Great Ride Forward - Yunnan and SE Asia

[ChinaV]

$13 to go have a beer in Myanmar seems like a good deal . I've always wanted to try a premium quality Myanmar brew .

This ride report rocks, shit happens and you guys keep taking it in stride and moving on ....respect. Been in a few dodgy situations in Cambodia and Thailand, so I know how the locals there love to prey on your misfortune. Glad you are finding some good souls to help you along. Why didn't you just call Shineray for some warranty support .

Keep it coming, we need more .

Cheers!
ChinaV

[GRF_Hans]

Ouch, that hurt.
A reframe:: Great news, you get a new engine, an upgrade finally. I can't wait for that to happen to my bike.

How many km did you get out of the engine before it blew up? How long was it before your last oil change? Did you figure out what caused this? How come Pete's bike is ok? Beginner's luck?
You chose the perfect place to get stuck. Great motography by the way... Keep up the good work.

I meant to write about this in the last ride report but forgot to. The shop in Bangkok neglected to change my oil like I asked. What I'm confused about is whether they drained some of it and then didn't replace it or something, because when we did an oil-check after the explosion, it took a third of a liter before it even registered on the dipstick. I know... I know.. JV move on my part not check that stuff myself. No excuses...

Pete's bike is okay because it is a beast. He has crashed that thing more than a test-dummy and it is still going strong. I'm am envious...although i didn't lose a mirror when we laid it down in Laos, which was good luck.

Epic! That engine is so fried I could barely tell what I was looking at. Surely the repairs won't take a week, and it'll be interesting to see how close the clones are. Are you holding out for genuine Honda fake parts or Thai fake parts, or maybe even genuine genuine Honda parts?

I ended up getting the Beng Thom treatment; they make the exact same engine in Thailand so had some parts lying around. The sleeve is a bit confusing though because they said they had to machine that or something (I don't really understand Thai). All seems well, though. Glad it all worked out.

Why didn't you just call Shineray for some warranty support .

Ugh this one gets me so upset. During the 6 months leading up to this trip they always reassured me they had extensive connections in Thailand and could keep me going in case anything were to happen. And of course, as soon as something happens they play dumb/ignore my calls. :(:(:(

[slabo]

Ugh this one gets me so upset. During the 6 months leading up to this trip they always reassured me they had extensive connections in Thailand and could keep me going in case anything were to happen. And of course, as soon as something happens they play dumb/ignore my calls. :(:(:(

Everytime I ask them for spare parts, like rubber tank mounts, brake oil hose, even an allen head screw for the carb float bowl, they just laugh out loud... No problem, you don't need that. They only time they were able to give me new parts was when they had another brand new bike, just took it off... Basically if the bike isn't on fire, they don't want to lift a finger.

[GRF_Hans]

Haha exactly. I think my bike is really starting to fall apart. We'll see how it holds up for the final month!

Everytime I ask them for spare parts, like rubber tank mounts, brake oil hose, even an allen head screw for the carb float bowl, they just laugh out loud... No problem, you don't need that. They only time they were able to give me new parts was when they had another brand new bike, just took it off... Basically if the bike isn't on fire, they don't want to lift a finger.

[GRF_Hans]

I apologize! It has been much too long. For all 3 of our readers, here is the next installment. CAMBODIA!!!

So we last left you with a blown piston in Patong, Thailand. Being stranded for 6 days on the beaches of Phuket is not all bad.



Besides working on the bronze, I got to rent a Honda Steed for a day and tour around the peninsula.




It felt great. I had never ridden any cruiser style motorcycle before, and having 600cc definitely made me realize how inadequate the 200cc Shineray was. I rode over the fantastically curvy pass between Patong to get to Phuket Town, and managed to cruise around and find some beautiful sites.




This abandoned boat was washed ashore at a park just outside Phuket Town where I had an impromptu nap due to the previous nights activities.




You don't know how we 'gammon.


Being in Patong really took it out of us, however. There is only so much lounging on the beach you can do before you get bored and want to start riding again. So when my bike was finished up we hightailed it the next day. Not before a little custom paint-job, though, just so we could tell who's bike was who's.




The plan was to backtrack over 1400km along the same route we had come down, stopping around Chumphon and then shooting through Bangkok to cross the border into Cambodia from Poipet the third day. It seemed doable.


The first day on the road was a good 500km of riding back along the border of Myanmar before picking up the main north-south highway. We started off early because we knew that it would be a long day otherwise, but within the first 100km both of us had already almost fallen asleep. Also the breakfast was not sitting well with either of us and I had to do what a bear does in the woods while Pete scouted out the area for some interesting photos.




