Ok, so we were going to set off on our next leg of our S.E.A. Travels two days ago but unfortunately Rich is not feeling too well. He has managed to develop a chest infection as if from nowhere. So we have been stuck in Vientiane for the past two days, luckily we have had WiFi so I have not gone too stir crazy, at least in Byron Bay Rich could escape to the Supermarket, here there is the upmarket delicatessen which has two isles to memorise not 20!! Rich is not feeling as bad as I was, thank goodness, so we hope to be on our way tomorrow.
The prolonged stopover has given me plenty of time to upload some photos on to facebook and hopefully flikr if the connection ever lasts long enough!! The one downside is that I have spent a large amount of time researching our China leg of the journey. It is a massive comedown as we had hoped to be able to travel independently whilst cycling the friendship highway in Tibet, however due to travel restrictions we have to have a guide and transport. Which means we have to join a tour, which means we have to try and organise one pretty sharpish so we can sort out the visa extension in China. Talk about complicated. China does not make things easy in the slightest. We have been searching the internet and have found a couple of possibilities that will still allow us to cycle the route we want so fingers crossed. Otherwise we are preparing ourselves to spend extra time in mainland China and then fly to Nepal and go to Everest Base Camp from that side if organised tours prove to be too expensive.
Sunday 25 July 2010
Friday 23 July 2010
Cambodia to Laos the quick way....
Cycling north over the Cambodian border back into Thailand was the hardest day's cycling to date. That's official, as measured by the Denyze scale of tiredness. The rain of the previous night had turned the dirt road into a mud track and progress was slowed by mud building up between the wheels of the bike and the mudguards. At times this would stop the wheels turning and we would have to dislodge it with a stick... or our fingers. Terribly messy. What fun!!
The worst sections of the day were where they had ripped up the road completely as they were in the process of relaying it and also the climb up to the border post in O'smach which saw us frequently off and pushing the bike, while being overtaken by trucks and motos. By the way, if you have ever thought of emulating Ewan McGreagor and Charlie Boorman, you don't need a BMW GS motorbike, you just need a Honda Dream moped. Even 14 year old girls were throwing them through mud filled ditches that looked like they could have been an obstacle on Junior Kickstart.
We rolled into Prasat two very tired and hungry cyclists, with Den once again suffering from heatstroke. Checked into the Leelawadee guesthouse for a well deserved rest day.
This day was spent debating the merits of various routes into laos, finally in the end we decided that with Den suffering heat stroke at the drop of a hat due to the effectiveness of me as a windbreak, a cheat was in order. So a traumatic train journey from Surin to Nong Khai was seen as the best of the avaliable options. We had to change trains in Nakon Ratchasima with a lay over of 10 hours. Only our 10 hours turned in to 12.5 hours... which would have been fine if we were talking about daylight hours, but it was delayed from 1.30am to 3am.
On a side note. We had to check our bike and luggage into the baggage carriage on the train. This involves locating a different office to the ticketing kiosk and being charged what appeared to be an entirely arbitrary amount by a man in a very tight fitting Thailand national railway uniform.
It occurred to me that we had been over billed by tight uniform guy when he proudly showed off a couple of tubes of toothpaste he demanded as a bribe from a shopkeeper who had just had a large package delivered to his loading bay...Mmm.
When, on arrival at our layover, the chap unloading the our luggage, said that we had to pay him 10 Baht for unloading our bags, I began to think that all employees were on the make. I'd read about this scam on the web, so I declined to pay him. He didn't really persist once he realised I wasn't just going to give him money on his say so.
The officer in charge of the baggage at our final stop, presented us with a bill for 70 Baht (well he hand wrote it onto our shipping docket). I think the difference in price was due to the fact that this guy was wearing another tight fitting uniform. Anyhow, again I asked what this was for and told him that we had not had to pay anything previously. He kept repeating that we had to pay him, but refused to say what it was for.
I thought, he's not going to keep this up for long, but a crowd of his minions had appeared and I don't think that he could lose face by backing down, and he still refused to say what we were being charged for. After 5 mins or so of him getting increasingly agitated he finally exploded, “Forget it, I'll pay it myself!”. Which confirmed for me that he was definitely just on the make, otherwise he would have called over the police from the end of the platform... and when did any government employee pay a fine on behalf of someone they were supposed to be collecting money from?
