Amazing – modern technology – only a week home and the BADD Boys have already posted stuff on Youtube:
http:// www.youtube.com/user/BB2052
The guys did the five day Tomb Raider with Mike and Leng and had an absolute blast…

We recently ran the first Global Enduro tour of Cambodia and Facebook has been flooded with photo albums. One rider, Colin has raised the bar and put up a webpage/diary/album/itinerary about his Global Cambodia experiences:
http://www.walternet.co.uk/holidays/cambodia2009/itinery.html

Despite the wild weather conditions – which added a massive element of Adventure to the exercise – we did manage to get amongst the mighty mountains and the crazy Indian culture. The Himalayas are always stunning, especially viewed from the seat of a motorcycle. The roads are like nothing you’ve ever seen. Huge valleys with tiny roads hugging the edges. Awesome. After the Global trip ended back in Shimla I met up with an old buddy Roger and we went to the Holy City of Rishakesh and rented a another couple of Enfields – a 535 Lightning and a 350 Machismo (great name). On the Lightning I felt like Prince in Purple Rain without the dodgy haircut, big ape hanger bars and laid back riding position. Rishakesh is one of the cities on the Ganges river and is a magnet for Sadhus (Indian dope smoking Holy Men) and spiritualists so is full of a host of bizarre characters and facinating street theatre.

From Risihskesh we headed upto Almora to see Olly’s Mum who’s got a house up there. The weather cleared up and we were blessed with crystal blue skies and fantastic views. Except for being run off the road by an Indian truck driver and getting my first ‘Indian Tattoo’ it was a great ride. Another part of the Himalaya rarely visited by tourists and absolutely stunning.

Always been a lifelong ambition to ride a motorcycle into the high alititude Himlayas and this ambition, almost, came true recently.

I jumped off the Ocean Ranger, after a very wet and windy August summer (ha!) season at sea and headed straight to Heathrow to meet up with the Global Enduro mob, who I would be riding with in India. It was a tired group of 30 guys who arrived at the spectacular Raddission Hotel in Shimla, northern India, almost two days later.

First few days went real well – then came freak rains, monsoon very early. And we went from views of stunning snow covered peaks to floor length cloud cover and crazy landslides, rocks bouncing past the motorcycles. Like being in a Hollywood disaster movie. Now, in India they import absolutely nothing, everything is built in country by Indian companies or local companies with international partners, like the Hero Honda motorcycles or Suzuki Maruti cars. Unfortunately with most of these home grown products, cheap price wins out over build quality everytime. With one notable exception, which I had already spotted – lots of JCB’s and Caterpillar dozers. I hadn’t given it much thought until we got trapped between landslides. Those boys work them JCBs and dozers harder than anything I’d ever seen. On the edge of drop-offs of hundred of metres. And they have to do it every Autumn and every spring as the mountains move to reclaim the roads. Scary dangerous. No wonder they buy the real deal.

So nature prevailed and we were unable to make the high passes we were hoping for – we missed it by one day. Which is probably just as well, as we would have been trapped up there with 150 slack packers unable to get down, cold, at over 4000 metres, in the snow, with limited supplies, fighting over the last bowls of rice and bottled water. Some of them were trapped for ten days. Give me the lower valleys and a bit of rain over that kinda chaos.

After a long break and a change of location the famous dirt biker and overlander hang-out the Cali-2 has reopened. Jimmy has moved the operation to the north end of Sisowath Quay, next to the Mekong bus office. If your planning your first independent ride into the Cambodian Countryside either as a Cambo-Hooligan or overlander then a stay at Cali-2 is well worth it. Good breakfasts too. http://www.cafecaliforniaphnompenh.com

Most of the equipment available to the long distance off-road Rally-Raider is designed for short hop motocross. What might work well in a 45 minute mad dash on a full bore ‘crosser doesn’t always turn out to be too comfortable when flogged for anything upto 2000 clicks off-road in the hot and humid Cambodian Countryside. And don’t get me started on the fashions. Why do most MX guys seem to want to paint themselves up like a colour blind MC Hammer, and lettered up like an advertising billboard? I prefer something a bit more subtle. So I was absolutely delighted when I came across the desert range of gear by Klim, fully vented riding gear, built to last and available in colours that don’t glow in the dark. My Klim Mojave race pants have survived a month on Enfields in India and a further month on an XR400 in a very wet and muddy Cambodia. And not so much as lost a stitch. The venting works great, with most of the top half of the pants made out of meshing, letting hot air escape and air flow through when your on the move. Ideal for riding in Asia. Check em out at www.atomic-moto.com based in the states. If your coming on tour to Cambodia get yourself a pair.

I read somewhere that 90 per cent of blogs fade after the first year and I said to myself, naw, I’ll keep mine up. Well, ahem, I just looked at the last entry – July. Opps. In my defence there is not internet connection on the Ocean Ranger, the jet boat I skipper throughout the summer, then I stepped straight off the boat in early September and straight on a plane for a tour of the Indian Himalaya’s on an Enfield with Global Enduro…then another shorter tour of a different part of the Himalaya’s with another Enfield and then back to a very wet Cambodia and splashing around on my favourite XR400. None of these places had great tinternet connections, honest. Better get on it then eh…

Just when I thought I was being clever for having stumbled across the Nat Geo article than I read one one of my favourite blogs that the Nat Geo thing is actually web-interactive and to be found on

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/07/angkor/stone-text

Magazines, phewy, who buys them old outdated things anymore..

Always good to see the old country in the mainstream media for positive reasons and this month has seen a couple of welcome bits of promo – this months National Geographic Magazine features Angkor Wat and the Lost Civilisation as a cover story. Nothing very new in the article itself, they printed almost the same cover story back in the 90’s – I’m not a Nat Geo anarak but a friend gave me the earlier copy as a birthday present, after he found it in a house clearance – but some great photos. And a gushing Rick Stein, the British TV Chef and owner of most of Padstow, started his South East Asian TV odyssey in Siem Reap. Loved the country, the people and the markets. Good man. Now if only he’d done it on an XR400 he could have combined three of my favourite hobbies, dirt bike riding in while Cambodia while eating…

They say ‘mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun’ but it seems that only ‘mad cyclists and ramblers go out in the hottest, flattest parts of Cambodia.’ Cyclists are definately one of the fastest increasing members of the niche tourist market in Cambo, and due to a complete lack of road signs and very misleading maps…”zee road was marked on zee map, but zer vas NO ROAD”…. we’re coming across them in the most unusual and difficult to cycle places. I admire their determination, but as a convicted Petrol Head don’t really get the whole exercise thing, or two wheels without speed. But – Mad Dude Found in Arrid Bush Award – this month goes to American Pete who we came across at Preah Khan temple in Preah Vihear province, having walked out there from Don Diek. No mean feat. Lucky for him he was stumbled across by one of the locals from Ta Seng as he had missed the temple completely and was heading back out into no-mans land (although it took us three days to find the temple on our first attempt in the late nineties..ahem…). Preah Vihear is pretty mean country to be lost in, hot and very dry.