Regular postings should begin again semi soon. We had visitors for 3 weeks of riding in Northern Thailand and now we are on a mad dash to Malaysia.  Full details to come soon.

Until then enjoy this week's Chasing Summer article on Mango as well as the previous one on my mixed feelings on Laos. I even missed posting a Chasing Summer link so I I think it is safe to say that everyone had a great time.  ;-)

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Three weekends ago we had the pleasure of attending the Horizons Unlimited Chiang Mai mini meeting held at Rider's Corner. (I am having difficulty wrapping my head around the fact that January is over and that the meeting was almost a month ago now).  The mini meeting was not all that mini in fact, with the second night being packed. Of course the second night was presentation night and I was torn between being glad that I was not presenting to an empty room and wishing that I was presenting to an empty room.

Photo by the amazing and talented Kimberly Byrant, whose work you can find by clicking on her name or by clicking here.

The overland motorcycle community is rather small. Not so small that everyone knows each other, but small enough that most people know of each other. Hearing a story over beer in Ulan Bator can provoke the following or something like it: “Ahhhhh, I know you! You're the one who my friend so and so met on the side of the road in Ushuaia out of gas and with a flat tire.”  And so the fact that we met Dave in CM shortly before the meeting should not have been so shocking. Dave is practically a family friend at this point, as he first met Patrick's sister and soon to be brother in law in South America while they were on their South America trip.  He then met Jannick, and finally us, in Thailand. Over beer we learned he also knows Bob and Lorraine and that really should not have been the surprise it was either. Dave organizes the Cambodia Ride For Charity and almost ended up meeting the cousin Joscha as well, as we almost opted to do the ride instead of traveling in North Thailand.

I also had the pleasure of meeting fellow Jupiter's Traveller Harry Lyon-Smith who is traveling the world on his Royal Enfield, fueled by diesel and veggie oil. The world is truly a village!

I have uploaded the videos from the presentation to Youtube. I also added a plug for the Iceland book at the end of each video. No, that was not there for every video during the presentation. Just the last one.  ;-)

Learning to ride over rivers:

And yes we are geeks, but it is such fun!:

Other Posts With Videos:

Episode 9 (after a lengthy post on finding shared shipping from Russia)

Episode 7: Dreaming Of Bulgaria

Episode 4: Serious about food

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My Christmas present this year was the promise of a dog. Namely from Christmas on I had the option to travel with a dog if I wanted, or I could wait until we were back in Germany. I think Patrick finally broke from seeing how excited I got whenever we were charged by a happy dog or puppy. I was hesitant to get one however. Not because of the trip, most dogs cruise around on motorcycles here in SEAsia, and we have seen many others in Europe. Plus any dog of ours was going to have to get use to motorcycle trips. So this was not my initial block. What made me hesitant was the flight. A long and terrifying flight. (Or a drugged one).

So how did we go from "wait until Germany" to "meet Mango the motorycle puppy?"Read on!

At the moment we are on Koh Tao. Patrick's dad, his cousin Joscha, and our friend Ed will be visiting us for a couple of weeks in Chiang Mai. (The same guys we met up with on our trip to Turkey and back, they were the smart guys who motorcycled Turkey in the spring rather than the dead of summer). We were in Chaing Mai for the Horizon's overland motorcycle traveler meeting (next post I promise). The meeting was the 13th and 14th. they arrive on the 30th. We debated sticking around, but since the plan is to ride North Thailand with them, we decided to have a beach vacation instead. A week and a half on Koh Tao with the boys (Patrick and his brother, we were reunited in CM) doing their Rescue Diver as well as ship wreck diving, and me writing. (Working on the Turkey book and a creative translation of Fernweh).

However all work and no play can be dull. (If working on a beach is work, errrrrr)

We headed down to Koh Tao pet clinic to see if I could volunteer a couple of days and take the dogs for walks or feed them.

Once we got there Dr. J explained that the clinic is not really what one expects from an animal shelter in Germany or Canada. The dogs mostly live across the street in the park but the door is always open for them to come in and seek shelter. They educate the neighborhood on dogs, encouraging them  to get to know the dogs, trying to get the local restaurants to feed them leftovers rather than rat poison. (Sadly this is not always the case and the night Mango became ours Dr. J could not come in person as planned because two dogs were brought in due to rat poisoning).

