Touring Cambodia

Cambodia - Motorcycle Trip Report

     by Glenn Black

This is a belated trip report for Chiang Mai to Cambodia, done in early June. I have not including a map since the trip was over well known routes.

In late May as the 2009 monsoon was just starting, I left Chiang Mai to Cambodia riding my DRZ-400. This was my first trip by motorcycle back to Cambodia since November 2000. Much has changed, mostly for the better; notably, the roads. For comparison's sake I'll provide some details of NW Cambodian road and border entry in late 2000.

@ Distance Map of Thailand - GuidetoThailand.com
Map of Thailand
Map of Cambodia

Background in Cambodia

From 1998 to late 2000 I had worked in NW Cambodia and around the end of that time had made several trips from Battambang into Thailand. One such trip took place during a the 2000 rainy season in October. On that particular trip I left Battambang in good weather up the pot-holed but relatively good Hwy 5 to Sisophone and then over the not-so-good but not-yet-completely-awful road to Poipet and into Aranyaprathet.

I exited Cambodia in Poipet and remained in Thailand for a week, during which time, the monsoon reasserted itself in a big way. There was a deluge throughout Trat province but the excellent Thai roads saw me back to Aran without too much trouble. The comfort of the relative normalcy of Thai driving that I had soaked up in Thailand held up to the point I stamped out of Thailand and stamped into Poipet, Cambodia.

Rains had poured for days prior to my exit from Thailand and Poipet's road out of town to Sisophon was hardly visible beneath water and slurry of yellow mud, that I can only describe as the color and consistency of loose baby shit. Worse yet, the dips and potholes that were pretty easily navigable during my dry weather trip over were no longer visible beneath the surface of water and yellow mud.

On one occasion my Suzuki DR-350 sank nearly a meter and water went over the handle-bars. I still remember with horror that my right hand lost its grip of the throttle about that instant. How happy I was that the Suzuki 350cc engine had the torque to keep chugging until I retrieved the throttle handle and made it out of that hole. It was a miserable trip all the way to Sisophon.

Given the amount of water and mud, I could never tell when I was approaching a deep pot-hole until I had already hit it. From Sisophon I turned south and the then-beaten up tarmac was better but with ample rain, the going was still pretty bad down to Battambang. So those are my impressions of my last moto-travel in wet-season Cambodia.

Cambodia Ride Beginning

Now, nearly nine years have passed and I've heard that Cambodia's roads had vastly improved. So I finally had time to ride down from Chiang Mai and see this for myself what had become of the Cambodia roads I knew too well nearly nine years previously. It was almost June, but I guessed that I could test the new rainy season without getting too wet. It was worth a try.

Getting to Cambodia from Chiang Mai is a long haul no matter how you cut it - some 800 km from Chiang Mai from the nearest border crossing. There are new entry points along the northern border of Cambodia near Sisaket that go down to Anlong Vaeng and Siem Reap. Never-the-less I wanted to revisit my old haunts; Sisophon, Battambang, possibly Hwy 10 to Samlaut/Pailin road . I would then exit Battambang province down Hwy 5 to Pursat and then ride into Phnom Penh.

I had heard the most astounding news about the new Hwy 5. This highway had been reconstructed and hard-surfaced in the last five years and now the trip from Battambang to Phnom Penh was only a 3-4 hours trip. During my time in Battambang and earlier in the 90s the journey was a grueling 7-8 hour, no-frills trip, so, I looked forward to this.

... next Chiang Mai to Aranyaprathet