Harrythefinn
Senior Member
Just a brief report on a trip into Cambodia, Jim on a KTM950 and my trusty XR650R.
Met up with Jim and his KTM950 at the Pailin border. We had discussed where to go and had decided south through the Cardomoms then along the the coast , be flexible and see what goes.
Well the Cardomoms were tough, Went in through Pailin, no end of hassle at the Thai passport control, they made about a dozen copies of everything, took an hour or more. Don't know why , they have previously been very good. Cambodian side was easy, but customs insisting no paper work needed.
The road from the border and all the way to Battambang is now newly sealed ,all bridges upgraded, hence a full house at our normal GH. the Bamboo.Full of Khmer tourists for the weekend. Stayed at the Diamond Ruby in town, basic $7 a night. Went to eat at the Bamboo that night anyway and 2 rooms had checked out and they offerred them to us for free !!
Went the usual way to Promoy , very wet and some deep gullies, got sandwiched for a time between two 6 wheel drive trucks, one in front bogged and no way to get around, couldn't get out of the deep ruts to get past. A muddy and full day. The KTM passes the first test.
Stayed at a non descript GH at Premoy ($5). Some minor repairs and clean up before heading into the real stuff.
Road to the Chinese power station pretty good, that is where the old smugglers road and the New Chinese road split off. They were saying that via the Chinese road it is 3 1/2 hours to Ko Khong. Anyway we took the old track. The first deep river where the army had the plank bridge one year we had to use a raft to get across.($5). Interesting that the fibre optic link was put in along the smugglers route, it can't be working any more as even the raft crossing the river was pulled along a "rope" made from the FO cable. Also many times along the track hundreds of meters of the cable were down.
From there is was pretty bad, nearly every bridge was down.We had to walk the bikes across single logs, one at the front and one at the back, no wobbling or over the side. We built 2 bridges, as they were too bad to get across. The bamboo growth was thick, hard work to push through and not see what is ahead.
The KTM had a struggle down and up the steep sections , but Jim surprised me and kept on going. Towards the last of the bad sections it was dark and I had stopped at the top of a hill . Jim got bogged and stalled. I told him to leave it for the next day we were both tired and no use going on in the dark anyway.We had prepared for a night out so we had everything we needed.We camped on the hill, getting low on water, but I knew it was close to the road getting better. The next morning packed up and went to hop on the bikes well rested. The KTM just gave one click and wouldn't start. Flat battery, the key had been off etc, there was enough juice to run the lights but not to run the starter, NO kick start.
We decided to plug my 7Amp hour battery into his battery charger socket, no joy. At this stage we decided to get it up to the flat and maybe bump start it. Anyway the mighty XR tows the KTM to the top of the hill , the clutch giving signs of packing up. 4 or 5 goes at bump starting, no luck. Jack the XR up on rocks and ratchet strap the two bikes back wheel to back wheel, run the XR in gear and try crank the KTM over, lots of burning rubber but the tyres are mismatched and can not maintain enough traction. OK , what next?
In hind sight I should have taken his battery and put it in my XR and kick started and run it until it was charged, but this did not cross my mind at that stage.(I have an after market electric leg on mine, before people start saying XR650R's don't have electric starts and batteries).
So it was decided to set up camp, find water ( luckily I brought my filter) and for me to go and get the battery charged and/or bring a car battery and jumpers to get the KTM going. I did a shuttle run to the nearest water (4 kms) and left Jim with 10 litres and and a KTM with no battery.
It turned out to be another 55kms to Ko Kong, no one along the way could charge it. Ended up at a place that does guided tours through the Cardomoms (Sauna Garden) and Nick there put the battery on charge, and one of their guides offered to come along (a Yamaha factory mechanic from Finland). We also took another spare mc battery. Got back to Jim with about a hour of daylight left, it took the 2 batteries to get the KTM going, and then let it run for an hour.
Started no problem after that, but by then it was dark again.
I had left all my excess stuff at Ko Kong, so a cold night next to the bike. The run to Ko Kong next day was uneventful. Must say the road for the last section is worse than previous years as the logging trucks are going in there and there is a bull dozer working every river crossing. There is no more clearly defined motorcycle route, just a mess of ruts and turned rocks.
Nick said we were the first bikes through this season, as they were still waiting for it to dry out a little more as the wet season was late this year. That is why we had to build bridges and the bamboo was very thick. Got bitten by many leeches also, due to the undergrowth being so thick.
Spent a night in Koh Kong then a liesurely run to Sihanoukville, with a quick stop at a massive Chinese hydro power station. Seems like they are taking over. All the signs were in Chinese , nothing in Khmer or English. Pleasant night in Snooky, Happy Herbs pizza and a few beers with Zeman from Cambodia Expeditions. He is looking after my KTM525 (still for sale). Stayed upmarket at the Aqua Resort , very friendly staff, good clean rooms.
