Let’s go cycling

And we’re home!

For us this has been a wonderful adventure. 2700 km and over 14000m of ascent through beautiful but at times challenging terrain, not always knowing where we were heading next.

We set out with perhaps a tad too much uncertainty with regard to weather, road conditions and no real understanding of just what we would be able to manage on a cycling jaunt in South East Asia’s wet and hottest months.

We both gained fitness, strength and a few extra muscles as we went…much more so for me with a considerably lower starting base than Neil 😄

Three countries, each so very different.

Cambodia gave us a comforting start, with familiarity, wonderful friends who we hadn’t seen for far too long, and the perfect place to acclimatise to the heat in this part of the world. Hopefully it won’t be quite so long before we’re back again!

Laos…stunning landscapes, friendly folk and so many little gestures of kindness… such as being handed bottles of icy water just because we were on bicycle ( and obviously looking a bit warm!)

And Thailand… so many contrasts within the one country- from the simple, quiet rural roads where we were very much a novelty, to the well trodden tourist spots where we blended in easily…except for the bikes…

A few little observations across the board..

Money.

We set out on a fairly strict budget and a goal to keep our spending under $100AU per day. For many of our days, especially in the rural areas, we couldn’t have spent anywhere near that if we’d tried! Some days we’d have been scratching to spend $25 for the day, and that’s all inclusive with a bed for the night. Hit the Western frequented areas and that changed drastically…yes indeed, we opted for a few more luxuries and occasionally spoiled ourselves with accommodation to the tune of $ 75AU…but the food/ drinks were also astronomically more than in the poorer rural regions.

Cash was also expensive, ATM fees in Thailand were about $20AU per transaction, and surprisingly few places accepted card payments. The local population use a QR code method of payment that seems to work well. These QR payment methods seem to be widely adopted by many Asian countries.

Food..

Where do we start! Mostly the food was superb throughout our travels. But boy oh boy, our preconceptions and assumptions disappeared quickly. We thoroughly enjoyed the local foods and some of our best meals were in the least westernised areas… from the stiflingly hot but delicious do it yourself BBQ in remote Cambodia to the random mystery broth that became a staple in the most local of eateries.

We learnt…

That noodle soup doesn’t quite see you through a 100k bike day but rice with fried egg is perfect…and Google translate is essential!

That green curry ( my all time favourite) doesn’t exist outside of tourist areas…

That it’s a good idea to ask for “less spicy”…Thais love their chilli!

That beer comes with ice in rural spots…and not where there are tourists. And it’s surprisingly good! Must be something about the heat…

That we sometimes have to let go of our Western ideal of food hygiene and storage…or we’d go hungry. But apart from our initial and predictable tummy upsets as we readjusted to Asian foods, we didn’t once get sick.

Roads

Thailand’s roads must be amongst the best in the world, even quiet rural roads with no truck traffic having nice broad shoulders much of the time, helping us to feel a little less vulnerable!

In Cambodia they were quite a patchwork- from smooth sealed roads to dust bowls…to an impassable stretch of sand that caused our only big backtrack.

Laos. Wow. There were short stretches of road surface followed by truck swallowing mud holes. Highway 13 was an unforgettable adventure- a major route for goods in and out of China. The mountainous and landslide prone topography would make the cost of building hugely expensive, the routes all having to follow or be cut into ridge lines, with giddying drops, sometimes on both sides. And plenty of elevation to tire us out…

Our bikes

Our “new to us” Vivente touring bikes were up to the task, no breakdowns despite the grinding paste mud of Laos and somehow only one puncture for the trip. They’ll certainly need a bit more TLC now though!

And us…

Over 41 days of bike touring, after our week of R&R in Siem Reap. Neither of us had any idea how we’d go, not just cycling ( mostly) day in day out but having only each other for company the majority of the time. Our starting goal was to make it to Vientiane in Laos…it certainly didn’t (Neil disputes this) initially include cycling to Luang Prabang through the mountains and it had no end destination other than a time deadline.

We survived…I think maybe we even thrived! For days at a time we’d see no one else who spoke English, but the challenges were fun.

We’re stronger, maybe even a little leaner ( pretty sure that won’t last long!) and somehow we managed to stay cheerful throughout.

And we had so much fun that we’re starting to plan the next one already…