Riding Through The Jungles & Temple Remains In Cambodia

Every morning when the metro rail that I take to work crosses a lush green patch I feel like tearing the doors open and jumping right into the thicket with the roaring engine under my butt. Twist hard the throttle of an off-road motorcycle without bothering about the path and just let it run wild forever. Now imagine going through this every morning, then reaching office, and sitting in front of the laptop with a straight face. This urge to tear the door apart and jumping out had been growing for a while. Of course, not all fantasies can be brought to life but some aren't that difficult to fulfill.

REACHING CAMBODIA

I had planned Cambodia trip in the last week of December 2013 with another friend who had to drop out because of certain personal commitments. But motorcycling hardly requires company. So I started looking at options for some motorcycling action in Cambodia, wrote a few emails, and surprisingly got multiple eager replies. After chatting with few of the bike trip organizers, I zeroed in on Aki (http://cambodiatrails.com/).

My one line brief to Aki was – “The Trip should cover trail, slush, jungle, water crossing…so what if it’s for just a few days, it should be exciting. I want to push myself really hard”. As it turns out, Aki was pretty good at understanding briefs.  

Bus ride from Mo Chit Bangkok to Poi Pet border

I landed in Bangkok around 11 am and headed straight for the Mo Chit bus terminal (near Chatachuk market). One can take the airport express to the city and then take the sky rail to the station closest to their destination. It was only after I reached Mo Chit did I find out that the only direct bus to Siem Reap leaves around 9 am. So I took the next best option of boarding a bus to Aranyaprathet for 223 Baht.

We left at 2 pm from Mo Chit terminus. The border is still 6 km away from Aranyaprathet so I paid another 70 Baht for the tuk-tuk to take me to the border. By the time I crossed the border and reached the Cambodia immigration office it was 8.15 pm. I had already taken paper visa online for Cambodia so there was no visa processing required. Its important to mention here that this route to Cambodia via Thailand is not as smooth as it may seem. Besides the taxi and direct bus scam, Visa on arrival can cause a lot of unnecessary trouble. While returning I did face some issues. My Thailand Visa on return journey was also Visa on arrival but Cambodia immigration refused to stamp my passport out of Cambodia unless I had valid Visa to enter Thailand. So I had to first go get paper Visa  from authorities in Thailand, return to immigration office of Cambodia to get my passport stamped. then ofcourse get again in queue at Thailand immigration to enter their country, all this with with my travel bags (including riding gear) and running across in heat. If i had taken pre-arrival Visa for Thailand then this would have been simpler. After asking a few random questions the immigration in Cambodia officer decided to stamp my passport but he wasn't ready to hand it over just yet. The extra fifteen minutes he had had to stay after his duty hours was going to cost me 200 baht! Next up was arranging a cab ride to Siem Reap, which I successfully negotiated down to USD 43 from the initial asking price of USD 150.  I later realized that even this was an exorbitant price for a ride to Siem Reap. I reached Siem Reap around 11.30 pm. I had anticipated that i might reach late so had pre-booked a hotel room (Wooden Angkor) for next two nights. The hotel turned out to be very good, considering I had to just pay 20 USD for a night. Cambodia isn’t a very expensive place to travel so basics like food, accommodation, etc is very cheap. For example, meal in a normal restaurant will cost 3-5 USD, beer for around 2 USD.

Next morning I went to check out the motorbike. There were mostly Honda XR 250. These are single cylinder air-cooled four stroke off-road motorcycles from the nineties, produces around 19 hp and good torque.  This model was later replaced with CRF 250 (or CRF X).

Honda XR 250, ready to ride

Aki and I had agreed earlier that the ride will last 4 -5 days depending on the terrain. If you go in a bigger group then you can choose to take one of the pre-decided routes through the forests for as short as half-a-day to as long as 16 days which would cover most of Cambodia. A 16 day long trip can cost you 2700 USD upwards but will get you to cover entire Cambodia on the bike, I paid 150 USD per day.

After inspecting the bike and discussing the route with Aki it was time to do the temple tour in Siem Reap. I decided to use the non-motor cycle for the day ride.  I ended the day at pub-street wrapping up early as I had an early start the next morning.

Bayon Temple

RIDE STARTS
We start riding around 8.30 am that morning. Aki had already briefed me that I should carry just one small bag. He provided me with really tough off-road Sidi boots. Besides that I was also wearing knee guards to protect my legs, and instead of elbow guard I chose to wear my mesh jacket. Initial part of the ride was mostly on backroads and some on tar.

2 hours into the ride and I had my first fall. Dried slush turns into weird pattern of troughs and crests. If the tire hits a wrong point you can lose balance, which is exactly what happened with me. I sprained my ankle but it wasn’t bad enough to hold me back for long. Half an later I fell again. This time it was my shin, I screamed for a moment, and started wondering how I was going to survive the next few days. But I also knew that self-confidence was the only thing that could keep me going. So without thinking too much I got back on the saddle with even more energy this time.

