Swanepoel - Motorbiking cambodia vietnam

Motorbiking Cambodia& Vietnam

Motorbiking Cambodia &Vietnam

By AntonSwanepoel

Copyright 2014 AntonSwanepoel

All rights reserved. Nopart of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, ortransmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database orretrieval system, without the prior written permission of theauthor.

Published by AntonSwanepoel at Smashwords

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Print ISBN-10:1505312086

Print ISBN-13:978-1505312089

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Lauraand The Jaguar Prophecy (Book 1)

Laura andThe God Code (Book 2)

Lauraand the Spear of Destiny (Book 3)

Machu Picchu Doing It Yourself

The Artof Travel

Takingon The Road, Two Wheels at a Time

AngkorWat & Cambodia

VietnamCaves

Kampot,Kep and Sihanoukville

MotorbikingCambodia & Vietnam

DiveComputers

GasBlender Program

Deep and SafetyStops, and Gradient Factors

DivingBelow 130 Feet

TheArt of Gas Blending

Writingand Publishing Your Own Book

EarPain

Sea andMotion Sickness

This book is largelywritten for anyone thinking of backpacking in Vietnam and Cambodia,and buy or rent a motorbike, then ride around in these countries bytheir own, or with friends. The book is more aimed at the budgettraveler. However, the route section and pictures, will give thosethat want to use a tour guide, a clear picture of what they mightsee, and what tour package routes might suit them best.

Although the book isbudget oriented, I like comfort myself, and hotels I suggest, havea minimum of air conditioning, hot water and freeinternet.

If you intend to strap abackpack to a motorbike, and let the open road and the spirit ofthe moment guide you in Vietnam and Cambodia, then this book isdefinitely for you.

If you want guided tours,I have a list of links to suggested tour companies to use. From thecream of the crop that BBC Top Gear used, to the mud slingingoff-road adventure single guide companies.

The information providedin this book is to assist you and is based upon informationgathered from the authors experience, or provided to him by peoplethat he met on the road. The information may be subject to changeat any time with little or no notice, and the author does notaccept any liability for any inaccuracies in the informationprovided in this book. Always double check visa requirement, entryfees, hotel costs and so on, before you travel. The budget given isa suggestion, and not a guarantee, use common sense. Also acceptthat roadworks are part of driving in Asia, and that motorbikebreakdowns and delays can occur.

GPS coordinates were takenwith a Bad Elf Pro 2200 model where possible, else with theinternal GPS from my iPad mini. Note, that even though the deviceis very accurate, different maps do not always agree as to the samespot with the same coordinates. Also, no matter how accurate thecoordinates are, if the device you use is not that accurate, youmay be off a bit. However, in saying that, just about all smartphones with a built in GPS that can work without an internetconnection, will be able to get you to, or close enough to thepoints. You can use the GPS coordinates for the hotels I stayed in,for the next town you are going to, to help you stay on the correctroads.

Places I suggest in thisbook, are places that I stayed at. I get no commission or anyreturn from any of these places. They only serve to give you anidea of what to expect in each town, and a fallback should you getinto a town with no booking or idea where to stay. You are free touse them or not.

If you do the completetrip from Saigon to Hanoi, and all the suggested towns in Cambodia,then you are going to travel from hot flat lands, through mountaintowns, to coastal towns. With such a large distance covered, youare going to encounter from sunny and hot, to probably rainy days.Thus, go when you can go, and prepare for sunburn, and a rainshower now and again. However, note that if you intend to traveloff the main roads, then many places that are reached by dirt road,are more accessible in the dry season. If you intend on reachingthese places in the wet season, you may need an off-road capablemotorbike. In most cases, even a scooter can reach many remoteplaces in the dry season. May to October is the wetseason.

Me and my Yamaha Nouvo2 inVietnam. Leather jacket is over 10 years old.

I have been motorbikingfor over 20 years, and have ridden a number of motorbikes. Theseare the ones I have personally owned.

2 x Yamaha 50cc twostrokes.

Honda VFR NC30, 400cc, V4engine.

Yamaha R6.

3 Different models ofYamaha R1, 1000cc.

Kawasaki KLR 600Thumper.

Yamaha DT 50.

Zongshang Sierra 200Thumper, 200cc air cooled.

2 Models of Honda Win 100cc. One genuine and one copy.

Yamaha Nouvo 115ccautomatic.

I have been living inCambodia for over 11 months at the time of writing, and have riddenfrom Siem Reap all the way through and past Battambang, then uppast the Poipet border to Preah Vihear Temple on theCambodia-Thailand border, then down past Poll Pots grave andthrough Phnom Penh, then back to Siem Reap in one trip, on a fakeHonda Win 100cc. On that trip I did 1544 km in 9 days. I have madea number of additional single trips over Cambodia, including amonth-long motorbike ride in Vietnam where I did over 2200km. InVietnam I purchased a motorbike in Saigon, and drove it all the wayup to Hanoi on the Ho Chi Minh trail in the mountains. I thenbrought the motorbike down back to Saigon by train and rode itacross the border to Cambodia. In Phnom Penh the motorbikedeveloped engine troubles, so I put the motorbike on a bus for thelast trip to Siem Reap to have it repaired. I have also done tripsto other towns by bus, where I rented a number of motorbikes. Allin, I have done over 8500km in Cambodia and Vietnamalone.

My headaches, lessonslearned, visa problems encountered, border crossing with themotorbike problems and solutions, advice from motorbike shops,and more, are all packed into this book to help you, fellowbackpacker and biker, to have a fun trip with the least amount ofhassle. From selecting to buy or rent a motorbike, to selling it,and all in between. Also included is the exact routes I took on theHo Chi Minh trail, with GPS measured distances and times it tookme. Additional are pictures of what to expect along the way. Withthis book, you will be able to avoid many of the pitfalls that Iwent through, step past the massive scams for unsuspecting peoplecaught in the motorbiking Asia dream, and save a lot ofmoney.

This chapter is more toanswer the people that question you why you want to go and dosomething like this, and to give an idea to those that have neverdone motorbike trips to what they may find along theway.