Travel Thailand by bike, cause what else is there to do?

ending this journey.....

veganliesa — Sat, 14 Mar 2015 18:56:00 GMT

14 March

We're feeling very cozy and at home in Nongkhai. We purchased our train tickets for Monday night to go to Bangkok in the overnight train. We went for second class sleeper seats and I'm excited to see if I can sleep on the train in the sleeper car.

Today, we have been online trying to help Joe apply for jobs in the Colorado and/ or Utah area. We did take a break and found an amazing J food stall I can't believe we almost missed because it sells cakes and donuts. We both had a huge meal, two donuts, mushroom buns, & a piece of chocolate cake for 155 baht total. I think the cute little woman who works there will definitely be sick of us before we leave this town.

Last night, I awoke to another huge thunder / lightning storm. It was the loudest and most heavy rain I have ever seen. Our guest house is looks onto the Mekong river, and I had visions of the river overflowing and sweeping away our bikes or possibly the guest house we're in! I can definitely see how flashfloods can occur in no time at all in this climate. The rain fell in an indescribeable amount for about an hour. Luckily when we woke up, everything was dry and intact. Again the storm definitely helped it cool down some.

Update: I lied! Its nearly 6pm and still 93 degrees outside!! (And we haven't had a/c since last month. Our budget is pretty frugal these days :)~

16 March am

We awoke to some great news this morning! Joe got a very good offer on his East Falls rehabbed home. He plans to accept the offer and will likely close beginning of May. It is such a relief to have that going for him. His very hard work is finally paying off. I am proud of him for being patient and achieving his goals with this house.

We have been laying low and applying for jobs for the last couple of days. Luckily we are in a very cozy guest house for a pretty cheap price (Ruan thai home for 300 baht/night) and are near two excellent veg/jay restaurants that we switch off going to. Of course there is also an abundance of fresh fruit to eat from street vendors so we are keeping our bellies full and trying to enjoy the peacefulness of this Thai town.

Yesterday we went to a sculpture park where there were humongous sculptures in the shape of various Buddhist figures. They were very cool and the park was an unexpected highlight considering the rest of the town is pretty plain.

Tonight we catch a train to Bangkok. Will arrive at 6 am tomorrow and find a guest house for our last night in Thailand. We will be busy finding bike boxes and packing up our stuff for the flight on Wednesday night.

18 March

We checked out of our Bangkok guest house (Pranee for 350 baht/night - across the street from mbk center) and are hanging out before heading to airport for 9:35pm flight to Mumbai-brussels-newark-pittsburgh. We arrive home Thursday evening.

Not looking forward to many hours of flying ahead.

We just met our first fellow American who is bike touring in Thailand. And super small world, he is from near Monroe ville!

Bangkok is just as crowded and trafficy as we left it. Its truly an urban jungle and I'm not at all a fan. The rest of Thailand is so much better.

See you all soon !!

19 March

We survived 36 hours of air travel and are safely home in Pittsburgh now. Stay tuned for a trip wrap up. Time for some rest and jet lag wars :)

Photos: Lao (People's Democratic Republic)

veganliesa — Tue, 3 Mar 2015 00:36:00 GMT

Lao PDR (please don't rush!) updated!!

veganliesa — Mon, 2 Mar 2015 13:35:00 GMT

3 March @ 9pm

So we made a last minute decision to take a bus from Chiang Rai to our desired starting town in Lao - Luang Prabang. We left Sunday around noon and finally pulled into Luang Prabang bus station at 5 am this morning - about 18 hours later!

It was a pretty uneventful border crossing. The border was quite sterile and had little magic or character about it. We did regret not riding at this point as it is a cool feeling to cycle onto a new nation's soil. Immigration control was rather unremarkabe and organized. Most people on the bus were travelers around our age from all over the world, mostly Europe.

The sites changed a bit once we got to Lao. It was much more rural and underdeveloped than Thailand. We passed many villages with wooden and bamboo houses, built on stilts. Houses were all clustered together in a methodical layout. We saw many animals on small family backyard farms. Mommy pigs with their piglets. Cows, mostly babies in fields, grazing. Adult cows missing, I assume recently went to slaughter as a group. We saw many hens with their babies following behing them in driveways. It was Sunday evening at this time. We passed lots of makeshift softball and volleyball courts with children of all ages playing - no parents in sight. The children appeared happy and serious about their game. It is nice to pass through in a bus for once - as no one sees us. Unlike when we ride passed on bikes, if people notice us, they change what they are doing to watch us or tell their friends to look. It's nice to just be an unknown observer from the comfort of a bus.

Once we started climbing the mountains, I was very happy to not be on my bike. The mountains went up forever - they were all green and beautiful. The bus went slow on the windy steep roads. Joe slept soundly throughout most of the long ride. I was not so lucky, I found it nearly impossible to sleep with the abrupt accelerations and stops on the mountain passes. Then we started on a road that was gravel making it impossible to rest. We did stop for dinner and a long bathroom break which was nice to reset and get something to eat.

Lao is defintiely going to be more difficult to get around than Thailand. (No where is better than Thailand, we are learning!)

We arrived in Luang Prabang this morning at 5am. It was still very dark out and we weren't really sure what to do. Luckily the morning markets and cafes started opening at 6. We got a baquette with veggies and tofu on it, along with Lao instant coffee and hung out downtown. We were able to check in to a guesthouse around 9 so we were able to shower and have a nap.

To our disappointment, this town is very touristy and clearly not typical of Lao. We are excited to get out of here and see the real deal, tomorrow or the next day. Also! We are back to the right side of the road and the trucks/cars are left side steering which is very comforting, yet still something to readjust to on the bike.

We met up with the two Belgium bike tourers we met in Chiang Mai. They are here for a couple of days. They cycled here from the north and confirmed this town is not at all typical of Lao. They also confirmed we made a good choice in taking the bus, they said the roads were very difficult and they are now exhausted. It was nice to see familiar faces and again, exchange notes on our trips.

4 March at 1pm

The two short days in Luang Prabang were more than enough for us. Day one we walked around checking out the city museum and temples. We also ate tourist friendly baguettes and went to the night market for food (buffet for 15,000 kip per person) and a beer. We met up with our Belgian bike touring friends and got to see what they’ve been up to. I retired early as I was still tired from our night bus ride. Joe stayed out later, chatting with the Belgians and some of their other travel friends from Denver.

This area of the country is incredibly touristy and it’s clear that many local people take full advantage of foreigners when they can. Unlike anywhere else we’ve been, there is a clear price difference for visitors and locals. I don’t mind paying more than locals, after all, Lao is one of the poorest countries in the world. But there is a difference between paying more and getting nickel and dimed for every single thing you do. Everytime you use a public bathroom, you must pay - even if the bathroom is completely disgusting with no real plumbing, no TP, no sink, no soap. It’s like some person just decides to sit in front of the bathroom to collect the money, but not a cent of the money actually goes to maintaining the bathroom - the person collecting the money just decides to make this his/her job for the day. Creates this way of making money, then goes home. We’ve been told the taxi/tuk tuk/ van drivers all charge large amounts of money to take tourists to local attractions and you can’t avoid getting people in your face asking “Hello, waterfall?” desperately wanting your money to shuttle you around. Makes us so grateful that we don’t ever have to rely on these overpriced rides, we can always jump on the bikes to get where we want to go. There is also a well-known scam here where a company rents you a motorbike and then follows you, steals it when you’re not around, and then keeps your deposit when you come back with your sob story.

This may all sound familiar with traveling, and I have been to places where it’s the norm, however we have not encountered anything like it since we’ve been here. We are pretty sure it’s mostly just LP and another backpacker town called Viang Vieng. Looking forward to experiencing the real Lao once we get out of here.