Late start for Kampot, planned to see Christian at the Rusty Keyhole. Side trip to Bokor on the way. A perfect new sealed road all the way up, could be a F1 race track. Nice and cool at the top, the old casino building is being renovated and no entry. Fond memories of partying in the ballroom in past years maybe history as progress leads the way.
Stayed in a new GH in Kampot ($6?) Hour Keang , as suggested by Christian. Excellent ribs at the Rusty Keyhole. Starting to recover from the Cardomoms now. Decide to ride Kampot to Tebeng Menchey the next day and then look at both Koh Ker and Preah Vihan the next day.
Stayed at a newish GH in TBY called Kim S??? ($7) the dollar extra for hot water in the shower. Most of the road from Kampong Thom to TBY is sealed or being worked on. The road to Koh Ker is almost all sealed. Once again you can not climb up to the top of the pyramid as the steps still have not been repaired. GPS the base , it is 70m square , 7 steps of 5m high, total height 35m.
Quick run to Preah Vihan along sealed roads. Free entry but still need to get a ticket. Had been warned by Zeman about a scam by the local police demanding a Khmer drivers licence at the base of the hill. It didn't happen at the base but at the top, the guy was obstinate and on our refusal to offer money we had to write a letter saying we would be resposible for our action if in consequence of not having a licence after being informed of the fact, we caused any accident. Was told I could take a moto or pick up home if i did not like it. Left a sour taste in the mouth after many years of visiting Cambodia with out any such BS from the police. Decided to leave without looking at the temple, as been there quite a few times before. The road to the temple is being refurbished, looks like to the standard of Bokor, as now only the lower section is complete , the old concrete snake at the top.
Boring sealed road to Anlong Ven. Stay at the Monorom GH, have a look at Ta Moks house in town. they now charge $2 to get in. Next day easy run to the border with a detour to Ta Moks house on the cliff, had a look at Pol Pots suppossed cremation spot but it doesn't look like it was years ago, and I think the locals may have moved it. Massive resort / casino development at the border. Doesn't seem to be helping the locals as the slum to the border post is bigger than before.
Some question about bike customs papers at the border on the Cambo side, talk to customs and say they are Thai registered. Stamp passports and shift to the Thai side before they look too close. Normal entry on the Thai side, shit pot holed tar road to the main number 24. Quick coffee , Jim heads east to Ubon , I head west to Korat. The end of another trip. Jim, thanks for the company, look forward to many more.
Met up with Jim and his KTM950 at the Pailin border. We had discussed where to go and had decided south through the Cardomoms then along the the coast , be flexible and see what goes.
Well the Cardomoms were tough, Went in through Pailin, no end of hassle at the Thai passport control, they made about a dozen copies of everything, took an hour or more. Don't know why , they have previously been very good. Cambodian side was easy, but customs insisting no paper work needed.
The road from the border and all the way to Battambang is now newly sealed ,all bridges upgraded, hence a full house at our normal GH. the Bamboo.Full of Khmer tourists for the weekend. Stayed at the Diamond Ruby in town, basic $7 a night. Went to eat at the Bamboo that night anyway and 2 rooms had checked out and they offerred them to us for free !!
Went the usual way to Promoy , very wet and some deep gullies, got sandwiched for a time between two 6 wheel drive trucks, one in front bogged and no way to get around, couldn't get out of the deep ruts to get past. A muddy and full day. The KTM passes the first test.
Stayed at a non descript GH at Premoy ($5). Some minor repairs and clean up before heading into the real stuff.
Road to the Chinese power station pretty good, that is where the old smugglers road and the New Chinese road split off. They were saying that via the Chinese road it is 3 1/2 hours to Ko Khong. Anyway we took the old track. The first deep river where the army had the plank bridge one year we had to use a raft to get across.($5). Interesting that the fibre optic link was put in along the smugglers route, it can't be working any more as even the raft crossing the river was pulled along a "rope" made from the FO cable. Also many times along the track hundreds of meters of the cable were down.
From there is was pretty bad, nearly every bridge was down.We had to walk the bikes across single logs, one at the front and one at the back, no wobbling or over the side. We built 2 bridges, as they were too bad to get across. The bamboo growth was thick, hard work to push through and not see what is ahead.
The KTM had a struggle down and up the steep sections , but Jim surprised me and kept on going. Towards the last of the bad sections it was dark and I had stopped at the top of a hill . Jim got bogged and stalled. I told him to leave it for the next day we were both tired and no use going on in the dark anyway.We had prepared for a night out so we had everything we needed.We camped on the hill, getting low on water, but I knew it was close to the road getting better. The next morning packed up and went to hop on the bikes well rested. The KTM just gave one click and wouldn't start. Flat battery, the key had been off etc, there was enough juice to run the lights but not to run the starter, NO kick start.
