August - October 2010

The Golden Triangle

TRIP SUMMARY

What a trip! To try and summarise the whole adventure is difficult.

Our success in coffee terms we would have to rate it at 99%! On any adventure we hope to come back with 1 or 2 coffees that we rate highly enough to investigate further. We achieved that as expected in Indonesia and also found some other coffee’s that have us very excited.

The Doi Chang coffee was similar in style and quality to that of Hawaiian Kona or Jamaican Blue Mountain, but arguably with an even better story and the Aceh coffee from the mountains near Bandar Aceh seems to have something very unique to offer, we wait for our samples with baited breath.

To rate the trip in Adventure terms, we would have to give it a high 90s as well. Crossing borders and shipping the bikes, many and varied road conditions, the high temperatures combined with the sheer distances travelled, offered the greatest experiences and challenges. That was what we were looking for and we got it in spades. It is the nature of hunting coffee that you are travelling near or more accurately just after the wet season. This means, washed out roads, hot temperatures on the down side, but low season prices and less tourists on the up side.

The best and worst would have to be as follows: -

Best Food: - Thailand. Without question the flavours of Thailand stick in our minds.

Worst Food: Laos. Apart from the cities where the food was French influenced, in the country it was bland and very basic, sadly this seemed to be due to poverty.

Best people: Hard to separate the Thai’s from the Indonesian’s on this one. I would have to give it to the Indonesian’s this time mainly because we knew the Thai people were friendly but didn’t expect such a warm reception by everyone in Sumatra and Java.

Worst People: Honestly they were all so good to us I can’t do it. Best roads: Thailand by miles. Their roads are better than ours! As is their medical system. And all funded by a 7% income tax rate. Go figure.

Worst Roads: Lao. We road through a 180 km pothole there, but they are changing fast.

Best scenery: Sumatra. It is truly stunning although not really set up for tourism yet.

Cheapest Beer: Cambodia. Pub street in Siem Reap had 50c pints all night!

All in all it was a fantastic trip and we hope you enjoyed coming along for the ride. Trust me, writing the travel diaries at night after long days in the saddle can get pretty tiring, but we were always keen to try and share our experiences each day. We kind of ran out of time (and steam) at the end of the trip and before we knew it we were back in the thick of work.

So what and where to next?
We missed Vietnam this trip, as we were not able to take our bikes across the border. That cut a lot of coffee exploration out of our trip, so we would love to shoot back over and use hired bikes to track down some of the new world coffees growing there.

A big trip on the horizon will be central America (perhaps 2 years away) there is so much to see there from Mexico, to Panama, Costa Rica and Peru all turning out great coffees.

Watch this space as planning has already begun.

TRAVEL DIARIES...

20 June: The Plan

After our successful motorbike trip around India, we are now in the final stages of planning our next adventure to Asia in search for the finest beans. This time we want to check out high quality coffees from northeast Thailand and other small plantations we have heard about in Java, plus anything else we discover on the way.

Once again we will use our favourite means of transport, the trusty motorcycle, only this time we will be taking our own. Our BMW GS Adventures are booked on a ship from Fremantle arriving in KL around the 18th of August. We will ride up through Malaysia, into Thailand and loop around through Laos, then south into Cambodia and back through Thailand & Malaysia across the channel into Java and finally into Bali around early October.

We have also invited our customers, Scott from One for the Road coffee drive thru fame and Garry from the great MORE Cafe in Busselton.

Along the way we will experience great food, no doubt some challenges as well as hopefully finding some new coffees worthy of our discerning customers palate back home.

21 June 2010: The Bean Machines

We have got the bikes ready to go. Auto Classic in Perth are fitting them into crates for us in a couple of weeks.

The Bean Machines will take us pretty much anywhere we need to go. Good beans hide in mountainous regions and harvest is not long after rains so you need to be able to handle bad roads.

After planning the route we sat down for a couple of hours of paperwork. Carnet du Passage docs for the bikes and visa doc for us for Cambodia / Laos. No visas needed for Indonesia Malaysia or Thailand.

Although we have travelled in these areas before - we have to ride through some areas of unrest so careful planning is important. We have been invited to visit a number of interesting coffee plantations so we are hopeful of some good finds.

July 22nd 2010: Bean Machines on the move...

Both BMW Bean machines are packed into their crates and heading to Fremantle today. They will be packed onto their ship bound for Kuala Lumpur.

