The Golden Triangle Adventure

Today the Golden Triangle Adventure officially started. After the welcome dinner and general briefing Sunday night in Pattaya, the group gathered for the first time the next morning to face the first 400 Km of the 2017 GIVI Explorer tour.
It was so humid in Thailand in the early hours of the day that we could barely take the group picture without the lens of our camera getting fogged.
After a quick mid-morning stop to make sure all the motorcycles’ controls were adjusted to the different preferences of every rider, the group moved quickly towards the Cambodian border. The long straight road, the overcast weather and the humidity made for a less than pleasant ride, but we all knew that awesome roads and beautiful archeological and religious sites were waiting ahead of us, so we toughed it out. The most interesting episode of the day was definitely the border crossing from Thailand into Cambodia. We had to park all the motorcycles at the Thai customs area, register all their individual documents and finally move over to immigration, where they checked us out after taking individual headshots and controlling our passports. Surprisingly, the crossing into Cambodia was less than the hassle we all expected: the border patrol rounded us in the customs’ yard and after maybe 10 minutes all the paperwork was done e we were allowed to get back on the road.
Riding here, on the other hand, was a completely different deal, and nobody can really prepare you for  the craziness that we saw along the last 150 km. Cattle, any kind of carriage, pedestrians, bicycles, cars, big trucks and, of course, swarms of scooters, apparently coming out of nowhere when you least expect it.
The group eventually made it to the hotel in Siem Reap just after dark, and although the ride today was long and tiresome, tomorrow will be a great day: we are visiting the Angkor complex, the largest religious site on the planet, home to many beautiful temples and monuments that will be a joy to see and learn about.

Today was a day off for the GIVI Explorers, and we took the opportunity to visit the beautiful Angkor complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The whole history of this area is very intricate but as a general reference Angkor was the seat of the Khmer Empire and between year 900 and 1200 more than 1000 temples were erected here. Some are now just a pile of stones, others are world famous, like the three the group visited: Angkor Thom, of Hollywood fame thanks to the first Tomb Rider movie with Angelina Jolie; Bayon, also known as the temple of the smiling Buddah, and finally the magnificent Angkor Wat, built by King Suryavarman II as main temple of the empire and his own eventual mausoleum. More than 3 million people a year come visit here, and even Jaqueline Kennedy dared a quick visit during the Vietnam War to “fulfill a lifetime dream”. Angkor Wat, the largest single religious monument on the planet, was originally dedicated to the Hindu god of Vishnu, but it turned in a Buddhist temple as king Jayavarman imposed Mahayana Buddhism as the main religion. Angkor Wat today represents Cambodia to the point that it’s featured on the national flag of the young South-East Asian Country.
But being an Explorer is not just about riding motorcycles and visiting beautiful sites. It is about experiencing different cultures and learning and accepting their history. And Cambodia has a very sad, recent history. The brutal genocide carried by tyrant Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge fighters in the 1970 and 1980 has left a permanent mark in the population and in the collective memory of the Country. After many years of civil war, Cambodia’s population shrunk to less than 16 million people, and to this day it’s hard to count how many deaths the regime really caused because there are previous record to compare: the UN and the Khmer themselves claim 2 to 3  million victims, but independent studies and local activists point at a number between 5 or even 8 millions.
Cambodia only opened up to tourism in year 2001, but a big effort has been made to welcome visitors from all over the world.
But the chilling words of our tour guide today still resonate in our minds and hearts. “I was lucky I was only 12 when the civil war finished, because they were forcefully recruiting any male 16 or older to become a soldier and go fight the Khmer Rouge resistance near the Thai border. We used to live by the main road but eventually had to move inside the jungle, to stay away from the bombs dropping every day and hide from the soldiers from both sides. They would arrive, kill all of our animals and seize the rice without leaving anything for us to survive. Eventually, I got used to eat raw fish and vegetables because we could not cook or steam anything or the spotters could see the smoke and come to get us. But now the war is over, we have peace and Cambodia is smiling again”.

