Cambodia - Otres Beach and Off-Roading
We woke early and
hit the road, not a lot to report as it's flat and boring most of the way, until we hit the hills near the coast, over which we got caught in a storm. It was a bit of a mission to find Otres Beach since we arrived in the dark, and there's not a lot of signs anyway, but so worth it! Straight away we found Tom, then went to find somewhere to stay and met Jade who recommended Done Right, and this is how friendly everyone is: before we'd even unpacked and gone back to meet Tom at his place, we'd made friends with the owners and other guests and had planned a 3-day dirt-bike adventure for the weekend!
Otres Beach is FANTASTIC, so chilled out and we have become part of the family here. We have now been here for a week and it took only 2 days - cat has been enjoying cheap manicures and pedicures and we have been to the weekly pirate party and the guys to all got time off and 7 of us to have a HUGE ride for 4 days though the jungle! Cat stayed on the beach with Ali, one of the girls we had met on our second night, and made friends wit
h the rest of the beach.
We all rented 250 XR's or Baja's and we left around 7am in the morning. The first thing that happened was my bike packed it in before we even got to the town and so I had to take it back and we all waited for 2 hours until another bike was returned! The good news being it was in much better condition than the previous one.
Finally at 11am we left Sihanoukville but we were behind so in a bit of a rush. We followed the coast along, hitting as many trails as we could but nothing any harder than a dirt track. Then we turned off the motorway to follow the trail for about 80 km north west to Chi Phat, a small village by the river. We had a small rest at a shack a coke each and watched the family gut a buffalo for dinner! After a couple of false starts, the road started to have less and less joining points and we soon picked up the main trail as we hit the edge of the jungle.
Boy was the riding getting hard and it didn't stop getting hard! Myself and Chris and sometimes JD took the lead as we were the more experienced guys. The bloody trail was getting very rough indeed, and the jungle was soon thick around us. Rocks, mud, rivers, ditches, downed trees…
we were hitting the whole lot and the trail was not taking us in the direction we expected according to the Sat Nav, which soon died.
We all came off at some stage, be it in deep mud or on very slippery rocks which were covered in a green moss/algae on the other side of a crossing: you could not touch the brakes unless you wanted to kiss the dirt!! Slowly we all worked our way though, we had fallen trees to get bikes over, bamboo to cut our way though and at one stage had to slide the bikes underneath a section of fallen trees, one bike at a time, working in 2 muddy exhausted teams.
We were stopping for breaks from time to time and we were a little disorientated being in such thick jungle, the one thing we all knew after about 3 hours was we needed to get a move on as it was going to be dark in about 2 hours. The problem was we didn't know how far from the end we were and we kept getting small clearings every 30 minutes or so, giving us false hope but this would be followed by a deep river crossing or fallen trees and that hope would soon slip away. We WERE reaching the end of the trail, I thought, we must be since we have covered over 60kms.
Lucky, just as it was getting dark and we had switched our lights on, we emerged from the jungle for real. We were all tired and very hungry having not eaten since breakfast. We regrouped in the tall grass and tried to work out which direction we should be headed in, the good news was
there were small mountain ranges both sides of us so we tried to stick to the middle. Big problem was we were losing light fast and had nothing other than a small track to follow. We were also running out of water and in the 40 degree heat we were starting to dehydrate and get very hungry!!
Nearly an hour of riding went by in the tall grass and cutting in and out of small sections of forest before we hit a wide river crossing. Hats off to Chris who just went for it in the dark and after slipping all over the place made it to the other side! I was next across, I tried to follow a similar path to Chris and ended up slipping big time on the wet/greasy rocks and the bike came down on top of me. I had fallen the other side of a rock and the bike had trapped my leg, I had managed to hold the bike up but I was slipping fast and my strength was sapped from being dehydrated and I was struggling to stop the full 100kg or more of bike crushing my tibia/fibula.
Help! I shouted to the guys over roaring engines, HEEEELP!! Then some of the guys slowly dismounted and I shouted HELP - LEG waited 5 second then shouted HELP my ****ing LEG!! Then 2 of the guys dropped their bikes and ran over, realising I was approaching a bad situation. They lifted the bike off and I was relieved to get my leg out from underneath it. I got the bike started again and we all got across the river. Two of the others also crashed in the river and it meant we all worked together and it tired us out even more. Very exhausted now, we regrouped and Chris led a discussion about stopping the night next to the river where we had running water. But we decided we would do another hour or so and if we hit more thick jungle turn back to the river and sleep there.
Again we pushed on and hit a VERY deep river crossing, more of a very steep ditch, but it was very wet/muddy and deep. Deeper than the height of the bike. We all got past it after a bit of a fight with the mud on the exit, then we looked at the sky ahead of us and saw we had a huge thunder storm brewing. Not good. We moved on along the trail and the grass got shorter and the trail more clear to the point it looked like it was used by 4X4 or trucks.