All our personal documentation is prepared. Not just the usual passports and visa's but Carnet du Passage documentation for the bikes. Basically you cannot cross an international border with a vehicle unless you have the necessary paperwork and insurance to cover the machine. It must be stamped into and out of each country and you cannot leave without it. This is to stop black market trade in motor vehicles. So after filling out the forms and providing money to cover their value we are ready to go. We have spare tyres, parts and tools, maps, GPS and medical gear to ensure we can cope with most events. We have also had injections to protect us from all manner of possible disease and warnings of unrest, mosquitos and dodgy gangs have been heeded. We are ready to go. 

Garry from More Cafe in Busselton has signed on. We are hoping that Scott from OFTR will too. Garry will meet us in Thailand with a locally hired bike and he will stay with us for 10 days. While travelling Garry will learn more about green coffee and coffee processing, he wants to take in some local cooking schools and we hope he will have a great time and plenty of laughs. As we head across the border into Laos Garry will head south to Bangkok and fly home to Perth. 

We will pack simple clothing for on and off the bikes is all that is needed. Plus some coffee brewing equipment and supplies of beans of course! In fact one whole pannier on one bike will be devoted to coffee supplies! I know I know...we have a problem. It is the wet season up there so we don't expect a lot of sunshine. But most of it should be warm. Only the mountains will be cold. Either way good coffee is a must!

So now it is just the count down to the flights.

August 11 2010: One week to go!

Our bikes are passing through Singapore on their way to KL. We are still sorting a couple of last minute things.

Garry from More Cafe is booked to meet us on highway 323 west Bangkok just north of Nong O. Scott from One for the Road can't make that part of the journey so will meet us in Sumatra to ride through Java.

The first part of the ride will be heading north through Malaysia to the Thai border. Hopefully the unrest in that part of Thailand has settled down. We don't want to be caught in the cross fire! We want to find some beans not get our beans.

Then up to meet Garry and a little jaunt out to the bridge over the river Kwai, before heading north to the coffee plantations.

Needless to say we are getting excited now...
...keep watching.

18th August 2010: DAY 1- The adventure begins...

Day one has been a day of drama's, not quite what hoped for. We arrived at Perth airport at 4.30am this morning to be told we would not be let into Malaysia because we could not show return flights. We explained to several airline people that this was because we were riding out of the country on motorcycles. In the end they reluctantly agreed that we could deal with any issues at KL.

As it happened once we arrived no one asked at customs and the only security guard we saw was sound asleep in his chair as hundreds of passengers walked past him laughing!

We found a driver and headed straight for Klang port where the bikes were meant to have been sitting for the last few days awaiting our arrival. However we know from experience that ports can cause all kinds of delays (which is why we sent the bikes so many days ahead) it turns out our ship was delayed 5 days and has just docked.

Also the documents we are carrying, which are the internationally required "Carnet du Passage" for moving motor vehicles across borders, are so far not recognised. We know these documents are correct and probably just have to find someone who recognises them.

So after running out of time we will push all the buttons tomorrow. Experience also tells us that if the ship has just docked then it may be a couple of days until we get to the bikes. These kinds of delays are likely at all the border crossings. But hopefully not too often!

We are excited to bust the bikes out and get on the road but I guess we will just have to be paitent - not a strong point. Tomorrow is another day and we should make some progress.

Stay tuned!

19th August: How do we get our bikes back!

What a day! First thing we called the Malaysian Automobile Association but we couldn’t reach anyone who could help, our shipping agent called and could not help, insisting we needed an import license.

We were running out of ideas when the power of the internet came to our aid, in the form of a reply from a blog we had posted on Horizons Unlimited a motorcycle travelers website.

We were told to call a specific person at customs and were given his direct number. When we called him he knew exactly what to do. He is a motorcyclist himself and had just got back from a 10 day ride in Thailand.

We had to get a taxi there which took an hour. He fast tracked our documents through for clearance (which took about 2 hours). Then we had to get road tax and insurance. This took another 3 hours and by the end of it we had insurance but no road tax.

Instead we have been sent to an office about 1 hour away. We then headed back to the shipping agent as we needed to convince them that we did have the right docs so they could provide a release document for the bikes.

We achieved that and learnt that we have to take that to ANOTHER office to be signed. Then we have to go back to customs with all of these documents, insurance and tax for their records. Then we can go to the port warehouse and maybe, just maybe we will get our bikes!

We however have run out of day so all of that will have to wait until tomorrow.

20th August: We have motorcycles!

