Blame it on the Rain

By Steve Bouey in

August 10, 2007 – 9:49 am

In the early planning phases for the World by Road, we wanted to be as flexible as possible in determining our route and setting timeframes for each country. There were, however, a few macro-level timeframes that we wanted to maintain to make overland travel in certain regions of the world as easy as possible. Namely, we wanted to avoid monsoon season in SE Asia, winter in Siberia and summer in the Sahara. For the most part, we will avoid being in the thick of bad weather in these regions, but by pushing our departure date back a few months from December 2006 to February 2007, we knew we would hit at least some of the monsoon rains here in Asia.

Throughout Malaysia, Thailand and most of Cambodia, we dabbled in the very beginning of the rainy season. It did rain more than we were used to at home and when it did rain, it was a lot heavier than any of us had ever seen, but the rains came at pretty predictable times in the day and only lasted for a few hours. Although we are now in the thick of the rainy season here in SE Asia, we were beginning to think that somehow our route and timing would allow us to avoid the bad stuff due to regional variations in the weather patterns.

Unfortunately, most of our luck in terms of wet weather seems to have run out for the time being. After heading into northeastern Cambodia and further north into Laos and the relatively higher elevations, the heavens opened up and they have yet to let up. It has been raining hard and steady most of the day and into the night pretty much for the last 2 weeks and according to the locals, it will be like this until October and get worse.

Although I enjoy a good rain shower and find it soothing to the soul from time to time, consistent and steady rain really dampens your spirit after a while (pun intended). Many of the daytime activities you could enjoy are limited due to the weather as the ground becomes muddy, most of your belongings begin to take on the color of the iron-rich red soil, and driving down a major highway becomes a risky adventure.

Just the other day, we headed out to see some amazing caves in Central Laos. The thought was that we could at least seek temporary refuge from the rains while exploring the cave system on our way north. We left town bright and early and headed down what our map indicated was a major national thoroughfare. After about 50 kilometers, we soon realized that this map was mistaken about the size and quality of the highway as the road surface by that point consisted of about 3-4 inches of mud. About 40 kilometers more in 4-wheel drive mode, the rain finally stopped for about 15 minutes only to leave us staring at what looked like the end of the line. As soon as we were about to pull up our pants and see if we could find our way to the other side of what appeared to be a large lake, a local guy on a moto came to the rescue and we followed him in the Toyotas with white knuckle grips on the steering wheels.

We reached it safely across the water only to come across another river 5 kilometers down the road. This time, no motos, so I hiked up my shorts and joined the bathing water buffalo to try and gauge the depth of the water hazard in front of us. It seemed o.k., but a local coming the other way informed us through sign language (he pointed above his waist) that a river crossing farther down the road was too deep. Oh, well, no caves today and nearly 7 hours of driving to go about 100 miles, only to end up back where we started but hey, it is the rainy season here and you kind of just have to accept it. On the bright side, we did get some great shots of the trucks and see some pretty interesting glimpses of rainy season Laotian village life. I just hope it lets up a little bit, because the wet weather is not conducive to getting much of anything done… you just find a hammock, crack a Beer Lao, do some reading/research and wait for dryer weather like the locals do.  Besides, it could be far worse, right now just to the west in India and Bangladesh, severe monsoon flooding is killing hundreds of people and displacing millions.

By Steve Bouey | Posted in Laos, The Toyotas | Comments (0)

What is that smell?

By Steven Shoppman in

August 7, 2007 – 8:09 am

At home we all have different ways of doing our laundry.  Some of us use a certain type of detergent with a certain smell, others use a special rinse or dryer sheet. As a wee lad friends of mine would end up with my clothes and depending on who it was, their parents would wash the clothes before returning them. Sometimes, whatever process these clothes would go through left them smelling heavenly.  My mother had her own great way of washing my clothes until I was old enough that she thought I should be doing my own.  This laundry too had an incredibly comforting smell.

Here in Southeast Asia, laundromat is a term that does not exist.  Along with the disappearance of these fine establishments is the shrinking of the excessive selection of detergents that line our supermarket isles. Since most products here are not a matter of which one, but instead whether or not it is available at all, mountain spring or morning fresh are not terms that are commonly used here.  Because of this, we must find a laundry shop to get our small selection of clothes washed for us.  During the typical encounter at the shop, the exchange is very simple.  A scale is brought forth and the number of kilos on the meter is multiplied by the most recent country’s currency. Yesterday we spent 144,000 on our laundry.