Facing down the forces of Thai railway tyranny and oppression made me feel hungry, but first we had to face the border guards, get our visa's and cycle the 20kms into Vientiane. The border crossing was relatively easy if as little time consuming, 'go to window 2 and get form, then window 1(??) hand in form and pay money, wait 5 mins and then voila one visa' We covered the distance into Vientiane in no time on the flat roads. Checked into the Mali Namphou Guesthouse. Quite nice, with Wifi, Cable TV and hot showers. Have spent 3 nights here as the power supply for the laptop broke yesterday and we didn't want to head out into the sticks without a way to charge it.
Tomorrow, we head off on the 400km to Luang Prabang. Hopefully the weather will cool a bit as we now start climbing to the Laos highlands and there is a big fat cloud across Northern Loas and southern China, fingers crossed!
On another note entirely Loas has yielded a veritable deluge of mini's young and old and the scores stand at Rich 9 and Den 10.
The worst sections of the day were where they had ripped up the road completely as they were in the process of relaying it and also the climb up to the border post in O'smach which saw us frequently off and pushing the bike, while being overtaken by trucks and motos. By the way, if you have ever thought of emulating Ewan McGreagor and Charlie Boorman, you don't need a BMW GS motorbike, you just need a Honda Dream moped. Even 14 year old girls were throwing them through mud filled ditches that looked like they could have been an obstacle on Junior Kickstart.
We rolled into Prasat two very tired and hungry cyclists, with Den once again suffering from heatstroke. Checked into the Leelawadee guesthouse for a well deserved rest day.
This day was spent debating the merits of various routes into laos, finally in the end we decided that with Den suffering heat stroke at the drop of a hat due to the effectiveness of me as a windbreak, a cheat was in order. So a traumatic train journey from Surin to Nong Khai was seen as the best of the avaliable options. We had to change trains in Nakon Ratchasima with a lay over of 10 hours. Only our 10 hours turned in to 12.5 hours... which would have been fine if we were talking about daylight hours, but it was delayed from 1.30am to 3am.
On a side note. We had to check our bike and luggage into the baggage carriage on the train. This involves locating a different office to the ticketing kiosk and being charged what appeared to be an entirely arbitrary amount by a man in a very tight fitting Thailand national railway uniform.
It occurred to me that we had been over billed by tight uniform guy when he proudly showed off a couple of tubes of toothpaste he demanded as a bribe from a shopkeeper who had just had a large package delivered to his loading bay...Mmm.
When, on arrival at our layover, the chap unloading the our luggage, said that we had to pay him 10 Baht for unloading our bags, I began to think that all employees were on the make. I'd read about this scam on the web, so I declined to pay him. He didn't really persist once he realised I wasn't just going to give him money on his say so.
The officer in charge of the baggage at our final stop, presented us with a bill for 70 Baht (well he hand wrote it onto our shipping docket). I think the difference in price was due to the fact that this guy was wearing another tight fitting uniform. Anyhow, again I asked what this was for and told him that we had not had to pay anything previously. He kept repeating that we had to pay him, but refused to say what it was for.
I thought, he's not going to keep this up for long, but a crowd of his minions had appeared and I don't think that he could lose face by backing down, and he still refused to say what we were being charged for. After 5 mins or so of him getting increasingly agitated he finally exploded, “Forget it, I'll pay it myself!”. Which confirmed for me that he was definitely just on the make, otherwise he would have called over the police from the end of the platform... and when did any government employee pay a fine on behalf of someone they were supposed to be collecting money from?
Facing down the forces of Thai railway tyranny and oppression made me feel hungry, but first we had to face the border guards, get our visa's and cycle the 20kms into Vientiane. The border crossing was relatively easy if as little time consuming, 'go to window 2 and get form, then window 1(??) hand in form and pay money, wait 5 mins and then voila one visa' We covered the distance into Vientiane in no time on the flat roads. Checked into the Mali Namphou Guesthouse. Quite nice, with Wifi, Cable TV and hot showers. Have spent 3 nights here as the power supply for the laptop broke yesterday and we didn't want to head out into the sticks without a way to charge it.
Tomorrow, we head off on the 400km to Luang Prabang. Hopefully the weather will cool a bit as we now start climbing to the Laos highlands and there is a big fat cloud across Northern Loas and southern China, fingers crossed!
On another note entirely Loas has yielded a veritable deluge of mini's young and old and the scores stand at Rich 9 and Den 10.
