Safely reached Phnom Phen despite the efforts of the oncoming traffic, who clearly take overtaking tips from the bus drivers of India.
Today we did the whole tourist round hitting the 3 hot-spots in town. First up was the shooting range where Ben and I fired a MP5 rifle (cool, but a bit quiet), and then the main event… shooting an AK47! That was pretty awesome. And seriously loud (after all, it’s not guns that kill people, it’s that certain noise they make)!
After such a high, we needed quite a low to take us back to normal levels, so headed to the “Killing Fields” at Choeung Ek and S-21 (the torture camp used before prisoners were moved to be executed at Choeung Ek). That did the job nicely, and sobered us up entirely. Anyway, I’m looking forward to proceeding further into Cambodia armed with a little more knowledge about what happened here between 1975-79 under Pol Pot’s regime.
All for now!

After a longish break in Luang Prabang, sorting Ben’s bike out, we headed up to the very north of Laos. Well that was the plan, but after seriously muddy roads, and perpetual rain, and Ben’s repaired waterpump cover was again leaking (it’d cracked when he dropped it coming out of a deep quagmire) we never made it as far north as planned. We ended up stopping in Boun Tai on the way to Phonsilli. It was still good fun, and we had beautiful scenery for the 2 days we rode. After a “chemical metal” repair, Ben’s bike was pissing coolant through the cap and overflow for some reason, so after half a dozen stops in the first 4 hours (and we’d covered just 32kms) I hard-wired the fan to the ignition which seemed to solve the problem. Apparently the sensor that turns the fan on can be damaged by heavy knocks - I suspect driving head onto an oncoming minibus comes under this category. So, eventually we returned to Udom Xai that was a town somewhere close to civilization and the following morning seeked out the local pressure washer to relieve the bikes of their burden of mud. Later we found ourselves racing through an incredibly lush forest, at sunset, as we tried reach a town with a guesthouse before dark. We made it. Just. Not sure whether riding in the dark is as dangerous as riding swiftly, at dusk, on a single track road, through the jungle, where nobody goes…
The following day we awoke to a very cool and misty morning, which ultimately turned into another pleasant ride with the clouds gathered round in the valleys below us, as we wound our way through the jungle at over 1200m. One of the best parts about the last few days has been the incredible lack of cars - maybe a dozen each day whilst riding between the big towns! We landed up in Phonsavan, which is a pretty crappy town, which has one thing going for it. The plain of jars. This collection of jars, is interesting, but hardly stirring enough to visit all 3 sites. One was enough for me, and so I headed off along the surrounding dirt roads to explore. I had to be careful to stay on the well worn paths since this are has a lot of UXO (unexploded ordnance - aka bombs the americans dropped, or landmines). It’s hardly amazing that Americans here claim to be Canadian, since the US dropped 500kg of bombs on Laos for every one person in the Laos population!
After a few days in Phonsavan, it was time to head off-road again, as we headed south to Paxsan. The road, was dirt all day long, and large patches of mud. Ben did his first river crossing today, as one of 4 in total. They were bloody deep with sandy bottoms too! Again, as we found ourselves racing for civilisation as the day faded, I got a rear puncture. A real pain in the ass, made harder by the fact that the bike was CAKED in mud, and we had about 500ml of water between us. Eventually after swapping the tube for my spare, we carried on… for about 5kms, until I got ANOTHER puncture! This time, I knew I couldn’t change it before dark, so flagged down a passing tractor-trailer thingy (see photos). The farmer took me into the next town at and average of 5kmh which took time, but it was relaxing to slow down. Remarkably, the town had a guesthouse (shack for rent) and after the 3rd bowl of noodle soup that day, there was not much else to do but go to bed.
After fixing the puncture the following morning, we made it another 1km before… guess what… ANOTHER puncture!! I made it back to the local mechanic’s place before it deflated entirely, and finally found the source of all my misery - a nail only just protruding in through the tyre. Another thing I discovered during all this was that my sprocket carrier bearing was completely shagged… this needed to be fixed before to long, so once we were finally on the road we barely stopped until we reached the big town of Savannakhet. Which brings us to today, when after getting Maggie cleaned, I managed to get the bike completely sorted for the grand total of 1 pound. Opposite our hotel (which was setting us back a whopping 80 pence each) was a school teaching young car mechanics. Since they were clearly intrigued by our deafening motorcycles, I got to talking to them, and subsequently met the head teacher, one Mr. D. He said to bring the wheel over to him, and they promptly used their hydraulic press to pop out the offending bearing, and sent me on my way to buy a new one, which I found in about 10 minutes, spending the aforementioned quid. Back in the workshop they soon had all the parts pressed back in, and back over the road I got it all assembled and as good as new!
Now we’re headed toward Cambodia on highway mostly, since we’ve seen a lot of back-country Laos, and although stunning, is also quite hard going. We should be crossing in about 3 days if all goes to plan… (does it ever?)