Patrick passed on how much I wanted a dog and that I wanted to get one from a shelter because we want a dog that needs a home and will probably not find one. Everyone wants puppies but what about the adult version that gets kicked out once the family realizes puppies get bigger and are as much work as they are cute.

Dr. J's face lit up. “I have puppies who need a home. Their owners left the mother when they moved back to Burma. Why don't you take a look to see if one of these puppies could be your puppy?”

A puppy and a dog in need from a shelter? It sounded perfect. And then I saw him. And he is beyond perfect.

But what about the terrifying plane ride?

Less than ideal yes, however when you factor in life on a street where no one wants you, even on a tropical island, all the good years of otherwise only traveling by motorcycle will outweigh his scary ride.  In Germany he will have a wonderful loving home where his only worry is how spoiled he is.  Not how will he find enough to eat, survive rat poisoning, and the general abuse heaped on an unwanted street dog. The way he still slinks up to new people, desperate for their attention before darting away before they can touch him, is not only heartbreaking but suggests that even in 4 short months someone has kicked, hit or otherwise hurt him.

But other than walking into a glass door (he did look embarrassed about it afterwards), being terrified of waves and other dogs, he is already acting like a normal puppy. It took less than a day to have him walking on his leash, and except for loving Patrick more, adores us both. A huge jump forward from his first day with us which was spent curled up refusing to move.

Puppy love:

And anyone looking for a new pet I really recommend going to a shelter first. Yes some are psychologically troubled pets and therefore not suited for a family with children. But they would love to become the family of a person without children. Others are wonderful family dogs abandoned because of work or moving who need you desperately.

Check out Pardoned Pets, a site that posts animals that need a new home or they will be put down for good. The good news is that site is working. It works mostly over facebook in an attempt to reach as many potential owners as possible. This video is a cry because you are happy one, all the animals they have found homes for:

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What the Volkswagen Beetle was to Germany after the second world war is the moscout to Asia. Namely it mobilizes the masses. But if you think its only good for transporting a person or two at a time, you don't even begin to do them justice. Moscouts literally transport every thing - as in we see them regulary defy the laws of physics. (And for that matter the legal riding age as it is nothing to see what looks like an eight year old kid whizz by with his five year old sister on back. But that tends to be strictly scooters as opposed to the moscoot so it must be safe....)

Even after 2 months of riding through south east Asia, every day we find ourself amazed by another example of what the moscouts are capable of.

Here is a litle (incomplete) list of what we have seen so far:

A moscout

- with a complete Thai family: mum, dad and 3 kids

- towing a car

- carrying 6 mattresses

- moving 3 pigs or 6 piglets

- loaded with 40 chickens or 200 chicks or 400 eggs

- with a dad and his kid holding onto a bicycle

- fifty coconuts 

This was on a single moscout remind you. But when a moscout has a sidecar or trailer (sometimes both) attached it gets even better:

- A complete Thai restaurant, including the kitchen with one or 2 stoves, food to cook, dishes, 2 tables and 8 chairs plus the cook and 1 or 2 assistance.

- 400 liters of gasoline in canisters

- 1 cow or 2 calves

- 1 donkey

- enough wood to build a hut

For what in the western world one might think is a truck needed is in South east Asia done by a little moscout :)

More moscoot power:

Motorcycling In Bangkok's Floods

Off Roading in Laos

Manhandling Moscoots Over Trees

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The newest article is out on our first week in Cambodia . We rode in expecting to ride out as fast as possible after seeing Angkor Wat. Instead we fell in love with Cambodia itself and the wonderful people there!

Other Articles In The Chasing Summer Series:

If You Prefer Our Adventures Edited For Grammar

Goats On Bikes

My Best Accidents

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I have great news to start 2012. The Ted Simon Foundation announced 12 new travelers on January 1st, and of the 12 I am proud to say I am one of them. I have been thinking about what to write about the foundation but finally came to the conclusion that the best words are in fact from the about page from the foundation itself:

Our world is in ferment as never before. While whole societies struggle to shrug off the dead weight of corrupt dictators new conflicts are inevitable. Environmental degradation threatens our future, and food insecurity is an immediate danger. Widespread ignorance nurtures the extreme ideologies and prejudices which tear us apart and prevent us from making rational choices for the benefit of humanity and the planet.