Sunday 18 July 2010
Another Blog.... am I bored?...
Yesterday we cycled from Siem Reap back the way we came, as far as a small town called Kralanh. Checked into a guest house just set back to the left of the petrol station on the main road through town. Went for the $10 superior room, which was clean and seemed ok value until it turned out that we needed to pay $10 more for air con. Feeling like we were being ripped off, we opted to tough out the evening with only the electric fans for relief from the humidity. Unfortunately for us, the room had the thermal properties of Steve McQueen's cooler from the Great Escape, so for most of the late afternoon we sat on the balcony and read. Had our first puncture on the road too. Our trailer tire punctured just as we were pulling into town. No problem as we could fix the puncture in the peace and quiet of the room.
Today, we headed north, towards the Thai border at O'smach. Roads were unsealed and dusty with red earth. Mid morning foiund us with a distinctly spray on tan orange appearance from the dirt kicked up by the passing cars and motos. It also found us with our second puncture on the road too... small stone in the front tire. Had quite a small crowd around us, finding it all very amusing, by the time we'd finished the repair.
We have a hotel room in Samraong, it was $12 with air con and sat TV (but no Wifi). Samraong it turns out has a choice of reasonable places to stay and there's even an ATM in town, so it's practically civilisation. It's just a shame you couldn't say the same for the weather. Monsoon rain is lashing down outside, and we have 80kms of dirt road to cycle tomorrow... or should that be 80kms of muddy roads to cycle.
Today, we headed north, towards the Thai border at O'smach. Roads were unsealed and dusty with red earth. Mid morning foiund us with a distinctly spray on tan orange appearance from the dirt kicked up by the passing cars and motos. It also found us with our second puncture on the road too... small stone in the front tire. Had quite a small crowd around us, finding it all very amusing, by the time we'd finished the repair.
We have a hotel room in Samraong, it was $12 with air con and sat TV (but no Wifi). Samraong it turns out has a choice of reasonable places to stay and there's even an ATM in town, so it's practically civilisation. It's just a shame you couldn't say the same for the weather. Monsoon rain is lashing down outside, and we have 80kms of dirt road to cycle tomorrow... or should that be 80kms of muddy roads to cycle.
An extended stay in Siem Reap
Our ride going from Sisophon to Seim Reap while not eventful was memorable, as this was perhaps the worst day of cycling ever for me! We knew it was going to be a long day as it was over 60 miles and hot. We set off early and where as in Thailand we were able to buy something for breakfast the night before all we could find were danish biscuits and while nice they were not very filling! We managed to grab a plate of rice in a road side restaurant which caters for the tour buses from Bangkok, This was at 8.30am and the temperature in the shade was 29 degrees. We applied sunscreen several times and just sweated it off, Rich had a hat but I had lost mine so had the full glare of the sun and little wind as Rich is a wonderful wind blocker, great in the cold, but sucks in the heat! So we rolled into town with at least one of us suffering sun stroke/heat exhaustion and a cherry red face. Shopping for a hat is first on the list of things to do. So in true Den and Rich style having carefully selected three guest houses to tour around and select the best one: we went to the nearest and took the room they offered. Unfortunately for us it was a little expensive at $40 but it was lovely, so as we were both ruined and in no mood to tour around a city with no street names we stayed put, recovered and headed off to see the sunset at Angkor Wat.
The Temples of Angkor Wat ARE AMAZING! Angkor Wat itself is just stunning, although Rich did liken it to Didcot power station! In the fact that there are 5 pineapple turrets things but you only see 3 at anyone time (mostly): just like Didcot- see 3 towers but there are 6. beautiful ancient monument, 1970's concrete eyesore, Men's minds are a mystery. However after I had stopped laughing we went off for a wander. We went up and climbed the first set of steep stairs and had a look at the carvings, Angkor Wat has lots of Bas relief carvings depicting battles and dancers, amongst others. We climbed as high as we could, last time I was here you could climb right to the base of the turrets but now you can only go to the main level below, which is no bad thing, as the tourist numbers have increased but the steps are still ridiculously steep and nerve racking to climb down. Angkor Wat is a must see temple if you are ever in this part of the world I would highly recommend a visit as I can not hope to describe here what it is like.