We decided to plug my 7Amp hour battery into his battery charger socket, no joy. At this stage we decided to get it up to the flat and maybe bump start it. Anyway the mighty XR tows the KTM to the top of the hill , the clutch giving signs of packing up. 4 or 5 goes at bump starting, no luck. Jack the XR up on rocks and ratchet strap the two bikes back wheel to back wheel, run the XR in gear and try crank the KTM over, lots of burning rubber but the tyres are mismatched and can not maintain enough traction. OK , what next?
In hind sight I should have taken his battery and put it in my XR and kick started and run it until it was charged, but this did not cross my mind at that stage.(I have an after market electric leg on mine, before people start saying XR650R's don't have electric starts and batteries).
So it was decided to set up camp, find water ( luckily I brought my filter) and for me to go and get the battery charged and/or bring a car battery and jumpers to get the KTM going. I did a shuttle run to the nearest water (4 kms) and left Jim with 10 litres and and a KTM with no battery.
It turned out to be another 55kms to Ko Kong, no one along the way could charge it. Ended up at a place that does guided tours through the Cardomoms (Sauna Garden) and Nick there put the battery on charge, and one of their guides offered to come along (a Yamaha factory mechanic from Finland). We also took another spare mc battery. Got back to Jim with about a hour of daylight left, it took the 2 batteries to get the KTM going, and then let it run for an hour.
Started no problem after that, but by then it was dark again.
I had left all my excess stuff at Ko Kong, so a cold night next to the bike. The run to Ko Kong next day was uneventful. Must say the road for the last section is worse than previous years as the logging trucks are going in there and there is a bull dozer working every river crossing. There is no more clearly defined motorcycle route, just a mess of ruts and turned rocks.
Nick said we were the first bikes through this season, as they were still waiting for it to dry out a little more as the wet season was late this year. That is why we had to build bridges and the bamboo was very thick. Got bitten by many leeches also, due to the undergrowth being so thick.
Spent a night in Koh Kong then a liesurely run to Sihanoukville, with a quick stop at a massive Chinese hydro power station. Seems like they are taking over. All the signs were in Chinese , nothing in Khmer or English. Pleasant night in Snooky, Happy Herbs pizza and a few beers with Zeman from Cambodia Expeditions. He is looking after my KTM525 (still for sale). Stayed upmarket at the Aqua Resort , very friendly staff, good clean rooms.
Late start for Kampot, planned to see Christian at the Rusty Keyhole. Side trip to Bokor on the way. A perfect new sealed road all the way up, could be a F1 race track. Nice and cool at the top, the old casino building is being renovated and no entry. Fond memories of partying in the ballroom in past years maybe history as progress leads the way.
Stayed in a new GH in Kampot ($6?) Hour Keang , as suggested by Christian. Excellent ribs at the Rusty Keyhole. Starting to recover from the Cardomoms now. Decide to ride Kampot to Tebeng Menchey the next day and then look at both Koh Ker and Preah Vihan the next day.
Stayed at a newish GH in TBY called Kim S??? ($7) the dollar extra for hot water in the shower. Most of the road from Kampong Thom to TBY is sealed or being worked on. The road to Koh Ker is almost all sealed. Once again you can not climb up to the top of the pyramid as the steps still have not been repaired. GPS the base , it is 70m square , 7 steps of 5m high, total height 35m.
Quick run to Preah Vihan along sealed roads. Free entry but still need to get a ticket. Had been warned by Zeman about a scam by the local police demanding a Khmer drivers licence at the base of the hill. It didn't happen at the base but at the top, the guy was obstinate and on our refusal to offer money we had to write a letter saying we would be resposible for our action if in consequence of not having a licence after being informed of the fact, we caused any accident. Was told I could take a moto or pick up home if i did not like it. Left a sour taste in the mouth after many years of visiting Cambodia with out any such BS from the police. Decided to leave without looking at the temple, as been there quite a few times before. The road to the temple is being refurbished, looks like to the standard of Bokor, as now only the lower section is complete , the old concrete snake at the top.
Boring sealed road to Anlong Ven. Stay at the Monorom GH, have a look at Ta Moks house in town. they now charge $2 to get in. Next day easy run to the border with a detour to Ta Moks house on the cliff, had a look at Pol Pots suppossed cremation spot but it doesn't look like it was years ago, and I think the locals may have moved it. Massive resort / casino development at the border. Doesn't seem to be helping the locals as the slum to the border post is bigger than before.
Some question about bike customs papers at the border on the Cambo side, talk to customs and say they are Thai registered. Stamp passports and shift to the Thai side before they look too close. Normal entry on the Thai side, shit pot holed tar road to the main number 24. Quick coffee , Jim heads east to Ubon , I head west to Korat. The end of another trip. Jim, thanks for the company, look forward to many more.