All of this is challenging but fertile ground for those of us who seek to understand the beauties, the mysteries and the tragedies of our world, and no traveller, in our experience, ever came home with a message of hate. (Emphasis mine)

We believe that individuals of good will, moving among foreign cultures and making themselves vulnerable to the beliefs and customs of strangers, have great importance in promoting world understanding, and even more so when they can distill the essence of their experiences into a form that can be absorbed by many.

It was this belief that gave rise to the Ted Simon Foundation. The books written by Ted Simon following his solo motorcycle journeys continue to serve as an inspiration to other travellers who seek to know the world, and their place in it, through personal adventure.

The purpose of the Foundation is to encourage and assist travellers in making an extra effort to develop their observations and insights into something of value for the rest of the world to share, whatever their medium of expression might be.

As anyone who follows this blog may have guessed, for me the chosen medium is writing. From the Chasing Summer series on the Independent.ca, to the packlist to this blog, I have tried to demonstrate that the world is not such an evil place after all.  That perhaps governments may not make the best decisions in the interest of its people or the world, but that the majority of the world's people are kind and share a love of their family and wanting what is best for them, and often it is in the poorest countries that we have been taught to fear where you experience the most kindness from strangers.

 I also hope that it helps anyone thinking about going on a trip to do so.  The trip of your dreams does not have to be one that takes months to complete. But if that is what you want I think it is more achievable than you have been led to believe. But if it's a one week tour on a bicycle, motorcycle, or on a bus, do it. You will be better for it. Soren Kierkegaard said that “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” For me that means that everyone makes mistakes and it is only looking back on life that we understand our choices and see what we could or should have done, or that we can be truly happy with what we did. I think it is always good to look forward and think about how I think I would like my life to look like when I look back. Then I try to do so. If even one person ventures out and tries to fulfill their dream based on the idea that if I can do it anyone can, I will be extremely pleased.  But that won't make me stop.  ;-)

So to end this post, I highly recommend two things; the first is to watch out this TED talk by Eve Ensler gave a fantastic talk on security, which is applicable on so many levels that I feel everyone should watch this. The other is to check out my fellow 2012 Jupiter Travellers!  All of them are on amazing journeys that are worth following and highlight how travel can be used for enjoyment and understanding. (And all travellers, not just the ones announced on the 1st, can be found here!)

The 2012 travellers announced on New Years day:

Adam Barone

Joel Burdall

Damien Fauchot

Richard Jeynes

Richard Harpham and Glenn Charles

Jay Kannaiyan

Helen Lloyd

Harry Lyon Smith

Eleanor Moseman

Daniel Rintz

Chris Smith and Liz Peel

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As we are about to spend some time riding Northern Laos I have written a couple of posts to be autoposted over the next couple of days. That means the blog does not go dead for a week at a time as it tends to do (it can be hard to find wi fi in the jungle). This also means I will not be emailing people back or moderating comments, so just because a post goes up does not mean I am ignoring you – I wrote all of it tonight while I still have access to the internet.

Instead I leave you with this series of photos of some awesome off-roading we did in the mountains of Southern Laos not that far from the border with Vietnam. None of it roads I would have been able to do with Betty (the BMW F 650 I sold in Mongolia for those new to the blog) and all of it thanks to the Golden Triangle Riders map of the region.  When they say a path is a motorcycle path to be ridden only in the dry season, please believe them!

I made Patrick do this one not because of the water, but because of the mud ditch you need to get out of once you cross it!

More Pictures Please:

 Irkutsk and Lake Baikal: A Visual Summary

Mongolia: A Visual Summary

Some fav pics from the Ukraine

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As we get ready to hit Laos' route 13 I have decided to autopost a couple of articles so the blog does not go into radio silence. So sorry if your comment is not moderated, as soon as I have internet I will be checking the comments first thing!

The latest Chasing Summer article (and the last for 2011, the Indy is on a Christmas hiatus) is an article I wrote over the summer that we decided to hold in reserve in case at some point I could not get access to the internet. It is hard to believe but in this day and age it still happens, particularly when you get lost in the jungles of Cambodia. Couch surfing with Anna has been one of the highlights of my trip, and not just because it meant I got to cook with an ex Soviet engineer who use to work on top secret tank plans. (Although really, without couch surfing how else would I ever had had that experience?) But getting to meet Anna herself and basking in that girl's joy for life reminded me why I travel in the first place.

Why is mine always the odd one out???

