::: 4 Nation ride August 2013 (Vietnam - Cambodia - Laos - Thailand)

[VietHorse]

Well, our team has done couple of trips like that, however they are all organized by a tourist company and we had all logistics and administration support.
This time, we decided to go by our own. It seems really easy task for other countries, but not for those we are going to ride thru. Crazy procedures, or no procedure at all.
We all don't have much free time, so that we have tried to maximize our trip duration by apply leave Friday and afternoon Thursday. Plus two days weekend, then we have 3.5 days for the trip.

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Day #1 ~ 400km from Hochiminh City (Vietnam) to Stung Treng (Cambodia).

We had twelve bikes for the trip. Some of them with passengers.
Noon time Thursday, at the muster point:

Quite clear road during lunchtime, so we moved with quite good speed.
As near to the border, the road condition turned pretty bad, lots of pot holes, loose gravel, all kinds of offroad stuff...
Well, this is what we did not expect, however we knew it would be happened.
A Multistrada got punched, by a sharp stone:

This Multistrada seemed ok with the road:

And of course, for my GS:

GS really showed up it's consistent of handling ability as well as providing comport to the rider. It also proved me quality of the new Heidenau tire set, which I have just install with some km before this trip:

Better road at the end of Vietnam roads:

We reached the border gate. It's a really small check-point. Noticed there are very minimum movement of personnel and vehicles across the border.
Still did not know how sure the guys would let us go:

...................

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Closer to the check point office:

12 bikes, all types of bike:

I was really there:

After a while, we had the plan to head back!:

Looks on this sign board - it's our hope at that point.

Just stopped on the edge...

...

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Finally, we were allowed to pass Vietnam border. Now to register at the Cambodia side:

Hit the road again, guys:

Good road condition, empty traffic...

We decided to have dinner at this place, as we don't know where and how long we would see the restaurant again.
We had also been informed that the remain road from their to Stung Treng gonna be very bad:

Well, just happy with what we have had. These two sport-bike riders did not care what they would face in next couple of hours:

Anh ấy lúc này vẫn còn đang sung lắm!

...

 

[VietHorse]

We decided to continue riding and rest the night at Stung Treng as initial plan.
Someone told us that the road from there to Stung Treng is very bad, however, we did not think it is such bad!! And it's around 200km long.
That was unforgettable night! All of us were exhausted with the road. Can't tell how bad it was. It was paved road, however we don't know because of poor maintenance or over loaded vehicle, there were several big pot holes, lose sand, soil and stone... My GS many time was almost dumped into the bloody big hole and the canals across the road. Poor the sport bikes, BMW S1000RR, Yamaha R6 and CBR600, it was the nightmare for them.
We had to stop several times along the road. At least two times for punched tires, some times because of two tired riders, one time the S1000RR need more gas (from other bike's tank)

A stop at middle of nowhere

Reached hotel in Stung Treng almost mid night.
Here 's what we got for the first (half) day:

After checked in, we went out for supper. Don't really know why the meal was so expensive.

 

[Lone Rider]

Wow, what a ride - I estimate that is must have been some 2000 km. (Vietnam to Cambodia to Laos and then Thailand back to Cambodia and back home in Hanoi) in 3.5 days - you guys must have iron butts to do this monster ride in such a short time and still have time for sight-seeing in between.

 

[KTMphil]

Stupendous Trung, your group and yourself have some great positive energy, looks like a fantastic trip to departing from Vietnam. How long have you had the BMW 1200gs now?

 

[WarProfiteer]

Great ride report! Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed the pictures.

 

[VietHorse]

Wow, what a ride - I estimate that is must have been some 2000 km. (Vietnam to Cambodia to Laos and then Thailand back to Cambodia and back home in Hanoi) in 3.5 days - you guys must have iron butts to do this monster ride in such a short time and still have time for sight-seeing in between.

Hmm, not that much Lone Rider. We departed from HCMC and back there as well. We planned for the almost 2000km trip but due to unexpected waiting time at checkpoints made us to cut the trip down to aprox 1700km. Actually we could do 1000km or so in a day without any issue.

Stupendous Trung, your group and yourself have some great positive energy, looks like a fantastic trip to departing from Vietnam. How long have you had the BMW 1200gs now?

Thanks. Posted my need of a GS end of December last year, physically got the bike Apr2013, first ride out June2013.

Great ride report! Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed the pictures.

