Great Ride Forward - Yunnan and SE Asia

[GRF_Hans]

Edit: The photos should be fixed now. The url's change from when Pete puts them up and the ride reports get finished so it always breaks links. Apologies.

Hello mychinamoto brethren! A new update for anybody following us :D

Ride Report – Siem Reap to Stung Treng

Siem Reap was one of the big highlights of our trip. Pete had been three years ago and knew the important things to see. We ended up taking a five day break there, with three days devoted completely to Angkor Thom. I never realized how immense this entire area is, because it definitely takes more than three days to complete the tour, although after three you definitely have a pretty good idea of what it's all about.


The first day that we went we tried to sneak our way in to the temple complex on our motorbikes, but the security guards busted us. Apparently only locals are allowed in on motorbikes due to several cases of foreigners causing accidents. All was not lost, however, as we ended up finding a tuk-tuk driver named Johnny who was a very informative and jovial tour-guide and gave us a lot of pro-tips and background about the place.



Bayon may have been my favorite stop in the entire complex. The place is adorned with hundred of faces, keeping watch in every direction.


In our furthest trek away from Siem Reap with Johnny, we rode about 45 minutes out of town to Banteay Srey, a very well-maintained ruin. The red earth and stones made for an interesting contrast after spending so much time amongst the gray Angkor Thom buildings. Maybe it was because of all the time we had spent crawling around the towering faces, nagas (snake bannisters), and whatnot that made Banteay Srey seem quite like a miniature red clay mock-up. The carvings were exquisite, however, and it made for some great photos.





The next stop would be the famed Aki Ra landmine museum.





For those of you who don't know about this guy, you should check it out here. Formerly a Khmer Rouge child soldier responsible for laying mines, upon reaching adulthood he realized the horrible damage his past was doing to Cambodia's future. With his pointy stick in hand, he began to dig up mines, one at a time, by hand. To date he has cleared mines numbering in the tens of thousands.


On the way back from the landmine museum, we also stopped at the killing field in Siem Reap. Once an elementary school, it has since been converted to a monastery, an AIDS shelter, and an orphanage. At a nearby temple, we spotted some of the kids playing.





In between our three scattered days at Angkor, we managed to take the bikes out sans load-out to visit Bang Melea. Pete kept referring to it as an Indiana Jones temple, so of course my interest was at a very heightened state.




We decided to take a huge 120km detour to the temple because we knew it would be a dirt road there and also why not. It felt nice to do some wheelies and get the bikes dirty again after almost two weeks of road riding in Thailand.




There we go. (We also noticed that when all our gear is on the bikes, the rear suspension is so compressed that hitting any moderately-sized bump will cause the rear tire to rub against the exhaust pipe, creating that nice clean ring of rubber on the right side of the tire.)





This photo was taken right at the side of the road out. Signs like these can be seen everywhere, and it is a sad reminder of Cambodia's recent past. We believe that this is warning people not to go chop wood because of mines in the forest.





Pausing for a quick photo-shoot on the bridge leading up to the temple.


Bang Melea was fantastic. The giant tower in the center of the complex had collapsed and taken down most of the buildings around it. This meant that for quite some time, the temple was relatively forgotten. When we showed up, there was nobody there and we had the entire place to ourselves, save for the two guides who helped direct us. Trees had taken over inside, with branches sticking out of every small crevice. It made for some amazing lighting due to the jungle-like canopy over the entire ruin. Much like Angkor Wat, the Khmer Rouge had used Bang Melea as a refuge and as a result the entire surrounding area was mined.


After five days, Pete and I both felt completely templed-out. Our next stop would be Ratanakiri province in the seldom visited northeast of Cambodia. From our fellow Khmai-Irish ADV Rider Peader (Jacl-Kampuchea), we learned about the Death Highway, a grueling 200km of pure sand in the dry season, and mud in the wet season. Of course we decided that it would be a great idea to conquer it in the loaded out Shinerays.


It would take us three days to get to the start of the trail from Siem Reap, so we mapped out a route taking us through Choam, Sra Em, Chhep, across the Mekong to Stung Treng, and then to Ban Lung, the capital of (and perhaps only city in) Ratanakiri.


Our first stop, Choam, is a quiet town. Several of the top Khmer Rouge leaders ended up making their homes here in the mountains, an ideal location because of the strategic advantages and also because of the proximity to Thailand in case the need to flee ever arose. The reason that we had chosen to travel through here was because it is the final resting place of Pol Pot, the man responsible for deaths of millions of Cambodians through his horrible purges and reforms.


He died of a 'heart attack' in 1998 just as the Khmer Rouge surrendered. Rumor has it that his last order was to have one of the men negotiating the concessions murdered along with his wife and children, then have their bodies “run over by trucks.”





Creamation.


It was actually a rather interesting day, as Pete noted in his article, we received several bad omens on the ride out, witnessing a horrible car accident, and then watching a house burn down.





The same day we visited Choam, we stopped in Sra Em, the nearest town to the fabled Prasat Preah Vihear. Two years ago, UNESCO named it a cultural heritage site for Cambodia, and ever since, the Thais have been so upset about it that the literally shell the temple. Built on a mountain-top, it is one of the most amazing sites that we have stopped at so far.






The only people up there besides Lewis, an Englishman that we'd met in Siem Reap the night before, were soldiers. There were guns and RPGs lying around everywhere.


On the initial ride up we were prevented from going to the top, and afterward we would find out that it was because we had spray painted our names translated into Thai on our gas tanks. You see, the Cambodians don't like the Thais so much because any time there is domestic unrest, they start shelling Prasat Preah Vihear to distract the populous and drum up nationalism.


We made sure to distribute tons of our stickers at the site, so when UNESCO visits, they'll know who was there.




After hanging out with a few off-duty soldiers, we attempted to make our way to Stung Treng. A town on the other side of the Mekong River, on the map it looked like only a 200km journey.




This is the bridge that exemplifies the type of roads connecting Stung Treng and Prasat Preah Vihear.


Despite our utmost effort, we arrived in Chhep about 6 hours later. We had a dinner at a nice guesthouse/restaurant before continuing on towards Stung Treng at around 8 or 9 o'clock. After only an hour of trekking, we realized that this was insane. In an hour, we had managed only 10-15 kilometers. It was some of the most brutal sand and ruts we had seen the entire trip, and trying to motor over it with no light was a ridiculous endeavor. Only later would we discover that Chhep actually means “stop” in Khmer, some advice that we should have heeded from the guesthouse owners repeated requests that we stay the night at their place before continuing in the morning.





We did manage to take an awesome long-exposure shot, however.


So after the said hour, we decided that the best idea would be to turn around and wait until morning to tackle the trail. After a nice bucket-shower and a decent night's sleep, we hit what would be quite the scenic route through some beautiful forests. We ran into several downed trees and collapsed bridges, which required some serious improvisation to make it around. The last obstacle for us to clear was the mighty Mekong River, the lifeblood of Southeast Asia. We descended a 40 meter, near-vertical ramp and boarded a ferry.




The ride was about 15 minutes, and quite pleasant, save for the flock of 30 chickens sitting right next to me tied together by their feet.


When we got off the boat, we made a left turn and ended up at a nice guesthouse. While we were unloading, we met up with an Austrian fellow by the name Bernhard who has been riding his 1980s BMW around the world for the past two years. After chatting for 20 minutes, we got some food and then crashed out. It had been one of the most eventful stretches of our trip.