alexuk
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2011
Not really sure which section this goes in...
I was looking for a newer lighter faster modern handling stronger reliable electric start harder braking road legal dirt bike so I asked around for a WR250F and Pove from Flyingbikes in Phnom Penh found one for me, but I'd have to get there asap before someone else got it. He'd seen a few jap imports ,but this was a good one, so a couple of days later I was on a plane to Phnom Penh.
The Chiang Mai/Bangkok flight was ok, but 3 hours later the Phnom Penh section wasnt so good. I tried the Airasia checkin machine, but it is only for checkin over an hour before the flight,and by the time i got checked in it was getting late. Then the scanner found a screwdriver in my bag, and it took 10 minutes to get it out so they could confiscate it, so when I got to the gate I had 15 minutes before the flight, but everyone (almost) else had got onboard, and they were waiting for me with my own private minibus to the plane. Then 5 minutes later 2 more late guys showed up, and we got on the plane.
I took my hiking boots,leg armour, helmet,goggles gloves and GPS and some tools so I could do some riding there. I got a Cambodia gps map off the internet, but it was not much good, and downloaded all the tracks that I could find onto the gps.
I went straight to the shop,on 51st, one of the main streets, and there were a lot of harleys in there, for sale, and a couple of dirtbikes. He'd got the bike in for me from someone else. It's an 08 WR250F with a California green sticker,just imported from US, and I liked it so had to get the money out the bank to pay for it before someone else bought it.
This was a mission as the bank card turned out to be ATM only, so I couldnt get the money over the counter,and the atms had limits, from $100 to $500, and so did my card. After managing to find somewhere selling credit for the obscure sim card I'd got sold at the airport,and calling the bank to raise the limit, I was able to get money in small batches from the banks that line the same street as the bike shop.
The cambodian registration was included in the price, so once it was paid for and as it was Friday,Pove got someone on the case with the documentation.His mechanic went with me to the registration office, where I parked amongst all the scooters waiting for their plates, while he went to the office to sort things out. After 10 minutes we went to an office there to have my foto taken for the registration card, then the guys came and rivetted the plate to my mudguard. I started taking fotos when someone pointed to the "no fotos" sign. The whole
thing took less than half an hour on a busy friday afternoon.
I wanted to see the cambodian zoo, so found it on my gps, and rode out of Phnom Penh on the Sihanoukville road, which was really busy as it was the water festival weekend and everyone was getting out of PP. The road is pretty mad, the Gps first took me on a roundabout way,where it was all roadworks and big potholes until I got to the main junction.
Then the mad highway, One lane each way, and a dirt verge for motorcycles to jump onto whenever needed. Which was most of the time. The car/lorry drivers just hoot when the bikes are in front of them, and they have to get on the verge. When someone overtakes, they just pull out and flash their lights, and any motorcycle on the other side has to jump onto the dirt verge, or get hit.
After an hour on that road my gps tells me to turn off, so I ride the next hour on a dirt road, until it becomes obvious that there is no way to get to where the zoo is supposed to be.I turned around and went back the same way.
I needed a new thai visa, so I went to the Thai embassy,intending to get a double entry tourist visa, but they were only issuing single entry ones. They took my application, no hassle,and told me I can pick up the passport/visa on monday afternoon, so then got on a bus to Sihanoukville for the weekend.
It was a minibus with wifi. Good and quick
Sihanoukville was very busy, so I took a room while I could, didnt want to waste time walking around hotels with my bag. It was 5 minutes from the main beach, so I could swim, walk, run,lie on the beach and have barbeque barracuda and beer on the beach at sunset. $3 for the fish with potato and salad and 50cents a beer.I took a motodop(motorcycle taxi) down to Otres beach, and spent hours swimming and running there, very nice, though the $3 rooms were now more like $18, the quality has gone up too, in some ways.
Theres an english guy there with a shop,who rents Honda Xr250s called Ride Cambodia
Back in PP, I did some shopping,found a factory outlet shop,and the only supermarket in Phnom Pen,and needed another bag to get it all in. So now it was too much to take on the wrf.
,
Flyingbikes have another shop now, Flyingbikes2, which is for bicycles, mostly top end Mountain bikes, and the importer for Cannondale and GT.
invited me to go riding in Kirirom forest over the weekend, the biggest MTB race in Cambodia was the next weekend, and he and his friends were going to ride around there. As I used to spend all my time riding mountain bikes, I was keen to go, so I bought some shoes for the ride, and Pove kindly lent me a GT Zaskar for the day. About 20 of us drove out there,2or3 hours drive, and had 3 or 4 hours riding the trails.
My plan was to get to the beach, and go to Koh Kong to do some riding with Nick from JungleCross in the Cardamoms.