Then much to our delight we came across our first proper sign of civilisation - a fenced-off area/field. In the pitch black we stopped as the trail seemed to go in 5 direction into the dark. Over the bikes and forest sounds I thought I could hear a loud thumping of bass DUF DUF DUF!! The other guys agreed and we decided to ride towards it. After a few minutes we came to a river, a wide VERY deep river and that's when we realised we were only about 1000 meters from Chi Phat, a small village with guest houses and restaurants, problem was there was a big deep river and no bridges across!!
In the dark we doubled back to try follow the river along and find a crossing. We dipped into some forest and I lost sight of Chris. The track forked, I went one way with JD and Marcus, and Chris, Nick, Sam and Ryan must have gone the other way. It was 5 mins before we stopped and it was in my head light as I went to turn around that I saw a structure with a big plastic tarp. This we could sleep under and stay dry in our hammocks.
We headed over to the structure thinking the other guys would come. Marcus went for a walk and found the river and another crossing point but it was only by boat and the guy would not take the bikes. But we explained we were hungry and soon an old drunk guy appeared rambling out of the night and just 200 meters away he had a small wooden house on stilts. Marcus speaks a bit of Khmer and he tried to explain our situation. We rode the bike towards the house and the man and old lady looked on confused, "we are staying here" Marcus said, we couldn't get any sense out the old man but we needed to sleep.
Whilst Marcus was off hunting round we had been trying to signal the other guys, beeping horns and flashing lights, we knew they were close but it was impossible and none of us wanted to go on our own to explore incase we got lost in the pitch black and it was about to poor down with rain. I thought we would set the hammocks up under the house but the old guy seemed to show a small amount of clarity and showed us to a porch area where there was some food in bags and some old tools, basically a shed on stilts. He moved a couple of bags around and we got the idea he was happy for us to stay there.
It was pouring with rain by the time we unloaded the bikes and we were praying the others weren't looking for us or still stuck in the rain, in a weird way we also hoped they had not found the crossing, as we were so hungry, tired, and thirsty, and JD and I were suffering with really bad cramps, so the idea of them eating good food and drinking
would be enough to make us cry!! We got into our sleeping hammocks on the floor pretty quick, there were a few creepy crawlies around but we were all so tired we didn't care. Just as I was settling down, JD remembered he had a small pack of Oreo's with 3 biscuits in it, so we had one each, then Marcus gave us a multivitamin - it's amazing how much of the edge those two things took off! Then just as I was about to fall asleep, JD thought he saw a big cockroach about to crawl over me so I flicked the light on and it turned out to be a bloody scorpion killing the big ants around us! I jumped back and JD jumped up and squashed it!! Damn that was close if I had rolled over I would have been stung and those little scorpions are VERY poisonous!!!
That night we managed to get about 5 hours sleep in total on the wooden floor on the shack. The next day I woke as the sun came up and was still worried the others had been stuck in some field or trees and got soaked in the storm. I decided the best time for me to try find them was now so I took Marcus' bike and went for a ride for over an hour but our tracks were pretty difficult to follow thanks to the rain, and I didn't find them.
As I got back the others were up and had managed to knock a couple of coconuts out of the tree. Man coconut milk gives you a kick when you're mega hungry!! Wow what good stuff, then just as as I was finishing off my first half we could hear their bikes in the distance, we all ran towards them shouting and screaming "this way this way! Over here!!" For a bit it sounded like they were coming towards us, then away, and then finally Chris appeared as I had reached the other side of the field. I pointed in the direction of where we were staying and we all regrouped, anyone would think we had been missing days!! Slowly their story came out, very similar to ours only they took great joy in sharing the fact that they had been given some rice, chilli fish, and water, and the fact that they had seen my track this morning led them to us.
We soon packed our bikes and got ready to try find the magical river crossing. We were looking for a bridge, well that's what we expected as it was a very wide, deep river. But the other good news was the farmer Chris, Sam, Ryan and Nick had stayed with spoke enough English to tell them there was a crossing about 2km up. So we headed up about 1.7km and then there was a steep but well worn track down to the river. We slowly made our way down it and sure enough that was our river crossing: it was some rapids!!
Water level was a little higher as we had much rain the night before, and I'm not sure we would have crossed here if some of the group had their way, but we knew this was the only crossing point and so we had no choice, which is something I love about this type of riding: every now and again you've got to club together and get on with it. Then as we talked over our options, a guy on a moped turned up and just rode over it like it was not big deal. He did nearly get ripped sideways as it was obviously deeper than he expected but it didn't faze him at all. That sealed the deal, we were crossing!!
Using our brains, we decided to use a ratchet strap to lead the bikes and we had one guy behind the bike to steady it at the rear. The rocks were very slippery and the guys thought the ratchet was a bit unnecessary but it turned out to be perfect as one bike got wiped sideways, with the rider off, and if it was not for the ratchet we would have been trying to find in it the Mekong delta!!