The Givi Golden Triangle Adventure today continued as the riders got back in their saddles and rode from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia, for a total of 315 km.
This region of the Country is flat and literally covered with rice fields, the staple food in this area of the World. The day started off with a topical storm that hit the Explorers right when they were ready to get on the road at 7.30 AM. Not fun, not at all if you consider that most side roads in Cambodia are dirt roads and here dirt means red clay. Yes, that surface that just like magic turns into soapy glass as soon as the first raindrops hit the deck. And even if we were riding on mostly main roads, the clay was dragged in by the many vehicles coming from the backcountry in waves, adding fun to the ever present potholes, cows, stray dogs and so forth.
Oh, don’t forget the smell, that doesn’t really affects how your motorcycle handles but it surely takes a toll on your nose.
Anyway, the rain stopped after a few kilometers and all of a sudden it was sunny and sticky humid. Right before lunch the group took a detour on a dirt road and stopped to visit the 1000 years old Preah Tis bridge near the small village of Kampom Kdei. After a few aerial shots the drone we got back on the main road to Phnom Phen, were we arrived later in the afternoon welcomed by some mind-blowing traffic – mainly scooters with anythng from one to four people aboard. The state capitol, as expected, is a combination of ancient, modern and just plain old. Buddhist temples lay side by side with metal and glass structures and tired and boring buildings from the Seventies.
After dinner a few curious Explores took a ride on the local taxies, the tuc-tucs, and went to visit the riverside area, home of most of the nightlife, at least the one accessible to tourists. We only had time for a couple of beers because tomorrow another early wake-up call is waiting for us: we are crossing into Vietnam!

Today the 2017 Givi Golden Triangle Adventure continued with the 290 Km stage from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
The first part of the ride in Cambodia wasn’t anything memorable, with the same rice fields, random  vehicles on the road and sticky hot weather.
Crossing into Vietnam took even less than it did from Thailand to Cambodia: maybe 20 minutes total for both customs’ paperwork.
The first few kilometers in Vietnam has been really pleasant, as the landscape is very green and the little villages built near the many lakes and rivers are really picturesque. But a true nightmare was waiting up the road, let me explain. Vietnam does not allow access to any out of state motorcycle, and the only way to get a permit is to request a government designated guide to escort you. Our guy showed up on a track-ready CBR600RR, had no clue about where we were supposed to go and, to make matters worse, he had no rear view mirrors. So when we reached Ho Chi Minh City, not only he picked the very one route that we wanted to avoid at any cost, but he could not see us struggling in the brutal traffic (more about that soon) and at some point we didn’t know where he was, and I’m pretty sure he didn’t know where we were, either.
After finally reuniting and giving him a good piece of our mind, one of our guys took over and guided us to the hotel without further delays.
The problem is that the “guide” dragged us well within the city limits and, like it or not (and we did NOT) we found ourself stranded in the most intricate, random and bewildering traffic jam. Because, with its 7.5 million scooters, Ho Chi Minh truly is a perpetual, giant traffic jam.
How bad it was? Well, it took us 2 hours to cover less than 25 kilometers…
There is no traffic light, intersection, construction site or accident that can stop or slow the constant flow of scooters. When there is no more road to squeeze by the jump on the sidewalk, and if the regular direction is too busy (even for them) they simply cut across and proceed riding the wrong way.
How they don’t have 300 casualties per day on the street of HCMC, I honestly don’t know. On our big and fully equipped adventure bikes, we all felt like big rocks stuck in the middle of a mountain stream.
Even pedestrian have their own way of crossing the street: they simply start walking, looking down and keeping a steady pace, while the swarm of incoming scooters filters around them, amazing.
To me, riding in this traffic felt like a motocross race: protect your inside line (so nobody jumps in front of you), yell at slower riders in front of you and when in doubt… pin it.
Eventually, like I said, we made to the hotel in one piece and after a quick shower we all went to visit the District 1 downtown, where we had a nice Vietnamese BBQ meal and took a sightseeing ride on rickshaws, the funny tricycles. What a day!

Today was one of the most important days of the 2017 Givi Explorer Golden Triangle Adventure, as the group had the opportunity to stop by the headquarters and production facility of GIVI Vietnam, about an hour outside of Ho Chi Minh City.
But we also received a nice surprise: at the very last minute Hendrika Visenzi, CEO of the GIVI Group, decided to join the Explorers in Vietnam and ride with them for the remainder three stages of the trip. Today was her first day on a big adventure motorcycle, all geared up and ready for the long distance ride that will eventually take us back to Pattaya, Thailand, next Sunday.
For today, the Italian Ambassador to Vietnam and the head of the Italian Trade Commission also joined the group for the factory visit and the event that followed.
As we said before, being an Explorer is not just about riding motorcycles or visit fancy places. It’s a mindset, a commitment to open our eyes and hearts to what is around us, embrace different cultures, expand our horizons and try to help making the world a better place, for everybody.
The participants to the 2017 GIVI Explorer Golden Triangle Adventure were invited to join a very special initiative launched by Givi Vietnam and called “Riding for Reading” and everybody accepted with great enthusiasm. The project raises funds to help Vietnamese children in primary school, from the basic needs like notebooks, pens and pencils, to longer lasting investments, like health insurance coverage and full scholarships. The kids, in their cute uniforms, came to meet us today, accompanied by their teachers and a very emotional principal. The school was also awarded an extra $800, collected among the Explorers during an impromptu fundraise at lunch.
After all was said and done, it was time for the group to get back on the road. Only 100 km separated us from our destination in Can Tho, the largest city in the Mekong Delta region, but unfortunately a couple of flat tires and the usual mind-blowing traffic slowed us down quite a bit and we arrived at the hotel well after dark.

