their itineraries. Seems like the loop Bangkok-Angkor Wat-Laos-Bangkok is very popular. It is also weird to suddenly be travelling in the high season of a country.

Such a nice spot – stupid high season …

Arriving in Siem Reap, every accommodation (in our price range) that the Lonely Planet suggests, was fully booked for the next couple of days. Booking through agoda, we still found a range of free rooms and decided to go with the cheapest one for US$13 including breakfast. Of course, it was not as cozy or stylish as the recommended ones but it was solid with everything we need: bed without bugs, big fan to keep us cool, enough space to store our luggage and even our own private bathroom. Being cheap on the sleeping front, we went out for dinner at the Ivy guesthouse. This guesthouse is where we would have liked to stay, not least because it offers a range of vegetarian foods on the menu. On the way home, we sorted out the Cambodian SIM card so that we will have mobile internet in this country as well.

: On their way to Cambodia

: Last shot – we tend to not take pictures to avoid hassle at the border

: Oh dear lifestock, we missed you!

: We passed many of these loaded bikes. Not sure what they use the bottles for …

: Most of Cambodia is made up of pancake flat silt from the Mekong and Tonlé Sap

: Such a nice spot – stupid high season …

Day 181 – Red Baron

We learnt from past mistakes and DID NOT have breakfast in the overpriced restaurant, instead having Nutella toast in our room. Flo was extremely nervous, wanting to find the right spare part so badly that I started to worry a bit. What if we couldn’t find it?

You are our only hope, Red Baron!

But we were lucky to begin with. The Red Baron opens at 10am, even on a Sunday. Wednesday is the day that they are closed. Not knowing how Bangkok traffic will be like this morning, we started early and arrived at 9.45am.

The store opened at exactly 10am. The guy at the counter had us bring the bike around to the workshop so that the mechanics could have a look and then went in search of reg/recs for big bikes. In the end, he found two new ones. Flo was over the moon!

Mechanic at work

However, again, learning from past mistakes, we didn’t want to commit to one of them before we had Jonathan’s confirmation that they would really do the job. This time, the parts were also VERY expensive. So we wrote Jonathan on WhatsApp about the specifics of the two reg/recs and then waited. Chances were good that Jonathan worked even on a Sunday so we would get a reply in his lunch break, most likely. It was 11.30am already so we decided to go for an early lunch ourselves while waiting for the reply.

And yes, Jonathan’s reply came during lunch: One of the reg/recs was a go! It could handle up to 50 ampere while Rocinante’s original part was up to 35 ampere so we would even upgrade! Nearly jumping for joy we made our way back to the Red Baron. The mechanic didn’t share our enthusiasm. The part was not for a different Honda bike so while it worked ampere-wise, the connectors had to be carefully made to fit. Very reluctantly, he went to work.

Two fried reg/recs make for a sad Flo

Changing the reg/rec was a very good thing but problems with that part often also effect the battery and vice versa. The battery had been drained twice now through our efforts to get Rocinante back to Bangkok so changing the battery as well is a good idea. If the battery had been damaged, it could have effected the new reg/rec and we really, really didn’t want that. Because of the new battery, we had to wait two hours for it to be charged before being able to take off. With a fully functional bike! The only down side is that “big bikes” are luxury items in Thailand which means that a special luxury tax of 60% applies to them, as well as to all spare parts. The reg/rec cost us about NZ$500 and the new battery another NZ$200. Having the bike fixed felt amazing…the cost with our financial background not too much.

All is well that ends well

Everything worked fine so we made for Sa Kaeo, the town closest to the Cambodian border. No warning lights, no issues with the electronics at all! I even had my family Skype call from the cafe at a gas station cut short in order for us to make it before dark. We booked a roadside hostel online so all we had to do was get there.

With the last glimpses of light disappearing, we rolled into the Golden house hostel, had a silly little victory dance in our room and fell into bed without dinner.