If you enjoyed this, check out some other Chasing Summer articles:

Naked With Strange Russian Men

The Story Of the Russian Immigration Police

Goats On Bikes

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I hope everyone had (or continues to have) a most wonderful festive season with their loved ones. As the German and I get ready to leave Vientiane for the final leg of our journey through Laos (picked up our Thai visas yesterday afternoon and so we ride north as soon as breakfast is over) I wanted to finish Part 3 of our odyssey along Cambodia's Mekong.

I will admit, when I saw the wall of dead trees my heart sank and I assumed the worse. We would have to pick our way back from where we came, cross the river and retrace our steps completely. The German was not so inclined. We had small bikes for a reason, we could push, shove and general manhandle them over the fallen trees.

And that is exactly what we did:

For pushing the bike up onto the pile:

And we thought we were free. We rode on out, met with what looked like a main dirt road, and thought we had hit clear sailing from this point on.

Not so much.

Sand is evil.  EVIL. Insidiously so. It looks so innocent. You think, “what could possibly be wrong with this stretch of land” and then your back tire overtakes your front, and your on your ass and your bike is over somewhere.

The good news is that with such a tiny bike I can pick the bike up on my own! In terms of preventive measures against a Sherrie tantrum, it does not get any better than being able to pick up your bike, get back on it, and ride on.

You have to wonder sometimes about the bridges:

(We were not that brave or that desperate. We went the slightly longer way be about 5 minutes that meant not testing that particular bridge).

And there seems to be something about littering the place with trees to go over rather than around!

And just when we had begun to think that maybe this was no longer fun, as water and gas was getting low, and that meant retracing our steps was no longer an option because we had gone too far, we found the main road and pavement!

If you liked this try one of these:

If You Prefer Our Adventures Edited For Grammar

Arguments With Gravity

Reindeer Did Not Eat Our Helmets

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If there is a part 1 there has to be a part 2, and this one is in 3 parts. But we did a little repeat of the jungle adventure in Laos and we were without internet for almost a week! So here is part 2, once again mostly visual, which is good, because the internet connection here is DODGEY and I would hate to spend Christmas inside an Asian prison because I lost everything I typed and ended up throwing my laptop out a window. Pictures are easy to get back, so anger level should remain low in the case where the nets decide to eat this post!

As we rode off into what was no longer a real road, we were not so concerned, the dirt road led down to the Mekong, and we had to cross over with a rather interesting ferry:

I am rather glad I asked Patrick to get her up the hill, I HATE sand.

And when an older woman started to yell at us and pointed that we should go back, we decided to ignore her. The dude grinned and pointed in the direction we wanted to go while nodding his head.  The woman yelled some more and told us no, or something to that effect. We figured we could always turn around if it got too bad.

Somewhere around here we accepted we may be in over our heads, but we were having too good of a time to turn around:

We knew that the main road (as in the one we wanted to avoid because of too many trucks and cars) was no more than 12 kms away.  We had gas, we had water, and if worse came to wrose we could walk out.  Plus we would hit the occasional farm in the middle of nowhere where a farmer would come out, point to a track he had made previously, and tell us to follow it.

That night was coming meant not so much to us.  We had our tent again, and although well aware of landmines in rural areas, we camped where the ground was well trampled, we assumed by some of the cows we would ride past.

In fact the panic did not set in until we found our road out. And then our hearts sank. Our way out was blocked by a number of rather dead trees....

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Pictures of Angkor Wat to come! But first a mostly visual summary of our Cambodian jungle adventure.  Both will be followed up with more text based articles with fewer pictures.

Mekong views

We left Siam Reap and kept to the main road. We had debated taking route 66, but as it had been rainning the day before we decided against it. The road in front of our guesthouse had turned into a mudpit and we feared that our little Honda Waves would not be able to handle the riding. (Oh us of little faith, how little we did know at that innocent time).

Instead we stuck to the main (paved) road and enjoyed the views that were no less spectacular, even if enjoying them was at the risk of death at the hands of the other drivers (I am going to write a post about surviving Cambodian roads).

As lovely as the views were, we wanted to stay along the Mekong, and we also wanted to get off the main road. According to our map we had two choices: one was to wind along a dirt road that followed the Mekong closely, the other cut more inland and kept to the paved road. We both prefer smaller roads on the bikes and so our decsion was easy, the drit road it was to be!

Riding smaller roads also means being able to visit small villages that you would otherwsie speed on through.

Happiness is a gang of puppies charging you!

