Well I'm finally getting around to doing my trip report on my off road adventure in northern cambo. Just bought a gecko map so that i can figure out where i was. However, since we were off-road, very little of our trip was marked.
Flew into Siam Reap after a night in BKK where i ran into bm Peter G. on his way out of
LOS. Sun was setting in a huge orange ball reflecting over the rice paddies and red dirt roads as we touched down in SR. Looked very much like the shot from Apocalypse Now. Got thru the paperwork quickly and got picked up by Soh Paul from Hidden Cambodia Adventures. Enjoyed the hotel first night and sucked down many, many Beer Lao's at 35bhat/each. Pretty touristy in SR but friendly folks overall. The beer bars are tucked far away from downtown area.
Up early the next day to get riding. Plans had changed overnight as three guys from spain joined me. These guys were a bit more serious than me having rode a few ISDE,s and had been on off road tours in north africa etc. So much for an easy trail ride. Our tour leader, Paul said that since we were all pro's he would make it worth our while.
Driving was intense leaving town, no stoplights, stop signs, turn signals and every kind of traffic coming in from all directions. Had to pay attention like back in my racing days. After getting out of town had a number of close calls with water buffalo, pigs, dogs, etc. Quickly learned how to look a water buffalo in the eye and figure out his intentions. Basically when one gets spooked, they all get spooked and take off across the road with looking at five guys on motorcycles. Much much safer once we got in the dirt.
First day we covered about 200km with about six or seven hours in the saddle. When we got to the temple at Preah Kham around sunset we were all pretty well beat. We had the temple all to ourselves, set up camp with a big fire to keep away any wildlife, and ate and drank heartily.
Pic1 - Off road and sometimes underwater (racing the ox-carts)
Pic2 - Out of the Jungle and into the village
Pic3 - Arrival at Preah Kham
Pic4 - Dinner at Preah Kham