Yay! We have our motorcycles after a long day of layer after layer of administative hassles. This included a drive to the old capital which seemed to be called JPJ by the locals. The city itself was amazing with beautiful buildings and bridges, but we went all the way by taxi (over an hours drive in traffic) to pay special road tax called ICP and it is free!?!?! Why we could not get that in Klnag I have no idea.

Any way we got all the paperwork, tax and insurance docs stamped by Customs and we were told thats it you're good to go "have a nice trip". Only one last thing - you have to go to the EDI for a stamp on this document.

Sooooooo we drove there by cab.... waited to see someone... and they said we didnt need it. Argh!
We then drove to the port and gave them our passports at the gate for "security reasons". We get inside and they say we don't have this stamp and you have to go to EDI.

Luckily for us, a local came to our rescue and got us around that somehow. Then we had to go to another port office where they said they could not release the bikes with out our passports! The Baron turned on the tears and we FINALLY got our beloved bikes out and ripped open the crates.

BMW in Perth had done a brilliant job and we rode the bikes back to the hotel to finish assembling our bikes as it was too hot in the warehouse.

By 7.30pm we were done assembling our bikes!
Tired, hungry and filled with excitement we planned our next days route over dinner and went to bed.

Tomorrow we are on our way north!

21st August: On our way

We hit the road early today in an effort to make up some lost time. It was hot again 36c and very humid. On a motorcycle this means you need to stop regularly for plenty of fluids. Inspite of this we made good time. We reached the city of George Town in Penang, around 2.30pm and had lunch of dim sums, chilli fried rice and beer.

Penang has a history that stretches back to the 14th century Malaccan Sultanate, more recently the British took over the island for a sum of 1500 pounds per annum when Sir John Mac Pherson  who was Governor General of India ordered a stopover point be found in the area to replenish their ships with food and water. 

The area we are staying on Penang is the very point they chose and is called Batu Feringghi. Feringghi is an Indian term for Europeans. Today the area still attracts European tourists on holiday. Now it is a great family holiday destination with a relaxed and friendly atmosphere day and night.

After lunch we rode around the island looking for a place to stay the night. That is when we happened on Batu Feringghi. Nice little beaches and plenty of accommodation. Its to off season so deals are good. A very comfortable room for $120 AUD including breakfast did the job.

Tomorrow we will hit the Thai border by late morning and should be in Krabi by mid afternoon!

That is exciting as we will be meeting Punch & Stu, friends of Jake & Danni who run the Yahava Swan Valley store.
Punch & Stu operate Krabi Imaging, which specialises in Hi-Definition Underwater Filming in Thailand.

It will be great to chat with people who have local knowledge and who can show us the area.

Here's to a smooth border crossing!

22nd - 23rd August: Penang, Krabi

We decided to leave early for the Thai Border expecting delays with the filling out of more forms and collecting stamps from various ‘authorities’ on the border.

Surprisingly it only took us just over an hour to get out of Malaysia and into Thailand under the whatchfull eye of one of the border control officers who took it upon himself to point into the right direction of the next office for us to visit to complete yet another form so we could collect another stamp until we had all four of them…it felt a bit like a treasure hunt.

Anyway, the system seems to work and we were on our way to Krabi which were hoping to reach before dark. We were delayed by heavy rain and 124 traffic lights!!

It was 8pm when we drove along the very quite streets of Krabi (the off season) to find a room at ‘The Mansion’….NOT!

Today we met with Danni and Jake’s friends (Stu & Punch) and had a look around, continuing up north taking the coastal road.

24-25 August: Krabi - Ao Nang
Explored Krabi region in the pouring rain, driving past some amazing rock formations and also had to have a look at some of the beach resorts including the infamous Ao Nang beach which I am sure will fill up with tourists in the high season. Being the rainy season, it was all pretty quiet.

The road leading north took us through some of the best motorcycling journeys we have experienced in a long time! Scenery, good roads, excellent road side food stalls where we enjoyed the best noodle dishes ever tasted!

Had to cover over 1000kms in 2 days to get to our pre-arranged destination (200kms east of the River Kwai) to meet up with Gary Ward from More Café (Busselton) who has just flown in from Perth and hired a bike in Bangkok and will join us for 10 days, driving the very beautiful far north of Thailand where we are hoping to find some good coffee!