And when the road turned into this:

We of course did not panic. Nor did we turn around. We merely followed it, and that is where the true Cambodian adventure began.

If you liked this post you might also enjoy:

 Irkutsk and Lake Baikal: A Visual Summary

Mongolia: A Visual Summary

Some fav pics from the Ukraine

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We are presently in Cambodia and after locking ourselves in a room in Trat for a week in an effort to get the Iceland book out, we gave ourselves sometime off from our laptops and are currently being pure tourists.  But as that was 4 days ago we are feeling a little twitchy today and so we are allowed a little Internet time. Updates on the 3 weeks with my parents and (worth every bit of the hype) Angkor Wat to come. Until then I leave you with the newest Chasing Summer article, “Welcome to the Jungle” or my working title “Savage Monkey Bastards.”

And for the record, we followed the rules! They still went savage on us.

If you liked this try one of these:

If You Prefer Our Adventures Edited For Grammar

Arguments With Gravity

Goats On Bikes

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Finished just in time (I said November and it came out the last day in November, wa ha!) Iceland: A Stormy Motorcycle Journey has been published in e-book form! At the moment I am going to leave it at the e-book stage.  It is free to produce and free to make changes and there still may be some changes to come.  Not in the overall text (although any typos can be reported to me.  I have checked it until my eyeballs bleed and others as well, but every time I found something. Therefore I am not sure if in the last read through it truly was clean or if my brain provided me with what I so desperately wished for) but in terms of the cover. I was very partial to the second choice but I went with majority rules and so number one it is.  If no one buys it or if the complaints start coming in that the book does not match the content then I will switch covers. Free! In the print version it is not so free to do.

Thanks to everyone on Horizon's and on the blog that weighed in and helped me with cover choice. I sent everyone a link and a coupon code to get a free copy. IF you do not get one please email us or leave a comment here. There were 2 commenters that I have no contact info for and no way to search for you. Some of you I stalked the internet for.  The rest of you I was able to contact directly. So please  do email if I ended up in your spam or if you are oo-ooooo-ooo.  I really have no idea who you are!

So go read it! If you like it tell others, if you don't tell me! Comments are always welcome so long as they are constructive.  “You suck” does not help me.  “You suck because your sentences are too long “ does! 

Video!:

If you enjoyed this, check out these

Naked With Strange Russian Men

Iceland Is A World Created By Fantasy Authors

Journizer Video: Ride Over A Non Existent Bridge

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The newest Chasing Summer is out! Bangkok Underwater and our not planned for encounter with the floods.

If you enjoyed this, check out some other Chasing Summer articles

Naked With Strange Russian Men

The Story Of the Russian Immigration Police

Cafe Wonderfulness and Newest Article Out

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I need help! I am tying to find a cover for my Iceland travel memoir. Readers of our packlist know that the book is due out sometime this month and it looks like it will be ready by the end of November.  Hurray! But part of that involves the very difficult decsion of choosing a cover.  The German and I can not agree. So we are leaving it open to the public and potential readers.  Which cover do you like best? You can read the preface and first chapter here to get a sample of what to expect. The poll is below, and any comments can be left here on the blog. Suggestions are always welcome!

Thank you!

Cover One: Rocks Of Death:

Cover Two: Wild Camp By Glacier:

Cover Three: Ride Into The Interior:

Voting can be done here:

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The latest Chasing Summer article is out! Doctored Documents can be found there for your reading pleasure.

Other Chasing Summer Articles:

The First Article

Naked With Strange Russian Men

Arguments With Gravity

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As you might know we rearranged our plans and bought two bikes in Malaysia.

We have ridden now almost 3.000 kms on them, time for a review.

The Honda Wave falls into a special category of bikes. They look like a mixture of a motorbike and a scooter. The back is more motorcyclish whereas the front resembles a scooter. Sherrie therefore named them moscouts. Unfortunately they have neither the cuteness of a scooter nor the coolness of a real motorbike. But that said they are all over Asia, apparently the moscouts look is tailored for the Asian eye and not for those Farangs (stupid Westerners with big noses who have no idea what a bike is supposed to look like).