Yesterday morning we got up early and took a long hilly ride to one of the local waterfalls. It was only about 16 miles away, but a long sweaty ride nonetheless. It was very hilly and a good preview of Lao terrain. When we arrived, there were two parking lots for motorbikes and vans. Then we were told we had to PAY TO PARK OUR BIKES in these parking lots. We tried to take them in to the waterfall area (there was a road where some cars/motorbikes were going), were told no bikes, we must park them in the lot. When we tried to lock to to a tree, were told no, must pay for parking. I was getting very angry because it was truly ridiculous, we’ve been leaving our bikes unlocked and unattended for 70% of this trip because no one ever touches our bikes and now we’re being told we must pay to leave them outside of the waterfall entrance so they can be watched. The amount was very cheap, about a quarter, but by this point I was fed up with the nickel and diming. So we found a temple where only locals would be going on a side dirt road and locked the bikes there. Since we were out of sight of the parking lots and waterfall park workers we were fine and of course the bikes were fine - we were back in regular SE Asia again. We paid to go to the waterfall and enjoyed the views for a couple hours. (By the way we did give a nice donation to the temple in town, in lieu of paying some guy to “watch our bikes.”) We enjoyed a picnic on the way home, sandwiches we had bought in LP before we left. The ride home was easier and very enjoyable.

We went to a buffet in the night market for dinner again and had an early night since we expected to have an early morning. I was awakened by Joe getting violently ill in the middle of the night. I guess he got another stomach bug? He had a very rough night, but was feeling better “once he got it all out.” We woke up later than we wanted to due to Joe’s bad night. We decided to cycle a little bit out of town to get away from the crazy tourist prices and annoying backpackers. I made Joe drink a lot of water and he had some fruit smoothies, he said he was feeling good enough to ride some. We cycled about 16 miles to the next town south of Luang Prabang with a guesthouse, Xiang Ngeun. We checked in to the only guesthouse in town around 1 and now Joe is sleeping. He is feeling much better but he needs complete recovery for our huge day tomorrow. It is our first taste of Lao mountains and mostly climbing - expecting a few really long climbs over the next 35 miles. No wifi here and not much food selection. It’s great to be out in the real Lao finally! It is truly beautiful, the rolling green hills all around. Lush green forest as far as the eye can see. Children on bikes riding home from school, all with wide eyes, smiles, giggles, and sometimes waves when they see us. Like I said before, Lao is poor and much less developed than Thailand. Nonetheless, the people are friendly and obviously very resilient and hard workers. We feel so lucky to be riding through their villages soaking up all the sights and sounds, observing what daily like looks like.

In the evening, we went for a beer. Well I did, Joe still recovering had Sprite. Then we rode through the village a bit and ran in to some other bike tourers, Will and Kate from England. We ended up sitting with them at a beautiful restaurant looking over the hills and river, chatting for a couple hours about our experiences while traveling. They were very fun and we really enjoyed meeting them. They also had just come from the village we are doing tomorrow so they gave us some advice - and a bit of teasing about my lack of granny gear due to the tough ride we are facing. Hope to run in to them again on the road someday.

5 March at 5pm

We finally arrived to the village of Kiukacham about 2:30 pm after an early 6am start (with the sunrise). It was a very tough day for both of us. We started with a baby climb of the first mountain - it was all uphill for 14 km straight. We felt good during this climb and passed through about 4 villages. Observed mostly women doing morning chores and tending to babies who were strapped to their backs. Many were friendly, many simply acted like they didn’t see us. Some look at us with stares like “what the hell are you doing that for?”

We stopped a few times for roadside snacks and water and then had a nice all downhill for a couple of miles.

We started up the next mountain around 10:15. It was 20 km of straight uphill. Poor Joe was not at his best due to still recovering from illness. I did okay until about the last 15 km, I was dehydrated and we never found another foodstand for water and snacks. The temperature was in the 90s most of the day, from 10am on. Next we ran out of water and were so desperate to be in a nice guesthouse resting with cold water! We only pushed the bikes a couple of times for a 100 feet or so mainly to give cycling muscles a rest. Our average speed for the day was 3-5 mph! Horrible. We were so relieved to get here and see people eating sticky rice and that the food stands are stocked with soda and regular potato chips. That is all we really wanted, and the last town was slim pickings with the snacks we find tasty and refreshing.

Looking back, I was very dehydrated as I realized I did not pee until for about 12 hours today. Not good! Joe is a real trooper and is feeling much better since he pushed himself through the ride today and has fully rehydrated.

Our guesthouse tonight is even “more basic” than last night, however the same price at 60,000 kip per night. We have shared bathrooms (ie gross squatpots and a rustic shower). It does have hot water in the shower, which I was shocked and delighted to find. Surprisingly, cycle tourers keep pouring in to this guesthouse - more than we’ve seen anywhere else in SE Asia. It’s a mix of people going north to Luang Prabang and south towards Vientiane like us.

According to Joe, this mountain peaks at around 1500 meters and we are near the top. It was a rough climb all day. But I feel great that we powered through it, even when it was really challenging. The best part was the 360 degree views. As you go up, the mountain looks massive, going on forever. There were small dirt paths we could see all over the mountain. It is really cool to see the people who live off the mountain completely, make due with what they have and have built beautiful villages. As far as we can tell, most are Hmong people (meaning no temples or signs of Buddhism anywhere in the mountains which is very odd for us as that is something our eyes have come to expect in SE Asia. Hilltribe people all have their own unique religion - more closely related to Animism.)

March 6th at 7pm

According to the information from the other cyclists at our last guesthouse, today was supposed to be a relatively easy day. This was not true for us. It was 46 miles total (and mostly downhill), however, the parts that were uphill seemed endless and steeper than yesterday. I was very sore when leaving this morning at 7am and very much looking forward to the “easy day” I was expecting.

Many of the sites and sounds were same same as yesterday, with every village we rode through having its own welcome wagon of young kids yelling and waving to us. We were much more concious of staying hydrated today and always filled up with water when we had the opportunity. We are still both decidedly dehydrated however, and have concluded it is impossible to stay hydrated while biking all day in these temperatures. We ran into a French couple on their tandem bicycle on the very end of our ride and shared a soda with them. They are on the road for over a year and went with the tandem bike so that they could conversate and be together on the ride. I find this strange, as who would want to be with someone all day on one bike? The cycled here from France and after SE Asia will cycle South America next.

We checked into a guesthouse/hot springs resort in the middle of nowhere late this afternoon. Unfortunately the hot springs are not inviting and we haven’t bothered to try them out.

Tomorrow we hope to get to Vang Vieng which is 48 miles away and supposedly mostly downhill. We plan to stay in the quieter section of town across the river and away from the masses of drunken backpackers we have heard about who flock to VV.

8 March at 5pm - we have wifi at last!

We arrived in Vang Vieng yesterday early, around 1pm. The ride was great, mostly downhill and flat. It was amazing. Once we got out of the higher mountains, the land flattened out and there were bright green fields of rice, corn, and loads of cabbages. The change in color and scenery was really pretty. Along the route, we met up with the Frenchies on the tandem, two Italian men who are cycling the world for 2 years now, and a German 19 year old girl who is cycling SE Asia alone. The German girl rode with us for the last miles to VV. She is vegan too and very sweet, much wiser than her age. We had some falafel sandwiches and then checked in to Banana Bungalow on the quieter side of the river. This town is known for backpackers to come and get wasted and float down the river on inner tubes. Lucky for us, that means lots of western food options and baguette sandwiches of course. We are happy to eat lots of food again.

We are all staying at the bungalow so it’s a nice little community. We are swapping route advice and cycle stories. Today we got some good advice from a couple who are rock climbers from Colorado. They climb in a canyon near here called Sleeping Wall and it’s next to a nice part of the river to swim and hang out. We went there all day and it was lovely. We even got to rock climb! The nice couple let us use their equipment and the guy belayed us. It is exactly like indoor climbing, just much more interesting because you can choose what holds to use instead of having artificial ones. I really liked it. As expected, my fear of heights made it scary - but still very fun.

We plan to hang out here, maybe for one more day, maybe not. Next stop, south to the capital Vientiane.

Sorry for spelling/grammar mistakes, I know my writing could use some work and I have no editor ;)

9 March

We woke up in our cute bungalow feeling annoyed at the noise level of the party going on all in the resort next to ours. We decided to pack up quick and move on to the next town south to avoid another night like this one. We were having some complimentary coffee in the middle of our bungalows when we heard a great noise of fire and heat. I said "what is that?!" and Joe said sleepily "I dunno, a hot air balloon?" I was annoyed with his apathy of the situation, but then looked up and a rainbow colored hot air balloon was flying directly over us, about 30 feet up. It was really cool! And it also confirmed my feelings about never wanting to ride in one. There is way too much fire near ones head while being high up in the air.