: You are our only hope, Red Baron!

: There was an older model of the transalp already in the workshop

: Still feeling out of place in a motorcycle workshop

: Mechanic at work

: Other overlanders had their bikes here, too

: No lunch picture but a delicious (overpriced) hot chocolate at Starbucks

: Two fried reg/recs make for a sad Flo

: All is well that ends well

Day 180 – Bangkok is the new Denpasar

Blogging at the breakfast table

We almost got fooled by the utterly unfounded confidence of our mechanic yesterday. Where to go? Would we believe in his words and go on towards Cambodia? Once again, a WhatsApp exchanged with Jonathan came with bad news that nonetheless saved our bacon. He checked the specifications on the regulator / rectifier that was put in yesterday and confirmed. Too weak. Rocinante produces about 400W of electricity, the r/r could only “neutralise” a maximum of 300W. That means even with all lights constantly going, it would be at maximum capacity at all time. Maybe ok at 15°C, but not at 36°C as we had yesterday.

All this considered, we decided to go back to the nearest Honda “BigWing” dealer in Pattaya and try our luck. All bikes over 300cc are part of the BigWing section, which are marketed as luxury items with only a handful of showrooms in the country. And so we parted from our lovely and extremely helpful hosts. If you ever find yourself in Chanthaburi, I recommend staying at Banchan 9 Homestay.

Right away, it proved to be the right decision. The rear ABS sensor was playing up with intermittent faults, which also meant that we had neither speed- nor odometer for the first couple of kilometers. But with the lights on high beam and every device plugged in to charge, it settled down after 10 minutes or so. Still the fear of permanent damage of the CDI or ABS computer crept into our minds.

At least they were helpful in referring us on. Honda was just utterly useless

Arriving at the Honda dealer turned out to be the first big bust of the day in the end. After giving us the barest minimum of courtesy by checking the original parts number in their system (I already knew it is not in it, the Transalp was never sold in Thailand) they pretty much ignored us from here on. Thus began a bit of a goose chase through Pattaya – the Kawasaki shop sent us to their workshop who sent us to an independent workshop further on. The last one looked extremely promising, with both an old Transalp as well as an Africa Twin right there.

It got even better when the owner produced a R/R he claimed was from a 900cc Kawasaki cruiser – I briefly checked and the one from that bike would indeed have been enough to get us going for good. Just to be 100% certain, we consulted our WhatsApp oracle while the part was being installed. Once again, once all was said and done we were left disappointed and devastated. The temporary fix from Chanthaburi had blown up already on the last 150km, so we had to use the new one, payed $180 for it and still had no permanent solution. Later that day it turned out that the owner was wrong or may have lied to me regarding the part he sold. Rather than the big 900cc bike he mentioned, the part was from a 650 Ninja … with a far less powerful alternator …

Hasty lunch at 4pm before tackling the road back to Bangkok

The few hours we have been in Pattaya made it clear that we did not want to stick around. The city is still known as a go-to destination for sex-tourists and the number of fat old white men we saw swaggering about with scantily clad young girls and women was plenty to trigger our gag and flight reflexes.

The saving grace was that we got one more contact for a parts and big bike shop, back in Bangkok out of it. However, it was written in Thai script so we had no idea where it was or how it was called. It was late already, very late, but we wanted to make use of the cooler evening time to get at least close to BKK again. We aimed for the hotel near the airport we stayed in a couple of days ago – east of the city and a good place to sort out where to go tomorrow.