There are lots of bikes here that fall into that category and they are mainly from Japan (Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki) with some from China; although the Japanese have a way better reputation among the locals then the Chinese (but are also twice the price). We settled for the Honda version of a moscouter because

a) its one of the most popular bikes here (that makes for a good spare-parts and repair situation)

and

b) every Honda Africa Twin rider tells me how awesome his bike is. Maybe they transfered some of those awesome and reliability genes into the Wave since the Africa Twin has been out of production for almost a decade :P

We bought the Malaysian Honda Wave 125 Ultimo with sport rims (tubeless) and an e-starter. The first due to my hurtful experiences with exploding tubes in Iceland and Uruguay. The second because I am afraid of Sherrie & her violent approach to not working kickstarters see also the Black Devil incident.

The Wave goes a little over 100 km/h at top speed (crouching, praying for back wind and a slight downhill run that is).

Comfortably you can ride between 80 and 90 km/h. Small curvy mountain roads can be a lot of fun (especially downhill) but of course you can't expect the same stability as from a bigger bike (which  also costs multiple times more). Our favorite roads for the Wave are the little back tracks that lead through small villages, tuck along palm trees beaches and through rubber tree plantations. And I guess thats the places you want to be anyway in Asia. For high speed highway runs you are better of in Germany with its unlimited Autobahns or one of the race tracks.

The sitting position is surprisingly comfortable, the seat is not bad either. But you need to stop (at the latest) after about a 100kms anyway because you will run out of gas. And this is the one annoying thing about the Wave. A tiny gas tank (3,7l) and it is under the seat. That means unstrapping all your luggage at least once every 100kms. Pretty annoying. There must be a better solution. I'll let you know when I've invented something. Thinking has started...

Speaking of modifications: What we did add is a self made chain oiler (see picture below). An oil can, some wire and a tube: total costs 3 EUR per Bike. And no more chain spraying (problem being, I have not found any chain spray here. They just use oil cans themselves).

The Malaysian Wave only comes with a good old carburetor instead of the fuel injection that her Thailandish sister posses. We heard that the fuel injection version uses only 2 liters/100 km, ours have an average fuel consumption of 2,8 liters/ 100km. But maybe the carburetor can be repaired easier (knock on wood).

The Wave, being a mix between a motorcycle and a scooter comes with gears but no clutch. No clutch is a must for the Asian riders since they need their left hand for more important stuff then operating a clutch such as holding an infant or a chicken (sometimes both), typing a short message on their phone or chatting away on it, or just lighting up a cigarette. All while riding along on dirt roads mind you.

It took us a little while to get used to having no clutch especially if you gear down and want to support the gear shift with a little punch of gas. But basically the clutch is operated by the gear shift: a little push pulls the clutch, a little more shifts the gear. After a little while you get the hang of it. It took us longer to get used to the reversed gears though. Neutral is on top, and then you shift down to shift up. Confused? Yes we were too. Sometimes we still go the wrong way which either leaves the engine almost dying or speeding into the red area.

P.S. They can handle floods as well.  But that story to come!

If you like this, try one of these:

Why BMW rocks and Honda Sucks

Enjoy A Motorcycle Ride Over A Non-Existent Bridge

Roundabouts From Hell

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After completely changing our plans  we decided to ride in South East Asia. But to do so we needed new bikes. We sold our BMWs in Mongolia. It was not easy to find out the best way (what country and from who) to buy bikes in South East Asia. We searched through different forums and other web resources but there is surprisingly not much substantial and up to date information out there. It took us many hours to find out what we know now. Mainly with the help of the Ride Asia forum. Thanks guys!

We want to write here a little wrap up and share our experience. Maybe it will be useful for others. (and again if you are family and not the biking half of the family, there are still some pretty pictures!)  ;-)

Before we started to look into buying we set some perimeters:

Little bikes

We decided to get little motorbikes (125ccm). We came on a budget (we got 1000 EUR each for our BMWs) and they are relatively cheap. Little bikes are ubiquitous in South East Asia, they can be repaired everywhere and cheaply. Spare parts are no problem. And they use up little gas (ours use 2,7 liter/100km). They also blend better in the crowed instead of an alien big BMW.

Register the bikes in our name

Some people buy a bike and register the bike in a locals name in order to get the papers done easier. This was not an option for us. If we buy a bike we want to own it. Also on paper. Besides that border crossings with someone else's bike have a tendency to get complicated.

Do everything the legal way

Some people told us (from personal and second hand experience) that it would be no problem to have bikes that are not in our names. If it was then we just hand over a little bribe. This is all easy until something happens (eg. an accident). Then its our ass that gets busted or thrown into an Asian prison. Thanks but no thanks.

