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…

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…

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…

Outside Osom, on the edge of the Cardomon Mountains, there is a small Siamese Crocodile reserve. The locals and a foreign NGO have teamed up to protect this small piece of wetland heritage that is home to the rare croc. Always keen to catch sight of a little wildlife, the Three Jeans, Chris and myself, rode the 10k’s out of Osom to see if we couldn’t get a closer look. The environment reminded me of part of Chitwan National Park in Nepal, the part that is home to the Mass-Mugger crocodile, only slightly larger than the Siamese and easily seen basking in the sunshine at waters edge. We rode our bikes to the edge of the wetlands, where upon a couple of ‘guides’ presented themselves. Lots of Crocs they said, easy to see they said. OK. So we followed. Easy at first, then, wearing all our motocross gear, the guides led us straight into the swamp. Walking over a bed of floating grasses that occasionally gave up, plunging you waste deep in water, our sunset stroll turned into an army patrol in full fatiques. Must keep going we said, get to the end to see the crocs, must get back before dark. Swamp stomping ain’t easy in MX boots and pads! finally we make it across to the waters edge all expectant. “Where are the crocs then” I ask.
Looking at us side-ways he said straight faced, in Khmer, “of course you can’t see them they’re underwater.” Of course, stupid Barang.

For various reasons, most of them created out of my own maddness I’ve been unable to get near the old blog of late – but with the just launched and newly revamped website will come a flood of new and facinating blogs…err…hopefully.

A couple of spaces have come up for riders to join the last TombRaider/Hill Tribe Safari of the season leaving Phnom Penh on March 20th, 2009. The Eight Day Ride takes in some of the best riding, habitat and adventure to be found in country, including camping in an Angkorian Temple, visiting one of the country’s last remote hill tribes and a ride of the ‘Death Highway’ from Mondulkiri to Ratanakiri. A Cambodia Expeditions Showcase Tour. For more details contact us here at CamEx on tour@cambodiaexpeditions.com or give me a call on 00855 (0) 12 583759.

Guys down here in Sihanoukville are grabbing the initiative and starting the First Cambodian Bike Week, March 27th-29th. Hosted at local bar and nightclub PocoLoco apparently there will be DJ’s, Miss Cambodian Bike Week competition and, hopefully, lots of interesting motorcycles. Thai Bike Weeks in Pattaya and Chiang Mai are both HUGE and Sihanoukville would be the best place to hold one in Cambodia, with a great link road to Thailand via Koh Kong already attracting a steady flow of interesting tackle, including hoards of roaming Harley Davidsons. Of course the fancy motorcycle owners club, Barang or Khmer is tiny compared to Thailand but you gotta start somewhere. For more info try the website www.cambodiabikeweek.com which I’ve so far failed to open….or e-mail cambodianbikeweek@yahoo.com.

The old Angkor Dirt Bike Tours Site got mothballed after Big Ben became Tours In The Extreme and I started Cambodia Expeditions. But it still has some interesting background info on Cambodia on it
http:// http://www.k4media.com/angkor/tour_history.php