We arrived after dark, but at least without any further issues regarding the electronics. Checking in took a moment due to a particularly obnoxious duo of German tourists taking forever with their petty requests uttered in even pettier English. But after that, when we were about to retreat to our room to fully deflate, came the glimmer of hope that would rob me of almost all my sleep that night. We asked the hotel staff to translate the address we got in Pattaya and it turned out that it was for the local branch of the Red Baron chain. They are great in NZ, so I really got my hopes up this time …

: Blogging at the breakfast table

: At least they were helpful in referring us on. Honda was just utterly useless

: The right kind of bikes are around but the reg/rec turned out to be too weak

: We had to take it anyway as the Yamaha reg/rec was fried already. You can see the plastic bubbling up

: Hasty lunch at 4pm before tackling the road back to Bangkok

Day 179 – Chanthaburi

deck on day 1

We also got to get up in one of the most beautiful places we’ve stayed at so far. The night in the four-post bed under a giant mosquito net had been very relaxing but, in the morning, all our worries came back.

Our lovely host had prepared breakfast. I had been so knackered yesterday that I forgot to tell her I’m vegetarian so I couldn’t eat my rice with shrimps and beef/pork. Feeling very sorry for the waste of food I created, I ate more from my, now cold, noodles from dinner.

Things started to move quickly but also not at all. Our mechanic had already called our host to inform us that the bike could be picked up again. He claimed that he had fixed it and to see if it would be okay for longer distances had ridden it 100km to Trat and back in the night. Flo was overjoyed but still picked up a voltage meter to check if everything was okay. It wasn’t. There was too much current going through the regulator/rectifier which, in the long run, would fry the bike’s other electronic parts. Disappointed, we let the mechanic know who took the bike away again.

Unfortunately, the multi-meter had no good news for us

It got later and later and by 11 am, we decided to stay for another night as it didn’t seem likely that we would be able to check out by noon. Around noon, the mechanic returned Rocinante, this time fitted with the reg/rec from his own Yamaha bike. Flo checked it with the voltage meter and it was looking good! To be absolutely certain, we contacted Jonathan again. Jonathan, the electronic’s wizard from Malaysia, had given us a WhatsApp contact so we were able to ask him about this solution. He replied that Rocinante produces too much electricity for the part so that we should try and use as much of it as we can before the reg/rec has to work with it. That means, charging as much as we can on the bike, having the lights on full beam etc. However, Rocinante would ride again!

Hmm, smoothie!

Now we still had half an extra day in Chanthaburi for some sight-seeing and lunch, of course. Our host lent us a bicycle with an extra pillion saddle on it so Flo drove me around town on a bicycle. 🙂 We went back to the little alley at the river side which turned out to be lovely for almost the whole length. Tiny wooden houses on each side of the one lane street, most of them having food stalls on the ground level made for a pleasant stroll. For lunch, we already had the strawberry place from yesterday in mind though. Again, it was delicious and Flo got another strawberry slushie as a take-away.

After lunch, I insisted on a visit to the “sweet @ moon” cafe. Every cafe that has a sign for cake before one for coffee is my cup of tea. 🙂 So we had a pleasant afternoon stop there before heading further into town. Chanthaburi is known for its gem trading which only happens on the weekends, including Friday. Through our delay with a broken down bike, it was Friday today so we intended to check out the gem market.

Food stalls and trader tables all crammed together

It is nothing for the uninitiated. Many stalls, or long rows of tables in shops were filled with traders, many looking at gems through a magnifying glass. Food stalls were scattered in between and the whole street was clogged up with pedestrians. One of the traders waved at us and asked about our whereabouts. Then, he shortly talked about how beautiful NZ is which is the usual reaction that we get.

On the way back, we rode past the cathedral as well which looked pretty in the afternoon sun. The homestay’s deck was a lovely place to hang out but we used the time to check out our financial situation. It looks pretty dire. We’re at the point where we would have to go back to Bangkok right now to fly home to Frankfurt as our funds are just enough for two flight tickets and a crate back home for Rocinante. So we called family and friends to ask for advise and the possibility for loans. We are blessed and privileged to have such family and friends who are willing to give us interest-free credit so that we can, at least, finish the loop through Cambodia and Laos first. We will also set up a gofundme page if anyone would like to help out, even with small amounts.