Ummmm…let’s see, carry the one…okay that is about $14 for three loads of laundry.  The most recent currency that we are dealing with is Kip.  In Laos it is about 10,000 kip to the dollar.  When turning over a few bags of clothes the standard expected upon their return is never consistent; sometimes they smell wonderful, sometimes they are still a little wet, sometimes they are a wrinkly mess. It is nonetheless like Christmas every time.  Christmas for us comes once every couple of weeks, and although the bags of freshly washed clothes are a welcome gift from old Santa Claus, there are many more reasons that our laundry is the gift that keeps on giving.

The day or two before laundry day is usually the same day that the laundry bags are getting full. Like many at home the hamper or laundry bag usually make a home out of the reach of our sniffers.  TWBR’s laundry bags call the topper on the back of the Tundra home.  This topper is has no climate control, so in a place with 100% humidity and temperatures exceeding 90 degrees daily, it can start to brew a scent that the likes of a typical American hamper have never been home to.  Due to this ongoing science experiment, our laundry bags must be part of the laundry also as they are not in pretty shape after their tour of duty in the topper .

When these bags of fresh clean clothes smelling oh so fresh make their way back into our life, things change.  The limits of how many times a dirty garment can be worn are no longer being tested, a burst of not so fresh air does not waft itself under our noses each time we need something out of the topper, and we get a much more pleasant answer to that time honored question, "What is that smell?"

By Steven Shoppman | Posted in For some laughs, Laos | Comments (0)

10,000

By Steven Shoppman in

August 6, 2007 – 8:04 am

Just a little notice for those of you that may not have seen on the homepage.

We have broken 10,000 miles!

Along with this we have now also visited 10 different countries. The miles should start to turn over more quickly in the coming months. Our exact entry date into China should be available to us in the next few days, but that date should be within the next 2 weeks.  From there our route is to Mongolia, and then continues on west to Kazakhstan.  As we make our way up into Siberia we will be getting even more remote so many segments will have hundreds of miles between towns with some weeks covering over 1,000 miles at a time.

Many of you may think, who are these sissies that can only drive 1,000 miles in one week? Keep in mind that some days our top speed may only be 20 miles per hour.  Road standards are a little different and sometimes hundreds of miles pass without seeing pavement.  Below are a few of the more recent photos of the roads the trucks have challenged and the things that make them slower.

Cambodian Border Checkpoint

 

Ahhh 10,000

 

The Road between the Laos and Cambodia Border

 

 

Okay, so do you think Thule will be upset if we take on this rack sponsor instead?

 

Some of the people pass give us some interesting looks

 

The rain makes the roads more exciting

 

There is never enough time to stop for muscle flexing photos, never enough

By Steven Shoppman | Posted in Cambodia, Expedition Updates, Laos, The Toyotas | Comments (0)

Vietnam Photos

By Steve Bouey in

August 5, 2007 – 5:37 am

Although our time in Vietnam was cut short by not being allowed to bring the trucks into the country, we still managed to see some pretty cool sights in Ho Chi Minh City and south along the Mekong Delta. Check out the photos in the gallery.

http://theworldbyroad.com/photos/main.php?g2_itemId=7186

By Steve Bouey | Posted in Expedition Updates, New Photos, Vietnam | Comments (0)

You Guys Have it Pretty Easy

By Steve Bouey in

August 4, 2007 – 10:00 am

This is a statement we get from a lot of other travelers we meet on the road. The Toyotas stand out like a sore thumb anywhere we go and within minutes of parking them, whether it be at a guesthouse, a border crossing, a national park entrance or a popular attraction, we find ourselves deep in conversation explaining about what we are doing. Everyone we have meet thus far has been extremely excited about what we are doing, but from time, a few throw out a "you guys aren’t exactly roughing it" type comment.

True, we are by no means roughing it. If I wanted to get down and dirty, and really rough it, I would have done something like Rory Stewart and walk across Afghanistan shortly after the fall of the Taliban –  The Places In Between. In our case, we have the luxury of driving two nice big comfortable Toyota SUV’s and also have the comfort of packing a lot of what some people might think to be unnecessary gear in the ample space of the Tundra. We have SCUBA gear, climbing gear, camping gear, and yes a folding table and half a dozen camp chairs as well. So yes, we are not exactly roughing it… but at the same point, the Toyotas are my home for the next two years and most people generally want to have nice things in their homes. Furthermore, we set out on this trip not to see how tight a budget we could stick to or try to stay in the cheapest, dirtiest, grimmest guesthouse we could find in every city. We set out on this trip to drive around the world and with that, a whole Pandora’s Box of different challenges quickly presents itself.

