::: A mini Long Way Down (Vietnam - Cambodia - Thailand - Malaysia)

[VietHorse]

Yeah, it's should be called a mini-LWD trip, but actually it's really a LWD to me.

-------------------

I got this route planning months ago, with lot of help, support and information from GT-R and friends:

Got some interest from friends to join me but finally I gotta be with my own.
Again, I will do my solo trip, starting from Hochiminh City - Vietnam. Don't know where and how far I could reach, but I have not much leave to spend. Gotta be back home within a week.

A friend of mine who helped me to install and merge the maps of Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore - to thanks to his support then I put up a sticker which illustrate his current business that making Garmin maps for Vietnam. If you need any support about Vietnam or Indochina Garmin maps, contact this guy with introduction as VietHorse's friend, sure you will got good care:

Another friend gave me a Led Lenser torch light for free, then I have no issue to put up his stickers on:

Haha... looks like I had some sponsorship there. LOL....

 

[VietHorse]

First day of the trip, HCMC - Vietnam to Chanthaburi - Thailand:

 

[VietHorse]

As usual, I departed very early from home, 4:30AM already out of my garage.
There are three more bikers were with me, to see me off.
We had breakfast near the border with Cambodia:

Got full tank of gas near border, then say good bye to buddies. I with my own to cross the border.
On Cambodia land not long after that:

It was very strange to me that there were so many people on the Cambodia road. They even blocked the road to the ferry, the only means which help me to reach Phnom Penh.

Thanks to the security guys there, they saw my bike was too big then he allowed me to take short cut to the ferry. Otherwise I will stuck there for hours, and also block their way as well.

Viet horse and Cam horse on the ferry :lol-sign::

Quick stop to take pix of a Cambodian pagoda:

 

[VietHorse]

I have a buddy who is Thai, working in Cambodia rode to receive me outside of Phnom Penh. He's great GS guy:

I had several good advices from him as he knows Thailand and Cambodia very well:

The Indo-china map is his gift for me. Such a kind support:

Gave him a sticker of our group ACE MTSG:

And he also interested in Vietnam Garmin map and sure he will have good care from my GPS friend, Gpsclub.vn:

 

[VietHorse]

Had some food and drinks, then we back on the road. My friend rode with me for around 100km more before he come back to Phnom Penh:

Cambodia random pics:

Ohlala....

 

[VietHorse]

Around 100km away from Phnom Penh, we stopped for drinks:

After this, I would be on my own. My friend would head back to Phnom Penh with his commitment of work.
I decided not to choose any border gate (Cam-Thai) until I reach the turning point. Let's see how the roads and weather look like then I will decide.

Good roads then. Very sunny and really hot. Thankful to one of my friend, who sent me a gift is a set of Vetnz (http://www.ventz-range.com/). It really helped.

As near to the borders, the sun was down and directly pointed to my eyes. Really annoying.

Krong Pursat - could not pass this interesting sign - a giant marble pot at a junction, looks like the symbol of the area:

Almost reached Batambang, I decided not to take Poipet border but Pailin..

However, I still rode ahead a bit, just to see how's Batambang. This is a symbol at the City entrance:

 

[VietHorse]

Turned left to Pailin, the roads was great, with very minimum traffic.
Interesting view with a pagoda on top of the mount:

Road near the border:

Almost there:

Still can turn right to Poipet if I wanted

 

[Franz]

Great Tour, perfect report and marvellous fotos VietHorse !!! How did the GS perform overall, how many Kilometers can you get out of one tank ? How's the petrol quality in Cambo ?
Keep up biking & reporting !! Have fun !!

PS: I do like your Avatar very much !!!!!!

 

[VietHorse]

Franz;302015 wrote: Great Tour, perfect report and marvellous fotos VietHorse !!! How did the GS perform overall, how many Kilometers can you get out of one tank ? How's the petrol quality in Cambo ?
Keep up biking & reporting !! Have fun !!

PS: I do like your Avatar very much !!!!!!

Hey, thank you.
The GSA performance was great for such roads. I did not wait for the empty tank as I am out of my Country so I need to ensure the tank is filled properly most of the time. With the average speed around 100kmh its millage showed on the clock is around 5.2liters/100km. The tank is 33liters.
I don't have any issue with the gas in Cambodia and I did not notice any differences after filling in Cambodia.

 

[VietHorse]

5:20 PM, reached Pailin border gate Cambodia. This place is to stamp your passport:

Thai-land is just over the fence:

Quick process at Cambodia side, now toward Thailand:

Chanthaburi:

Took me quite long time for the bike importation, until dark:

I gotta open up my laptop to show the guys there how the other Thai border did to my bike previously:

Finally, all done:

I did a really serious mistake just after the Thai custom. You know what? I was riding on my right side, very confidently, even when I saw an opposite car coming toward me with the high beam ON. Holly sh*t, I was riding on the wrong side.
Actually I kept reminding myself from Cambodia checkpoint about changing riding lane when in Thailand, but too long paperwork process made me totally forgot about that. Hell. I was still so lucky that having that in the small road, not the highway.