26-27 August: Ratcheta Buri - Ban Pong -Kantchanaburi

We over nighted in Ratcheta Buri about 60kms out of Bangkok and just 20 kms from the town we had arranged to meet Garry Warr from More Cafe. That night we headed out to a local Thai restaurant where met the DJ and great guy who sat with us all night as there was a live band. They were very good at old songs both Thai and Western. The next day, feeling a little hungover we waited to hear from Garry before heading to Ban Pong, the meeting place, before continuing on to the "Bridge over the River Kwai" in Kantchanaburi.

Garry was delayed for most of the day so when he finally got to us about 3pm we decided to find a place to overnight. We rode up and down the streets of this busy industrial town and could not find anything we could cope with. We were stopped on the side of the rode when a local man Peter, pulled up on a scooter and asked what we were looking for. We told him and ended up arranging to stay in his apartment which was attached to his workshop. He wanted 300 baht which is $10.

He then took us to meet his buddies. All of them are successful local businessmen. Peter owns an engineering business, and the other guys similarly own metal working businesses.

We ended up having a great night with them at a local restaurant sampling local fare. The next morning we headed out to the floating markets and then rode up to the Bridge over the river Kwai.

It was a hot day (39 degrees and very humid) which makes motorcycle riding very uncomfortable as you need to wear protective clothing. By the time we reached Kantchanaburi we were dehydrated and feeling pretty exhausted.

We managed to find accommodation on the Jungle River Rafts which are floating on the river. The river is literally passing by your window which fantastic. The rooms float on the river, you cross a small foot bridge to reach them and each has aircon & ensuites - no TV, nice and quiet.

As we rode around today we passed a cafe called "Cabbages & Condoms" we kid you not! We had to go in and see what this was all about!? Well it was all serious coffee inside. And they were selling the Doi Chang coffee that we will be visiting in the north. We were very encouraged by what we tasted. It is a soft easy drinking coffee and may be very good, so stay tuned!

28-29 August: River Kwai - Nakhon Sawan - Chiang Mai

Fast flowing water underneath our rafts ensured for a good nights sleep, ready to take on the River Kwai by long tail boat in the morning. 

Powered by a turbo charged 6 cylinder Isuzu engine the boat looked ready for high speed action! However the driver of the boat was nearing eighty years old and as a result, the speed of the boat did not exceed 3 knots ph.

After the boat ride we continued our adrenaline rush on our bikes, driving north towards Nakhon Sawan and getting lost trying to find a shortcut in the Uthai Thani region ending up on a dirt road leading up into the hills, around a ‘military secured area’ and back again, creating a frustrating extra couple hours riding whilst ending up 20kms south from where we started…not good!

Nakhon Sawan had nothing much to offer than a bed, a bathtub to do our washing in (we started to smell) and a not so bad cup of coffee followed by a good nights sleep, only to be woken by heavy traffic at 5.30am.

The ride north to Chiang Mai was mostly uneventful with only a couple of pleasant moments when  highway presented us with some scenic mountain rides approx 150kms south of Chiang Mai.

A very humid day of riding had us all looking forward to a cold beer as we neared Chiang Mai, when Gary’s Kawasaki 250c decided to give up the ghost.

Later we discovered it to be an electrical fault.
John strapped on the ropes and we towed him into Chiang Mai, a local mechanic helped fix the bike and refused any payment.

Now we were more ready for a coldy then ever!!

2 September: Doi Chaang

It took us well over the expected 4 hours drive to arrive at Doi Chaang Coffee Plantation, approximately 4000 feet up the in mountains north of Chang Mai/southeast of Chang Rai. By chance we arrived amidst a tribal celebration with music, dance, food and great coffee served!

Originally the village was inhabited by the Hmong hill tribe people and later on the Lisaw and Ikaw (or Akha) tribes migrated to this village in 1915 and 1983 respectively.

Baan Doi Chaang is named after the mountain that looks like two elephants, mother and a child, pointing their faces to the north. The weather is cool with plenty rainfall, with an average temperature of 18 degrees, perfect to grow outstanding coffee.

The two key persons behind Doi Chaang Coffee are ‘Wicha’ (Wicha Promyong,) and ‘Ardel’ (Panachai Pisailert-Managing Director)) and we were lucky to be able to meet with Wicha (President of the Doi Chaang Coffee Comp) and learn about the processes of Doi Chaang coffee.

It was evident that the passion of the people, the facilities in place to ensure both an eco- and overall social friendly environment, that the cupping of this great coffee was going to be equally as impressive….we were right!