Buy a new bike
We thought if we buy a small bike that should last us for the next 6 month we better get a new one. Prices for used brand name bikes (Honda, Yamaha etc.) are also quite high.

Thailand:

We didn't buy bikes in Thailand. But we wanted to do so at first and therefore looked into the procedure one must undergo to buy and register a bike in Thailand. This is what we found out:

In order to register a bike as a foreigner you need to present a letter of residence.
To get a letter of residence there are 2 possibilities: a) from your embassy, b) immigration office

The embassies have different rules on when they issue such a letter of residence. We asked at the Canadian and the German (which apply to us):

Canadian: "Bring a bill with you with your Thai address on it, e.g. a telephone bill and then you need to swear that you are a resident here."

German: "You need to have a non immigrant visa"

Obtaining a non resident visa is neither easy nor cheap (at least not for us. Having a Thai spouse or being over 55 makes things easier). We tried to get the non resident visa from the Thai Embassy in Korea but they wouldn't issue us one. We needed to have a job offer (we do not want to work on this trip) or we could get the educational one by going through a school. 500 Euro was the cheapest we found on offer (for the course plus visa), and we would have paid it and never attended the lessons. BUT the Thai government has learned of this little trick, and now tests you when you go to get your extension. We really did not want to go to school just to buy a bike.

More on non resident visas can be found here.

For option b) we were told different things. Some said a letter from your landlord / hostel saying that you stay there is enough, others told us that you need a non resident visa as well. Probably a lot depends also on the mood of the officer.

Conclusion: Overall Thailand seemed like a lot of paperwork and fees.

Cambodia:

We got this information from a fellow HUBBER. I have edited it, but for anyone wanting to buy in Cambodia it would be invaluable, and if we were going to buy a bigger bike I think we would have went to Cambodia.

IMPORTANT- ALL UR FREEDOM TO CROSS BORDERS DEPENDS ON TH FOLLOWING- When you arrive at the airport TICK business visa and pay $25 instead of $20 for your visa. (Pack about 10 passport photos for the coming days, rego etc...). When you get to Phnom Penh go to a visa extension place and get 6 months extension for about $120. You are now able to get a license, rego etc.

Post wanted ads on BongThom.com and Khmer 440 and any other blgs for Cams you can find. If you don't have any luck the best store to buy a bike at is Flying Bikes, they are also the best mechanics. For mechanics there is also a German guy who is full race mechanic from Europe  he advertises in the local rags so u'll find him easy enough. Get in touch with people as much as you can before you go.

Get a $32 license if you wanna be hassle free, the fine for no license is between $1.50 and $5 so I didn't get one but you can also get insurance (ask for Shane from Infinity Insurance in Phnom Penh for $20 a year that covers any accidents you may have).

When you buy a bike, MAKE SURE IT HAS PHOTO ID WITH THE CURRENT OWNER. INSIST that you will pay a deposit and PAY THE REMAINDER AT THE REGISTRATION OFFICE the current owner must attend transfer of registration. You might wanna pay $10 for Khmer to help you with this, someone from your hotel should do fine. Rego is about $46. The Rego paperwork takes about 5 weeks so this is you Cambodia/Laos touring time. Get photocopies of ALL DOCUMENTATION at the REGO office so u can cross into Laos. Get your Khmer guide to offer $100 if you can get in 10 days, you may get lucky. You need a "permanent address" signed by police to transfer rego you can A) Forge yourself a lease in PP or B) Ask your hotel to write you down as a permanent.

UP TO HERE SHOULD HAVE TAKEN YOU 3 days so far with some sightseeing and clubbing etc... mixed in.

There is a book CALLED ULTIMATE CAMBODIA, buy it for about $15 from Bohr's Books. It is a lonely Planet style Travel guide written solely for bikers. It has some MAGNIFICENT rides through the wilderness, and gives kilometer markers for every point in ur ride. Ring the guy who wrote it, he rides A LOT with his Khmer wife, so you may be able to hook up on a ride with him. He swears by an XR400, I swear by the DRZ- Tomaetoes Tomartoes... lol.

Cambodia is safe. Just be wary on public holidays cos they drink distilled spirits and makes em a bit loony if you get caught in an exceptional circumstance. HIGHLY UNLIKELY though. Khmers are very respectful of women but carry some Mace or something just in case.