When most people travel, they typically only have to find a means of getting themselves and a few pieces of luggage from point A to point B. When we travel, we not only have to figure out how to get to the next destination, but do so with two trucks and a lot more than a few bags. The other day, we set out early in the morning to cross the remote Laos/Cambodia border at Dong Krolor. This seemingly simple task proved to be quite an adventure and illustrated to some people traveling with us just what we are confronted with when you travel TWBR style.

According to the Canadian Automobile Association, in Laos, the "frontiers are closed to individual tourist vehicles." The CAA said the same thing about Cambodia, but we got in and we have been in contact with others who have not had any trouble getting into Laos with their own vehicles. However, after our experience at the Vietnamese border, you can’t really count on any of this information with absolute certainty, so driving out to this remote border was a gamble to a degree. We are also learning not to assume too much about what in most cases could be considered reliable information. At Stung Treng, people who had made it through from Laos said there was a bridge across the river, the map we purchased in Bangkok indicated there was a bridge across the river and Lonely Plant even mentioned the completion of such a bridge "sometime in 2007."

Once we did arrive in Stung Treng, we followed the newly constructed, Chinese built road right up to the entrance to a new bridge that looked as though 10’s of millions of dollars had been spent on its construction. At the entrance to the bridge, we were greeted by some official looking military type guys (official by Cambodia standards at least) who through the help of their 14 year old son/translator, informed us that the bridge was closed and would not open until the Prime Minister came next month to cut the ribbon and make it official. They were also waiting to finish the last few bits and pieces of the bridge until the PM could fit it into his schedule to officially open the bridge. If we did not have the trucks, we could simply hire out one of the many available boats like most other people do, but alas, we found ourselves scrambling to try and find out how to get 10,000 lbs. worth of Toyotas across a sizable, monsoon swollen river.

It took an extra day, but we were finally able to get some riverboat entrepreneurs to allow us to put the Toyotas on their ferry after negotiating a price through yet another interpreter. (We would soon find out that these guys wanted to renegotiate after we had made it across and even another 50 kilometers further to the border checkpoint.)  Once we made it out of Cambodia and into Laos, thankfully, the only problem caused by the vehicles and the Carnets was disturbing the Laotian customs officials from their lunch.

At this point, if we did not have our trucks, we could have jumped on a bus bound for towns such as Pakse, or Vientiane. Instead, we were trying to figure out where we were going to get gas for two trucks that did not have enough to make it to those destinations. After running the Tundra for 20 miles after the computer informed us that the fuel range was 0, we found a gas station. However, gas stations in this part of Laos are not your typical Shell stations. Again, we are confronted of trying to make a determination if the fuel in old rusted out 55 gallon barrels is actually fuel and if it going to help us get to the next big town or stop us dead in our tracks. Bottom line, I will be the first to admit that we have a pretty plush set-up. At the end of the day, we can sit in comfortable chairs, and watch a DVD on our oversized laptops, but after what we go through in a typical day, I think we deserve it… at least a little bit.

 

 

By Steve Bouey | Posted in Cambodia, Laos, The Toyotas | Comments (1)

Remote borders

By Steven Shoppman in

August 3, 2007 – 3:46 am

We have reached the last town before the border of Laos here in Cambodia.  Internet is pretty much non-existent here, so this update will be brief.

After 3 hours in Stung Treng, our quest to get across the Mekong to the last stretch of highway into Laos has come to an end.  One night here and then we will start again in the morning sorting out a ferry that will transport our cars across the river.  Then off to the Laos border.  Today we have talked to about 10 different people including the police chief to make it through, but sometimes there is just nothing that you can do but get a nights sleep and try again in the morning.

Keep your fingers crossed for us that things go smoothly tomorrow morning.

By Steven Shoppman | Posted in Cambodia, Expedition Updates | Comments (0)

There is Something About the Countryside

By Steve Bouey in

August 2, 2007 – 10:10 pm

It is exciting to drive into new cities. The everyday hustle and bustle of people in cities throughout SE Asia is quite a site to see. Cities also provide an opportunity to restock on some supplies such as batteries and cash. However, after a few days of being in a city, whether it be Bangkok, Singapore or Ho Chi Minh, I always find myself longing to be back out on the open road driving through small villages and down roads that in some cases don’t even seem like roads.