After our ride from hell and lovely sunset at Angkor Wat we were looking forward to a day of temple touring. This started at 4.45AM!!! we had decided that to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat would be lovely too and it was, if a little crowded, not so great photos but never mind. We zipped over to Ta Prohm which is the one with all the trees growing out of it, Tomb-raider was filmed here, sadly it is very broken down and work is going on to restore it, however the techniques used are questionable as it looks a little odd with parts old weathered sandstone and parts fresh grey concrete, Thankfully the main body of the temple was literally like Lego with no mortar used lets hope they have someone who is good at jigsaw puzzles and likes building blocks. The day was very hot and humid and we were getting temple fatigue by 11am so having seen a large part of the temple complex that is easily accessible by tuk tuk from town we headed back to the hotel to recover.
Having spent the hottest part of the day secreted away in air-con'ed luxury we headed out to finish off the last of the Temples. We really enjoyed these temples as they were not so crowded and the high heat had gone there was better light for photos too although we had bought the little camera. All in all a very relaxing day (save for the sellers, water,cold drink, postcard) but once got used to it it was not so bad.
Our second full day in Seim Reap was highly uneventful as we were planning our onward journey up in to Thailand and beyond, boring but essential as we are off the beaten tourist trail and there is nothing in the guidebooks so internet searches are a must.
Day in the life tour (by Richard)
Our last day in Siem Reap and we went on a tour entitled “a day in the life”. Normally anything that smacks of organised tourism sets off the alarm bells in my head, but this was run by an NGO, and promised an experience that even independent travel couldn't give you an insight to, well not unless you happened to speak fluent Khmer, and mine's a bit rusty.
At about 8am a small group of us headed out from the town to a local village to 'help' a family with their daily work. In exchange for the family tolerating our 'help', the village is paid a small amount by the tour organisers, who also have a program to install water pumps and filters at the homes around the village.
Untreated water is a real scourge in Cambodia, 1 in 7 children die before their fifth birthday because of waterborne disease. So approximately one in every three families will lose a child for want of clean drinking water. A water filter costs (US)$47, so a little over £30.
You can follow the link to Trailblazer's website here, if you want to know more. So what do you really want for your next birthday? How about asking for a gift of a water filter for a village? There's a one in three chance your donation will save a child from dying and a certainty that it will prevent waterborne pathogens from making a family ill.
Our first task of the day however was a lot more light hearted. We pulled up at the outskirts of the village in our van, bundled out, and I was promptly handed the reigns to an ox'n'cart. Power delivery is a little different to our usual form of transport, however I can at last say that I have finally found a more bum numbing method of covering distance than on a tandem. Controls were rudimentary. Whip to go, pull on the reigns to stop and steering, well, that remained a mystery to me. Nothing I did influenced the direction the cows and cart were heading. It seemed that Myrtle and Ermintrude went wherever the nearest vegetation was going to allow them a quick snack on the way past.
First proper job of the day was helping make a roof from palm leaves for the family to re-roof their house, which must be done every 5 years. The building materials are all derived from Bamboo and the Palm tree, locally sourced, so local in fact that both trees were in the family garden. We are told that the materials are ideal for the local climate, in that they deaden the sound of the water falling during a rain storm (a tin roof will echo) while keeping the heat out of the living quarters under the afternoon sun, (a tin roof would act like an oven).
How to make a bamboo and palm leaf roof. A bamboo cane is split along it's length into quarters and cut to be just over a metre long. Dried out palm leaves are folder in half and lain either side of the bamboo pole. The spine of the palm frond is used like a giant needle and thread to sew the first palm leaf in place, and then the next leaf is partially overlaid with the first (think slates on a roof at home) and so on until the whole bamboo cane has palm leaves hanging from it. It takes about 15 minutes to do one section. The roof requires 300 sections. We were clearly not going to be able to re roof the house this morning, but it was amazing how the materials in the family garden could be used so inventively.
Next job was to make dinner for the family, we prepared soup, with rice and and a paste to accompany. The paste was particularly interesting as it's core ingredients were, salted fish, some very strong chilli, a variety of root vegetables and a whole heap of red ants to add some protein. I tried some of it and do you know, that while spicy, it tasted very nice. Denyze declined, but I did have to ask, if you are a vegetarian, does that mean you can eat ants or not?
On the way to Siem Reap from the Thai border we'd seen a lot of rice fields, with water in them. Not knowing any different, I assumed that all rice fields would look like this. But in the village, there had not been the hoped for amount of rain this year and their rice fields were dry. (This is supposed to be the wet season). I asked what would happen if the rain did not fall heavily soon, our guide replied, somewhat diplomatically, 'the villagers would have to buy in rice from outside'.