Repairs: any town with half a market can do most repairs. They are creative- however they are damn difficult to communicate with because they are shy and uneducated... if a mechanic says they don't have (eg: brake pads, clutch) and there is no other mechanic they probably just don't understand you. ride further and KEEEP ASKING people. Every town has a creative mechanic somewhere and numerous mechanics within it.

Malaysia:

Requirements: A valid entry stamp in your passport. Thats all you need. This is what we were told by Calvin, the guy from KOK Motors in Kuala Lumpur. And surprisingly he was totally right. This was really all we needed. And this is how we bought our bikes:

- We showed up on Thursday evening at KOK Motors, settled for 2 bikes (Honda Wave Ultimo 125) and made a  down-payment of half the price. Calvin took copies of our passports and that was it for the paperwork. He said registration takes 2 work days.

- On Monday evening (as in 2 work days later) we got his email that the 2 bikes were ready and registered.

- We went to the shop, payed the rest and drove off. That was it.

- The paperwork he had done for us included the registration, the road tax for 1 year and the insurance. All was included in the quoted price, no extra or hidden fees.

 Calvin, if you read this, thanks again!

Conclusion: The price was a little bit higher in Malaysia (about 200 EUR) compared to what we would have payed in Thailand. But the hassle free paperwork made it well worth it. (Plus there were no fees for Visas!) We were told that Cambodia could take up to a month by another person, and that was time we could have been riding. So we decided to pay the extra 200 and have bikes within 2 working days that were completely and legitimately ours. No hassle and no pain!

Laos we have no idea, we could not find any real info and Vietnam again seemed a little dodgey legal-wise in regards to drivers license issues. We had just looked into China and we were already put off with that, so we never looked any further into it.  Others have found Vietnam to be super easy and cheap place to buy a bike and ride. But the info on Horizon's is very clear if you want to look into the discussion on buying a bike in Vietnam.

This was our experience in a 3 week crash course of deciding to sell bikes and massively rearrange our travel plans. This is not legal advice!!!!  Nor is it the only way to do it.  But we would have loved to have found this info beforehand, so we hope it does help someone!

Resources
Ride Asia forum (very helpful)
HUBB Asia (mostly travelers whereas Ride Asia has a lot of Asia expats)
Bike Prices
KOK Prices

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The newest article in the Chasing Summer series is out, The Biker Versus The Waves Of Doom.

The way the water did NOT look when we took the boat out:

Next time I will make sure it looks more like that.  :-P

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Unlike the Underwater Dive Mistress I am a wiener when it comes to underwater activities. Discovering this was in fact a shock. In high school I wanted to be a marine biologist just so that I could scuba dive during working hours, so imagine my crushing disappointment when the first time I went snorkeling in Vietnam I had a full blown panic attack. Elation to heart palpations in 1 second. I ended up doggy paddling around and got my picture taken with the contraption on my face before calling it an illusion shattering day.

Cue my brother's wedding in Cuba. By this time the German was a part of my life, and he is very much an underwater tourist of the dive mistress (master) variety. He insisted that I try scuba, even went so far as to say it was easier than snorkeling. He stood in the pool with me until I was confident enough not to shoot back up as soon as I went under. Then our oh so kind scuba instructor declared I was ready.

It was an exercise in how not to learn how to scuba dive.

We trooped down to the water and instead of getting in a boat we swam out. Already I was out of breath and nervous at the choppy waves. We go under and I shoot back up gasping for air.  He takes my hand and promises to stay with me. We go down again and as soon as we are under the bastard lets go. Over and out, I was finished.  Much to the dismay of my uncle and cousins who were along for the ride, and had to swim back to shore with me, before swimming back out a second time to complete their dive.

Really though, would you expect much more form this person:

I thought that the underwater world was closed to me except from above:

And then on our last day in the Perhentian islands I allowed myself to go under water for one last try. (I had a near death experience the day before, but that is a subject for the next Chasing Summer article, I guess I was feeling brave.)

The amazing part -  we had a sit down session where they explained how scuba diving works. Then they took us out in a boat, but to water we could stand up in. And finally the dive began.

And it was awesome.

Minus of course making my dive instructor hold my hand the entire time...

...and refusing to go deeper than 5 meters. I had clown fish and parrot fish right where I was, no need to invite in the panic that was hovering at the edges of my consciousness in. Better to potter around with my underwater babysitter!

Once a wiener always a wiener!

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