Tue, 13 Mar 2001 00:52:15 +0000
From: simon @ millennium-ride.com
To: sponsors @ millennium-ride.com

01/02/03
Good morning Vietnam

01/01/23
Friendship Bridge to Laos

01/01/11
Guns, gambling, girls & ganja

2k/12/21
Singapore Greetings

2k/11/29
Perth to Bali

2k/11/11
Blues in the Bush

2k/10/26
Alice headed West

2k/10/19
SE Oz, going north

2k/10/11
Flores Report & Proposal

2k/09/25
Sydney update 25.9.00

2k/09/17
Olympic mania, Sydney
.
.
.
+ more

Summary 12 March 2001 Milward today updates sponsors from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. He tells of the ancient temples of Angkor in Cambodia, theft of several items, Bangkok's notorious night-time activities, his need for a fourth set of shock absorbers, learning to sail on a Thai island and motorcycle disrimination in the Philippines.

Hello Everyone

Coming back to Malaysia is like coming back to civilisation. People are kind and polite and speak English perfectly. The Malays were once all all immigrants from Indonesia, China and India and threw off the yoke of British colonialism in 1957. There are indigenous peoples in the hills but they are very much a minority.

As you can see, I'm back on the Psion+Motorola combination. They stood up well to the bumpy ride in the last few months. The same can't be said for a video of Australian TV news, the image jumps up and down just as if we are still out there!

[44kB 640x480] Eddy Chia, Harley Club President. He personally bought me a new jacket since my Hein Gericks item went up in flames in Laos.

Yesterday Eddy Chia, President of the Harley Motorcycle Owners Club in Kuala Lumpur, bought me a new jacket to replace the one which went up in flames in Laos. It's called HMOC because Malaysia is Muslim where pork is not eaten, and use of 'HOG' (Harley Owners Group to non-riders) lacks a certain etiquette! Sim KK, Club Secretary, deserves a special mention for all his time and effort for me. The club itself is trying to get me some new shock absorbers today too, my Koni items having become a victim of the Cambodian bomb-cratered roads.

Speaking of which, the two day ride from Phnom Penh to Angkor Wat (wat means temple) was pretty much uneventful apart from meeting several teams of landmine clearers. One was clearing 20m at the sides of the main road in preparation for a new surface. A Cambodian policeman came along wielding a metal detector, "Clearing mines?" I asked. "Yes, just doing around the village here. It's a new model from Germany."

All this mine clearing and the bomb-cratered roads belies the fact that the war was over 30 years ago. Cambodia has had no money to do anything about the state of the country..

[53kB 480x640] The Temples of Angkor, Cambodia.

The 100 temples of Angkor are amazing. Built by the Khmer civilisation between seven and eleven centuries ago, it was from here that the Khmer kings ruled over a massive empire stretching from China to south Vietnam and West all the way to India. Most temples are in a 500km2 area and many have been restored to something of their former glory. Angkor Wat itself is breathtaking. Some wats have been left to the jungle, as they were found by the French who rediscovered it in the 19th century. I spent three days here which cost me US$40. Well, I thought, I'm only here once.

At one wat, an old woman grabbed my wrist as if to lead me off to look at her wares. A little later I noticed my Mitsui OSK Lines was gone! She was very good. And I think it was the policeman at the same wat who stole my cycle speedometer - who cares it wasn't working anyway. Basically I've had no speedo since the Australian outback.

[51kB 640x480] Dancing girls at local festival, NW Thailand.

Several things happened on the way to the Thai border. The shock absorber eyes broke necessitating a stop at a small repair shop to saw up some steel tubing which we fitted in place of the shocks. Hardtail time again, nice and low too, with only 40km to go before the tarmac. Someone also stole a part of the box mountings of the bike. It happened either at the hotel (the bike was parked in reception) and I didn't notice in the morning, or right outside the customs/immigration office at the Cambodia/Thai border. (This is something else the Harley club aims to sort for me, ahh it's really nice to be looked after.)

[52kB 640x480] Round the campfire at Pie, Thailand.

By this time I was completely exhausted but made it to the Thai island of Ko Chang before collapsing on the beach. The island is undeveloped, quiet and extremely laid back, an attitude no doubt helped by various cultural smoking activities. At end of the week a Canadian gave me an hour's tuition learning to sail a small catamarran - some thing I always had wanted to do. I even sailed solo round an island a couple of km off shore.

[36kB 640x480] Rest and relaxation on island of Ko Chang, Thailand. I learnt to sail on this. Ron note the Man United shorts, donated by a Buddhist Monk in Bangkok.

Back in Bangkok I serviced the bike, saw my friends from FMSCT (m/c sport) and asked Shell for a donation. I briefly visited Patpong, the area for which Bangkok is most famous, but wasn't really impressed with the razor blade tricks, the ping pong balls nor the funny ways to smoke cigarettes. However she was very good with the witch's hat shaped darts and popped the balloons every time.

[102kB 480x640] The bike also took some time off under the shade of palm trees on the beach.

>From Bangkok it was a three day ride here to Kuala Lumpur where I'm hoping to raise some money before moving on to Johor Baru on Wednesday and then Singapore. I wish I had a couple of weeks here in KL, I know I'd raise US$10,000 easily and probably much more. But time marches on and along with it the summer window of opportunity for biking in Siberia/Alaska.

>From Singapore the bike is being shipped to Japan whilst I'm having a stopover in the Philippines for a week or so. The country was not on my schedule but the Freedom Riders there are in the middle of a fight against a discriminatory motorcycle ban on motorways. They promised to lend me a bike so that I can get busted thereby internationalising the issue. I mean, how can a country be taken seriously when it operates such a stupid policy? I'll also attend their annual convention.