The villagers average income in this part of Cambodia is around $2 per day. Most things they need they get from neighbours if they are unable to grow it themselves, or from the bigger farmers, for whom they often work. I'm not all together sure how they will afford enough rice if all families are suffering from a poor harvest at the same time.
Our last task of the day was teaching school kids English, not having done any teaching before, I was looking forward to this, but I had no idea of how to go about it. I mean, I had no idea of their current English language skills, what the curriculum they were following was or what was it that we were expected to teach them. Each of us asked the guide about this throughout the day, but we never received very much of an answer.
The reason for this became obvious when we got inside the classroom. 70 expectant children looking at us. It seems there was no curriculum, the extent of their English was days of the week and primary colours and the guide had no idea of what was going on any more than we did. The school teachers had all bunked off for a quick fag round the back of the building.
We got down to teaching them the names of some animals. It was fair to say that it wasn't much of a success. I am glad to report that my previously assumed lack of aptitude for the teaching profession was entirely proved to be an actual lack of aptitude,... however keen the kids were to learn.
But for all of that, definitely a captivating day, and I'm really glad that we spent the extra time in Siem Reap to allow us to be able to experience it.
The Temples of Angkor Wat ARE AMAZING! Angkor Wat itself is just stunning, although Rich did liken it to Didcot power station! In the fact that there are 5 pineapple turrets things but you only see 3 at anyone time (mostly): just like Didcot- see 3 towers but there are 6. beautiful ancient monument, 1970's concrete eyesore, Men's minds are a mystery. However after I had stopped laughing we went off for a wander. We went up and climbed the first set of steep stairs and had a look at the carvings, Angkor Wat has lots of Bas relief carvings depicting battles and dancers, amongst others. We climbed as high as we could, last time I was here you could climb right to the base of the turrets but now you can only go to the main level below, which is no bad thing, as the tourist numbers have increased but the steps are still ridiculously steep and nerve racking to climb down. Angkor Wat is a must see temple if you are ever in this part of the world I would highly recommend a visit as I can not hope to describe here what it is like.
After our ride from hell and lovely sunset at Angkor Wat we were looking forward to a day of temple touring. This started at 4.45AM!!! we had decided that to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat would be lovely too and it was, if a little crowded, not so great photos but never mind. We zipped over to Ta Prohm which is the one with all the trees growing out of it, Tomb-raider was filmed here, sadly it is very broken down and work is going on to restore it, however the techniques used are questionable as it looks a little odd with parts old weathered sandstone and parts fresh grey concrete, Thankfully the main body of the temple was literally like Lego with no mortar used lets hope they have someone who is good at jigsaw puzzles and likes building blocks. The day was very hot and humid and we were getting temple fatigue by 11am so having seen a large part of the temple complex that is easily accessible by tuk tuk from town we headed back to the hotel to recover.
Having spent the hottest part of the day secreted away in air-con'ed luxury we headed out to finish off the last of the Temples. We really enjoyed these temples as they were not so crowded and the high heat had gone there was better light for photos too although we had bought the little camera. All in all a very relaxing day (save for the sellers, water,cold drink, postcard) but once got used to it it was not so bad.
Our second full day in Seim Reap was highly uneventful as we were planning our onward journey up in to Thailand and beyond, boring but essential as we are off the beaten tourist trail and there is nothing in the guidebooks so internet searches are a must.
Day in the life tour (by Richard)
Our last day in Siem Reap and we went on a tour entitled “a day in the life”. Normally anything that smacks of organised tourism sets off the alarm bells in my head, but this was run by an NGO, and promised an experience that even independent travel couldn't give you an insight to, well not unless you happened to speak fluent Khmer, and mine's a bit rusty.
At about 8am a small group of us headed out from the town to a local village to 'help' a family with their daily work. In exchange for the family tolerating our 'help', the village is paid a small amount by the tour organisers, who also have a program to install water pumps and filters at the homes around the village.
Untreated water is a real scourge in Cambodia, 1 in 7 children die before their fifth birthday because of waterborne disease. So approximately one in every three families will lose a child for want of clean drinking water. A water filter costs (US)$47, so a little over £30.
