Do not bother with Gecko map 4 Cambodia...

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deepcdiver

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May 9, 2006
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I just fished 10 days ride ...The Gecko map is totally worthless IMHO. Bought the Ültimate Cambodia"" best $24 ever spent...beats Lonely Planet at their own game, and the map in back even though it does not give a scale...is pretty good. PLUS, the route descriptions are right on, to within 1/10th km on my bikes odometer. This book is I beleive the latest
version of the earlier Ädventure Cambodia"...same author, a bit thicker and more up to date.

Quick note...I would not bother riding out to Koh Khong again, not that pretty a ride IMHO...fine if u are crossing the border. The forst and last bridges are opem, the middle two still under comstruction, the ferries still in business there.

Also...prettiest route I took was the back way to Kratie along the Mekong...second best was route 64 up north from Kompong Thom towards Preah Vihear, although from Kulen (SP) it was pothole city, also the 30 km immediately north of KT...however just follow the moto tracks in beween . Fortunately for me after that 30km I came across road graders smooooothing the way :)
 
BignTall

BignTall

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Oct 12, 2005
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I'll second Deepcdivers comment. The Gecko map was horrid.

Glad to see another option rising from the ashes.

Like you I thought Koh Khong a waste other than getting through the border.

Glad you found the graders as those potholes get to you after awhile. What were you riding?
 
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deepcdiver

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May 9, 2006
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BignTall wrote:

Glad you found the graders as those potholes get to you after awhile. What were you riding?
Click to expand...
Dude! I had been doing 85-90 kmh on the very decent Koh Ker road. Made the left to head north from Kulen, road OK at ther very beginning. The first pothole was almost a ditch, at 70 kmh I avoided all tbut the edge which was doable after a skidding double downshifting slide, with a last second straighten the bike out andf stand on the pegs move....fully a meter and a half abrupt aggressive profile ditch for the most part, a real bike and bone breaker...my own stupid fault. Negotiated the edge part which was merely a teeth jarring bike bottomer. After that i saw the telltale tracks warn by the local Dreams and Waves and followed them thru the lessser potholes at a safer 45 kmh.

Was riding a Suzuki Djebel 250cc enduro with fresh agressive knobbies. At first the tire were really causing a lot of vibes on pavement, but after the first 1000 km's were smooth. Was VERY glad to have them on the back road from Kratie to Kompor Cham after a HARD 6 hr thunder and rainstorm the night before. Only 30 km dirt, but greasy clay with stretches of DEEP loose mud and the rear of the bike swayin g a meter back and forth digging thru it. Any bigger bike and I would have been down repeatedly, I am a moderate dual-sport rider, not a motocrosser, plus my luggage with repair kit/tools/water/camera bag/clothes weighed easily 25 kilos...far more than I would have liked. But I needed to bring cold weather gear for northern Laos and Viet Nam...

The Suzuki ("Jezebel the Djebel") would cruise all day uphill and down at 90 kmh dirt or tar, with 115 seen briefly on the road to Koh Khong...in other words faster than was really safe to go what with kids/bikes/water buffalo/potholes etc. I was getting 235km mimimum before hitting rerserve, and vcentured 25 km into reserve w/o running out. A nice range to have. I have nothing bad to say about the bike at all, except the narrow seat which I widened by duct taping two large water bttles about 30 cm apart to effectively widen the seating area (home-made "sweet cheeks" for those who know)and throwing it over the saddle....a night and day difference!

Never did air down the tires, did not feel the need to.
 
BignTall

BignTall

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Oct 12, 2005
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Yep a lot of people have had great success with the Djebal. Glad you are enjoying it and especially love the pooor man "sweet cheeks" mod to the seat. Good on you.

Sounds like the ole Cambodia main road "MX tracks" were doing there best to keep you on your toes. How far up into Laos did you ride?
 
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jorai

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Jul 15, 2006
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I agree with comments on Djebel and Adventure/Ultimate Cambodia.