Route options I had considered for this ride were:

Option 1 - Cardamom Mountains

Option 2 – Northern Cambodia

Option 3 – Eastern Cambodia

Route Map courtesy Cambodia Trails

We had finalised route option as for our ride. While a large part of Cambodia is filled with fascinating forest terrain, it is the North region which is closest interesting region to Siem Reap. Considering that I was riding alone, and the limited time I had, this seemed like the best possible option.

Eastern Cambodia is adjoining Vietnam, and includes Rattanakiri and Mondulkari regions. Covered with thick forests, this is the less developed region with very few developed motorable roads. I had kept Mondulakri region as route option 3 but the only problem was that it was far from Siem Reap so I would have wasted 1 day going up and 1 day coming down to Siem Reap. Therefore this option (Eastern Cambodia) was striked off.

Route option no. 1 was Cardamom Mountains or western Cambodia. This is considered to be much tougher ride with a mix of forest, rocky terrain, and multiple river crossings. In order to complete this route, one needs a bigger group to work as a team. There are places where two people are needed to lift the bike and take it across the river. We are talking about places which offer extreme off-roading situations. These areas are almost inaccessible, and without much habitation. This is recommended for professional riders, which I’m not. But the fun lies in pushing one’s limits. The risks of riding through Cardamom Mountains is something every off-road loving motorcyclist would like to experience. Since I was riding alone I had no option but to drop this route option as well.

Southern part of the country has some interesting beaches with a mix of forests but this was again too far off so I never considered this regions as a route option.

After stopping for lunch at Sre Noi around 12.30 we kept on riding up on tar road towards Along Veng (long cliff) in the direction of Cambodia- Thailand border. Once we were close to the border we entered the jungles and started climbing up in search of Pot Pol’s (one of the leaders of Khymer Rouge) house. Apparently the Cambodian government forces couldn't capture him as all the surrounding mountains were laid with mines. 

Land Mines have been a big issue in Cambodia for long. Most of the areas have now been cleared by government and other NGO bodies from across the globe but there is a possibility that there are areas which still have mines hidden underneath.

Stories of brutality are still discussed by those who survived, and the horrible impact can be seen in the eyes of the mine victims who are handicapped for rest of their life.  

We descended from Pot Pol’s den and after riding along the Dangrek Mountains, which is the  natural border between Cambodia and Thailand, we climbed up another cliff to spend the night at a guest house. The view from this cliff left me awestruck. Dark clouds enveloped one side, while the other basked in orange sunlight. Weather was pleasant at 22 degree Celsius, windy, and partially cloudy. We had covered 210 kms, with an average speed of around 25 km/h which is good considering the kind of terrain we had been riding on. We spent the next few hours relaxing in the hammock, watching the sun set, and discussing the next day’s route. Soon it was time for dinner, the option for which were deer and wild boar. I opted for deer meat which is the softest meat I have ever had.

Deer meat for dinner

EXPLORING THE FOREST & HIDDEN TEMPLES 

I was woken the next morning by the thumping noise of the engine. Aki was inspecting the bikes before we could take off again. First stop was for fuel and breakfast. There aren't many fuel filling stations in Cambodia but it’s sold in bottles at regular shops.

No, he isn't pouring JW Black Label, its the way the petrol is sold in Cambodia

We entered the trail again from Preapeang Prasat and after riding for a while we entered the forests region called Kulen Prum Tep Wildlife Sanctuary. Forest was mostly deciduous and bamboo in some parts. It was a mixed terrain. We encountered slush, water, sand, and rocky terrain. Nov to Jan is the best time to ride in Cambodia. After that it becomes too hot before heavy rain starts pouring. While we did cross some slush, it would have been thicker and more prevalent in Sept – Oct.  It’s fun to ride in slush but when there is too much of it then it gets tricky. You have to get off the bike and push it. It did happened just once with us but we managed to push the bikes out without much trouble. Thankfully I didn't have any fall that day and we also managed to get some good footage for the video that we intended to develop at the end of the trip.

Slush is fun

Riding inside the jungle is a lot of fun but you must know your way out of it before the sun goes down. It’s not easy to find your way out as there are no marked routes here. GPS can be a good friend but at times even the good friend might not be able to help. So when we got lost, we used the mighty sun to help us with the direction. We realized that we had done a full circle inside the forest. The only way out was to keep the sun on your left and keep riding in one direction. You can ask the locals for help, provided you come across any in the jungle, and you know the language. Thankfully Aki was a local so it helped. The ice candy man crossing the forest to reach another village helped us with the directions. After fighting with the terrain for some time we decided to relax for a bit next to a river stream. We were covered in dust and slush but that didn't stop us from enjoying ice-candies in middle of nowhere inside the forest.