Nick runs tours in and around the Cardamom mountains and rents biekes. He has XRs, DRs, Yamaha and Kawasaki and a jeep to help with tours in his workshop
I called him and his partner Coralie was in Phnom Penh, I met her and her friend, who had come from OZ to have some dental work, and as it was time I had at least a checkup, and they convinced me to visit the same dentist. I was impressed with the setup, and made appointments for Monday,
As it turned out, the weather wasnt so good, and Nick had to go to thailand, I had noone else to ride with so I decided to try to get back to chiang mai for xmas with the WRF.I wanted to put the bike on the train from Aranyaprathet to Bangkok, then up to Chiang Mai.
All the sleeper seats on all bangkok- chiang mai trains had been booked from 23rd to 2 Jan, so..
Now it was 21 december??and it was 4 weeks from the day I did the paperwork, so the Bike Registration Card which I now needed to get the bike out of Cambodia, should have arrived but had not, due to the holidays for the water festival having put everything back a few days. Pove made some fone calls, and managed to get things speeded up a bit, so I got the card on the friday.
I managed to go online and book a seat on the overnight train to Chiang Mai from Bangkok on 22nd December. About the last seat on a chiang Mai train before the 2nd January.
I took my big bag that night to a bus company, who wouldnt ship it to thailand, but would take it to Poipet for me.
I rode to Siem Reap in the morning, 50mph was all I could do, because of the luggage etc,and comfort, and it took 4 hours to get there.I strapped my leg armour to the mudguard, but it wasnt there a couple of hours later. I stayed the night in a hotel, the wifi didnt work. I wanted to see Angkor Wat again but had no time and went to the border at Poipet next day. I found the bus company office, although it had a different name,as I had very precise instructions where it was,so it only took me 15 minutes to find it.
I put the bag on the tank/handlebars, and road the kilometre to the border. It wasnt very obvious what to do, so I tried just riding through,until someone stopped me, told me to leave the bike there,whilst I got my visa entry stamped. The queue was about 100yards long, the guy in the hut by the bike didnt help me jump the queue. I saw a few people just walk in, and someone said I could get through fast for 300baht, but he walked off. So almost an hour later, I got the entry stamp and went back to the bike.
The hut guy filled in a form for me, I think it was tm3, information of coneyance. I needed the bike reg card, he asked if I had insurance, took copies of the card and my passport, then he let me go, iirc.
It was only 50yds or so when I got stopped again, with the huge bag over the bars, wobbling along precariously. Do you know how high a WRF saddle is?
The guy wanted to see my documents,asked a couple of questions, then went to his office and prepared the Temporary Import form for me. Took about 15minutes to get it all done.
So it was about 12.30 now, and the Bangkok train which I wanted to be on , with the bike, leaves at 2pm. I found Aranyaprathet station fairly easily, with the help of the GPS, just a few kms away.
The station master?/? said no, no room on the train, try tomorrow, call at 9am. You cannot book bikes for that train. I explained my situation, that I needed to get the afternoon train, to link up with the chiang mai train as I had probably the last ticket that year. He agreed to look after my bag for me, so I went to look for a hotel.
I saw a couple which didnt look good, so found the Motel, they had 2 rooms left, and some friendly looking guests, so I bagged one,and bought some shorts so I could jump in the pool before sundown. Good food there, and was told the owner could be really helpful, as she knows everybody, but alas I didnt find her.
9am I went to the station, but there was no way theyd let the bike on. I was gutted.I didnt have a clue what to do. I went to the bus station,tried to find a bus I could put the bike on, to get to bangkok and catch my train,I really didnt want to ride thru bangkok to hualampung railway station, with my bag, but they said they could do it if I took the front wheel off.
I tried asking around for a pickup to take us to Chiang Mai, someone showed up shortly but he was asking 10000baht. So I went to the post office up the road, and they quoted me 3000baht and said it would take a week to get there. They said come back before 12am.
Which I did, and they closed the post office while they were doing the paperwork. I just left it with them once I got the documents, hoping that I would see it again.
I took a tuktuk to the bus station, booked a ticket, then tuktuk to the motel to collect my bags, and got on the bus just in time.
"Fortunately" the bus stopped in Morchit, so I just had to hope that I could get a seat to chiang mai that night.Unfortunately , Morchit is a very big place, and I had to walk a long way with about 40kilo of bags, trying to find a ticket from the hundreds of ticket booths there. It would be a massive help if there was some sign there or someone, to direct you from the bus stop to the ticket offices, but there's not,you yust walk through the market hoping you took the right turn.
I got a ticket on a VIP bus,the 24seaters had sold out, but it was a good bus , left in 2 hours at 8pm.In chiang Mai 12 hours later.
3 days later I was in Riders Corner chatting to Phil, my phone rang, it was the post office, "your bike is here Sir".
Phil kindly offered to take me to the collection depot down the Tesco road, where I showed my ID and was allowed to ride the bike out.
