4 - Laos & Cambodia
→ Chiang Mai → Vientiane, Laos Taking a breath (and enjoying a beer) after an memorable yet exhausting time at the monastery, I spent a night in Pai, home to many expats, Thai vacationers and party-goers. Although I enjoyed the folks I met at the monastery and it made for an incredibly unique experience, trying to meditate after nights of sleeping on a wooden platform wore me down. Meeting up with Alejandro and Jasper from the monastery, we had quite the day walking around the outskirts of town, attending a local fire dancing show and exploring the nightlife. After a slow start the next morning, only had 400 more turns ahead of me on the 150km road from Pai back to Chiang Mai. Arriving back in Chiang Mai later that afternoon, the Mae Hon Son loop was behind me! Meeting back up with Alejandro that night, I finally got to see the growing sport of Muay Thai boxing live at a local arena. Was a night of interesting matchups as out of the seven spars we saw 3 KOs.  |
| Little fun in Pai with Jasper & Alejandro |
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| Muay Thai Boxing. This was an interesting matchup, a 6foot5 German vs a much smaller Thai gentleman |
It was now time to head south and continue on the bike journey. My next anchor point was meeting our family friend Ed Roohan, who lives in Siem Reap, Cambodia in roughly a week. Other than the destination, my plan was to drive for 4-6 hours a day, stopping at whatever caught my eye, spending a few days driving through Laos, and exploring a few lesser known towns in eastern Thailand.
My first HomeStay of the trip was with this cute older couple I found on Google Maps. Let’s call him the Englishman: he was shirtless when I arrived unannounced to his house, which was a beautiful river-side property on the outskirts of a small town five hours southeast of Chiang Mai. He immediately welcomed me in with a beer until his wife, a native Thai got back from the store. Without delay, he dives into quite a ridiculous story of how they met. He was tired of the UK “BS” in the late 90s, so starts an online dating profile and chatting with ladies in Thailand…interesting start right, are we about to go relive Manti Te’o Lennay Kekua here?
After two years of conversing online with his now wife, he decides to fly to Bangkok to finally meet. Upon landing he is greeted by a different girl, as he stares at a picture on his phone of the online profile and at her face at the airport, proclaiming “are you sure this is you?”!. At the baggage check, she told him “So I just used my friends online profile because I didn’t know how to create my own”. As one could imagine, he was in a bit of shock and disbelief, staring the pictures, age, etc were quite different than who he thought he was talking to for years. But now he’s flown all the way to Bangkok, so he tells me that he still wanted to give it a “whirl” (as he takes a big swig of his beer) and we laugh at the story together,
They’ve been happily married for nearly 30 years.
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| Here they are! Wonderful hosts, but I probably won’t tell about this page |
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| Sure why not practice signing it a few times? |
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| Red line was plan. Blue was reality |
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| Not so bad views after the route debacle |
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| Look at this local gas station with the hand pump! |
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| Pulling over and hanging out during one of the many rains |
The next day would be take two on Laos, with Vientiane directly as my new destination. Pulling my bike up to the Friendship Bridge, it wasn’t a good start that I didn’t see any other motorbikes around. The border agent stamped my passport but when I informed him I had a “moto” as it was often called, he just said “no bikes” and “next person”. After a bit of persistence on my end, trying the Power of Attorney doc, showing him all my other documentation to no avail, it turns out they just don’t let any motorbikes to drive over this bridge for some reason.
Walking back out of the passport control office and scratching my head at the difficulty getting into Laos, I rebounded quickly, finding a random parking lot to ditch the bike for a few days and hopped on a public bus across the Thai<>Laos border. Ofcourse a bit bummed as no bike would limit the time and destinations I’d do in surrounding Vientiane, but at this point I just wanted to get into Laos!
A short ride over the border, I enjoyed a beer on the bus with the first (and only) gentleman who spoke English to me, who was on his way to visit family.
My time in Laos PDR (which I learned from a few locals often meant “Please Don’t Rush”, joking at the laid back way of life in the country) was much too short, but I made the best of a couple of days in my first visit to a communistic country. Vientiene was quite a sleepy town; I spent my time exploring Buddha park, the land mine museum, walking along the Mekong River, Laos BBQ, and strolling the famous night market which was like shopping the streets of NYC’s Broadway on a Sunday afternoon.
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| Film shot from the Mekong River |
The land mine museum was particularly fascinating - Laos is the heaviest bombed country per capita in the world. Nearly all of it was from the US, which bombed for 9 years straight in an effort to stop the trade into Ho Chi Ming during the Vietnam war. It has taken decades to remove all of the unexploded bombs, which continue to mangle and kill folks in the region. It’s amazing that from my observations and few conversations there is little resentment towards America or “the West” for the actions.
Vientiane was incredibly dirty and several structures in the downtown area were quite dilapidated. I learned from a local shop owner it was largely due to a slow pandemic recovery and most of tourism funneling up to the adventure-filled Luang Prabang.
Overall, I made the best of a brief visit into Laos. Wish I would’ve spent more time, but I felt naked without my bike, plus Cambodia was calling!