But saying the Gecko Map is useless and the 1 page sketch in the guide book better, this is plain ridiculous. If you stick to the roads in the guidebook map, what you get to see is a pathetically small fraction of Cambodia.

There are no alternatives to the Gecko map, maybe some of the GPS maps available or the 300$ one from Aruna maybe.

I just wonder how you would even know the Gecko map is bad.
 
BignTall

BignTall

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Oct 12, 2005
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Sadly the Gecko map is all that is reasonably avfailable. Just letting others know that it is not reliable in ALL places. I travelled around Cambodiua for three weeks last year via motorbike and it was wrong on more than a few occasions. Better than nothing for sure. i just remember roads being on the map that were not there in reality. Perhaps roads that were planned in the future but not laid as of then.

Luckily i had a GPS map of sorts for the country that was a bit better than the map and that was used as a comparison. I beleive the original poster was comparing the Adventure Cambo book to the Lonely Planet guide, not comparing the books map to Gecko's map.

Cheers.
 
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jorai

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Jul 15, 2006
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Thanks Auke. I am familiar with both maps and use the 1.8 one on my Garmin.

However, it would be great to have a routable digital version of the Gecko map, too. Actually I don't care much for routing as I know Cambodia well but I care for accurate and updated road info for the remoter areas.
 
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Chicagonaut

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Dec 18, 2003
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And I still carry it along with photocopies of any Ultimate Cambodia pages that are relevant to my planned ride. There are roads in the Gecko Map that no longer exist and sometimes your GPS coordinates show you being off your trail by a longshot(I was off by about 10km once last spring), but that's the nature of the beast. Out in the sticks, it's not A trail as shown on any of the maps, but more often than not a whole series of trails. I seriously doubt that even the Garmin-compatibles are as detailed as they could be.

I doesn't help that within a week of publishing a map, loads of things have invariably already changed...
 
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JimCA2

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Jan 3, 2004
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I always found the Gecko Map great. It took me all over Cambodia. It had little temple markers in the general neighborhood. I would set out and find them. Once I found them I would mark them with a GPS for a more accurate location. I didnt rely solely on the Gecko Map. I had a friend give some military maps and sometimes they revealed additional information. One had marked Mebon near the Banteay Chmar Temple. Once at Banteay Chmar, we relied on personal contact with the locals to find it.

Its the locals that know where the good stuff is. Recently in Korat, Buriram and Surin, I was using the PN map of Thailand and the one for Nakhon Rachasima province as well. They both got me close to my points of interest but in the end, plenty of info came from other sources. I knew I wanted to see Phi Mai. Once at the hotel in Korat, they had tourist info of other temples in their lobbies. The maps had an eye for point of interest. From Phi Mai, I went to Nang Ram another temple. Northwest of that was the town of Sida. There was an eye there, but it was the local contact that said it was a temple site and that I could take a back road to get to it.

Similar in Surin. At Ban Pluang temple it was the Thai/Khmer speaking attendant that told me that Sin Chai temple on my map was referred to in its Khmer name of Muang Chai, also it was located in Srok T'mol (t'mol country in Khmer). After weaving in and out of roads off the main highway, it was the fact that locals knew Srok T'mol and not the map that got me to my destination.

Being on a bike allows one freedom and adventure. A map is an invaluable tool but one shouldn't allow it to restrict you from a good time on the road.
 
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dtd

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Oct 6, 2009
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honda made xr 250 cc with smaller gas tank while xr baja with bigger gas tank.

yamaha made ttr 250 cc with smaller gas tank while raid with bigger gas tank.

suzuki djebel 250 cc come with as big gas as those of raid and xr baja.

i like the djebel the most after having a ride from pp to shv. swapped the bike with my friend who were riding honda xr. at a certain speed, i did not if i was in top gear or one gear left while i could feel that in the djebel.
 
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