Keep the faith

July 11, 2015

Laos – Cambodia Border

Arrived in Don Khon in southern Laos to enjoy the 4000 islands. It has been a nice few days until we started working on getting the bike into Cambodia. From Pakse down here every travel agent we have talked to said it’s impossible to get a Vietnamese bike across into Cambodia. This is strange because one a Vietnamese licensed bike is the best to travel on and every other border is fine, but this one. So the scam is that they allow your bike into Cambodia then the police stop you saying that the bike is illegally in Cambodia and force you to sell it on the spot. Apparently trying to get back into Laos is not an option. Ive been looking at motorbike forums and I cant see that anyone has tried to cross, just that another guy had the same problem and decided to go around via Vietnam. That’s going to take a few days so came up with another option.

Plan tomorrow is to meet a local Cambodian at 8am, give him my bike and I take a bus across the border and meet him in the first town in Cambodia. He is going to take the bike via boat down the Mekong and ride it through the jungle to the town skipping the border police… I know I’m thinking the same thing, I’ve just given my bike away to some local dude who is laughing his ass off while I sit in Cambodia twiddling my thumbs… I’ve done as much research as possible asking a few agencies about this plan and they all say the same thing “we use the same guy and he’s your only shot”. So either the whole town is in on it or this could work. There is no paperwork for the bike to enter Cambodia (checked that) so once I get it back it should (key word should) be smooth sailing. Will update tomorrow when this whole thing goes pear shaped…