Ice candies in middle of nowhere

After getting lost for a while we reached Koah Ker (part of Preah Vihar province), another group of broken temples. One can pay 10 USD to get access to all the temples in this region. Main temple here was like a Mayan style pyramid temple with steps going all the way till the top. These temples were very different from what I had seen in Siem Reap. We reached Sroyrong Koh Ker after covering 170 kms for the day but this included only 5% on Tar roads, around 60% in forest, 15% on red gravel roads, and 20%  through rice fields.

Koh Ker Temple

One of the most interesting experiences of traveling are the interesting people you meet on the way. In the small guest house we were staying at that night, we met a few French men. They had taken a short break from their routine life of wife and kids and were in Cambodia to teach English. There was also a Spanish couple who had been traveling for the past 6 months across South-East Asia.  They had been travelling across Cambodia on a small 125cc Honda scooter. Common topic of discussion that night on the dinner table at a near-by food joint was corruption. Clearly corruption was the universal problem which all of us had experienced in our respective countries. It became a little over bearing after a while so I decided to take a walk to  check-out what was happening in the backyard of that small food joint. I saw big containers on wood fire with women cooking around. Older men were eating, and younger men were drinking rice wine in groups. For a moment they all looked at me, and gave a strange look. But that quickly changed into a smile and then laughter. They offered me shots of rice wine, which I happily accepted, and also offered an interesting sweet dish called Khasawa. This was made of steamed banana leaf with a filling of beans, sugar, and coconut. By the time I came out, another French couple had joined us. They initially had their guard up, but we managed to convince them to have rice shots as part of Christmas eve celebrations.

Guest house at Sroyrong 

My wake-up alarm next morning was a screaming pig next door being slaughtered for lunch. Our first stop that day was the Shiva Linga Temple. Before Buddhism became the main religion, Hinduism is what was followed in Cambodia. Even the famous Angkor Temple is a Vishnu Temple, and so are many others.  Their mythological stories have various characters from Hindu mythology. For example they believe that there is a huge snake that lives in Mekong River which protects them from all evil. The snake being talked about here is what we see in almost all temples in form of carvings on rock. As per Hindu Mythology this huge multi-headed snake, called Shesh Naag, is the carrier of Lord Vishnu.

FIGHTING WITH THE TERRAIN

It was time to get lost in the forest again. Aki had warned me that there would be lot of fighting with the terrain that day and that’s how it was. I had never imagined sand to be so tricky to ride. You can’t be too slow, you can’t be too fast, you can’t put too much downward pressure as tires might get stuck. It was only after riding for a while that I started getting better at it. We decided to skip lunch in favour of getting lost in the jungle. We were riding through millions of dollar worth of teak around us. Apparently this is one of the reasons for corruption in the country as the government has allowed some Vietnamese and Chinese firms to take over these teak farms. Earlier the locals had full access to them, chopping them off whenever they needed money.

Off-roading is one the most physically demanding motorcycle riding. On normal roads I can easily ride 700-1000 kms in a day but out here 150-200 kms in a day seemed a lot. There were no roads and that was the best part of this trip. We stopped riding at Taseng village around 3.30pm, though we had covered only 145 kms, we were dead tired. The village chairman was not only happy to let us stay in his house, but also we got some yummy char grilled chicken for dinner.

Just like the motorcycle engine, the human body also requires some time every morning to warm-up. Reactions are slow and you want to avoid too much jumping around. But 15-20 minutes of trail riding, some water splashes, and a few instances of almost losing control wakes you up. Today we were crossing a lot of sandy trails which meant more hard work. Whenever I would get too sweaty I would stand on the foot peg and let the breeze cool me down. The good thing about these off road motorcycles is that they can take a lot of beating so even when you are standing on foot pegs, the bike’s suspension is working hard.

We were joined by two more riders post lunch break at Beng Mealea. The sun was bright and again there was lot of riding in thin layer of sandy terrain that day before we reached red gravel roads which led us back to Siem Reap.

This kind of ride can never have a conclusive end. It all depends on how much you want to break your back, how much you want to ride through the forests, slush, dusty roads, farms, and grass fields. This was by-far the most hard working and fun bike ride I have ever taken. Now the doors of the metro are safe. I don’t feel like tearing them apart. The green patch reminds me of the amazing ride, and brings a smile on my face while going to work.

For video click here - Cambodia Ride

Time of Travel Last Wk of Dec 2013
Money Spent:

Return Airfare  - Delhi - Bangkok - Rs.21,000

Bus to Araynaprathet – 223 baht = Rs. 424

Tuk-tuk – 70 baht = Rs.133

Bribe 200 baht = Rs. 390

Taxi to SR – 45 USD = Rs. 2,800

Wooden Angkor (20 USD per nit for 2 nits) 40 USD = Rs. 2,500

Ride – (155 USD per day for 4 days) = 620 = Rs. 39,000

Food & beverage everyday – 10*5 = 50 = Rs. 3,100

Temple entry – 20 + 10 USD = Rs.1,890

Total Rs. 71,235