Thanks. There are lots more coming...

 

[VietHorse]

Day #2 ~ 230km from Stung Treng (Cambodia) to Pakse (Laos).

Gold River Hotel, stationed just beside the Mekong river. Nice and well equipped hotel. I think it was $25 for a twin bed room, without breakfast, with free wifi, large parking area.

Nice views from my room:

Our guys were there to prepare the bikes:

Met an US biker - Jake - He told us that he had been riding there in Southeast Asia for around 20years. Don't know if you guys know him. He made the map, which I can't recall the name. Asked him for the road from there to Pakse, he said all well paved road.

Went for a breakfast:

Food there is almost same as what we have in Vietnam. They even provide us Vietnamese coffee.

We also found that there are a lot of people who can speak Vietnamese fluently:

There was no ATM or credit card machine, or something like that. So to be survived, need to be well prepared with cash:

We departed around 9:30 AM.

 

[VietHorse]

The seconday began with not a good sign. With very kind support from the hotel manager, we could not find anyone around Stung Treng who can deal with the rear tire.
Most likely the CB1000 would not be able to pass Laos-Thailand border.
We passed the Mekong river, and the sun was shined very hot. Hmm, this area seemed much hotter than in HCMC.
It was even hotter when we faced with this bloody issue!!

Dang, it quite a nail:

And worse, it is not tubeless tire.

And we did not have any spare tube.

This Africa twin seems to be the only one in Vietnam. The owner of this bike did not intend to ride this bike for this trip. He had planed to pass Phnom Penh to exchange with his GSA, which is stored there. However, due to long long process at the Vietnam border, we could not make a passing by Phnom Penh in the day 1.

Hmm, Multistrada looks safer:

And of course, my GS also:

...

 

[VietHorse]

We decided to split into two group.
One stayed to deal with the Africa twin. And the other one proceed to Cambodia - Laos border for checking the procedures and others.

I was heading to the border.
Reached the border without any issue. The officers there they speak Vietnamese quite well:

Asked for the procedure, informed the other group, and take a rest, to wait for them to appear:

The tire work took more time than what we though, and we proceeded to check out from Cambodia:

Now to Laos' checkpoint:

Passport control office:

Almost done!

 

[VietHorse]

The front group done the Passport control at Laos side. Now for the bikes:

Happy time - to forget the bloody high temp there at noon time:

The Laos officer was pretty nice guy. He have studied in Vietnam for 5-6 years or so, he can speak Vietnamese quite well. Very helpful guy.

Done with bike's paperwork, we headed to the Khone Phapheng waterfall - the larget Waterfall in Southeast Asia. Link for more info about the waterfall.

In Laos, "Huay" means Bridge, I think:

Really sunny, really hot:

It's one of adventure styles:

Reaching the waterfall:

Ticket to get into the tourist area and for bike park:

...

 

[VietHorse]

Some photos of the Khone Phapheng waterfall, the largest waterfall in Southeast Asia:

It's how the waterfall looks like. I just be able to capture a small corner of it:

A small shelter providing soft drinks, souvenir, and rest area for tourists.
Some ladies in uniform T-shirt are photographers:
:

Downstream of the fall:

 

[Lone Rider]

Yes, the falls are really impressive and in particular around this time of the year. The BBC has produced a documentary about fishing in and around the falls where the local people cross the falls using a "highwire" act. Here is the Preview streamer for it:

.

Work has unofficially started on the 240 MW Don Sahong Dam and Hydro Power Project. Although most people expect that the construction of the dam in the Hou Sahong Channel will have a major effect on fishing including the dolphin population - the Hou Sahong channel is a major migratory route for fish - it is not sure in how far the dam will have an effect on the Khone Phapheang Falls. For those interested in the Dam, you can find a fact sheet here: http://www.internationalrivers.org/files/attached-files/don_sahong_fact_sheet_sept_2008_english.pdf

 

[VietHorse]

Thank you Lone Rider for the impressive video. Too bad that I did not know about it before arrival.

I have done a little search on the map, and found that my photo above just somehow captured 1% of the overall waterfall.
The below pix may tell the true size of the biggest waterfall in SE Asia:

 

[KTMphil]

Great photo's Trung!

 

[VietHorse]

Then we moved inside the tourist are for lunch.

Very nice and well set up restaurant:

All cooking stuff were arranged pretty neat. Notice the clock, that time we hadn't had lunch yet.