We said goodbye to our new friend Ann (the solo German cyclist), and headed south on 13, the "highway." We ended up at a much nicer bungalow resort in a small village about 15 miles south of VV called Nirvana Eco Resort - French owned - and exclusively French visited (except us!). We went swimming in the lake next door. Our bungalow had a nice porch with beautiful views of this lake. http://www.roughguides.com/destinations/asia/laos/vientiane-northwest/ang-nam-ngum-reservoir/

This is Joe's entry:

10th March - 8pm “What is that sound?”

We had an early start to this cloudy but still ridiculously hot day from the “Nirvana Eco Resort” where we stayed in last night. We switched from Banana Bungalow in VV to this clean and comfortable bungalow resort on the reservoir 15 miles south. It seemed quieter than the previous night, where there was an all night party going on next door consisting of many cackling asian women and a minivan with a loud stereo. *A cat just popped up into the window and is meowing at me as I type this right now.* I was able to sleep through the party but Leese was not as lucky. Early this morning the Asian music started back up for no discernible reason, so I went over to see why in the world someone would be blasting the stereo at 7 am and found a minivan with noone around. I shut off the stereo, went back to Banana Bungalow, and grabbed a cup of tea. Liesa and I hear this whooshing sound and she asks me what it could be. Then she asks again and I say it sounds like a hot air balloon. Ten seconds later a giant balloon appears about 20 feet right above us.

We are now in the town of Lak 52, a stopover on our way to Vientiane. The ride had a lot of flat sections along with some rolling hills, none of which were too strenuous. We decided to take the main road and get to Vientiane quicker, instead of taking the probably much less traveled secondary route (but more popular for cyclists) into town. A short 37 mile ride tomorrow will get us to our first stop in Vientiane: a vegetarian restaurant (possibly Jay style)! From there we’ll have to find a place to stay and then find another vegetarian place for dinner. Even though we just had good food options as recent as VV, we are still very much looking forward to the food in the capital city. I’m going to send out resumes at some point just to see if I can get some interest from some engineering/design jobs in the places we are looking to settle at when we return. Not looking forward to going back into full time employment and having an employer limit how long I can take a vacation for, so I’m leaning towards part time or contract opportunities if they are available.

Joe signing off.

10 March

We left early, before anyone else was awake and had to leave our money at the bar before heading south again towards the capital. It was a very dusty and dirty ride. We went about 50 miles and stopped in a town called Lak52. Not sure about the name? We checked into a guesthouse, only paid 50,000 kip - Joe bargained this time! (cause the woman originally asked for 70,000) For lunch, we bought 2 watermelons, 4 mangos, 2 baguettes, 2 tomatoes, 2 cucumbers, 1 bag of (small) chips, 1 soda for me, 1 beer for Joe. We went back to the room and made some sandwiches and ate, ate, ate.. It was great! It's been so hot - temps in the 90s and very very humid/muggy. That night - a thunderstorm rolled in - we were not expecting it at all because we have not seen any sign of rain since we've been in Asia. It was one of the loudest and most severe storms I've ever witnessed. We were happy to have windows with good screens so we could listen to the rain cooling off this place!

11 March at 10pm

One our way further south, we ran in to Ann at a gas station. It was a pleasant surprise. We rode with her all the way in to the capital and found a veg buffet that she had googled. We all ate so much food. It was 25,000 kip per person. The food here is not as cheap as Thailand, but this was a pretty good deal.

We checked in to a guest house that was way overpriced. Our room was on the third floor and it was unbearably hot with just a fan.

We will stay one night and head back Thailand tomorrow. One week left before we fly back home to winter!

13 (Friday!!) March at 7:45pm

We crossed the border back into Thailand at Nong Khai yesterday afternoon after having a nice lunch buffet with our German friend Ann. . (Also in the morning, we went to a shorts film screening at the Vientiane Film Festival, the movies we saw were great, however rest of the audience was middle schoolers. That made it a pretty funny and entertaining experience. http://www.vientianale.org/sabaidee/ )

Since we have been in Nong khai, we have been mostly taking it easy and doing some job application work for when we get home in less than a week. This town is pretty low key, perfect for our needs.

Bangkok is about 600 away kilometers, so we will take a night train on Tuesday to make our flight. We considered biking some of the road to Bangkok, however if we didn't make it the whole way - we might miss our flight as we can only catch the train up here. Plus! I really don't want to ride in the traffic near Bangkok - it really is a polluted mess.

Thailand, take two.. (updated, heading to Lao tomorrow - we hope!)

veganliesa — Mon, 9 Feb 2015 17:55:00 GMT

We arrived back in Thailand via a cheap Air Asia flight on Saturday evening. Chiang Mai is a lovely city, once you get out of the tourist/backpacker area in the old city. The flower festival was this weekend so a nice guest house was hard to find. We stayed in the tourist area first but now have settled in to a lovely guesthouse near the university. We will stay here for three nights, then hit the road for Chiang Rai and then on to the Laos border.

http://www.bankongrao.com/banruanjai.html (Current guesthouse 400 bht/night and a bit nicer than we need - we prefer fan and no A/C to make it cheaper :))

Riding around town today I noticed my odometer reads 505 miles (total for whole trip)!!

Will try to add more pictures but this web site is very bad and takes ages to upload one single picture!

February 10 @ 6pm

We got up early today and had a yummy and filling Jay breakfast, then some more food to go. We rode our unloaded down bikes out of Chiang Mai and climbed the neighboring mountain - Doi Suthep. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doi_Suthep 1,676 m later we made it. It was a very challenging ride but we took lots of breaks and ate some local fruits, and of course our lunch we packed from breakfast.

We were passed by loads of these huge tourist buses on the way up, one after another. They were very big and flashy. I took a picture of one - made me think of Grampers and what he would have to say about them. (Joe said he'd approve since they didn't seem to have slideouts). :)

We looked at some craft markets run by local ethnic groups (Hmong hill tribe was one). As you would expect, it was mostly all the same stuff (carbon copies) being sold at each stall - women's clothes, jewelry, purses, wood carvings. We weren't really interested in buying any of it - unlike other experiences I've had in other places, there was no sales pressure at all. We just walked through, pushing the bikes and the lovely women smiled at us. Maybe the bikes gave us away - we are not shoppers.

The ride down the mountain was fun but felt like it took forever! Joe thouroughly enjoyed it. I didn't realize how far we came till then - It seemed like even more mountain on the way down than it did on the way up for some reason. We stopped in a lovely area with lots of flowers planted and cared for stunningly. I wish I got better pictures of it.

Now it's laundry and rest time!

February 13 @1858

We've been enjoying Chiang Mai for several days now. Yesterday, we took an all day Thai cooking class. We learned how to make several dishes and had a lot of fun. We were the only Americans, except for one other guy who was originally from CA, but lives in Germany now. Others were Dutch, Chinese, Spanish. We were pleased to find out how simple Thai cooking can be with the right ingridients. I do not think we will be able to get all the ingridients at home but have the knowledge to make most of the dishes at least. The class was held at an organic vegetable farm about 15 km outside of Chiang Mai. We stopped at the local market on the way to learn about different rices and vegetables that are staples in Thailand. There were many schools to choose from, but we picked this one based on the great reviews. http://www.asiascenic.com/ At 1200 bht/person this was a huge splurge, as we have not spent money like this on any individual tour/item since the trip began. However we have been wanting to do a cooking class since we landed in Thailand so it was an easy decision.

I would really love to take a "Jay" cooking class (Thai vegetarian food) - it is very different from typical Thai food and uses all sorts of crazy fake meat and mushrooms to make amazing vegetarian food. It's mostly what we have been eating and loving in Thailand. Best of all it costs about $1-$3 for both of us to eat a meal. Unfortunately since it's not at all a touristy thing here, the sweet women who cook this food and serve us speak no english. I want to find a translator and ask them if I can learn how/what they cook! I've been searching the internet for help, Youtube videos, cookbooks, but have not found anything yet. Will keep looking and searching for a sweet Jay woman who speaks english!

“Jay” food was introduced to Thailand by Buddhist Chinese Immigrants. A typical Jay dish is a plate of rice with two vegetable/curry toppings of your choice. As a Buddhist restaurant their aim is not to earn much profit but rather to offer veg food for a cheap price so that ordinary non vegetarian Thai people will come and eat - hence the super cheap prices.