I was looking for a newer lighter faster modern handling stronger reliable electric start harder braking road legal dirt bike so I asked around for a WR250F and Pove from Flyingbikes in Phnom Penh found one for me, but I'd have to get there asap before someone else got it. He'd seen a few jap imports ,but this was a good one, so a couple of days later I was on a plane to Phnom Penh.
The Chiang Mai/Bangkok flight was ok, but 3 hours later the Phnom Penh section wasnt so good. I tried the Airasia checkin machine, but it is only for checkin over an hour before the flight,and by the time i got checked in it was getting late. Then the scanner found a screwdriver in my bag, and it took 10 minutes to get it out so they could confiscate it, so when I got to the gate I had 15 minutes before the flight, but everyone (almost) else had got onboard, and they were waiting for me with my own private minibus to the plane. Then 5 minutes later 2 more late guys showed up, and we got on the plane.
I took my hiking boots,leg armour, helmet,goggles gloves and GPS and some tools so I could do some riding there. I got a Cambodia gps map off the internet, but it was not much good, and downloaded all the tracks that I could find onto the gps.
I went straight to the shop,on 51st, one of the main streets, and there were a lot of harleys in there, for sale, and a couple of dirtbikes. He'd got the bike in for me from someone else. It's an 08 WR250F with a California green sticker,just imported from US, and I liked it so had to get the money out the bank to pay for it before someone else bought it.
This was a mission as the bank card turned out to be ATM only, so I couldnt get the money over the counter,and the atms had limits, from $100 to $500, and so did my card. After managing to find somewhere selling credit for the obscure sim card I'd got sold at the airport,and calling the bank to raise the limit, I was able to get money in small batches from the banks that line the same street as the bike shop.
The cambodian registration was included in the price, so once it was paid for and as it was Friday,Pove got someone on the case with the documentation.His mechanic went with me to the registration office, where I parked amongst all the scooters waiting for their plates, while he went to the office to sort things out. After 10 minutes we went to an office there to have my foto taken for the registration card, then the guys came and rivetted the plate to my mudguard. I started taking fotos when someone pointed to the "no fotos" sign. The whole
thing took less than half an hour on a busy friday afternoon.
I wanted to see the cambodian zoo, so found it on my gps, and rode out of Phnom Penh on the Sihanoukville road, which was really busy as it was the water festival weekend and everyone was getting out of PP. The road is pretty mad, the Gps first took me on a roundabout way,where it was all roadworks and big potholes until I got to the main junction.
Then the mad highway, One lane each way, and a dirt verge for motorcycles to jump onto whenever needed. Which was most of the time. The car/lorry drivers just hoot when the bikes are in front of them, and they have to get on the verge. When someone overtakes, they just pull out and flash their lights, and any motorcycle on the other side has to jump onto the dirt verge, or get hit.
After an hour on that road my gps tells me to turn off, so I ride the next hour on a dirt road, until it becomes obvious that there is no way to get to where the zoo is supposed to be.I turned around and went back the same way.
I needed a new thai visa, so I went to the Thai embassy,intending to get a double entry tourist visa, but they were only issuing single entry ones. They took my application, no hassle,and told me I can pick up the passport/visa on monday afternoon, so then got on a bus to Sihanoukville for the weekend.
It was a minibus with wifi. Good and quick
Sihanoukville was very busy, so I took a room while I could, didnt want to waste time walking around hotels with my bag. It was 5 minutes from the main beach, so I could swim, walk, run,lie on the beach and have barbeque barracuda and beer on the beach at sunset. $3 for the fish with potato and salad and 50cents a beer.I took a motodop(motorcycle taxi) down to Otres beach, and spent hours swimming and running there, very nice, though the $3 rooms were now more like $18, the quality has gone up too, in some ways.
Theres an english guy there with a shop,who rents Honda Xr250s called Ride Cambodia
Back in PP, I did some shopping,found a factory outlet shop,and the only supermarket in Phnom Pen,and needed another bag to get it all in. So now it was too much to take on the wrf.
,
Flyingbikes have another shop now, Flyingbikes2, which is for bicycles, mostly top end Mountain bikes, and the importer for Cannondale and GT.
invited me to go riding in Kirirom forest over the weekend, the biggest MTB race in Cambodia was the next weekend, and he and his friends were going to ride around there. As I used to spend all my time riding mountain bikes, I was keen to go, so I bought some shoes for the ride, and Pove kindly lent me a GT Zaskar for the day. About 20 of us drove out there,2or3 hours drive, and had 3 or 4 hours riding the trails.
My plan was to get to the beach, and go to Koh Kong to do some riding with Nick from JungleCross in the Cardamoms.