These are the tool they used to cook sticky rice - almost same as what we have in Vietnam:

Too hungry, we were focus on the lunch then forget to take food pix.

All good food.
During luch, we called the other group, they are still struggling with the tire. We talked to the restaurant that they should prepare for the next coming group.

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During we having lunch near the waterfall, the other team, just around 30-40km away still playing with the tire.

My friend got the bike from middle of nowhere to this area by a passing by truck:

And it was the time for the pain ass:

Wazz up?:

Looked like they were chasing a mouse...

Dang.. That's a tire job!!!...

Oh hell, that's the tube!!!!

So,... What's gonna be next!?

 

[Lone Rider]

Thank you Lone Rider for the impressive video. Too bad that I did not know about it before arrival.

I have done a little search on the map, and found that my photo above just somehow captured 1% of the overall waterfall.
The below pix may tell the true size of the biggest waterfall in SE Asia:

Guess, you captured most of the Khone Phaphaeng Falls as all the other channels do have other names and generally have rapids like the Somphamit also knows as Li Phi Rapids west of Don (Island) Khon and the Phrea Nimith Rapids west of Don Sangiat close to the border with Cambodia. Hope you guys also went to see Wat Phou ( Vat Phou - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) which is a World Heritage Site a bit south-west of Pakxe.

 

[VietHorse]

Hope you guys also went to see Wat Phou ( Vat Phou - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) which is a World Heritage Site a bit south-west of Pakxe.

We did have plan to visit Wat Phou. Bike problems made us not be able to get there. Next time, when we are in Laos again.

 

[VietHorse]

The next group finally reached the Waterfall. They had very hurry lunch and we all headed out to the street to find stuff to fix the bike on truck. All our attempts for fixing bike tire was failed.

The CB1000 tire looked like this:

And the Africa Twin made really pain in the ass.
Bike was on truck, but without wire, rope to secure...

A little fun to make the life happier:

It's complimentary to the owner of the broken Africa twin - we brought the disc from the restaurant above:

Well, than both bike were on truck.
We had no more choice rather than staying in Pakse, the town was around 100km ahead.

Gas for bikes and drinks for guys:

Another little rest after a really good road and speed.

Recalled Radioman ride the world, know how his usually jump

:

Near to Pakse, more traffic coming up. Not only human, but dogs, cats and cows. Dang, that's stress ride.
Reached hotel Champasak Grand around 5:30PM, just beside Mekong river:

We were all there:

When the truck arrived, both broken bike were downloaded:

...

 

[VietHorse]

That night, we have really great dinner in Pakse. Drank a lot of beer Laos and river fish, on a floating boat-restaurant on Mekong.
Again, too hungry so I did not take any pix.
We already arranged two tires to be shipped from Thailand to the next border (Laos - Thailand), around 09:00AM tomorrow. It's around 50km away from our hotel.
Things seemed going together at that point. All were happy with the plan.
We did some slow riding around Pakse to see things.
Slept like dead man that night, again.

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Day #3 ~ 420km from Pakse (Laos) thru Ubon (Thailand) to Preah Vihear (Cambodia).

Saturday morning, woke up and realized that it was heavy rain last night. Dang, not a good thing to ride in the rain in Laos.
Well, lucky us, rain stopped by the sunlight. And the truck also arrived to pick up two broken bikes:

A morning adventure to find tires...

Great road from Pakse town to Pakse checkpoint, approx 50km. First time saw Laos traffic police around 10km from the hotel. Slowed down and waived to them. Feeling much better than seeing Vietnam traffic police.

.
Checkpoint, easy procedure, easy time, and wait for the tires to come from Thai side:

Wait a bit for Passport stamp:

My tires are great:

...

 

[VietHorse]

While the other side of the Check point, work was still going on:

Those tires were delivered, finally, from Thai border:

Our guys took care of the tire machines, shop owners just looked standing:

I seemed a hard work:

Almost done for the Africa twin:

Nice tire for the CB1K:

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Done the tire job, we all gathered at the Thailand check point for the immigration and bike import processes:

New tire looked cool:

Welcome to Thailand:

We learned the procedures along the ride:

Purely paperwork - lots of photocopy job for passport, bike title, etc...

Well, time out, of all the paperwork hassle:

It was just 100m to the great riding road...

 

[WarProfiteer]

Welcome to Thailand:

Haha, this picture is awesome! Thanks for the laugh...