At this point, I've stopped taking pictures of the Jay food we eat because it's not become a daily (or twice daily) occurance (except for when we are in small towns with no Jay restaurants). It is still very tasty every time I eat it, and wake up wanting more! They are typically open 6 or 7 am until 2pm. Breakfast is definitely the best time to go since it is super fresh and you get the best selection - it's also still hot at this time.

We had planned to leave Chiang Mai tomorrow am, but have decided to stick in town in order to do a short meditation retreat nearby. Our neighbor at the guesthouse told us about it. He highly reommended it. Most of the retreats are 10-30 days, but this one is modified for tourists/beginners so should fit our attention span just right - 2 days. They only offer them on Tuesdays. MonkChat.net

All of the other bike tourers we've met have been very nice and fun to talk to - mostly Dutch and German (no other Americans!). They all are on the road for much longer than us - everywhere from 7 months to 7 years! Our current neighbors are an adorable young couple from Belgium on a yearlong bike tour of Europe and Asia. They are very friendly and it's nice to be in good company. It's nice to compare stories and experiences as talking to backpackers is just not the same. While traveling, you see the world much more differently than them.

February 18 @ 9pm

Sorry we have not been writing as much as I would like. This is our last night in Chiang Mai, we are headed north towards Chiang Dao tomorrow in route to Chiang Rai and the Lao border.

We have finally booked out return flight to U.S. and will be departing from BKK (:() on March 10.

We have been at our meditation retreat for the past two days. It was a lovely and relaxing time. We learned more about Buddhism as a way of life and met many great people. http://monkchat.net

We've enjoyed our downtime in Chiang Mai so much, but happy to be getting back on bike tomorrow. Will try to post some more pics soon.

Happy Chinese New Years!!!!!! (curious to see how this holiday will affect our travels for the next days)

February 19 @ 6pm

We arrived in Chiang Dao this afternoon after a lovely 44 mile ride from Chiang Mai. Unfortunately, Joe woke up feeling sick (nausea + bodyaches), but he insisted we continue with our plan for the day. He was a trooper the whole way. We took our time and took many breaks. I was lucky to find TWO Jay/veg restaurants on our way that were open, on Chinese New Year. Joe didn't eat all day, but I am making him drink a lot and we got some meds to help. He is currently sleeping and we're both hoping he feels fine tomorrow and we can continue on to Fang/Thaton. From Thaton, we will catch a river boat (3-4 hour ride) to Chiang Rai.

I decided today that I definitely prefer northern Thailand to middle/southern. The views in this area was so pretty - rolling hills leading into green mountains. The road was of course perfect for biking and had great wide shoulders for us to use. I really enjoyed the ride today - it was one of the best rides we've had since arriving. I just felt bad for Joe! He did agree it was a great day of riding even though he felt like crap. He definitely handles being sick 100% better than me.

Since I am without my dinner partner this evening, I am now enjoying a dinner of potato chips, oreos, and sprite while listening to recent Howard on youtube. Quite the treat!!

20 February at 18:00

Joe woke up still feeling sick but improving. But since he's not really into eating/drinking we couldn't do our scheduled ride today. Instead we checked out of Chiang Dao hotel and caught a songthow (pick up truck taxi thing) to Fang for 200 bht total. Bikes on top. The drive was beautiful. Next we biked the last 15 miles to Thaton and checked into cute riverside guesthouse. I got some dinner at a cafe and Joe is resting. Tomorrow, plan is to take boat to Chiang Rai..

Joe already feels much better after some cipro, coconut ice cream, and a banana. :)

22 February at 8am

We survived the boat trip down the Mae Kok river yesterday. We shared our steel long tailed boat with three French backpackers and an older couple from Holland. The driver of the boat was very good, but being that it's the dry season the river was quite shallow in some places. We'd be cruising and then suddenly hit and scrape the riverfloor. It was quite alarming, as we were sitting on the bottom of the boat so the impact and sound felt a lot worse than it actually was. The French dudes and I were frightened. Shockingly Joe wasn't really scared. He had faith in the driver. Once we got closer to our destination, the river was much deeper so it was smooth sailing. Sometimes there were rapids and we got wet! Luckily I had sealed up our passports and my phone. Check out the pictures of the boats and the solid packing of the bikes in front. Joe is about 90% better, yay! Once again, thank you ciprofloxacin.

Once we arrived in Chiang Rai, we found a lovely guesthouse (200 baht/night) in a super peaceful and quiet neighborhood. We checked in and went in search of food. All the Jay places were closed by then, so we ate snacks from street vendors and went to the night bazaar. We had a beer and watched a pop music show complete with some ladyboys as singers in prom gowns. Very bizarre!

We will stay in Chiang Rai for about three nights before heading to Laos border.

24 February at nine am

Yesterday we rode about nine miles southwest of Chiang Rai to see the local tourist hot spot, Wat Rong Khun aka the White Temple. I did expect this but it was crawling with people and we didn't stay long as a result. It's unlike any of the temples in Thailand. Here's why (and photos):

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Rong_Khun

We looked everywhere for George Bush as promised, but never did see him.

On the way home, we bought some delicious pineapple and when I got on my bike to peddle away, the gear slipped. I tried in other gears and same thing repeatedly. It was unnerving and I didn't want to say it out loud. Since bringing my bike on a long distance tour was a semi bad idea because it has an internal belt driven hub. This means it is highly specialized in who could fix it if it breaks and if it breaks you usually just need a new hub. This is not an easy thing to do. Joe doesn't even know that much about internal gear hubs, and if he can't fix it, finding a bike mechanic in Chiang Rai who can is very, very unlikely. Knowing this, I reluctantly told Joe about my bike failing and he was quiet which was a bad sign!

An hour later we stopped at the first bike shop we found, and the first thing the bike mechanic pointed out to us was that you should not bring a bike like mine to Thailand. He is not able to fix it and of course pointed to all the other bikes with regular hubs and chains and said that is what he can fix. We asked him about ordering a new hub from Shimano, but he was really not that helpful and more importantly really not interested in helping us. Defeated, we went to the next bike shop where again the bike mechanic pointed out that this type of bike is not fixed in Thailand and he claims he could not even order the hub because it is not an Asian part. Even though it is made in Malaysia! Even though the man claimed he could not fix it, he was very interested in putting my bike on a stand and ripping the hub apart as a fun experiment. Luckily Joe stayed with him and took over to find out what the actual problem with it is. Hours later, I discovered that the hub itself is not actually broken and it is actually just the sprocket for the gear. Joe called the sprocket company, Gates, last night as soon as it was 9 a.m. in Denver and supposedly they are shipping us a new sprocket. We have no idea how many days it will take to arrive to us here in Chiang Rai. But we are praying it comes in time for us to continue on and finish our trip as we planned.

Thanks to Joe for his mechanical aptitude! (his words, not mine)

25 February at eight pm

Still in Chiang Rai! Waiting for tracking information for this sprocket. It's supposedly coming from Taiwan (Gates factory) and so we just wait before we make a new plan.

26 February at 10am

We received an email from Ken at Gates Taiwan that my new sprocket was being sent out this morning. We are waitng to get tracking info to see when exactly this damn thing will arrive in Chaing Rai.

If we are lucky, it will arrive tomorrow or the next day and we can continue on with our scheduled plan of riding through Laos (Luang Prabang to Vientiane). From there, we will cross the border back to Thailand and hop on an overnight train (in a sleeper car!) and get back to Bangkok just in time for our flight home on March 10. (if the part does not come in the next two days, we will have to stay in Thailand and cycle south as far as we can get and then get a train to Bangkok for our flight - a fine back up plan, but so disappointing not to see Laos!)

In the meantime, we are trying to be patient and enjoy the downtime in Chiang Rai. It's actually a great town to be stuck in (for us) because we're in a great guest house that is just 200 bht/night (Ban Lotus) and we there are about 8 Jay restaurants in walking distance from us.

I'm just nervous that my legs are getting out of shape! From resting in Chiang Mai, then Joe getting sick, we haven't been doing any long distance biking. Lao is notorious for being hilly/mountainous. Every day that passes is another day of unneeded rest for our legs!

We are very anxious to get back on the bikes and explore Lao on bicycles (our 3rd planned country for this trip). Praying this part gets here asap and we get moving this weekend!

27 February at 0900

We finally got our UPS tracking info and it sadly indicated my sprocket would not arrive until Tuesday. We thoroughly discussed our options and finally made the decision to extend our trip about a week so we can do Laos as was our original plan. Luckily our flights were not much to change (about $75 each). We now will arrive at Pit on March 19 in the late evening.