History tells us that Thailand started to cultivate coffee back in 1824 (with the help of the The Dutch and the British) and by 1855 the first commercial bean was picked. Not much has been recorded since until 1957

Doi Chaang’s 8000 acres of plantations is covered with four varietals of Arabica coffee plants: Bourbon, Caturra, Typica and Mundo Chaang Nova from which they process an Organic, Conventional and Peaberry coffee. Over the years they have been able to cultivate such strains of coffee plants to create immunity against the disease ‘coffee rust’. They have just passed their first Fairtrade audit and are preparing themselves for more  international recognition.
The coffee itself has a naturally low caffeine level (1.5%) and presents an exceptional smooth, sweet cup of coffee with wonderful aromas. The coffee has been compared to Jamaican Blue Mountain and Kona and is well sought after in the States, distributed by their partners based in Canada, where this coffee is retailed for up to US$80 per kg. Recently their main coffee cupped at 90 points and the peaberry at 93 which puts them right up there with the top 5% of coffees!

Without going into much further detail (more will follow over the coming year I am sure, as we are looking to bring this coffee into our KoffeeWorks) we feel that Doi Chaang coffee is well worth the price, also taking in consideration that 30% of the profits of Doi Chaang coffee, is distributed by the ‘Foundation’ to improve social facilities around the region.

Just having some breakfast, tasting the Doi Chaang Certified Organic Coffee Blossom Honey and I used their ‘Honeybee Coffee Soap’ in the shower last night, trying to wash away the crud from my face, it is clear there is a great story and product range here and we are sure it is something our customers will love!

It will take some real effort to get this coffee and we will pay handsomely for it so we would like your feedback as to whether you think we should bring it in.

3-4 September: Across the Mekong

After leaving Doi Chaang Coffee we said our goodbyes to Garry Warr from MORE CAFÉ in Busselton and as he headed south to Chiang Mai we headed north to Chiang Kong to find a ferry to take us across the mighty Mekong River.

We found customs and immigration down at the waters edge as well as the ferry we were hoping for. Once again there was the expected paperwork plus much more creation of documents and stamping and duplicating.
After buying insurance for Laos (250 baht), we jumped on the midday ferry for our grand journey across the Mekong.

Once on the other side we found all the offices closed for lunch. We considered just riding off but decided to wait and by 1.30pm we headed up the hill from the river all stamped and signed off. Laos - here we come!

As we turned down the first street we noticed that there were a bunch of scooters riding straight at us, this in itself we felt was not uncommon. But when a truck drove us off the road we figured out pretty darn quick that in Laos they drive on the other side of the road!

A local explained that the ferry crossing was about to be replaced by a big new bridge and a huge double tunnel was to be built to replace the mountain road we were about to ride over. All of this is being built by China to connect its manufacturers with Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

From our point of view it is a good thing as the road we headed off on was a wash out. It was basically an 83 km pot hole connected to another 100kms of pot holes!
Rough, hot and dusty, this road sapped our strength.

Don’t get me wrong here, we are not complaining as this is the sort of road we love to conquer and it is often at the end of such roads that the best views (and if you’re lucky, the best coffees) are to be found.

That night we stayed in Louang Namtha in the far north of  Laos right on the border with China.

5 September: Over the mountains of north Laos

Today we are up early for a 6.30am breakfast as we have a long ride to Louangphrabang (pronounced: Lou an pra bang) .

Our plan is to try and ride in the cool morning air as the heat and humidity saps our energy by mid afternoon but it’s a very humid morning and 30 degrees by 9am. We are warned that the road ahead is a mess. It was but we kept our speed down and picked our way through the pot holes and rocks.

All the way over the mountains there are tiny villages which although quaint in their own way, they offer more hazards for the weary driver. A mixture of dogs, cats, turkeys, cows, pigs and small children are running around on the road in each one. This while cars, huge trucks and motorcycles roar through at breakneck speed. Many times we had to panic stop to avoid hitting animals. The children seem pretty road smart.

We reach a town called Muang Xay by lunch time and drop into a bank to change some money over. In the bank we met a Frenchman who is working for The World Food Organisation. He tells us of food shortages and extreme weather that has combined to make life difficult for these small villages.

Most village dwellers traditionally just eat plants that are growing wild around them as well as keeping chickens, turkeys and pigs. Many are now moving into farming, however their methods are very out of date and yields are too small.

In Laos there are as many as 200 languages and dialects which make’s it difficult for aid groups. He told us about many schools that were built in the larger villages that remain closed as they cannot find teachers who speak the local dialect.