Finally we got all the bikes across and then decided it was time to go for a big swim, man what a way to start the day! A huge swim in a stunning river, it put us all in a good mood and a western girl turned up and informed us there was a village and food only 3km away! We dried off and headed for the village and after a bit of messing about found it and ordered some food!! Man what good food and we all had a
even though it was only 10.30am!
Well fed, we made a plan and ironically needed to cross back over the river, but there was a ferry 2km away. We ran down and got the ferry - 2 longtail boats with wood stuck to them to form a platform and a well trained 10 year old captain ferried us across the river in 2 loads. Then as we headed out there was a small crowd gathering, and being born men (this automatically means a bit stupid) we all gunned off into the distance but JD was more aggressive with his showing off and ended up high siding the bike into the big dirt puddle in front of everyone, the second time in as many days he had crashed showing off in front of people!! We all nearly fell off laughing and JD sprung up and got back on the bike and managed to cover me in dirt as he left!! We cracked on through our trail, and soon we found the tarmac to finish off the ride to Koh Khong.
We settled into a nice hotel in Koh Khong, went for a few
s and some food and just relaxed. The plan being the following day to hit the road about lunch time and go and attack the old Chinese road, which was supposed to be particular fun, then return to Koh Khong for the evening. Two of the bikes were beyond going anywhere, so poor Marcus was going to have to miss out, but Sam decided to rent a bike for the day. We made our way towards the Chinese road and missed the turning the first time, heading about 30 minutes the wrong way on a new road before we turned back, then we hit the good stuff.
I got my GoPro and Nick's GoPro working and we got some epic videos. It was one hell of a ride: we all got stuck, all came off and all had grins from ear to ear, we even came across a small tiger which ran across the road in front of JD! We hoped to have it on film but I was just in the wrong place as I was 2 bikes back. The big shame was the ride was cut a bit short due to a thunder storm rolling in and since we had crossed 3 or 4 very deep river streams which would flood if it rained, we had to turn around, plus it was tough enough going with the mud we had to deal with, without it getting worse!!
So we turned around, and since we all knew the way back, myself and JD decided to split and really open up on the way back. It was some fantastic riding indeed and some of the most fun I have had on this trip. Big respect to Nicolas who stayed with us despite being one of the less experienced guys, but I must say his bravery in the videos shows as he hasn't come off quick enough to know how much it hurts yet. It was a good day, lots of spills, laughs and us working together to dig each other out the mud. On the route we met up with Chris who was on another ride with guides who also used that road the day after us and not much further along they came across a stuck 400 bike just abandoned and they later found out it had broken down and the guy had to leave it and walk 50km back to town!!!
On the final day we were all tired, we did about 60km of track runs but nothing as complicated as we had the previous days, before we finally made it back to Otres beach. The following day I took the bike back, I had to put a new chain on it in Koh Khong as mine was totally nackered and the guy at the rental place was trying to tell me it was $10 for a lever and $10 for indicator lenses, I was so ****ing annoyed as we had spare levers with us and they cost us $2 each but this guy would not let it go and I don't like to admit it but he started to get under my skin. I hate people who rip people off and I ended up telling him to go get the chain removed and I wanted to fix the lever and lights myself. In the end he called it quits as I did still have one days rental outstanding ($20) so $10 for the other bits was not so bad. Then we took back JD's bike and his guy was great - $3 for the lever and £10 for the whole front break unit, totally fair and honest!!
We then spent the next 10 days chilling out at Otres beach, and spent two nights camping on gorgeous Ko Ta Kiev for Khmer New Year. If you go to Cambodia then you must go to Otres beach in Sihanoukville, it's stunning and SO SO SO relaxing, plus the guys who run Done Right, and Moonlight Rock, along with the bars: Mushroom, Blame Canada and Oocha are all great fun guys and we became part of the family very quickly. It was great to just hang out as it felt like we had been friends for years. The beach is sandy and shallow and clear, the
s are cheap, the food is fantastic, especially Papa Pippo for italian (7 meals in 10 days speaks for itself!) and Moorea Bar does the best tuna salad IN THE WORLD. I think we are going to do the bike run for a week every year from now on so if you're interested in joining us next time then watch this space!!
Eventually time came to say goodbye to Otres, mostly as time is moving on and we want to get back to being bike travellers. I had to head back to Bangkok to get a new tyre and so we packed up our stuff, said goodbye to our new good friends, paid off our tabs at various bars along the beach and hit the road. We were worried a little about the fact we had not got the bike into the country legally thanks to sleepy customs officers, but once at the border no one even asked us, they just smiled and waved us though and very quickly we were back on fantastic twisty, well-tarmaced Thai roads!! 800km later and we were in Bangkok!! (again)
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