It’s a week now since I left Dusseldorf and made the gruelling journey back to Chiang Mai. Fortunately the bike was fine at Richco’s, with the only issue being the multiple mouse deposits inside my boots! So having slept only a few hours in the previous 48, I set off for Chiang Rai, on the way to the border with Laos, where I was due to catch up with Ben in the town of Luang Namtha. It felt strange being back on the bike cruising at such a pedestrian pace, having just days before been bombing it down the autobahns of Germany at 215kph (it would have been more, but it wouldn’t go any faster!) After finding a secluded resort for the night, set among the forest north of Chiang Rai, I settled in for a well deserved sleep. The next day I was a lot more switched on, and made for the Thai/Laos border via the “Golden Triangle” which is the point where Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos all meet, split up by the confluence of the Mekong and another river. It’s not often you can get a photo with 3 different countries in it!

Leaving Thailand was a relatively easy affair, and Maggie was manhandled into a narrow boat to cross the Mekong to Laos. After offloading there, I checked in Laos, bought some bike insurance (a month for a fiver) and some currency (200 dollars made me a millionaire in Laos Kip). It was here I met some guys from Henley, just down the road from me in the UK. I’d love to say it’s a small world, but then again, having ridden a sizable distance round it I can say with some authority that this is rubbish - the world is huge.

Halfway to the assigned meeting point with Ben, I got a call from him saying he’d driven into a minibus. Shit. Luckily he was ok. Ben is probably the luckiest person I know, having totalled several cars, and a couple of motorcycles now, and walked away everytime! Then again, I suppose I have too…

I finally caught up with Ben the following day in Luang Prabang, a big town about 300kms from Luang Namtha. I had a really enjoyable ride here, on the practically deserted roads (seeing very few other cars, it’s easy to see how Ben forgot which side of the road they drive on here - they drive on the right, and Ben instinctively swerved to the left). The route is dotted with small villages of houses on stilts, where the inhabitants gape slack-jawed as you pass, and the children smile and wave without fail. It’s like they can’t believe what they’re seeing, this foreigner on a motorcycle.

So I’ve been in Luang Prabang a few days now, and unable to take pictures after discovering my camera charger was busted. I was concerned about getting it charged again, but fortunately I found a suitable universal charger and headed out early this morning to capture some photos. Luang Prabang is a Unesco World Heritage town, and it’s understandable why. There are temples EVERYWHERE, and monks seem to make up a sizeable percentage of the population. This morning I was slightly embarrased by all the tourist who were lined up to take photos of the monks collecting alms along the roads. Making their culture kind of a spectacle seems wrong to me. Clearly, there was nothing for it but to fall into line and grimace as my shutter clicked.

Hopefully we leave tomorrow, but let’s see what happens…

Well, I have to say that this time last week I didn’t think that I’d be sitting in Martin and Jacqui’s living room in Munich today! I’ve taken a little break from the trip to rectify a big mistake…
After weeks of indecision, I decided on wednesday morning I had to come back to Germany to tell Nadine that I’d made a big boo boo when we parted company back in August. So by wednesday evening I was on a flight, Dusseldorf-bound. Thankfully my arrival at Nadine’s house was well received, and we’re now both blissfully happy!
For the weekend we decided to head down to see old friends in Munich, and so here we are. It’s nice to be back in Munich at this spectacularly beautiful time of year! We’re thinking about maybe trying to catch a Jose Gonzales gig tomorrow night. I miss live music!
So anyway, I hope Ben is surviving, on his own in Thailand and Laos, and I’ll be back over there in a week to catch him up!
Thanks have to go again to Richy at Richco Motorsport for looking after my bike and kit while I make this spontaneous gesture!

After the crash, we decided to go straight to Chiang Mai, and found a really great town when we got there! We’d been given contact details for Richy at Richco Motorsport (http://richcomotorsports.com/) who turned out to be an absolute diamond, fixing my pannier, making me a new sprocket, and made Ben and I up some nice steel pannier protectors in case we go down the road again! (for me twice is enough, but Ben may want to try it at some point!) While the panniers were being done Ben and I went of for a fast loop to Mae Hong Son. It was a VERY fast loop, but I blame the road or being sooooo incredible and egging us on! Arrived back in Chiang Mai without incident, and so with luck on our side, we hired some Honda XR250 dirt bikes to go riding in the mountains. Richy was due to take us out on sunday so we wanted to get some practice on saturday! We managed to get totally lost (intentionally I suppose) and ended up down some very dodgy tracks. “It’s looking a bit footpathy” I believe ben said from up front…. Maybe we should have turned back, but we pressed on and survived again. The suvival of the sunday was the biggest miracle, as we hooked up with some local dirt bikers, who set an extremely fast pace, that Ben and I managed to keep up with somehow! Very reckless, but incredible amounts of fun!
I’m now on a new mission. One of the heart…. but I’ll fill you in on that with the next posting!