Many people there do not want change, after years of civil war they just want things to stay the same and they do not complain to the government. But with China building roads, bridges and tunnels, most channels on TV being Chinese, Chinese hotels and banks appearing and Chinese trucks dominating the roads, change is indeed coming (ready or not) for northern Laos.

6-8 September: Luangphrabang and Vientiane

After a huge ride over the mountain range and taking in some beautiful scenery we made it to Luangphrabang in one piece.

This is a quaint and very French style town. The French were prominent in Laos history and it shows in their architecture and food. Its kind of odd to move through a developing Asian country and find baguettes and crepes everywhere in the cities.

We stayed at a very nice small boutique hotel for around $20 per room. The staff are paid about $1 per day and the front of house boys slept on the floor in the hotel lobby under mosquito nets, in their uniforms. They consider themselves lucky to have accommodation and food as part of their job.

Today we are heading to Vientiane the capital. We have decided we need to cross back into Thailand here as Alex’s front tyre is nearly bald and there is no way of getting one in Laos, plus the rough roads have put us behind schedule.

We are due to meet the director of Ecole d’Hotellerie et de Tourisim an organization set up to train young Cambodians for work in hospitality. We are keen to see if we can assist with the barista training area. So that means cutting back into Thailand and high tailing it down the motorway to the south east boarder with Cambodia.

Vientiane is huge and we arrive late once again to due to poor road conditions. We find a small hotel in the middle of the city and scoff some food before crashing for the night.

In the morning at breakfast we meet a man who works for a not for profit Canadian Drilling Company. He tells us more about the issues facing locals with water. It’s not about shortages as there is plenty of water in Laos thanks to the Mekong, but the water quality is not good. The water is high in acidity and once again doing anything about it is difficult. It is so bad that people are going to their doctors complaining of skin rashes from drinking the water in their village. His company wants to drill wells for them to find pure ground water. But once again he struggles with communication, suspicion of a people who are wary of strangers and afraid of change.

It is a fascinating time in Laos.

9 September: Across the border to Cambodia.

We headed down from the south eastern mountains to the border with Cambodia. Along the way we were flagged down by a guy from Perth who is living in the area. He recognized our WA plates. Nice bloke.

Once we reached the border we went through the usual process without too much problem and headed into Cambodia - not forgetting to drive on the right.

The road to Siem Reap was long straight and flat. The land as far as the eye can see is planted mainly in rice and there is plenty of water everywhere with kids swimming along the sides of the road. Its hot again and we have only rarely ridden in rain as it mainly rains overnight.

It was late afternoon by the time we reached Siem Reap and negotiate hotel for a very good price - $27 per night which in the high season would be more like $150.

We making arrangements for the following day to visit Angkor Wat and meet with Gerald Hougardy of the Ecole d Hotellerie et de Tourisme Paul Dub rule - hospitality training school.

The night calls for a beer and something to eat and we are stunned by an area called Pub Street. This has been set up for tourists but has been beautifully done with lots of colour and options of cheap food AND 50c pints!
It feels like heaven.

10 September: Hospitality, Temples and Death!

Our meeting with Gerald is not until 11am so we have our first sleep in!! Our bodies are tired and sore after riding hard everyday and we are beginning to feel it. Our bikes are also in need of a little TLC and as soon as we get to Pattaya we will rest and get Alex’s bike a new tire and both bikes some fresh oil and air filters.

We met Gerald at the school and learn that it was built by Paul Dubrule the founder of Accor Hotels (over 4000 hotels worldwide) the school is now fully funded by charitable donation and takes local young people and trains them for work in all aspects of hospitality, including cooking, front of house, house keeping, etc. They have one 3 group espresso machine and grinder. We were impressed with the facility they have built and their plans to expand it. They are turning out hundreds of well trained people into the market each year and guiding them into the right type of work. We agree to talk further about how we will best assist the school to improve the barista training area.

We head off to the temples of Angkor Wat and others around it. These temples are huge and are in various states of repair. Now under the control of UNESCO money is flowing in to rebuild them. They are truly magnificent, no words I can write can adequately describe them. Like so many of these types of ancient structure you can’t help but marvel at how they might have built them and our photo’s cannot capture the intricate stone carved fresco’s that adorn literally miles of their hallways.

To escape the heat after a few hours viewing the temples we head to the air conditioning of the national museum.

Despite Cambodia’s rich and fascinating ancient history it is difficult to escape the more recent upheavals of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. So many were killed (1.7 million people) during his time between 1975-79 and the effect was to change Cambodia forever.