We made it to Chumphon right at dusk and found the lovely little Chumphon Guesthouse. Coincidentally, a Belgian motorcyclist who was doing a trip around Thailand was staying at the same place after having passed us a couple of times on the road. He imparted his knowledge of Cambodia upon us, and since it was nothing but horror stories about evading police, we got nervous. One of the part-owners of the guesthouse was a German man in the prosthetic limb business, and he had the same warnings for us as well. It seems that every time we cross a border, there is so much negativity!


The next day found us heading towards Bangkok, with the plan to make it to the eastern side of the city in order to expedite the third days' journey into Cambodia. The city schemed nefariously to impede our progress at every turn, however. We arrived at the outskirts around 3:00pm and stopped to clarify our route before heading into the vast network of illogical roads. The owner of an auto glass repair shop was happy to help out, and he was actually wearing a shirt from the Santa Ana Star casino right near Pete's house in New Mexico. What are the odds?




By the time we made it into downtown, it was rush-hour. It took us the following 5-6 hours to make it to the airport, a distance of maybe 40 kilometers. Being that I was about to pull my hair out, we stopped at an airport hotel in eager anticipation for the border crossing the next day. Thankfully there was a balcony to air-dry our foul-smelling riding gear.


Freshly showered and stuffed with complimentary breakfast, we drove onwards the next morning.





Pete looking handsome.




Driving with the lights on, which is actually illegal in Cambodia we would later find out, for the most ridiculous reason ever: Four years ago it was actually mandatory to drive in the daytime with lights on, but then the cyclops dictator for life was late for a meeting due to all the glare from the motorcycles' headlights slowing down his motorcade.



Taking a nice little break to get the bugs out of our ears.


We arrived at the border crossing at around 3:00pm again and were ushered to the 'Cambodian Embassy' (was actually an abandoned parking lot with a bunch of fixers mulling around, not the real Embassy), overpaid for our visas and bikes to get across the border and made it through with no problems!




Hello Cambodia!


The border crossing was actually very interesting, and the first hour past the archway into Cambodia would rival our two weeks in Thailand in terms of stories.


What exists at the former smuggling town of Poipet is a no man's land between Thailand and Cambodia, which has turned into a casino town. It takes only about 15 minutes to walk from one side to the other, but there is a tremendous draw, with people coming to gamble from both sides due to the almost open border. I ran into a dozen Chinese from Guangzhou (or so they say...) in the line for the entry stamp , so you know the gambling is good. While this haven is celebrated by some, it also becomes a nightmare for others.


We met Hermann from Cameroon sitting dejectedly at the Custom's Office near the Cambodian side. Apparently he had been stuck here for a month. His employer in Thailand needed him to make a visa run, so his Thai visa had been canceled upon leaving Aranyaprathet. Prepared with a Cambodian visa, he marched towards Poipet. However, the Cambodians refuse to give him a stamp to allow him to enter. You see, Cambodia has a huge problem with our friends the Nigerian Princes of e-mail spam fame. It has unfortunately become a hide-out where the Princes can scam conveniently, and in a typical knee-jerk reaction, the borders are closed to Africans.


Hermann was now stuck with a canceled Thai visa and a Cambodian visa that was not useful. His company then apparently closed up their Thai office without helping him, and being as there was no Cameroon Embassy in either country, he was high and dry. We tried to convince him to hop on our bikes to sneak past the guards, but he wouldn't do it. And the worst part about it was that the whole time this conversation was going on, the Cambodians were crossing unchecked behind us due to the open border.





Nobody looked under that tarp or checked any ID for any of the hundreds of push-carts going through every hour.


After getting some dinner, we rode for a couple hours into Siem Reap, but not before the most exciting part of any border crossing. Stickers.




It must have been almost 2 hours straight riding in the dark, through a series of quick and light rain showers before we arrived in Siem Reap. Arriving at night is almost boring, since you cannot make out anything of the city. Pete had visited some three years ago and with his amazing memory led us both through the dark and narrow streets to a guesthouse he had stayed in previously. Yet another night ride. It's really starting to get old.

[moilami]

Nice, it seems you got your motors running and headed on the highway looking for an adventure and whatever comes on your way.

Thanks of the report + ob. whining: why not report how the engine rebuild went?

[andre555]

Nice one...now pictures from Ankor!

Greetings
One of the three

[GRF_Hans]

Thanks of the report + ob. whining: why not report how the engine rebuild went?

Ah yes. Apologies for this. What happened with the rebuild was unfortunately uneventful. The shop picked up a new piston (same as an XR250, but with a shorter stroke I believe) and then had to go out and fab a cylinder sleeve and he told me to come back and I thought we would build it together, but he ended up just doing it all himself so that was rather upsetting. I'm bummed I didn't get any photos of the shiny new bits as well.