28 February 3pm

We moved guesthouses yesterday in order to try something new (currently at Mekong Villa -across from Overbrook Hospital) while we wait for UPS to deliever my sprocket. According to tracking, part was not supposed to arrive until Tuesday, but as I type, Joe has ridden off to the bike shop it was sent to 18 minutes ago! We received an email from the bike shop owner and Joe high-tailed it to the shop to get the sprocket and get it on the bike!

We are so happy, this means we can get back on the bike tomorrow and get off to Lao at last!

Unfortunately, this means we did not have to change our flight, we could have made it to our original one, but it would have been cutting it very close and we would have not been able to stop at all, just rush through Lao, so in the end it works out in our favor I believe.

Just hoping the sprocket fits and does not break again. Will update when we officially get on the road to the border town of Chiang Khong (66 miles away).

Photos: Burma

veganliesa — Mon, 2 Feb 2015 23:54:00 GMT

Burma superstar! (updated by L)

veganliesa — Mon, 2 Feb 2015 23:39:00 GMT

January 30 @ 1129 Welcome to Burma!! (I apologise for the formatting of these entries! This is a terrible site for journaling and I don't recommend it at all!)

We got up at seven to truck it over the border to Burma this am. Not at all to our surprise, the road to the next town on the way only runs east today so “for our safety” we cannot go anywhere today. We made the best of it and cycled around Myawaddy after an easy no hassle border crossing (no waiting probably because everyone else knows the direction of the road today!). The officers at the Burma border were incredibly friendly and polite. One tried to help us find an english map of Burma, but none in this town - he thinks he should buy many and have them to sell to foreigners like us. He thinks he could make a good profit and I agreed! He also suggested he write down my vegetarian requests when I asked where I could get some good food in this town. He was very helpful and welcoming. We rode around Myawaddy, asked for prices at about 4-5 hotels/guesthouses - $20/night is cheapest we found! Quite a rude awakening after what we paid in Thailand. We found a quiet place on the sidewalk to enjoy our breakfast - we picked up to go from our favorite Jay food stall in Mae Sot. We also ate some huge bananas Joe bought last night. They were tasty, I shared two with two small (about 9-11 years old Monks who walked by looking for their morning offering. They were very cute and seemed just as surprised by the size of the banana as I was. Next we found a cute gas stations store to have some soda. I wanted coffee but could not find any hot water. Ashamed to say I was learning little words in Thai to get by, however I know NOTHING in Burmese. Nada. I’ve heard people saying thank you but the sounds are quite hard to remember concretely. We have now checked in to a guesthouse/hotel right outside of the main drag - should give us a head start on the climb up the mountain tomorrow. It’s comforting to be riding on the right side of the road again, however a little nerve wracking that the cars/trucks are still left sided vehicles. Makes me nervous that they can’t see us as good when passing etc. Very dumb set up if you ask me!

Burma feels very different from Thailand, already. I felt it the moment we crossed the bridge (“Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge”). The people look very different. The infrastructure is different. The writing on the buildings is totally different. I am not surprised by how different things are given the history. This border has only been open for less than two years. Burma has a very complex history and things are changing daily. There is much to be learned and observed. The main similarities between the two countries are motorbikes (and temples)! Beeping is the way here - buses, cars, motorbikes - always beeping and it’s not always clear the reason. Seems right of way is determined by vehicle size and frequency of honks. Luckily the shoulders are nice and wide so we can just crawl through the traffic - with stares and smiles constantly coming our way.

January 31 @ 1600

We got up early today and headed through the rest of Myawaddy to the mountain on our way to Kawkareik. We were scared of what was to come since we were able to find little to no information on this road/ride eve after extensive internet searches and Warmshowers inquiries. The road was nice and easy for the first 4 or so miles, rolling hills and gentle climbs. It was hard to tell when we got to the actual mountain climb as is was a gentle uphill climb the whole way. From our hotel to the top of the mountain, it was about 16 miles. It was never steep enough that I had to get off and push the bike, it was also never flat enough that I got out of 1st gear. Luckily, (most) of the traffic was facing west along with us so the sharp curves were not very difficult to maneuver. The road was very rough in certain areas, gigantic potholes and old pavement definitely kept us as a slow pace but all in all it wasn’t bad. It was nothing like the mountain we conquered a couple days ago (Tak to Mae Sot). The downhill was a bit scary because it was pretty steep and the road again was pretty torn up, but we did our best and made it down to the valley around 12 noon. We passed through two military checkpoints where they took our passports and ran away with them, supposedly writing down our information. They were very polite about it and tried to be as helpful as possible with our questions. Seems a lot of people here speak the sentences in english they have practiced and know for work, but may not actually speak it enough to have a simple conversation. Most know no english besides “hello!!!” We rode into Kawkareik around 1330 and checked into the best guesthouse we found - there was one next door for $7/night but Joe wanted to upgrade to the one with more than just a wooden bed that was $15. There is still no actual mattress, just a outdoor porch like cushion on the double bed. Feels pretty uncomfortable but will have to do. Electricity turns off in this whole town from 10-6pm so its a little toasty in our room without the fan to cool us off! It’s okay though, we were able to get out and get some decent veg chinese food down the street and a couple pints of Myanmar lager on draft. We bought some fruit for dessert and will probably end up eating it for dinner (pineapple and oranges). No wifi in this town, just smiles and thumbs up. Tomorrow we are off to Hpa-an-- exactly 90 km from here.
It feels somewhat of an honor to be one of the first foreigners to be coming through these towns, they have been shut off from the world for so long. People stare at us as if we are so strange looking, they don’t know what to do with us. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be them. I can’t imagine what they must think of us and where we’ve come from and how we got our flashy bikes here to ride around their countryside. I wish there was less of a language barrier. Seems like there’s a lot more in Burma than what meets the eye.

February 2 @ 18:30

We road to Hpa-an (“Paan”) yesterday - about 60 miles. It started out a rough day because the roads were absolute crap and the traffic was very heavy with no shoulder at all to bike on. We were on Burma’s “highway” thus the traffic (especially the huge trucks with big loads barreling down the road honking at anyone who got in their way. To give an idea though the actual road was similar to a back country lane in US. As I suspected, cars being right handed cars on the right side of the road resulted in many near misses when they would come flying around dumptrucks and slow moving farm vehicles to pass them and suddenly be in our lane, oncoming at 60 mph. A couple of times we would yell “abort” to each other and actually had to fling ourselves off the road, onto the dirt/rocks to prevent a collision. During the morning, we stopped at a roadside restaurant for breakfast and had a lovely stirfry with vegs and chickpeas and BYO instant coffee. Across the street, a “night of fire festival” was going on so we walked around a little bit. Most of the booths were still closed but we got to see some middle school aged kids dance “traditional” and that was very nice and entertaining. It was getting sunny and hot so we decided we better get back on the road. Luckily, the 2nd 30 miles of our ride was so much better than the morning. The road got less bumpy and wider. There was also less traffic. We arrived in Hpa-an around 2 or 3 and checked in to the first guesthouse we found (Nadi Taw Lwin) that was $20/night and remarkably better than our room the night before. It had air con and was clean.. There was an actual mattress that was so comfy and nice. I never wanted to leave! Thanks to lonely planet we had dinner at this amazing Burmese curry place called San Ma Tau. They had a choice of about 10 veg curries we chose from and then they give you rice and like 8 different sauces to try. And a little plate of fresh raw vegs to munch on during the meal. They lay it all out on the table and you just eat and eat. It was amazing! It also came with “free dessert” which was just three jars of assorted candies. We had our meal with fresh lime juice and were in heaven. The meal was about $4.40 total for both of us.
The next morning (this morning) we decided to follow lonely planet’s advice again and ate breakfast at a place called White. They made naan bread and various pastries (none sweet, all rather bland other than the mini-somosas) that would dip in sauces or just eat plain. We had naan and some coffee. Joe had tea. The man running it was very nice and helpful, but I got a creepy feeling as he was ordering around the two 12 year oldish boys who worked for him. The boys seemed to be having fun sometimes, but they were definitely doing all the work (except collecting money - the old man did that). I have yet to read about schooling in Burma, whether is compulsory or not.. Also we passed a small section of road being rebuilt - all by hand - and Joe said he saw one of the workers was a small boy (they were filling up baskets with rocks to bring over and make the road). I understood that the political changes meant there would be no child labor in Burma - hard to tell though what is really going on.