Although Pol Pot died in his sleep having never faced trial, many of his cohorts are only now being punished so for many the wounds are yet to heal.

11-12 September: Back to Thailand

With our Cambodian leg complete we now head back to Thailand to take up the offer of accommodation in Pattaya from one of our wholesale customers who owns a newly completed apartment there. This is a welcome opportunity to rest our weary bodies, bikes and gear. Keeping up with laundry whilst traveling by motorcycle is tough so everything will get a thorough clean.

We head to the border where we expect a simple crossing to be essentially the reverse of the last. Not to be. Suddenly there is an additional procedure, they want us to buy insurance for the bikes at immigration. We agree, but this takes 2 hours! So all this time you stand in the sun at a table in the middle of the road whilst trucks and hand carts and people walk past. We got the feeling that no one really knew what they were doing and when the paperwork finally arrived they forgot to charge us for it - made it almost worthwhile.

Off across country to Pattaya and through a tropical rain storm which was very refreshing. Upon reaching Pattaya we found it to be a very busy city with cars and people everywhere. We arranged for a new tyre to be fitted to Alex’s bike the next morning then spent a frustrating hour trying to find the apartment. It was dark by the time we finally got there, worn out and hungry. So it was a shower a beer and some local food before crashing for the night. The apartment was a welcome oasis, air conditioned, clean and secure.

The next few days have been spent cleaning everything, getting laundry up to date and resting. Its funny that its not until you allow yourself to stop that you finally realise just how tired you are. We do a little shopping and find ourselves in a local mall quite often as it’s cool there, the shops are good, they have a Doi Chaang coffee outlet and they have a huge food offering.

Tomorrow we head around the bay and south towards Malaysia. It will be good to get back on the road. We are having trouble contacting Mr Lim the owner of the onion boat that is due to take us across to Sumatra, so we are not certain what is happening there.

Sometimes it’s best to let these things happen.

13 - 16 September: The second leg of the adventure!

We set off in the morning aiming to reach Ratchaburi by mid afternoon. We first had to head north and around the bay hopefully staying on the outskirts of Bangkok and then head south west to Ratchaburi. Looking at the map we should easily reach there by 2 pm. Good plan.

As we neared Bangkok the roads became confusing, the signage worse so and even our GPS couldn’t decide if we were heading in the right direction. After lunch by the river we ended up right in the middle of  the hell that is Bangkok traffic. Avoid it at all costs! We got stuck in there for hours!

Our engines both overheated as did our bodies. Then around 3pm we got split up and then a down pour added more difficulty. Alex with the BMW GPS onboard his bike eventually found the right road. Me (John) with my “man compass” got completely lost. I stopped for directions several times but that made it worse (probably because I was asking men who were, no doubt, using the same brand of compass!) Both of us were now riding in the dark and pouring rain in Bangkok traffic. What a mess!

We agreed that trying to find each other was probably not going to happen, the best thing was to find some accommodation for the night and catch up in the morning.

The next day I was up early and ready to ride at 7am. I could not get a reply out of Alex but had figured out where he was the night before and I only figured out where I was in the morning so I started out heading towards Alex‘s destination assuming I would hear from him soon enough. I got to his hotel at 10.20 am to find he had slept in until 30 minutes ago!

We hit the road heading south at about 11.30am and only reached Hua Hin a few hours down the highway before deciding to stop. We stopped because it looked like a nice destination and somewhere that needed exploring. We are glad we did as it is a great place. Nice eateries, stores and bars, without the crazy Go Go Bar style of Pattaya, just a relaxed local tourisim based, beachside town. Very nice indeed.

After cooking our engines the day before we thought it wise to now get the oil changed. So we booked them in for the next day and spent more time taking a look around. We visited surrounding areas, Thailand’s largest Buddha temple and a couple of new developments to learn about the real estate market there.

Generally the prices seem cheaper than Bali and you get more for your money. But without an airport anywhere close it remains frequented mainly by residents of Bangkok.

September 17-23: Hua Hin to Medan.

After a couple of days in Hua Hin we finally made contact with Mr Lim the Onion Boat man. His schedule gave us plenty of time to reach Penang, so we headed south rather reluctantly leaving Hua Hin behind us. Of course we have flights home we have to meet in Indonesia so we are keeping them in mind all the time.

