Triumphrat

Whisperinsmith · 02-12-2008

Fascinating! And that is the best looking Scrambler! Great job. Thanks so much for posting this.

DaveB · 02-15-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rhodie

Sure Ice - wasn't sure anybody was reading this.
Rhodie

I get the clear impression that there's a number of us on the forum who are absolutely rivetted to this story. It's utterly incredible!

But when I study the pics, the traffic, the roads, the officials, the river crossings, the food, ... well it all just looks so very dangerous! I've been in some unpleasant & dangerous places & situations on my bike in Africa but nothing, absolutely nothing, to compare with what I see here.

I'm sure we're all rooting for you to complete this trip safely. A thousand thanks- it's unforgettable.

DaveB.

Rhodie · 02-15-2008

Ek Se, DaveB

Howsit in Joeys at this time of year?

I have finally got back to the City of [fallen] Angels -Bangkok- after 4300 miles in one piece
I will be posting the remaining trip report over the weekend, if I can.

But I can't believe the trip is any more hazardous than some the riding in the veldt & urban areas of your local.

I learn't to ride in the bush on a Kwacker a little to the north of your location
- but things were a little different in those days & I had a FN clipped to the bars.

Yours and others messages of support and appreciation of the trip,
makes the time spent writing it up & processing the pix worthwhile.

Cheers & totsiens
Rhodie

If this has wetted an interest in riding in SE Asia,
then you can read my son's trip reports from a 10 day XR ride through Laos, here:

http://board.gt-rider.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2913
http://board.gt-rider.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2996
http://board.gt-rider.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3027
http://board.gt-rider.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3036

Iceseven · 02-15-2008

Welcome back Rhodie, great trip and photos, looking forward to your trip report.

Ice

Rhodie · 02-15-2008

I rolled into Siem Reap in early afternoon.

The 5-hour trip had been relatively uneventful barring negotiating cattle dogs and psychotic SUV drivers
who would wait until the last moment to overtake thereby forcing me into the curbside dirt.
The only moment of real anxiety was a group of 8 pilling out of a tuk-tuk who then stood looking on as I approached them at 60 mph.
Instinctively I tooted pharp-phaaarp.
They looked back with little more than bovine curiosity.
I braked cautiously, still tooting.
Four decided to made a break for it, whilst the others looked on.
Then two ran across.
I am braking hard now - when the last two bolted across.
I was barely a few metres away.
I locked the back wheel up and ... the bike slewed sideways.
Clearly I was going down...
THUNK... Something had hit the rear right side of the bike.
Hang-on... I was still on the bike and upright.
I looked back, expecting to see an inert figure on the road.
Mercifully, I saw the last two had made it across.
And, after considerable thought, when I had got my breath back;
I believe it had been my boot, which I must have dabbed down, when I had locked the back up and had been thrown back against the pipes.

After that heart-stopping moment I meandered into Siem Reap to check in to the charming & stylish Mysteres d'Ankor
guesthouse run by a couple of Frenchmen. www.mysteres-angkor.com.
When recounting my near crash experience they correctly, put it from a Khmer perspective.
The highway runs through their hamlet and they were unused to speeding bikes.
They were right. 'Nuff said. Lesson learned. And no-one, thank God, was hurt.

An oasis of calm in a city that is pullulating with package tour hotels catering to the 2 million visitors annually,
who come to this ever growing construction site to see a pile of old ruins.

Golden Light on a golden bike.

Poison · 02-17-2008

Rhodie,

I own a Sprint and have never even ridden a Scrambler but I really enjoy reading about your journey. I think a lot of people on here are reading this as it sounds like an Indiana Jones adventure that most of us never experience.

Great story, great pics and I feel like I have been there. Thanks for taking the time to give us the details here.

Nathan.

DaveB · 02-18-2008

Howzit Rhodie.

I'm a Pom who came here in the early Eighties & at that time made a friend for life of an ex-Rhodie who was fresh out of the struggle up North. So although I can't relate myself, I know exactly what you mean about the FN....

The riding around here is still great. The biggest change over the years is the huge increase in traffic in & around Joburg. The old & terrible venue at Cosmos, north of Harties Dam, closed years ago (thank goodness). There are now many good breakfast/lunch venues all over the place so we're pretty much spoilt

. The trad Sunday breakfast run is still very popular, but I often do one on a Saturday instead/as well, when there's less traffic around. But it all seems relatively tame & normal compared to the conditions you experienced on your trip!

Adventure riding has caught on bigtime here. It's all RG BMWs & KTMs.

The pic of the fried tarantulas was enought to turn me in to a vegetarian. Well almost

.

DaveB.

Rhodie · 02-20-2008

Thanks for the generous compliments, but the ride did not prove any more fatiguing or difficult than some of the other posts by more adventurous riders on this board.
The only particular hazard is the idiosyncratic nature of driving/riding that reaches extraordinary heights in Cambodia.
Apart from malaria & dengue, which can be an issue at times; if one takes particular care regarding hygeine and water discipline there are no real health hazards that are not found in other parts of the third world. Snakes, for instance, are no greater an issue than in the States or OZ - probably less so, as they are hunted for food.
The one real difference, is assistance in case of medical emergency - even if you have SOS Evac insurance - it is not always readily available.
Best to try and get back to Thailand and Bangkok if possible.

Rhodie · 02-20-2008

More than a thousand years ago deep in the jungles of northern Cambodia
a civilisation arose that built the largest and most beautiful temples the world had ever seen. Then mysteriously, they vanished smothered by the tropical forest to become jewels in the jungle just waiting to be discovered by a French archeoligist in 1860.

Dawn brings the sun coming up behind the great temple at Angkor Wat. Combined by the slow methodical dull drumming and chanting of Japanese pilgrims it is a spiritual experience, as the sun's rays kiss the lotus shaped spires of one of the world's great wonders.

In the film Tomb Raider they build a stilted floating village with canoes in this small lake in front of the temple.

Between the 9th and 14th centuries Khmer Kingdom dominated southeast asia and were masters of stone carving, constructing vast cities & resevoirs with fortified walls and hundreds of jungle smothered temples scattered over a site an area the size of Manhatten.

To get to the outer walls of Angkor you first have to cross the moat on a bridge - more than two football fields long.

Then another even longer stone causeway before you reach the inner wall.

Rhodie · 02-20-2008

Angkor Wat is visually, architecturally and artistically breathtaking.
It is a massive three-tiered pyramid crowned by five lotus-like towers rising 65 metres from ground level.

Constructed as a ‘temple-mountain’ dedicated to the Hindu god, Vishnu, with a very steep climb to the temple proper.
This would not have been open to commoners when the temple was operating in the time of the Khmer Kingdom.

Finally the inner sanctum.

A nun was overlooking the shrine to the Lord Buddha.

Elsewhere in the temple a fortune teller was forecasting this Mother's concern over her daughter's future.