Today (Feb 1st) our ride was nice - the road was even smoother and less traffic today. The landscape is beautiful, green and lush fields - small cliff/mountains jetting up all around. Temples on top of the mountains everywhere you look. We had a short ride today to Thaton (only about 32 miles) but it took long because we met a friend on the rode - a nice man on a motorbike who brought us back to his family’s tea shop/corner store. We met his father who was very nice - he was an engineer who designs buildings - he showed us his drawings - all by hand, was a nice visit. We had some coffee there - our new “friend” had whiskey and told us he would ride with us to Thaton and help us find guesthouse and lunch. We were reluctant to take his help as we have been getting by fine but he insisted. Later along the route, we met a lovely woman who lived in Bangkok for ten years and spoke perfect english. She was nice to talk to and was very excited to tell us about the places she wishes to travel some day. The guy had more whiskey and was getting to be very annoying by now. He rode with us to Thaton and almost got hit by a truck more than once - not sure if it was cause he was drunk or because he is a bad motorbike driver. Luckily, we found the woman from earlier again- she owned a clothes shop there. She was happy to walk us to a guesthouse and help us check in. After lunch we finally got rid of the drunk guy after Joe helped him fixed his breaking down motor bike. He left soon after much to our delight. We’re off the lonely planet trail now so are the only westerners in this town as far as I can tell. Still happy faces and warm welcomes from the people here. Now that we have wifi, we are doing some research on our route to the northern part of the country - will take a train from Yangon most likely.

February 5 @ 1453

We have made it to Yangon - we have been a bit under the weather (both got the same stomach bug) and finally are feeling better today (finally bit the bullet and bought some antibiotics. 5 days of Cipro for less than $2) It seems to be working and we are feeling much better. We took the bus here yesterday from Golden Rock and checked into a lovely Airbnb with a kitchenette and clothes washer!! It is so nice to have clean clothes on for once :)

We booked our airline tickets today to fly back to Thailand - Chiang Mai to be exact. We have decided to skip the touristy northern section of Burma due to the cost of traveling/accomodation in this country. Also, we like Thailand so much more and want to spend more time there. We cannot bike back unless we follow the exact route we came from which would be no fun. (There are many travel restrictions in place for foreigners so a border exit in another area is impossible). We've been taxi-ing it around Yangon because it is very dusty/dirty/fumes everywhere. Our next adventure is to find bike boxes so we can get our bikes on the flight on Saturday.

Chiang Mai is known for being "flower city" and is ridiculously bike friendly. It also has about 17 veg restaurants! We've been excited to explore it since starting this trip so I happy to be going there soon.

More later..

funny things we want to remember...

veganliesa — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 19:08:00 GMT

A man in BKK on his motorbike with 8-9 mos old baby, bottle in man's back pocket, manuevering through bumper to bumper traffic

The shows on the english channels are: "tricked," millionaire matachmaker, cupcake wars, and BBC news (thank god!)

Had our first run in with stray dogs chasing us (aggressively) on local road of 309 today, luckily he went after Joe and not me. Joe outran him on bike. We stuck to bigger road for rest of day

Cats, so cute, all of the places. Some with bells on

Riding around Nakon Sawan park, woman sitting in pavilion singing Thai karaoke.

Riding in Yangon, Joe falling off his bike going about 11 mph (scaring L half to death) and then causing much laughter! (he apparently got caught on slight raised lip in road)

Loads and loads of teenage boys/young men? in matching nylon track suits walking up Doi Suthep as we're trying to ride. Sometimes riding the same speed as them walking. Couldn't escape them. They say "HELLO, Gud morneng" to us and laugh and carry on with each other.

Our Route (updated by Joe)!

veganliesa — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 18:28:00 GMT

Jan 19 - Monday - We left Bangkok for Ayutthaya after picking up our passports from the Myanmar embassy on Monday afternoon. We had to take a train that had a cargo car attached so we didn't leave until about 7pm. The 2 hour journey cost us less than a dollar for each train ticket, but the bikes were much more expensive at 3 bucks each.
Ayutthaya to Ang Thong (Jan 20 - Tuesday): Left late morning after a delicious meal at a vegetarian restaurant (mapped it on Happy Cow app) on our way out of town. Decided to start out slow and take it easy since we overdid it the first day on our last bike trip. Liesa ran over a thumbtack and got the first flat of the trip. The gas station where we patched it was super nice (big clean bathrooms)! Took route 309, which might have turned into 311 at some point. Stopped in Ang Thong and found the big peach colored Ang Thong Hotel - price was 400B for a room with A/C (also there is no sign in English, so it would have been hard for us to find if we hadn't asked where it was).
Ang Thong to Sing Buri (Jan 21 - Wednesday): Got on the road at 8 am this morning with our next stop in Sing Buri. Followed 311 the whole way, except there were also smaller paths next to the road on the other side of the ravine that we tried out for a few miles. The problem we found with these small paths is that there's a much greater chance you'll encounter a territorial dog or two that gives chase! Also, they can sometimes veer off and go who knows where. Met another cyclist on the road (Fillip from Belgium) and rode with him for the last part of our ride. It was a short ride and we made it to town early so we checked into our hotel, got some lunch, and walked around the town. He gave us some really good advice on finding towns with hotels: Every province has a city with the same name, and these cities will always have at least one hotel. First time eats for us were grilled bananas (just ok, nothing special) and some sort of desert tacos (pretty tasty - sweet shell with sweet coconut cream and choice of 3 toppings: shredded pineapple, shredded raisins, or egg). Today we decided to budget our speding by using a new method: adding 1000 Baht to the spending portion of our wallet each day (about $30 USD), and only using the money from there. If we have money left over, it stays in the spending portion of the wallet - we can use the excess in the more expensive areas, or just to splurge on something every once in a while.
Sing Buri to Uthai Thani (Jan 22 - Thursday): Left town before 7 since we had a long ride ahead of us. Our route started out on 311 and rode into town on 3183. Stopped for breakfast at a nice gas station with a 7-11 and made some Thai style ramen noodles and instant coffee. No vegetarian lunch spots on the way so we waited until getting to UT for a meal. It was about double the distance we did the previous 2 days, and by the time we got to Uthai Thani, my legs were tired and Liesa's stomach wasn't feeling right. Filip went on to Nakhon Sawan so that he could have a better ride the next day distance wise. We checked in at the only hotel we saw (kawasaki green and grey building) and got a decent room for 300B +40B for spotty but fast internet if it connected. Dinner was at the nearby japanese restaurant, along with a stop at the fruit stand and local 7-11. Noticed a huge increase in the number of pickup trucks in this area and I'm not sure why.
Uthai Thani to Nakon Sawan: Today was a psuedo rest day, only going 25 miles or so. Took roads 3220 to 3005. Stayed at P.A, Place hotel - it was 450B and rooms had a nice flatscreen TV and A/C. Unfortunately we didn't plan in advance and missed the only vegetarian restaurant in town before it closed (found it on google/four square with verry little info except address - what we do know is that it closes by 3:00). We went on the search for food - rode through a big city park and tried a shopping plaza - not much luck. Ended up getting some awesome salads from a salad cart outside the park, along with some random junk food from the shopping plaza.
Nakon Sawan to Kamphaeng Phet (79 miles!): Today was the longest distance in one day on a bike for either of us so far. Suprisingly, we made it wothout our legs giving up completely towards the end. We took 177 north for about 5 miles out of the city, then to 1084 the whole way (with a shortcut through one of the towns). If I were to do it again, I would take 1182 on the south side of the river for the first part of the journey, in order to (hopefully) avoid the large sugarcane processing facilities and the hundreds of related trucks on the north side of the river (all loaded to the brim and travelling as fast as they can down the road). Checked into Three J guesthouse (300B). It's so nice that we decided to stay 2 nights here.
Kampaeng Phet to Tak (Monday Jan 26th): Route 3002 to 104 in order to avoid the major highways. Stayed at the Suansin Hotel (400 Baht - free toast/coffee/juice breakfast) which is on the right before you get to the major highways at Tak.
Tak to Mae Sot (Tues Jan 27): We're lucky we left early - this section took us almost all day! There's only one route possible through this area and it's up and over the mountains. We read it was going to be hilly, but didn't expect to be in the mountains the majority of the day. The roads just kept going uphill, turn after turn. It was steep enough that some of the trucks were going the sasme speed as us at some points. There were typically 2 lanes in the uphill direction to provide room for passing, so when the lane drops back down to one you think you are near the top of the mountain - it's a tease, there are miles of uphill left. After one of the police checkpoints we stopped at the food place on the left and had the guy make us up a really nice veggie and rice/noodle dish with coconut milk. It was the best meal ever after making it over the first mountain. He even came over with a coconut with a straw in it and offered it to me. It's like he read my mind and knew exactly what I wanted at that moment. The scenery is nice, but all the uphull sections start to look the same as you are pedalling up the hills in the granny gear and not getting anywhere. Fortunately the last 8 miles or so are almost all downhill for a welcome break. Liesa was getting mad at me for not complaining on the second big mountain when we would go downhill for a little while and then immediatelly have to climb again for a much longer distance. It was nearly impossible to tell whether you were at the top of the mountain. We were really glad to have found a guesthouse (Mea Sot Guesthouse - 200 Baht) and some delicous vegan food at the Borderline Tea place when we got to Mae Sot. Although we were saying we wished we just took a bus and skipped this section of the ride, there was a huge feeling of accomplishment for having ridden our loaded bicycles through the most difficult ride we've ever attempted.
next stop: somewhere in Myanmar!