After more than 100km nice twisty road, I reached Chanthaburi when it was not so early:

Food after checking in:

For the last customer:

Then I had to find a nearby 7eleven to grab some more things:

Really good night after 700km of the first day, 3 countries.

 

[VietHorse]

Day 2, from Chanthaburi to Khao Yai park, 300km.

 

[VietHorse]

As said, I had a really good night after 1st day. Did not want to wake up in the morning.
Late breakfast. Well, KP Grand hotel with price of approx $35 including breakfast is not so good for an adventure trip, but not bad at all.

A $15 paid for nothing, but gears hanger:

Complimentary water was in bottles, inside the fridge. It made me confused and asked the hotel several times to ask them bringing me water

Departure from hotel just around noon time.
Nice road up north:

Average speed:

Some more random pix:

 

[VietHorse]

At a cafe' after more than 1 hour riding:

Coffee and some nutrition food I bring with:

Another crazy thing happened. I was changing my SIM card to one of the phones, and did not know why I dropped my roaming Vietnamese SIM on the floor, and bad thing came as the SIM fell into the floor gap. No way to get it out. Okay, lost my SIM.

Tried not to be crazy that time, and taking pix of bike:

On the road again. Then I stopped at a strange place - there is a rock wall at the middle of a really flat area:

And see the cave - really awesome cave:

It turned raining:

Stopped and think of putting my rain gears:

What a black sky - where I was heading to:

First stop for gas and wait for the rain to be out:

 

[VietHorse]

Stopped for a while, the rain did not seem to stop. Gotta put my rain gears on and hit the road:

Nearer to Khao Yai park, I met some biker group rode back. Hope they had a dry day there:

Forest, forest....:

My second time to Khao Yai. Last time with TonyBKK and I entertain local ticket price. This time on my own, and still local price .

Nice road inside the park:

 

[brian_bkk]

Great report so far.. Lots more adventures to come

 

[VietHorse]

Looked like I had right decision to stay in Khao Yai that night. Rain stopped just before I came:

WTF??? Gotta stopped at middle of the way with all other bikes and cars.

See that? A real elephant was enjoy his walking on the main road of the park.

I had to run like hell after that:

Do'h, he's chasing me:

Let me play with him for a while:

Gotta back off around 3km

At the other side, bikes and cars also tried to be patient:

How many GS has a pix with elephant background? LOL....

We got the elephant be chased off from the road by park security around almost 1hour after that. Fun experience though.

 

[VietHorse]

Some more fun with the monkeys:

Nice spot, but camping is not allowed:

Well, found it, finally, for the night:

All covered and concrete area have been occupied :

I decided to put my tent nearby the old couple's tent. They were with very well equipped tent and outdoor stuff.

My place:

Some monkeys dropped themselves from the trees, and almost grabbed my stuff while I was focusing in making my tent. They were very fast. Luckily nothing lost.

It became darker and darker.... Some thunder sound heard somewhere around... Sure it would be raining that night.
Lucky me again, a guy came to me when I have all thing set up, he told me that I can move in one of the gazebo as he has to move out that night, due to some personal issues.

Neighbors helped me to move stuff.
In the dark, my sponsored LED LENSER head torch light was really awesome!! It 's very bright, and can change the focus to spot or flood:

My dinner:

 

[DavidFL]

Great stuff...love these two pics

 

[VietHorse]

Davidfl;302089 wrote: Great stuff...love these two pics

Thanks David. Those are expensive photos. I may gotta pay for the whole bike )))

 

[VietHorse]

Okay, let see what I saw that night, just around my tent:

I was out of my place for a while, then saw this when I came back:

 

[VietHorse]

It was pretty cold that night. Actually I did not plan for that. Well, it's really hard to find a cold place around the SE Asia this time. That's why I did not bring my warm coat or the jacket linear. I had to put on my jeans, 4 single T-shirt, one T-shirt to cover my head, socks and gloves were all on. Still very cold. Hard to sleep, because of the cold and also the deer.
Rain from midnight, made it cold becomes colder.

The early morning shot:

This made me miss the time riding on Smokey Mountain, it was also cold, and I was almost frozen myself when being at Blue Ridge campground.

Nice and peaceful place...

The gazebo saved me through the raining night...

 

[VietHorse]

More pix around the campground:

My neighbors were still in "bed" while I was walking around:

Nice tent of the old Thai couple:

And coffee was making:

It's really nice when they invited me for coffee. We talked with each other by multi-language, mostly body language

:

Neighborhood:

 

[Poompui]

Awesome life you are living.....it's my dream to travel and see the sights same as you!
Hope my wife lets me....
:shifty:

 

[Wald0]

Poompui;302190 wrote: Awesome life you are living.....it's my dream to travel and see the sights same as you!Hope my wife lets me....:shifty:

I second that.. I'm having hard time just riding Hanoi to Da Nang ) and I really want to ride all the way to HCM and back.. well maybe can put my bike to train if I would feel like not riding...!?!?!?!?!

 

[Moto-Rex]

Another brilliant trip report Viethorse. Love the photos, I especially love the elephant roaming along the road. Funny

You certainly know what being a true adventure rider is all about.
Looking forward to the rest of the trip.

Thanks for sharing your ride.

Moto-Rex