This 11 day ride had been on the cards for a good part of 2011 for our group and took place from 26/11/2011 to 06/12/2011. The group consisted of 2 gtr1400, 1 gs1200 and a versys (with 2 of the bikes riding 2 up) and the journey would start from Kuala Lumpur (Msia) to Trat (LOS) crossing over to Koh Kong (Cambo) and then to Sihanoukville, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Poipet crossing back into Aranyaprhatet (LOS) and then back to Kuala Lumpur.
The days running up towards our departure date was filled with a constant concern of the massive flooding that had inundated a good part of LOS and especially as our route included a traversing of south of bangkok city. Thankfully on departure date the latest updates were that our intended route was passable and the flood situation was rapidly improving. However we departed on this ride armed with alternative ride routes with the contingency plan to ride Isaan as an alternative. So in reality this could have ended up as a ride report to Isaan instead. Anyhow, the gods were smiling upon us on this ride ...
Day 1
We rendevouz at Jejantas Sg Buloh just outside of KL city (its an RnR along our tolled north south highway) at midnite on the 25/11/2011 and set off on our ride around 00:30. The weather was excellent and riding at this time of the day was more cooling and with less traffic on the road. We made Changlun around 05:00 and had our breakfast at our regular shop along the highway. This place has does our thai insurance, immigration cards and forex ... sort of a do-it-all stop thats pretty convenient.
Whilst having our breakfast we noted quite a few fully laden tour buses already headed towards the border crossing at Bukit Kayu Hitam and we knew of several other buses which we passed on our ride up too. So a quick change of plan and we decided to make our border crossing at Padang Besar instead which turned out to be an excellent detour. The detour took us on a new highway from Changlun to Padang Besar through misty fields of sugarcane plantations which was quite a pretty sight in the early hours of the morning. The border crossing at Padang Besar was a breeze and painless as there was hardly any traffic there.
This outward leg of the ride has always been kind of boring (having done this several times over the years) though we did make a stop just outside of Chumphon for a little treat of coconut jelly by the roadside. Our destination for the day was Chumphon and we reached our destination around 15:30 and everybody was exhausted after the long ride.
This was our night guard tasked with keeping an eye on our machines for the night ... caught sleeping on the job though!
The days running up towards our departure date was filled with a constant concern of the massive flooding that had inundated a good part of LOS and especially as our route included a traversing of south of bangkok city. Thankfully on departure date the latest updates were that our intended route was passable and the flood situation was rapidly improving. However we departed on this ride armed with alternative ride routes with the contingency plan to ride Isaan as an alternative. So in reality this could have ended up as a ride report to Isaan instead. Anyhow, the gods were smiling upon us on this ride ...
Day 1
We rendevouz at Jejantas Sg Buloh just outside of KL city (its an RnR along our tolled north south highway) at midnite on the 25/11/2011 and set off on our ride around 00:30. The weather was excellent and riding at this time of the day was more cooling and with less traffic on the road. We made Changlun around 05:00 and had our breakfast at our regular shop along the highway. This place has does our thai insurance, immigration cards and forex ... sort of a do-it-all stop thats pretty convenient.
Whilst having our breakfast we noted quite a few fully laden tour buses already headed towards the border crossing at Bukit Kayu Hitam and we knew of several other buses which we passed on our ride up too. So a quick change of plan and we decided to make our border crossing at Padang Besar instead which turned out to be an excellent detour. The detour took us on a new highway from Changlun to Padang Besar through misty fields of sugarcane plantations which was quite a pretty sight in the early hours of the morning. The border crossing at Padang Besar was a breeze and painless as there was hardly any traffic there.
This outward leg of the ride has always been kind of boring (having done this several times over the years) though we did make a stop just outside of Chumphon for a little treat of coconut jelly by the roadside. Our destination for the day was Chumphon and we reached our destination around 15:30 and everybody was exhausted after the long ride.
This was our night guard tasked with keeping an eye on our machines for the night ... caught sleeping on the job though!