After a big days ride we reach Songkhla on the south eastern coast near Hat Yai. Songkhla is kind of 2 towns. The first area we find is nicely laid out along a big beach with huge schools and universities and just 3 hotels. They’re all full, so we head into the city. it’s a rough port city and not a lot of fun. The next morning we leave extra early in heavy rain. We reach Hat Yai and rush hour traffic, no fun. After finally breaking through the city we pass many industrial towns before reaching the border around 9am. We had some breakfast and steadied ourselves for the process of leaving Thailand and entering Malaysia. Before we know it - we are through! The easiest crossing yet, so we head south for Penang. Then we hit the biggest tropical storm yet. The rain was huge and slowed us to a crawl, but it did wake me up as I was falling asleep at the err bars! We arrived very soggy at the hotel, they love dripping wet motorcyclists in their lobby. After checking in I needed a nanna nap!

The next day we met with Mr Lim and he told us when the boat would now be leaving and unfortunately we were going to lose a few more days as it would arrive in Belawan until Saturday night. If we want to get them off the port before Monday we would have to pay some “overtime” money to Customs. Hmmmmm OK.

So we dropped the bikes to the port and jumped a plane to Medan so we could get started with Customs to get the bikes cleared early. We will also meet with a major coffee exporter and cup some coffees. Arriving in Medan after a 55 minute flight from Penang we find it seems quite a relaxed place with a bustling shopping district. The next morning we find their has been a terrorist problem the day before, with 15 terrorists raiding a bank and shooting it out the police. 3 were killed and 7 arrested. They found a cache of weapons including TNT, AK47s and assorted weapons. Not quite as relaxed as we thought! The next night the terrorists attacked a police station and killed 3 of them. The good thing seems to be that they are focused on each other not tourists. Not nice though.

September 24 - 29: Medan-Coffindo

We established contact with Coffindo Coffee Traders in Medan on the day we arrived. We were invited to join the Marketing Team and the Star-Cupper the day after.

Having found out that the factory/warehouse is only 30 minutes from the hotel we were staying, we took it upon ourselves to get a cab, show him the address we had written word for word on a piece of paper, sat back and after 1.5 hours driving around Medan’s outskirts, with the cab driver jumping in and out of the car to ask for directions, we new we were in trouble. By luck, we saw a truck full of coffee beans making its way down a side road and we told the driver to follow it.  As we anticipated, the truck made his way to Coffindo to offload some of the finest Aceh Coffee which we got to taste that very afternoon.

We were shown around the factory and warehouse facilities and enjoyed true Sumatra hospitality. The cupping session gave us the opportunity to taste their Grade I, ELB Grade and High Grade Arabica varietals with all the fingers pointing to the bold, low acidic and sweet ELB Grade. This bean is 18-20 screen size which is significantly larger than the 15-18 screen size we usually carry . The rich volcanic soil with plenty of micro nutrients and relatively high altitude provides this great coffee with a nutty/almond  aroma an a refreshing herbal/spicy flavor and good body. We are looking forward to receiving more samples of this years crop in the mail hopefully by the end of December.

Coffindo is also an exporter of Certified Organic Coffee as well as the original Kopi Lewak, available retail at $300 per kg if anybody is interested!!? This coffee is still recognized as the most expensive coffee in the world and is derived from the coffee eating Lewak in Bahasa (or Civet as we know it). In my opinion, its still over rated at this price.

Now that we knew Aceh coffee is of a quality that suit’s the Yahava list of fine arabicas, we made our way up to the northern region of Sumatra (Aceh Province/Takengon approximately 1100-1300m above sea level,) to see how they process the coffee, ensuring its not only a good coffee, but the processes are also social and eco friendly.
The roads were a ‘network of potholes and it took us over ten hours to reach the first of the villages busy harvesting this year’s crop. See photo opposite.

We were advised by the team at Coffindo that there is not the usual central processing stations, which would have made our life much easier, but the numerous plantation villages handle their own harvest, whilst using both the dry and semi-washed processing method. The equipment they have available is basic but effective as can be seen in the photos.

The care the villagers take in processing was a pleasure to watch. With Coffindo coffee buyers based in the Aceh Province, Coffindo ensures they get the best of the crop.  After the local milling/drying process, Coffindo has the coffee send to the Medan factory and warehouse where the coffee gets stored in parchment awaiting for orders mainly from USA, Japan and NZ. The grading is done fully by hand prior to shipment which you can see in the last photo.

It is our intention to be the first Australia Coffee Roaster to take receipt of this fine Aceh coffee.

The Koffee Baron