Nick runs tours in and around the Cardamom mountains and rents biekes. He has XRs, DRs, Yamaha and Kawasaki and a jeep to help with tours in his workshop
I called him and his partner Coralie was in Phnom Penh, I met her and her friend, who had come from OZ to have some dental work, and as it was time I had at least a checkup, and they convinced me to visit the same dentist. I was impressed with the setup, and made appointments for Monday,
As it turned out, the weather wasnt so good, and Nick had to go to thailand, I had noone else to ride with so I decided to try to get back to chiang mai for xmas with the WRF.I wanted to put the bike on the train from Aranyaprathet to Bangkok, then up to Chiang Mai.
All the sleeper seats on all bangkok- chiang mai trains had been booked from 23rd to 2 Jan, so..
Now it was 21 december??and it was 4 weeks from the day I did the paperwork, so the Bike Registration Card which I now needed to get the bike out of Cambodia, should have arrived but had not, due to the holidays for the water festival having put everything back a few days. Pove made some fone calls, and managed to get things speeded up a bit, so I got the card on the friday.
I managed to go online and book a seat on the overnight train to Chiang Mai from Bangkok on 22nd December. About the last seat on a chiang Mai train before the 2nd January.
I took my big bag that night to a bus company, who wouldnt ship it to thailand, but would take it to Poipet for me.
I rode to Siem Reap in the morning, 50mph was all I could do, because of the luggage etc,and comfort, and it took 4 hours to get there.I strapped my leg armour to the mudguard, but it wasnt there a couple of hours later. I stayed the night in a hotel, the wifi didnt work. I wanted to see Angkor Wat again but had no time and went to the border at Poipet next day. I found the bus company office, although it had a different name,as I had very precise instructions where it was,so it only took me 15 minutes to find it.
I put the bag on the tank/handlebars, and road the kilometre to the border. It wasnt very obvious what to do, so I tried just riding through,until someone stopped me, told me to leave the bike there,whilst I got my visa entry stamped. The queue was about 100yards long, the guy in the hut by the bike didnt help me jump the queue. I saw a few people just walk in, and someone said I could get through fast for 300baht, but he walked off. So almost an hour later, I got the entry stamp and went back to the bike.
The hut guy filled in a form for me, I think it was tm3, information of coneyance. I needed the bike reg card, he asked if I had insurance, took copies of the card and my passport, then he let me go, iirc.
It was only 50yds or so when I got stopped again, with the huge bag over the bars, wobbling along precariously. Do you know how high a WRF saddle is?
The guy wanted to see my documents,asked a couple of questions, then went to his office and prepared the Temporary Import form for me. Took about 15minutes to get it all done.
So it was about 12.30 now, and the Bangkok train which I wanted to be on , with the bike, leaves at 2pm. I found Aranyaprathet station fairly easily, with the help of the GPS, just a few kms away.
The station master?/? said no, no room on the train, try tomorrow, call at 9am. You cannot book bikes for that train. I explained my situation, that I needed to get the afternoon train, to link up with the chiang mai train as I had probably the last ticket that year. He agreed to look after my bag for me, so I went to look for a hotel.
I saw a couple which didnt look good, so found the Motel, they had 2 rooms left, and some friendly looking guests, so I bagged one,and bought some shorts so I could jump in the pool before sundown. Good food there, and was told the owner could be really helpful, as she knows everybody, but alas I didnt find her.
9am I went to the station, but there was no way theyd let the bike on. I was gutted.I didnt have a clue what to do. I went to the bus station,tried to find a bus I could put the bike on, to get to bangkok and catch my train,I really didnt want to ride thru bangkok to hualampung railway station, with my bag, but they said they could do it if I took the front wheel off.
I tried asking around for a pickup to take us to Chiang Mai, someone showed up shortly but he was asking 10000baht. So I went to the post office up the road, and they quoted me 3000baht and said it would take a week to get there. They said come back before 12am.
Which I did, and they closed the post office while they were doing the paperwork. I just left it with them once I got the documents, hoping that I would see it again.
I took a tuktuk to the bus station, booked a ticket, then tuktuk to the motel to collect my bags, and got on the bus just in time.
"Fortunately" the bus stopped in Morchit, so I just had to hope that I could get a seat to chiang mai that night.Unfortunately , Morchit is a very big place, and I had to walk a long way with about 40kilo of bags, trying to find a ticket from the hundreds of ticket booths there. It would be a massive help if there was some sign there or someone, to direct you from the bus stop to the ticket offices, but there's not,you yust walk through the market hoping you took the right turn.
I got a ticket on a VIP bus,the 24seaters had sold out, but it was a good bus , left in 2 hours at 8pm.In chiang Mai 12 hours later.
3 days later I was in Riders Corner chatting to Phil, my phone rang, it was the post office, "your bike is here Sir".
Phil kindly offered to take me to the collection depot down the Tesco road, where I showed my ID and was allowed to ride the bike out.