You can follow the link to Trailblazer's website here, if you want to know more. So what do you really want for your next birthday? How about asking for a gift of a water filter for a village? There's a one in three chance your donation will save a child from dying and a certainty that it will prevent waterborne pathogens from making a family ill.
Our first task of the day however was a lot more light hearted. We pulled up at the outskirts of the village in our van, bundled out, and I was promptly handed the reigns to an ox'n'cart. Power delivery is a little different to our usual form of transport, however I can at last say that I have finally found a more bum numbing method of covering distance than on a tandem. Controls were rudimentary. Whip to go, pull on the reigns to stop and steering, well, that remained a mystery to me. Nothing I did influenced the direction the cows and cart were heading. It seemed that Myrtle and Ermintrude went wherever the nearest vegetation was going to allow them a quick snack on the way past.
First proper job of the day was helping make a roof from palm leaves for the family to re-roof their house, which must be done every 5 years. The building materials are all derived from Bamboo and the Palm tree, locally sourced, so local in fact that both trees were in the family garden. We are told that the materials are ideal for the local climate, in that they deaden the sound of the water falling during a rain storm (a tin roof will echo) while keeping the heat out of the living quarters under the afternoon sun, (a tin roof would act like an oven).
How to make a bamboo and palm leaf roof. A bamboo cane is split along it's length into quarters and cut to be just over a metre long. Dried out palm leaves are folder in half and lain either side of the bamboo pole. The spine of the palm frond is used like a giant needle and thread to sew the first palm leaf in place, and then the next leaf is partially overlaid with the first (think slates on a roof at home) and so on until the whole bamboo cane has palm leaves hanging from it. It takes about 15 minutes to do one section. The roof requires 300 sections. We were clearly not going to be able to re roof the house this morning, but it was amazing how the materials in the family garden could be used so inventively.
Next job was to make dinner for the family, we prepared soup, with rice and and a paste to accompany. The paste was particularly interesting as it's core ingredients were, salted fish, some very strong chilli, a variety of root vegetables and a whole heap of red ants to add some protein. I tried some of it and do you know, that while spicy, it tasted very nice. Denyze declined, but I did have to ask, if you are a vegetarian, does that mean you can eat ants or not?
On the way to Siem Reap from the Thai border we'd seen a lot of rice fields, with water in them. Not knowing any different, I assumed that all rice fields would look like this. But in the village, there had not been the hoped for amount of rain this year and their rice fields were dry. (This is supposed to be the wet season). I asked what would happen if the rain did not fall heavily soon, our guide replied, somewhat diplomatically, 'the villagers would have to buy in rice from outside'.
The villagers average income in this part of Cambodia is around $2 per day. Most things they need they get from neighbours if they are unable to grow it themselves, or from the bigger farmers, for whom they often work. I'm not all together sure how they will afford enough rice if all families are suffering from a poor harvest at the same time.
Our last task of the day was teaching school kids English, not having done any teaching before, I was looking forward to this, but I had no idea of how to go about it. I mean, I had no idea of their current English language skills, what the curriculum they were following was or what was it that we were expected to teach them. Each of us asked the guide about this throughout the day, but we never received very much of an answer.
The reason for this became obvious when we got inside the classroom. 70 expectant children looking at us. It seems there was no curriculum, the extent of their English was days of the week and primary colours and the guide had no idea of what was going on any more than we did. The school teachers had all bunked off for a quick fag round the back of the building.
We got down to teaching them the names of some animals. It was fair to say that it wasn't much of a success. I am glad to report that my previously assumed lack of aptitude for the teaching profession was entirely proved to be an actual lack of aptitude,... however keen the kids were to learn.
But for all of that, definitely a captivating day, and I'm really glad that we spent the extra time in Siem Reap to allow us to be able to experience it.
Sunday 11 July 2010
Cambodge...
When we put the bike together Rich forgot to say the other major thing that had gone wrong. My cycle computer decided that it did not want to work. I had not realised just how much I relied on the thing to keep me on track. It is demoralising knowing you have a 60-70 mile ride but far worse when you have no idea where you are in that ride!! For the last three days I have been driving Rich up the wall with the dreaded question 'how far have we gone'?
Whilst walking around the border town yesterday we happened to see a bike shop, with a Specialized bike in the window. We are sad people and had to rush in and have a look around, as if we are going to find anything we need in a small border town bike shop. Well low and behold, I shall bite my tongue as there was my model of computer sat winking at me from the cabinet.
