Losper
Race Dog
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2009
- Messages
- 3,259
- Reaction score
- 56
- Location
- Bloemfontein
- Bike
- Honda CRF-1000L Africa Twin
Cambodia, a small country in South East Asia. Who would ever think of going to one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world.
Well, we said that we wanted to do a trip that is different to the many trips that we did the last few years and the name Cambodia came up.
There is a tour operator called Global enduro which sells these bike tours around the world and one of there tours is in Cambodia.
https://www.globalenduro.com/index.php/products/events/df6fe866-8008-5341-75fb-4eadb4a318d5.html
We thought “what the hell, let’s do it, we only live once”
The trip was 1500km long , over 12 days and would cover the central and eastern part of the country. We were 6 guys from Bloemfontein and another 12 from the UK. The rest of the group was made up as follows, An representative from Global Enduro, the tour guide ( a UK citizen living in Cambodia ),2x docters ( paid for by Global ), 4x Cambodian tour guides and 4x Cambodian mechanics. Also included was 3x back-up vehicles, 2x spare bikes, 1x spare engine, and a very big box full of spares. I must just mention that there was a lot of emergency gear also on one of the vehicles.
It worked like this. We had to bring all our gear, helmets, boots, ballistic jacket, gloves ,etc. Everyone was supplied with a Honda 250 which Global Enduro rents from a company in Cambodia. These bikes were on average 15years old and in good condition. The bikes were fitted with new tyres and brake pads and thouraly prepped and serviced.
We got up at 6 every morning, had breakfast and by 7;30 we were on the bikes. We rode for the better part of the day, reaching our hotels by 4o’clock to 6o’clock in the afternoons. We stayed in hotels most of the nights but we also slept in tents on occasion. The hotels are extremely basic and consisted of a bed, a shower and a toilet, some hotels had luke warm water bus many only cold water.
The day temperatures went up to 43degrees with high humidity and the night temperatures down to 30degrees.
The tracks consisted mostly of 2 spoor and single track cattle tracks but we also had wide gravel roads and on occasion tar. The gravel roads was covered in potholes, this ment that every body was all over the place to dodge the holes. The dust was incredible, very fine red dust. You could not see the guy in front of you and the opposite traffic could not see you. This was extremely dangerous circumstances. The 2 spoor and especially the single cattle track was overgrown with thick grass up to 3 meters high. A lot of riders got injured here by hitting tree stumps with there legs, simply because you cannot see the stumps in the long grass. We encountered lots and lots of mud and sand. We did more than a 100 water crossings, some on rafts and some we hade to ride thru up to 1 meter deep.
Casualties: On day one, one of our UK friends ran over an Cambodian ( which lost control of his scooter and fell right in front of the UK guy.) Most of Cambodians don’t were helmets while riding there scooters. The Cambodian’s head was split open and sadly died.
The second day, one of our South African guy’s front tyre bust ( on a tar section ), he crashed into a small wooden bridge and broke his Tibia.
There was also a number of smaller accidents, broken toes, a few torn and or stretched knee ligaments, etc. In total 5x riders had to go to hospital during or after the trip.
What do I think of the experience? It was a truly lifetime experience, although quit expensive it still was more than worth it. We got to see places and temples and waterfalls, etc, etc that the normal tourist cannot see simply because many of these places are only accessible by bike. What is important on a trip like this is that everybody must leave there personal problems at home and just go out and have a good time. We were very fortunate, the riders were all a bunch of friendly ouks and nobody ever lost there temper, even in some difficult stages.
Would I do it again? Absolutely, the trips for 2013 and 2014 are already in the planning stages.
Have a look at the video ( the whole video) and you will get a good idée of what we had to encounter. You will also see some photo’s of us at the beach. We spend 4 days at a beach after the trip because we felt that we would need a rest. :glasses10:
Here is the video:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/ILRv_j2cOVY[/youtube]
Well, we said that we wanted to do a trip that is different to the many trips that we did the last few years and the name Cambodia came up.
There is a tour operator called Global enduro which sells these bike tours around the world and one of there tours is in Cambodia.
https://www.globalenduro.com/index.php/products/events/df6fe866-8008-5341-75fb-4eadb4a318d5.html
We thought “what the hell, let’s do it, we only live once”
The trip was 1500km long , over 12 days and would cover the central and eastern part of the country. We were 6 guys from Bloemfontein and another 12 from the UK. The rest of the group was made up as follows, An representative from Global Enduro, the tour guide ( a UK citizen living in Cambodia ),2x docters ( paid for by Global ), 4x Cambodian tour guides and 4x Cambodian mechanics. Also included was 3x back-up vehicles, 2x spare bikes, 1x spare engine, and a very big box full of spares. I must just mention that there was a lot of emergency gear also on one of the vehicles.
It worked like this. We had to bring all our gear, helmets, boots, ballistic jacket, gloves ,etc. Everyone was supplied with a Honda 250 which Global Enduro rents from a company in Cambodia. These bikes were on average 15years old and in good condition. The bikes were fitted with new tyres and brake pads and thouraly prepped and serviced.
We got up at 6 every morning, had breakfast and by 7;30 we were on the bikes. We rode for the better part of the day, reaching our hotels by 4o’clock to 6o’clock in the afternoons. We stayed in hotels most of the nights but we also slept in tents on occasion. The hotels are extremely basic and consisted of a bed, a shower and a toilet, some hotels had luke warm water bus many only cold water.
The day temperatures went up to 43degrees with high humidity and the night temperatures down to 30degrees.
The tracks consisted mostly of 2 spoor and single track cattle tracks but we also had wide gravel roads and on occasion tar. The gravel roads was covered in potholes, this ment that every body was all over the place to dodge the holes. The dust was incredible, very fine red dust. You could not see the guy in front of you and the opposite traffic could not see you. This was extremely dangerous circumstances. The 2 spoor and especially the single cattle track was overgrown with thick grass up to 3 meters high. A lot of riders got injured here by hitting tree stumps with there legs, simply because you cannot see the stumps in the long grass. We encountered lots and lots of mud and sand. We did more than a 100 water crossings, some on rafts and some we hade to ride thru up to 1 meter deep.
Casualties: On day one, one of our UK friends ran over an Cambodian ( which lost control of his scooter and fell right in front of the UK guy.) Most of Cambodians don’t were helmets while riding there scooters. The Cambodian’s head was split open and sadly died.
The second day, one of our South African guy’s front tyre bust ( on a tar section ), he crashed into a small wooden bridge and broke his Tibia.
There was also a number of smaller accidents, broken toes, a few torn and or stretched knee ligaments, etc. In total 5x riders had to go to hospital during or after the trip.
What do I think of the experience? It was a truly lifetime experience, although quit expensive it still was more than worth it. We got to see places and temples and waterfalls, etc, etc that the normal tourist cannot see simply because many of these places are only accessible by bike. What is important on a trip like this is that everybody must leave there personal problems at home and just go out and have a good time. We were very fortunate, the riders were all a bunch of friendly ouks and nobody ever lost there temper, even in some difficult stages.
Would I do it again? Absolutely, the trips for 2013 and 2014 are already in the planning stages.
Have a look at the video ( the whole video) and you will get a good idée of what we had to encounter. You will also see some photo’s of us at the beach. We spend 4 days at a beach after the trip because we felt that we would need a rest. :glasses10:
Here is the video:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/ILRv_j2cOVY[/youtube]