Today it was the second last of our GIVI Golden Triangle Adventure 2017. We started with a super early wake-up call in Can Tho, to go visit the floating market of Ninh Kieu. Like in many other cities of Vietnam, a Country with a myriad of rivers, channels and lakes, the local floating market used to be the hub for pretty much everything. But things have progressively changed after the war and now Vietnamese people like to do their grocery shopping on main land. This new trend transformed the floating market in Can Tho into a very unique place, and now it’s a combination between wholesale market for fruit and vegetables, and a tourist trap. Many boats loaded with visitors converge on the floating market every morning around 6am and each and one of them is literally assaulted by a swarm of smaller boats trying to sell anything to them: from iced coffee to necklaces, from bowls of hot noodle soup to a number of colorful fruits and juices. It’s a real fight among these vendors to capture the attention and consequently the business of the tourist boats. In our case we eventually awarded the amazing effort of a woman and her kid, who set their eyes on the pray (us…), fended off her competitors and never, ever gave up until she finally approached us while we were turning around to head back to the landing pier.
She is probably one of the “river people” who still live on the water in houseboats. They are very resilient and kept a unique lifestyle alive along the  last 30 years, even now that most merchandise travels on paved roads. Unfortunately “the river people”, that also bath and cook (!) using the cloudy waters of the Song Hau river, are shrinking in number. The change is cultural: many mothers now choose to send their kids to school, going against the traditional home schooling system, and now younger generations don’t like the idea of living confined on a boat anymore.
After the visit to the floating market, the Explorers went back to the hotel to put on their riding gear and get back on the road for the 300 km stage from Can Tho to the Preah Monivong Bokor National Park, in Cambodia. We crossed the border right after lunch but we were soon greeted by a tropical storm that forced us to stop and take cover.
The final climb of about 30 km was all inside the Natural Reserve ok Bokor Mountain, all twists and turns and very fun. Tomorrow will be the last day of this year’s adventure and a little more than 600 km are waiting for us: on this kind of roads it will be challenging.

We knew it was coming, and in a way we were dreading it: Sunday was the last day of the 2017 GIVI Explorer Golden Triangle Adventure. All good things come to an end, yes, but this time the Explorer had a very challenging final stage, with more than 600 km to be covered from Bokor in Cambodia, all the way up to Pattaya in Thailand.
We started at 7 am under a roaring thunderstorm, and the rain almost never gave us any breaks for the next 16 hours. The wait at the Thai border was a little longer than we were hoping, as we had to pass through  Immigration at a crossing where there is normally very little traffic. And the hot, extremely humid conditions didn’t help our travelers, either, as they were standing in line to interview with the immigration and customs officer.
After re-entering Thailand, it started raining hard again, reducing the visibility and making for extremely dangerous riding conditions. Our marshals did a great job to slow the group down without compromising the pace too much, but three hours from our final destination we all experienced the scariest moment in the history of GIVI Explorer. For a reason that is still unclear, a truck in front of us spun off, stopping right in the middle of the slippery road. One scooter rider and one of our Explorers could not avoid the impact and were pushed in the roadside ditch. Nobody was hurt, but the bike was totaled and the rider and his passenger were transported to the local hospital for further evaluation. They were released in less than two hours   with a clean bill but some bruises and a big scare. Situations like these are part of riding, we all know, but it’s something you never want to experience anyway.
One very positive thing that emerged, is how efficient, courteous and unbiased were the first responder officers who arrived on the site of the accident in less than 10 minutes. They were quick to assess the situation, take care of the downed riders and never, even for a second, any of us felt like he was treated differently because of the color of his skin of the shape of her eyes. This is a big lesson that Thailand, the land of the smiling people, can teach to everybody. When we most needed outside help, nobody made us feel like we were a bunch of rich guys riding expensive and dangerous motorcycles. We were just people in need and our guys received the same, exact treatment as the local scooter rider involved in the accident. Big props to that!
After the accident, of course the moral of the group was a little down, but still we had to cover another 250 km  in the rain and it was getting darker. We tightened the convoy and kept a steady, safe pace for the rest of the night, finally arriving to Pattaya at 11 pm and checking off this 2017 GIVI Explorer Golden Triangle Adventure.