Joe has decided to stop updating. He is "too busy."

Thailand - On the road again....! (updated by L)

veganliesa — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 22:48:00 GMT

Tuesday January 20

We left Bangkok yesterday via train to a town that was the former capital of Thailand called Ayutthaya. We biked from there this morning to our stop for the night, Ang Thong. We found a guesthouse here and had a lovely dinner and strolled through the outdoor markets. We will set out tomorrow morning, hopefully early, for Sing Buri. Biking today was lovely, and we're having too much fun!

Wednesday January 21

We left at 0800 this morning after a lovely vegan ramen noodle, fruit, and coffee (instant) breakfast in the lobby of our hotel. We rode 25 miles to our current stop Sing Buri. We met a Belgian guy on the road who has done this ride 5 times and has biked in just about every country in the world (notably Anchorage to Argentina) and has given us many tips and advice for our ride. We checked into hotel for $8/night at noontime and walked around with our new friend and found some veg food (he is veg too so was able to give us some tips on that too). All in all, a great EASY start to our exploration of Thailand. The people are nicer and more friendly in theses smaller towns. I am so happy to be out of Bangkok - the pollution/smog/dirt was getting old! It is much more pleasant to be riding around the less populated areas. Plan is to ride to Nakhon Sawan tomorrow am. Will be 60 miles so we better get up early!

Friday January 23

Our scenery has changed quite a bit. It went from medium towns and more populated areas to mostly rice fields and beautiful greenhouses (minus the houses). Beautiful lush greens and multicolored flowers. Fruit stands. Roads are less crowded but still in excellent shape with a decent shoulder to ride on. We slept in uthai thank last night. Currently in Nakon Sawan until tomorrow am.

Sunday January 25

4pm

We arrived in Kamphaeng Phet yesterday afternoon after a 78 mile ride here (started at 0645). Our ride was tough as we never found good food on the way, and had bananas, 1 mango, nori flavored chips, water.. Oh and these bizarre donut things from a roadside stand. All in all, we had lots of fun - sang songs, blasted music from phone/mini speaker (Modest Mouse, B. Marley, Pink Floyd). We got loads of Hellos and waves from people in their yards, or in fields or in front of the billions of mom and pop style mini marts alongside the road. We also went through a town just northest of Nakon Sawan where all the sugarcane is trucked to for processing. There were hundreds of trucks packed full with half burnt sugar cane waiting in line to go in to the plant. It was cool to see, but made the road quite dusty and dirty from all the trucks. It was only a 2 lane road so we were getting passed by trucks constantly. None of them came close to hitting us fortunately. They were flying down the road throughout the day but always mindful of us and the motor bikes. Along with the sugarcane growing we also saw cornfields and of course, rice. Other than being hungry, the ride was awesome. We loved the guesthouse we are staying in here so much we decided to stay two nights (Triple J). It's $9/night and includes hot water and wifi! Sweet!

Last night we had our go at a buffet style - cook the food at your table restaurant. It was quite entertaining and Id say we were absolutely the only ones eating vegetarian there! They also brought us warm beer and ice. It was a good Saturday night. We rode to the only veg restaurant in town this morning only to find it is closed on Sunday. Bummer - so we had street food - roasted banana/coconut things, grapefruit, sour mango things?.. it ended up being all good. We will hit up the veg place tomorrow am - they all open at 6 or 7 am! Then close in the late afternoon.

We have decided to head towards Mae Sot next. That's the bordertown of Myanmar. We will cycle to Rangoon and then take a train up to the northern part of Myanmar. The train ride sounds awesome from googling it. We will then fly back to Thailand - to the hip city of Chiang Mai. The reason for our erratic new schedule is due to travel restrictions in Myanmar. There is only one border in the whole country that visitors can go into and out of and then freely travel in the country. Things are slowly changing there, but we are very excited to see a country that is virtually unwesternized. No more 7/11s! ha

Of course, our plans may change again - but that is our schedule for now...

Tomorrow am - it's on to Tak, Thailand.

January 28 at 1013

We have been resting/hanging out in Mae Sot, Thailand for 2 days. We arrived on Wednesday evening after a long rediculously challenging ride from Tak to Mae Sot. We were warned the road was quite hilly as it goes through the mountains but we had no idea what we had in store for us (luckily because if we did we would have opted out!!)

We left Tak around 0645. The road went from gradual inclines and declines to a 7-8% grade up hill. We knew we were in big trouble as the smell of brakes became stronger and stronger from the oncoming trucks in the other lane. We started up the mountain with relucatance and made it to a little aid station giving out water and support. We were the only people on bikes we saw all day. If anyone spoke english we would have gotten more information, but we could only guess how many more miles our uphill climb would last. I began pushing my bike on foot about 1.5 hours in. Joe lasted till about 1530 before pushing. According to bike nerds, my bike is not geared for steep climbs (my belt driven Shimano hub only has 8 gears). Joe's bike was better equipped for this day however it's weight (it's steel) was defintiely a con. We got lots of beeps and thumbs up throughout the day. Once we summitted the mountain, around 1130 - the ride was still up and down hills. We stopped at a fruit market. got really ripped off paying 200 bht for one bag of strawberries. They were delicious but we were mad that the woman ripped us off. All in all though, it's a pretty good thing that it took this time for someone to take advantage of us "farangs." I was absolutely exhausted by 12:30 and starving by this time. We went through a military "checkpoint" which for us was just a guy in a camo outfit asking us "where you come from?" I pedaled away after he pointed out where we could get some food. I was so tired by this point - my front wheel got caught on a hose in the road and I (in slow motion) fell over onto the road. Joe just said "aw Leese..." and of course 4 Thai men came running over to help me up, I was so embarrassed/annoyed/hungry/tired - I got up as quickly as I could and rode away leaving Joe to say thank you to the men. They gave him two cold waters. We got to a little restaurant only to discover my Thai cheat sheet "I want veg food without eggs etc etc" card I had been using everywhere was GONE. I almost cried.. Luckily Joe came to the rescue and got behind the stove/pot/chef and pointed to what we wanted and we ended up getting a delightful plate of veggies with rice - he put some coconut milk into it and it made it a nice mild curry. It was delicious and of course dirt cheap. It was exactly what we needed. We calculated that we only had about 20 miles to go at that point, no big deal right? Wrong! The hills continued and since our bodies were already so tired, the next part of the ride was so difficult. The hills (up and down) wouldn't quit! Every time we thought we had made it to the top of the mountain and could only go down, we would be at the bottom of another huge hill. I was whining and complaining and Joe was just quiet. I finally yelled at him asking if he was having fun or not. (how could I tell? he wasn't saying anything for miles!) So he finally started complaining and I was relieved to know I was not alone and that he was in fact hating this ride as much as I was. The trucks passing up were struggling just as much as we were. They were fully loaded in 1st gear crawling past us, always giving a honk of encouragement. The cars were whizzing by, but there were very few motorbikes. They knew better than to conquer this mountain. Finally around 1630, we found ourselves at the top of the mountain, looking only down - then it was 5 miles of 8% grade downhill into the town of Mae Sot. Thank god - we made it.

