Tomb raiding

Before I bring you the latest update, a quick apology for the fruity language that crept into the last blog (and was very quickly picked up by my mum) - I'll try to keep it PG from now on... I've also made progress with the videos - they're a bit grainier, but they can now be uploaded in minutes rather than hours, which is good news when you're sitting in an internet games room with a dozen screaming Thai kids playing a networked game of football around you.

Since last time, I spent five nights in Cambodia checking out Phnom Penh and the Angkor temples at Siem Ream. I'm now in Bangkok waiting for a freight forwarder to complete the paperwork on my bike. Then I'll be able to put it on a plane to Kathmandu, because I can't ride it through Myanmar or China.

Phnom Penh has incredible energy. It's is pretty edgy - there's more poverty than I saw anywhere else in SE Asia, with street children and people sleeping on the pavements. But there's also more affluence - a lot of Land Cruisers and new Mercedes cars. And it has some cool restaurants and bars, not to mention crazy traffic.. I stayed at the Indochine Hotel, which had nice rooms for $12 and let me park my bike in the lobby, although they didn't mention when I checked in that they would be waking me at 7am each morning to park it outside...

The big tourist draws are the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum, which is a former school that was turned into a 'security prison', and the Killing Fields which are about 15km outside town. Both are a sobering reminder Cambodia's recent past.

Choeung Ek - The Killing Fields

After a couple of days in Phnom Penh, I moved on to Siem Reap and the Angkor temples. The road is flat, straight and smooth, but hardly boring - after all, you're riding through the heart of Cambodia - beats working for a living... Siem Reap is Cambodia's answer to Louang Prabang - very tourist-friendly with good hotels and restaurants. I stayed at the excellent Angkor Park Hotel for $8 a night.

I heard that other overland riders had not been allowed to take their motorbikes into the temple area, but I took the 'ask for forgiveness later' approach and on this occasion it paid off. The temples of Angkor are spectacular enough, but being able to ride around them was the icing on the cake. There are plenty of dirt tracks between the temples that get you off the beaten track, so you get access to some pretty exclusive spots.

The temples of Angkor - stunning!

The plan was to spend a couple of nights in Siem Reap and then to move on to Bangkok, which would be my last big ride in SE Asia. But I woke on Friday morning to the unfamiliar rattle of rain on a tin roof and claps of thunder. Until this point, I'd been lucky enough to spend over a month without seeing a single drop of rain. So I decided to have another 'rest day' in Siem Reap, do my laundry, get a haircut and a massage - one of the many benefits of having no schedule or deadlines...

The trip from Siem Reap to Bangkok was another straight, flat ride, although it's a right slog as far as Sisophon because they're doing highway maintenance the Asian way (i.e., you just have to drive through the roadworks and dodge the bulldozers, graders and steamrollers). Not much fun on an overloaded bike with an impatient tar truck up your chuff... I was just relieved that I didn't attempt this section in the rain the previous day, because I'm sure I would have ended up on my backside.

The border crossing at Poipet was fairly straightforward, although I did have to wait for an hour to get my carnet stamped by Cambodian customs because they all take a nap from 12-2pm. After my previous encounter with them, I was glad to get through without any backsheesh. Given the collection of nearly-new Land Cruisers and Lexi in the car park of the Customs House, I think they have been frying bigger fish... As much fun as Cambodia and Laos have been, it was nice to be back in Thailand again - it's so nice to be able to dive into a 7-11 for a strawberry Fanta when things get a little warm.

So now I'm holed up at the Peachy Guest House in Bangkok waiting for Kittima at Trans Air Cargo to sort out the paperwork so that I can fly the bike to Nepal. Current estimate is about a week, and while I'm keen to move on to the Himalayan chapter of the trip, I can think of worse places to be stuck than Bangkok...

Last night I went to the Muay Thai boxing at Rajdamnoen Stadium. The ticket was a bit pricey at 1,500 Baht - about 30 quid - although it was close to the ring - but for sheer entertainment value, it was a bargain. It's all action from the start, the band whips the crowd into a frenzy, thousands of baht changing hands among the crowd - fantastic.

Another must-see in Bangkok is Jim Thompson's house. He was an ex-CIA operative that launched the Thai silk export trade in the 1960s, made a lot of money, built a fantastic house in the centre of Bangkok comprising 6 traditional teak houses that he shipped in from the countryside, built a fantastic Thai art collection, and then mysteriously disappeared in the Cameron Highlands.

Jim Thompson - cool guy, cool house...

On the way back from Jim Thompson's house, I discovered possibly the world's most adrenaline-filled form of public transport - longtail boats. The first one arrived at such speed that I was still standing on the pier in awe when it took off without me. Once on board, the fun really begins - the sidescreens come up to keep the spray out and you're off on a white-knuckle ride through Bangkok's narrow canals. Every 30 seconds or so you pass another boat, which churns up the water and things really kick off. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, the guards on each side of the boat dropped the roof by 18 inches to get under a low bridge... magic. I really do think this could be the answer to London's transport problems - boats tearing up the Regent's Canal at 50mph. I'm going for another ride tomorrow...

The bike continues to run well, although I gave the old girl a bit of stick in SE Asia on some very rough roads, which was probably not the smartest thing to do since I still have quite a few kms to cover in some fairly hostile territory. I noticed a bit of clunking from the front-end, so I consulted Pete at Everything Two Wheels, who's providing 24/7 virtual mechanical support for the trip. His advice was fairly unambiguous (editted to comply with new 'potty talk' restrictions):

"For [heavens] sake, don't let some [local mechanic] near the forks. If he takes them apart he'll never get them back together. You need 37mm fork seal drivers to reassemble them. The clunking is the oil getting thin with it getting a workout on the bumpy roads. Buy some ear plugs. That will stop the clunking noise right away."

I decided to replace the chain in Bangkok. In spite of (or maybe because of) regular treatment with the finest sewing machine oil, the chain had started to sound like a sewing machine, and I reasoned that it would be easier to find a replacement at a decent bike shop in Bangkok than at the side of the road in Pakistan. So I headed to Bangkok's finest big bike mechanic, the Red Baron, where they fitted a new chain, cleaned the air filter, and sorted out the clunking (it was the head bearings, not the forks) for 11 quid in labour. At these prices, I can barely afford to leave Thailand...