There is something about being in the countryside that puts my mind at ease. It might be more difficult to find something you need and the language barrier may be more of an issue, but the people always seem to be more open and friendly, the moto’s honk less, and the overall atmosphere generally permeates good vibes. Kids run up to and along side of the Toyotas shouting out hello and this is what The World by Road is really all about.

By and large, most cities throughout the world I have been to are pretty similar. I think it is only when you venture outside of the concrete jungle, and in our case right now into the actual jungle, that you get a true sense of the culture and how most people live. At first glace, life looks a lot more difficult in the more remote stretches of Cambodia, or any country for that matter. Truth be told, life is more difficult, but after spending some time with the people, you can’t help but think that they are happier than those pounding the pavement in the city.  

By Steve Bouey | Posted in Cambodia | Comments (0)

The new definition of a road.

By Steven Shoppman in

August 1, 2007 – 9:45 pm

NH is basically the same denotation as the I for interstate in the US. Here in Cambodia a NH or National Highway is not exactly the same as our definition of an interstate. These roads can vary from the first road that we drove on here from Poi Pet to a pretty well taken care of paved and sometimes even divided highway.  There are a few added bonuses that you do not get at home here.

Even if you do end up on one of the well paved roads many obstacles still sprinkle the road to make the journey far from relaxing. Traffic going the wrong way on the wrong side of the road, overloaded trucks and motos, wild dogs and livestock all come at you somewhere in the neighborhood of every 5 minutes.  There are children who seem to be magnetized to the edge of the road and some of them even play the squirrel game of trying to run out in front of your car at the last minute just to flirt with death a little.

In our near 3 week stay in Cambodia, we have not really seen any police enforcing order on the highways.  Everyone says that it is corrupt so no one ever gets tickets anyway…my wonder is if they even have any real traffic laws on the books. We will be out of here in the next few days.  I am sure we will encounter more interesting road conditions ahead, but in a country that is renowned for bad and dangerous road conditions I feel like the excitement will be something to long for when we are gone.

By Steven Shoppman | Posted in Cambodia | Comments (0)

Cambodian Kickboxing and Phnom Pen Traffic – Photos

By Steven Shoppman in

July 30, 2007 – 7:38 am

Just got another couple of photo galleries up.

Kickboxing Match in Phnom Pehn

http://www.theworldbyroad.com/photos/gallery2embedded.php?g2_itemId=7070&

Traffic in Phnom Pehn

http://www.theworldbyroad.com/photos/gallery2embedded.php?g2_itemId=7165&

By Steven Shoppman | Posted in Cambodia, New Photos | Comments (0)

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Arizona.

By Steven Shoppman in

July 29, 2007 – 7:56 am

Arizona? That’s right, not exactly, but it is true.  A few years ago on a trip to Scottsdale, AZ to visit my friend Chad’s father, I had a conversation with his fathers girlfriend. Chad and I had driven down to AZ to purchase a boat and tow it back to Colorado.  We were in a Jeep Grand Cherokee and upon stopping at intersections it was possible to watch the temperature gauge on the vehicle rise as the car overheated.  On days when the temperature is 115 degrees, the movement of the car is essential to produce enough airflow to keep the engine from overheating. I asked Susan about this and wondered why anyone would ever choose to live here. It is so hot that a trip outside the confines of air conditioning is basically punishment.

She answered, "People just do not leave the house in the afternoon here."

What? A feeling of disgust came over me.  Where do these people get off living in a place where AC is not only a luxury, but actually a borderline necessity for survival? That is just the way of life down in Arizona.  The large cities of Phoenix and Tucson have really only grown at such a rapid pace because of modern climate control technologies. The retirees down there would not last a summer if they were forced to fend outdoors in the direct heat.

Here in Cambodia, the temperature does not get up to numbers that high, but we still have a tendency to push the mid nineties on a daily basis. This is not that hot of a temp overall, and our vehicles are certainly not overheating. However, when you throw anywhere between 60-90% humidity into the mix, a trip out of the shade will drain the majority of your energy in a matter of minutes.  Sweating does not help as there is not much breeze and the smallest amount of exertion will turn a little perspiration into some serious flop sweat.

So on the note of this being like Arizona, doing anything but sitting around in the afternoon is pretty much out of the question.  If I am not mistaken the next stop is some remote waterfall with natural vines to achieve my childhood dreams of the coveted Tarzan swing. The water cannot come too soon as our trip north is only getting hotter.

By Steven Shoppman | Posted in Cambodia | Comments (0)