 

[VietHorse]

Haha, this picture is awesome! Thanks for the laugh...

Great that you like it.


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Whilst doing immigration, I have contacted a friend in Ubon, he said he will escort us when arriving Ubon.
Noon time, we have everything were settled. Hit the Thailand roads.
Great roads from the Checkpoint to Ubon. We reached 2xx km/h without any issue.

My GS also went almost 200km/h and then gotta slowdown to 18x as I did not believe much in the bike with lots of wind. However, that's great feeling, totally different from previous days, crazy with bad roads and buddies' broken bikes.
Reached Ubon, we met James with his KTM950 Adventure in front of the Kawasaki dealer shop. We took some times to see the bikes there. Then James guided us to the lunch place, good parking area, good food.

James may though "why those guys talk a lot"

:

After lunch, James brought us to KTM/Triumph showroom. A friend of mine changed his rear tire there:

Loạt Boneville:

...

 

[VietHorse]

Multistrada is going to have new shoe:

Oh hell, is it called Adventure? No way:

Let's my GS be dirty until I safely homed. Who cares.

Big THANKs to James:

Hope to see you again soon:

We headed to Chong Sangam checkpoint (Thai - Cambodia border) right after that!

 

[VietHorse]

We were in hurry to reach the Checkpoint before 5PM as we was informed that the office there would be closed then.
My gosh, that time was really rush. It was almost 4PM, and there is only around 180km to the border gate!!. D@mn.
Not only that, we hit a rain on the way, really heavy rain. Gotta stopped for wearing rain coats. At least 3 minutes wasted as we came into the LPG station instead of the Gasoline station

.
Rain was heavier and heavier... The road surface more slippery... Speed suck. Heart beat like hell....
Our plan was going thru the border, ride around 150km more deeply into Cambodia land, where called Preah Vihear.
If that plan went well, we could nicely done one-day-three-nations.

As near to the check point, the rain stopped. Nice and twisty road made us more excited. Tried to lean my bike on every corner, as we had no chance since departure.

Reached checkpoint. It was ~ 5:30OPM.
D@mn,.... Office closed!??

Now what??!

 

[VietHorse]

Luckily, both sides of the checkpoints they did overtime that day.
We were the last people who crossed the line in the day.
When we 've done with the Thai side, doing for Cambodia immigration:

Passport and Custom control of Cambodia:

THAT is Preah Vihear - where we wanted to go:

Looked fine:

Oh lah lah...

Oh yeah:

Bingo...

 

[VietHorse]

So, our plan of riding thru 3 countries within a day has been materialized.

.
Great achievement, so far.
It was quite long way from the checkpoint to the hotel that night, almost 100km in the night time.
If there was no conflict between Cam and Thai, we could cross the Preah Vihear checkpoint, save almost that 100km.
Not so many choices of Hotel around Preah Vihear. We stayed at a Hotel that my friend said it should be 5 star hotel of that area. Good one, but in general, it should be around 1.5 star maximum.

We had dinner in the hotel. Food even not enough, but beers.

What I had after 2.5 days riding - total 1000km:

3rd night, slept like a dead man.

 

[VietHorse]

Day #4 ~ 600km from Preah Vihear (Cambodia) to Hồ Chí Minh City (Việt Nam).

As planned, morning of the 4th day, the Africa-Twin rider guided us to the Preah Vihear temple. It's a temple right at the border of Thailand and Cambodia. There were several times in the past Thailand claimed that's their property. At the time we visited, full of soldiers standing by at both sides.

Early morning, we already saw the army vehicle in the Hotel's front yard. Hell, did they come for us!? Dang....

They came for breakfast, but we still think they came for checking on us.

We started to leave the hotel:

Stopped to buy some gifts for the temple guards:

Really nice road toward the temple. Free cows on road. They looked not so healthy:

We arrived the Check-point. Cigarette is our gift:

First time in life we need Passport control for visiting a temple!

Preah Vihear temple (Cambodia) is on the right hill. The left hill was occupied by Thailand army:

Thrilling...

 

[VietHorse]

Nearer to the temple, we felt more thrilling....
We saw several Cambodia soldiers along the roadside... I tried to sweep away the thinking of a battle during our visit...

More twisty road from around elevation of 300m. Not good road then.

Reached the parking area, many soldiers showed up, as well as kids.

