Cooling vests put to the test

After my arrival in Phnom Penh and some fun evenings with Reini (a.k.a. Reinhard Trippmacher), the Dresden exile motorcycle freak and Saxon resident in Phnom Penh and some friends, we first took a boat on the Mekong towards South Vietnam, where we spent a few nice days in the Mekong Delta and Saigon. After the return trip by bus from Saigon to Phnom Penh, I arrived at Reini's, who was still meticulously preparing our motorcycles for the tour. We set off the next morning in the blistering heat and were already soaked with sweat after putting on our gear. The motorcycles are Honda XR 250 and XR 400, lovingly maintained by Reini, grateful air-cooled enduro bikes, with which one could not win an enduro race nowadays, but which are perfect for these regions due to their robust and simple construction, especially without a water cooling circuit, which could break down somewhere in the middle of the jungle.

First we head through the chaotic traffic in Phnom Penh towards the Mekong and then up the river, with the infernally loud exhaust sound of the Hondas always commanding respect in the traffic of mopeds and scooters ;) After we have finally escaped the city and have the first 50 km of country roads with crazy truck and car drivers behind us, we turn off onto small side roads and drive directly upstream along the Mekong, before taking an adventurous ferry across the river and turning north-east into the Mondulkiri region. After the first overnight stay, we continue the next morning, whereby the roads have long since become rough and heavily rutted gravel roads and we spend most of the time standing up. This is where the heat vest from the Heatpaxx guys really comes in handy, as it's just hot every day in Cambodia (approx. 37 degrees +) and riding with luggage on the back is sometimes exhausting.

The cooling vest works amazingly well and keeps you pleasantly cool for several hours until the effect slowly wears off. As soon as it is soaked with water again, it keeps the skin perfectly cool again. The whole thing also works under the chest protector (protector vest), which is absolutely essential for enduro riding, although evaporation and thus cooling is somewhat inhibited where the protector rests directly on the vest. Overall, however, the vest is definitely recommended, the effect can be seen especially in comparison to other riders who are completely sweaty while you still feel fresh. There is less strain on your circulation and you can concentrate for longer, which is essential for enduro riding. This is because you usually come to a standstill when you lose concentration and at the same time your strength diminishes. After endless kilometers through the jungle on completely flooded logging roads with muddy pools up to 1.50 meters deep, over rivers with log-like wooden structures and villages with wooden huts, we arrive at the Nature Lodge in Sen Monorom / Mondulkiri very exhausted at night and are warmly welcomed by the owners, who are friends of Reini.

Everyone gets a beautiful wooden hut and a big steak and we fall contentedly into our beds. Mondulkiri is a beautiful mountainous province in Cambodia, where the climate is very pleasant compared to the rest of the country, so you can take a deep breath at night and sleep without air conditioning or a fan. Over the next few days, we start our hardcore enduro tours from Sen Monorom. Reini is a super guide, he speaks fluent Khmer and knows his way around very well, but you can tell that he has already covered tens of thousands of kilometers on his motorcycle all over Cambodia in the last 6 years. We ride on small paths through the jungle, there are no longer any bridges for the river crossings, it's just a case of "close your eyes and ride through" ;) And again and again extremely steep and rocky ascents and descents, alternating with river crossings, muddy deep jungle and again the deeply rutted illegal logging roads.

At some point, we both just drive as if in a trance, only forwards, always driving, just not thinking, accelerating and through or over. There haven't been any real roads for a long time now, we're using GPS to find our way through the jungle. This is where I learn to love my body armor, because without it I would probably have just fallen off the bike at some point that day. I quickly put aside thoughts of what would happen if I crashed here and broke my leg or injured my shoulder (the classic enduro crash). That would actually be a real problem here. At some point I realize that there is no way we will make it to the next town before nightfall and prepare myself mentally and morally for a bitterly cold night in the forest next to the bikes. But Reini comes up with a saving idea: he searches the GPS for the coordinates of a hilltribe village that he once rode through on his tours. We reach the village just before nightfall and, as with every rest stop, we are of course the main attraction. You feel like an alien who has just landed on another planet (and is looked at like one ;) )

After a few conversations and cigarettes with the village elder, Reini asks for asylum, which is kindly granted. After a fun night in the village and an overnight stay in the village store, which is also the central meeting point, we set off again the next morning after sunrise towards the capital, which we reach again in the evening after a long day on the bike.

Far too soon a wonderful motorcycle trip comes to an end, which has given me impressions and insights into the country and its incredibly friendly people that I will never forget.

Reini, thank you!!!

Many greetings, your Andy

We would like to thank Andy Müller for these impressions from his trip through Cambodia and for testing our body armor under extreme conditions.