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| Another solo shot from the Laos “Arc de Triomphe” (which was made with concrete donated by the US to build an airport runway post Vietnam war) |
Cambodia
Bussing back over into Thailand, my bike was right where I left it. Pulling up the route, I figured it would take me a day and a half of biking to reach Cambodia (remember - no night driving, averaging about 40mph, stopping every hour or two for a break or Thai massage). After a peaceful yet boring drive along the flat Eastern Cambodia, I pulled into the town of Surin and walked around to quite a few looks as I’d imagine it’s infrequently traveled by foreigners.
My confidence on getting the bike into Cambodia took quite a hit after my experience at the Laos border. Fortunately the Power of Attorney doc my Homestay host created saved the day! Approaching the border the agents were a bit skeptical on letting the bike over. After instructing me to take the bike to the customs house next door to see if there was anything they could do, I found myself in a bit of luck with a friendly young customs agent who said “we could make it
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| Bike documentation in order |
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| Crossing the land border! |
There was a stark difference in the road quality, buildings and rural poverty immediately upon crossing the border. I decided to take the long, or scenic route into Siem Reap to enjoy some bumpy but beautiful Cambodian countryside. The detour was well worth it, as I stumbled into the former town and bunker house of Pol Pot of the Khmer Rouge. Creepy quarters right on a beautiful lake. I knew I’d learn quite a bit more about the Cambodian civil war during my stay. I also stopped in the national park north of Siem Reap. Walking around the conservation center before getting my first glimpse of Cambodian hospitality as a few park rangers invited me over to enjoy some local rice-whiskey and pork.
Arriving into Siem Reap at dusk traveling on a more dirt roads, I caught my first glimpse of the beautiful temples I’d spend the next few days visiting - four days and eleven temples days to be exact!
The following week was spent Ed Roohan - a family friend who lives in Siem Reap running the Bridge of Life School, which provides education to rural Cambodian children. His counterpart and good friend Paren helps Ed with the NGO and also runs a tour business that feeds profits back to the educational initiatives. Adventuring with them made for quite a memorable, immersive experience into the local Cambodian culture! Plus, it was incredible to learn more about their mission-driven work in a country of great need.
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| Paren & Ed |
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| Photos from TC & Aileen’s 2016 post-grad trip |
The three of us ventured into Phnom Kulen National Park, accompanied by the mother and mother-in-law of one of their friends, Tour. It was one of their first times visiting the National park in 40 years despite living just a few miles away. Both elders had lived through the civil war and had a deep connection with their spirituality. Tour’s mother was very into animism, at one point taking one of our beers to pour it onto the tree to pay respects!
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| Funny pic from the national park day. Some more into the rituals than others |
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| Ed & I in the national park |
Another highlight day was 5am sunrise at Angkor followed by a day trip Kampong Khleang, a floating village an hour outside of Siem Reap on a river connecting to Tonlé Sap, the largest lake in SE Asia. Paren guided this day and also grew up in the village on a floating house. Visiting the village gave us a direct look into the impoverished Cambodian countryside and economic struggles. Plastic litter everywhere, folks very much living day to day off of fishing, I’d never been anywhere quite like the floating village. Walking up into a structure on the stilted village was another Bridge of Life school, providing basic English education in hopes of creating a brighter future for the Cambodian youth.
5AM @ Angkor! (Film)
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| Angkor sunrise on iPhone |
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| Floating village |
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| Pretty proud of this film shot |
I felt it was time to keep moving after a unforgettable week in Cambodia. Planning the route, the direct drive from Siem Reap to Bangkok could’ve been done in a day. But wanting to break it up, see the coast and check out one of Thailand’s famous beaches, I made an adventure out of it.
My final day in Cambodia was spent in Battambang, the second largest city. Exploring the rotting fish, beef and dog at the local markets, I had breakfast (bread and instant coffee) with the host of my guesthouse who escaped from the genocide and fled to a refeguee camp in Thailand on the border for years before returning to start the hotel. Wild. Even more somber was the afternoon spent at a “Killing Cave” outside of Battambang, another terrible reminder the Khmer Rouge rein. Watching the “Killing Fields” movie that night, I was in disbelief at the week I just had - learning of the countries dark history and directly experiencing it with several folks who had lived this nightmare.
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| Eerie remains from the Battambang Killing Cave |
Crossing the land border back into Thailand was seamless. Now just have to remember to switch back to driving on the left side of the road! I was immediately relieved to be back on a bit more predictable roads, until it started pouring again!
I gunned it to the coast, and set my GPS to the ferry dock to Koh Samet, an island recommended to me by folks in the monastery. Although I arrived at dusk and the public ferries we no longer running, I was able to convince someone at the dock to drive me a few miles across to the Island so I could wake up on the beach. Fun boat ride in the dark with a teenager at the helm.
Known as a local getaway for Bangkok residences, a couple days of beach life on the small island of Koh Samet was a nice reset. Time was spent with a bit of exercise and plann the next leg of the journey.
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| Koh Samet Beach |
Now it was time to sell the bike. As much as I wanted to sell it in Cambodia as countless locals were giving me on the spot offers, I feared the potentiality of the fine that was 6x the cost of the bike. (Yes my head was scratching at that one too)
Driving around Pattaya to sell the bike, which I would consider Bangkok’s Atlantic City, I kept getting lowball offers and couldn’t part with my baby. So I ended up driving it to Bangkok the next morning and leaving it with a friend who was going to help me sell before jetting off for Hong Kong!
And just like that, my month on moto had come to an end!