So happy to be there:

It seemed they have some sort of services for tourist around this place:

Done the bikes parking, we walked to the temple.
It was around 9AM, still foggy all around...

Thrilling, 2nd episode....

 

[KTMphil]

Congratulations Trung on the 3 nation ride, quite an achievement! How did the BMW 1000 RR handle all the bumpy roads? Did he wish he was on a different bike? or no problem? Great report!

 

[VietHorse]

Congratulations Trung on the 3 nation ride, quite an achievement! How did the BMW 1000 RR handle all the bumpy roads? Did he wish he was on a different bike? or no problem? Great report!

Thanks. I thought it's 4 nations? ))
The BMW sport rider was feeling Okay, not as bad as the Yamahaa R6 rider.
I think he is eying the latest Triumph Explorer.

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We started our Preah Vihear temple discovery:

Looked like the whole temple sitting on a real big rock.

Found a soldier there, he can speak Vietnamese quite well, we asked him to show us around:

More than 100m from the bike parking, still not seeing any sign of the temple:

Got further inside, we saw the flags:

And the temple gate:

Easily noticed lots of guards and soldiers in normal casual:

A tower is under repair:

 

[VietHorse]

You can simply do a search about Preah Vihear temple history. There are lot of information about it.
Continue with the temple, where not everyone can visit:

In the below photo, it's the gate from Thailand side to the temple.
Previously, this way had been opened for both side to visit.
Currently, the gate at the border line was closed, none is allowed to pass thru. People say that they will get shoot if trying to pass the gate.

We can see the Thailand hill still in the fog:

We don't want to get shoot:

We back to inside of the temple:

The 2nd gate is in front of us:

 

[Lone Rider]

You can simply do a search about Preah Vihear temple history. There are lot of information about it.

In the below photo, it's the gate from Thailand side to the temple.
Previously, this way had been opened for both side to visit.
Currently, the gate at the border line was closed, none is allowed to pass thru. People say that they will get shoot if trying to pass the gate.

We can see the Thailand hill still in the fog:

We don't want to get shoot:

[/QUOT

Beautiful temple and a pity that it was foggy as you would have had very nice views over the country side from the highest part of the temple. Quite a few years ago I visited the Phrea Vihear Temple from the Thai side and recognize the gate and the stairs up - quite a climb as it was hot and sunny during that day.

 

[VietHorse]

Beautiful temple and a pity that it was foggy as you would have had very nice views over the country side from the highest part of the temple. Quite a few years ago I visited the Phrea Vihear Temple from the Thai side and recognize the gate and the stairs up - quite a climb as it was hot and sunny during that day.

We can see a bit clearer on the way back. However, we did not have much time to explore more. I won't climb if they let me do so - that will kill me!

 

[VietHorse]

The remained bunker built by Vietnamese soldiers during the time fighting with Khmer Rogue. People said that it still function well:

2nd gate layer of the Temple:

This area sounds to be the place for important events in the past. You can easily notice 12 holes was made on the rock base.
A bit right of the below photo, there was a man-made pond, around 100m2. I have no idea how they can have water on this mount.

Recalled Tomb rider movie:

The 2nd gate layer, looking from inside:

Kept walking:

An interesting creature - a tree hold up the tower:

This is the military medic center, built by Vietnamese soldiers:

 

[VietHorse]

Inside:

Vestige of time:

Another sign of Vietnamese soldiers, when they fought Khmer Rogue - this is the tool made on the rock to make powder from rice:

Inside a bell tower. The bell was removed by Thailand army's helicopter.
Come inside, and punch in your chest - you can hear the incredible echo sound... What an architecture.

This area looked like the main temple:

Don't know what made this moulder, human or nature:

 

[WarProfiteer]

Some of those pictures are amazing! Thank you for posting & sharing them...

 

[VietHorse]

To the back of the temple, we found a straight cliff. It was really foggy when we reached. It was almost 11:00AM.

It was called death cliff - elevation 500m - was the place the Khmer Rouge push Cambodian from the top to the ground. Thousand of people was killed that way.

What a feeling...

OOPS...

 

[KTMphil]

You certainly couldn't have crammed more into that trip! Nice temple photo's Trung.

 

[VietHorse]

Those were made by Thai weapon:

Not so sure how this pick-up can climb to here:

Time to head back:

Much less foggy than before:

Thailand army stationed on the opposite hill:

Noticed the dark spots with shade are Thai bunkers: