ZUMZUMZUM- from Romania to Thailand on a bike

templele din angkor au fost construite intre anii 800 si 1200, dupa aceea tailandezii au ocupat vestul cambogiei, capitala s-a mutat la phnom penh si templele au ramas parasite. Pina pe la 1850 templele au ramas nefolosite (adica folosite doar de locuitorii din zona), cind au fost “redescoperite” de francezi.

Restaurarea a inceput in jur de 1900, dar dupa aceea au venit al doilea razboi mondial, razboiul din indochina, pol pot cu toate nenorocirile si masacrele de aici, razboiul cu vietnamezii si totul a fost oprit. De abia dupa 1992, dupa UNTAC, situl a fost redeschis si au reinceput amenajarile.

Consecinta e ca toate templele au o atmosfera de poveste, de fabulos, de comoara abia descoperita. Cele mai mari sunt restaurate dar multe dintre ele sunt inca acoperite de jungla.

Azi ne-am inchiriat doua biciclete noi-noute si am dat o tura de vreo 30km pe la templele mai indepartate. Bicicletele erau facute pentru piticuti, eu nu am prea reusit sa pedalez desi seaua era ridicata la maxim 🙂

pozele de azi:

dupa cam 12 ore in autobuz am ajuns la sieam reap, orasul de linga temple. am cam suspinat dupa Grasu’ mai ales pe drumul (complet neasfaltat)  dintre poipet (orasul de granita) si siem reap.

templele din angkor erau o obsesie mai veche de-a mea, de altfel prima idee a excursiei a fost sa mergem cu moto din bucuresti pina la angkor.

am luat bilet pt 3 zile (40usd 🙂 ), asa ca azi am vizitat doar angkor wat si angkor thom.

tot situl e in jungla, acoperit de picla omniprezenta aici, un pic defrisat in jurul fiecarui templu. constructiile sunt efectiv uluitoare, partial acoperite de copaci, partial darimate.

atmosfera este imposibil de redat in poze (la nivelul meu de poze 🙂 ), dar va imaginati si voi

pozele din prima zi:

am vazut intimplator o reclama la photo fair bangkok 2007, asa ca am dat o fuga.

lume multa nikon si canon au adus seria intraga de obiective ca demo

asa ca pe linga multimea de prostii care se vindeau pe acolo, m-am jucat cu D300 si D3 impreuna cu monstrii de obiective gen 200/2, 600/4 etc

super-distractie

 pt interesati un D300 se vinde in bangkok cu 65000 Baht adica 1460Eur. Un kit de D80 cu obiectivul lung si card de 2GB era 41.000Baht (920Eur)

daca ati sperat ca ati scapat de noi, acum ca Grasu’ a plecat acasa… v-ati inselat

in kathmandu am ajuns devreme la aeroport ca sa prindem locuri la geam pe partea stinga a avionului 🙂 asa ca am vazut everestul

pe 5 a fost ziua regelui, si au fost niste demonstratii gigantice in bangkok. ne-am nimerit sa fim chiar in fata palatului regal cind a plecat coloana oficiala…

in rest ne-am plimbat pe la temple (Wat Pho, Wat Arun etc)

ne-am dat cu barca pe chao praya si am vizitat docurile regale

Orasul e mare, aglomerat si plin de viata, mult mai curat decit oresele indiene. Am avut un soc cind am vazut masinile oprind la treceri de pietoni 🙂 dar am inceput sa ne obisnuim…

E plin de europeni burtosi trecuti de prima tinerete la brat cu tinere tailandeze care au cam un sfert din anii si kilogramele domnilor, plin de baruri si cluburi de toate coloraturile…

Our motorcycle journey is over, so it might be the time to have some conclusions.

First why don’t we take the bike in south-east asia. The reasons are two-fold. The first one is the cost of transport, we would have to fly the bike from Kathmandu to Bangkok and then again from Bangkok to Bucharest which would be quite expensive. The sea-shipping from Kathmandu is much cheaper.
The second reason is that Vietnam doesn’t allow big motorcycles (more then 200cubic cm) on its territory. As we want to make a tour (Thailand-Cambodia-Vietnam-Laos-Thailand) we can’t really leave the bike anywhere and come back to pick it up.

The bike performed admirably throughout the 17.800 km of the trip. The damage to the bike is pretty minimal: the left rear view mirror was broken in an encounter with a van in Iran but I managed to buy a (second-hand!) iranian honda mirror that fits, the lid of the right-hand pannier had a dent from a truck on the Manali-Leh road, and the bottom of the same pannier is dented from a fall in Rajastan. All this incidents took place at very slow speed or even standing still 🙂

Apart from the fuel pump which left us stranded on the side of the road twice, we had effectively 0 problems with the bike. This was probably due to a bad case of beginner’s luck as we didn’t even had a flat tyre the whole way…

If you think of doing the same trip with same enormous amount of luggage (and two-up) it would be a good idea to change the rear spring to a stiffer one. The stock spring is much too soft for such a load and you lose a lot of suspension travel due to sagging. A high performance shock is not strictly necessary (although is certainly nice if you can afford it). If you decide to keep the stock spring try to distribute some of the load to the front of the bike. We had all the weight on the rear and the front was very light and prone to wobbling.

A long-range fuel tank is both very expensive and un-needed. We had a 6 litre jerry-can (less then 10Euro), and we only used in Baluchistan and in the Himalayas. Even there we could have managed without it, as there were people selling fuel from jerry-cans on the side of the road.

The Metzeler Tourances performed admirably, the back tyre is squared after the trip due to the load, but the front is still in very good shape. They are not off-road tires by any means so on the sandy and muddy parts you have to be careful but they have decent grip in the wet and are very hard to wear down. A good choice if you decide not to carry spare tyres.
The panniers performed reasonably well (although I still thing they are a bit flimsy). They are rated for 10kg each and we carried almost double…

One of the things that you might want to consider is an alarm. I’ve installed a cheap car alarm with a pager. It has a shock sensor, a leaning sensor (set to engage when the bike is taken off the side-stand) and a trunk-opening sensor wired to the seat. The alarm is installed in the toolbox under the seat. Also a bike cover is a must have especially in India.

we kept records about our spending, this will be detailed in another post.

One question that is likely to be in you mind if you read this contemplating a similar trip is “How difficult is it ?” . While difficulty is a relative thing so my assessment doesn’t really help, it is almost certainly that you will find the trip easier that you think. Once you are on the road you solve the problems as they arise and you don’t have much time to worry about it. There were some tricky parts (baluchistan etc) but they aren’t as daunting as they look from back home.

This being said, expect some very long days when things don’t go as planned and you are quite stressed (our worst day was between Sukkur and Multan), but after you get through them they don’t affect your trip too much. There is so much beauty and excitement along the way that the difficulties that you encounter are comparatively too small to matter.

Before we left there was much discussion among our friends if it’s wise to leave with a single bike. It’s quite clear that with a larger party some of the problems are easier to be dealt with, but it also causes additional ones. If you decide to go in a larger group be sure that you really know (and really like) your travel companions. We were lucky to met very nice people on our way and we went together for a while, but it’s a big difference between riding together for few days and riding together for 6 months, if you choose your companions poorly you will compromise your whole trip.

We are quite happy with going alone, we managed to get over the hard parts by ourselves and I think it added to the feeling of freedom and unburden inherent in this trip.

After almost 4 months and 18.000km we are convinced that riding is the best way to travel and hope we will be able to repeat this trip.

Without any real connection 🙂 , I add some pictures from our second forced stop. Repairing the fuel pump in Madhya Pradesh with some 20-30 spectators.