It took longer than usual to find a guesthouse this time because the first ones we found were too $$. ($18-24/night!) We finally found an adorable guesthouse run by a little man who spoke not a word of our language. We paid him ($6) for the night, just as the sun was setting. We found an awesome , cafe called Borderline that served Burmese food, was so delicious and satisfying.

We have been in Mae Sot since, doing research about Myanmar roads and relaxing - doing laundry (in a machine!) and EATING! There is a ton of amazing food here and we still haven't gotten it all in yet. We will probably set out for Myanmar tomorrow am. Once we cross the border, the first town we will stay in is about 70 km - will be another tough day as you have to cross another mountain and we've been told the road is not as cared for as Thailand's.

We shall see!!

Bangkok update

veganliesa — Sat, 17 Jan 2015 10:49:00 GMT

Ah Bangkok. We are slowly getting the hang of this place. I’ve been more jetlagged than Joe. We are twelve hours ahead so it is nice to be able to easily know what time it is in PA, however it’s difficult to adjust to being awake during the night. The sunshine is certainly helping though!

Our first day here. we took a ridiculous long taxi ride to the Myanmar embassy to apply for visas. The traffic in this city is insane, considering its size. So riding in a car is totally nonsensical. I read yesterday that there are about 6 million more cars registered in Bangkok than the road infrastructure allows for. This fact makes the motor bike king of the road here in Bangkok.

They weave through traffic seamlessly and always make their way to the front of the row of cars sitting in gridlock. Watching a major intersection, with motorbikes lined up and then effortlessly pushing forward in every direction just before the light turns green is amazing. It appears to be choreographed. Everyone respects each other and respects that we’re all trying to get somewhere. They all work together.

Fast forward to Friday morning. Joe assembled our bikes Thursday night while I took a 5 hour nap (Did I mention I’m feeling the jetlag?) Our Airbnb host recommended not biking in Bangkok. Also we have not seen many bikes on the roads. The sidewalks are total shit here and it’s really scary to even cross the street - there are no pedestrian walk signals, you are truly on your own when getting around town on foot. You really just wait at a crosswalk, waiting for a break in traffic and just as you are stepping onto the street you see a motorbike or car come out nowhere and then you just have to fucking run. Given all this, you can see why we were a bit nervous about getting on our bikes in this city. On foot, the traffic can really appear to be chaotic and quite the death trap.

This video I found on YouTube is a good example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQgqOJdOkDY

We set off at 0830 this morning, Brilliant right? We decide to throw ourselves into Bangkok traffic at rush hour! It didn’t take long before we were floating through the cars in gridlock right along with the motorbikes. It was very scary at first, however, it didn’t take long to realize that it actually felt safer to bike on these streets than compared to Philly. The cars/motorbikes actually give you space. They don’t bully you. They don’t try to share the lane with you when passing. They don’t treat you like a nuisance like in the US. The hardest part was trying to cross 4 lanes of traffic when making a right turn - it was pretty much impossible at some points and we just went straight instead. It took us 45 minutes to bike 5 miles to our destination - not bad considering we weren’t too certain of the directions and took a lot of wrong turns. We arrived to an all vegetarian food stall I read about near Ari BTS station. The food was fabulous and we were pleased to have conquered our fear. Biking in Bangkok is not exactly enjoyable, nor would I recommend it for someone who’s never ridden in cities before. I am glad to report that things were not as they seemed. Sometimes you just have to get out there and figure it out. The good news is that is will only get better from here. Bangkok is known for being crowded/ noisy/ polluted (and boy is it!). Wherever we go from here will surely be less crowded and more enjoyable to bike. Plan is to leave Monday, by train enroute to Thailand’s former capital, Ayatthaya. The train will take about an hour to get there. We’ll spend one night there. And the next day, set out for Chiang Mai - about 400 miles north. We will likely do it in about 10 days or so. We want to go slow and see lots of sights along the way. Our plan is to stay in guest houses - we’ve been informed they are about $10 to $15 night, so our frugal budget will remain intact.

We’re moving from our luxurious Airbnb to a hostel in Oldtown today so we can explore Khao San Road and the temples. We’ve heard this part of town is more tourist friendly which is a good and bad thing.

In the meantime, we’re eating, exploring open air markets, people watching, enjoying the hubub of this crazy noisy city. Ill be ready for more peaceful surroundings once we get out of here.

Technical problems! Will post more pictures later......

Photos: Thailand

veganliesa — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 04:37:00 GMT

Arrived January 14, 2015

We've arrived!

veganliesa — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 04:26:00 GMT

It's midnight here in beautiful Bangkok (and 70 degrees). Our bikes, panniers, and ourselves made it to Bangkok this evening. We had a seamless stroll through immigration and nothing to declare in customs. Then got the biggest taxi we could find curbside - we had to recline both back seats of the tiny mini van but the bike boxes fit, we had the taxi driver giggling the whole way to our destination. He couldn't believe we brought something so big across the world.

We arrived to our Airbnb (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2474294) with a lovely host, who has given us a ton of information. Our dinner was 7/11 food cause the food places were closed by ten. Plan for tomorrow is assemble bikes and explore the city on them.We will see some temples and eat eat eat!

I am so thankful to finally be here!

Goodbye, fare well, auf wiedersehen, good night....

veganliesa — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 09:27:00 GMT

We leave tomorrow on our 39 hour jourrney to Bangkok. Our bikes are snug in their boxes (see pic) and panniers are packed with our essentials. Anything we forget to bring, OH WELL we'll just have to live without it. Simplicity is the name of the game in bike touring and we're still learning - but it gets easier with every adventure. That's one thing I've learned about minimalist traveling - you never waste time thinking about the crap you forget to pack.

We are so, SO thankful to our wonderful families for allowing us to stay at their houses for this past month and prepare for this trip/move out of Philly/follow our dreams! Also thank you so much for keeping our cats while we are away. We are so lucky to have such amazing parents! We could never have done this without you and we are so thankful for your kindness, generosity, and support. Thank you and love you!

We will update you from Thailand! (or maybe Abu Dhabi if we have time)

Ciao for now everyone!

Photos: @ home pre trip

veganliesa — Thu, 8 Jan 2015 06:57:00 GMT

Packing up!

Preparing/Packing/Freaking out etc

veganliesa — Thu, 8 Jan 2015 06:06:00 GMT

It's currently Wednesday afternoon. We leave Monday afternoon for Thailand. We have a 15 hour layover (booked intentionally) in Abu Dhabi where we will get to leave the airport and do some exploring of the UAE.

I feel like I should be more nervous/panicked/excited. We've been planning this trip (and by planning I mean intending to go and then booking a one way flight) for months. It has been so far away for so long I do not think I have come to terms with how close it is.

The truth is you can't plan that much for a bike tour when you travel the way we do. You can only take what fits in your panniers so packing itself does not take long. However, I have never taken my bike with me on an international (39 hours travel time total) flight. There is a lot that goes into packing a bike in to a box and hoping it gets to my destination. Lucky for me, I have a brilliant engin-nerd of a travel partner who will do most of this work - disaseembling and reassembling the bikes, fitting them in to their boxes, paying the airline a small fortune to check the boxes, praying to God they come out on the other side. You know, the nitty gritty details most people don't talk about when they post pictures of their beautiful touring bikes all geared up for a trip around the world.

We have packing and sorting to do. As much as I would like to have it all done in advance, this isn't my first rodeo - I know how Joe works. He doesn't believe in having stuff done ahead of time. No matter how much I attempt to have us ready in advance and therefore have a nice leisurely Monday before we leave for the airport I know it ain't happening.

And that's okay. I know we'll get it all done and I know we'll arrive in Bangkok on January 14 fresh as daisies and ready to explore a new and totally different part of the planet. Oh and did I mention that it's currently in the 80s in Thailand? That may be the thing I am currently most excited about.

I'm sure everything will go smoothly and we'll end up having a great adventure. For everything else, we purchased our travel insurance last week. Hey what's the worst thing that could happen? No really, what? What else IS there to do besides explore Thailand on a bike? If you figure it out, let me know.

Photos: GAP/C&O Bike Tour June 2014

veganliesa — Thu, 8 Jan 2015 05:59:00 GMT