Well, when Rich started to fit the new computer on the bike, we trialed it on my fittings as it has an extra long wire, blow me if it did not jump start my computer into working, so now we have an extra one. Clever Rich came up with an idea of mounting it on the bike and using it as a KM not miles computer, so now we have three computers on the bike 'just in case'.
While we think the roads in Thailand are fantastic with great hard shoulders on all roads for the slower moving motos, bikes and others on the road, the driving has a lot to be desired!! On the 2nd day in the space of 15 miles we saw two crashed cars (on straight roads with no other vehicles involved) and witnessed a pick up stacked high with chickens career off the road up ahead of us and roll down the bank! We raced up the road and offered help but they were already on the phone calling for back up, I did not look too hard at the chickens that were all over the place, suffice to say Rich is steering clear of eating chicken for a while!
With the early rising, quick road surface, flat terrain and eagerness to get out of the heat we have been finishing our rides by mid to late morning, giving us lots of time to hand wash our clothes and get them out in the sun to dry, have a mooch around town and spend time on the web. Rich found lots of info about the border crossing which we have since found out has changed, so, just in case anyone stumbles across our blog looking for info on the Aranyanprathet and Poipet border crossing read on.
The border opens at 7am, by 6.30am there were small queue's waiting at immigration in the allotted railed lines, a bit like cows waiting to be milked. At 7am there was a massive rush to get through the double doors and in to the right queue. Foreigners was of course the longest and slowest line. While I was inside getting out of Thailand Rich was outside with the bike, he had walked down the road and was waiting at the barrier. Once I was through we swapped as I was unable to get his passport stamped, unsurprisingly. With both passports stamped we walked the bike through the barrier into no man's land.... this is a very busy place, people everywhere and huge casinos looming.
We walked across the bridge and was told right-side right-side, we have travelled over 2500 miles and this will be the first time we have cycled on the right side of the road. Anyway we walked towards the Cambodian archway with Ankor Wat pineapple turrets on top, we were looking out for a port-a-cabin with a little window at the side as this is what we had read was the visa office. In fact we were directed to a brand new building with border guards saying visa,visa, just to the right of the archway. It was a simple process of filling out the quick form and handing over $20 and 100 baht. The 100 baht is for 'express service', else you will have to pick up your passport in Phnom Pen, as we are not going there we had to pay up. Once the visa had been processed (3 mins) we were free to head out to immigration which is further on, holding back the tuk tuk drivers and moto mafia. Filling in arrival cards and getting the visa stamped was the last in a simple process of getting across the border. As we walked out into Cambodia we were expecting it to be a maelstrom of bustle with pushy moto mafia and crooked money exchangers. However we only had 1 tuk tuk driver offer us a lift to which we simply said no thanks and got on the bike a rode away, I think that was answer enough!
The road out of town has at long last been paved, when I last came in 2003 it was a very long bumpy dusty ride from Poipet to Siem Reap. I was dreading this part of the trip as I remembered what the road was like, but to my surprise we cruised along at 15mph and arrived in Sisophon at around 10am, With aching cheaks from all the smiling and shouts of hello. We spent the following 45 mins looking for the Golden Crown Guest House, as the other hotels were near to a karaoke brothel and we have been traumatised enough by them!!
Whilst walking around the border town yesterday we happened to see a bike shop, with a Specialized bike in the window. We are sad people and had to rush in and have a look around, as if we are going to find anything we need in a small border town bike shop. Well low and behold, I shall bite my tongue as there was my model of computer sat winking at me from the cabinet.
Well, when Rich started to fit the new computer on the bike, we trialed it on my fittings as it has an extra long wire, blow me if it did not jump start my computer into working, so now we have an extra one. Clever Rich came up with an idea of mounting it on the bike and using it as a KM not miles computer, so now we have three computers on the bike 'just in case'.
While we think the roads in Thailand are fantastic with great hard shoulders on all roads for the slower moving motos, bikes and others on the road, the driving has a lot to be desired!! On the 2nd day in the space of 15 miles we saw two crashed cars (on straight roads with no other vehicles involved) and witnessed a pick up stacked high with chickens career off the road up ahead of us and roll down the bank! We raced up the road and offered help but they were already on the phone calling for back up, I did not look too hard at the chickens that were all over the place, suffice to say Rich is steering clear of eating chicken for a while!
With the early rising, quick road surface, flat terrain and eagerness to get out of the heat we have been finishing our rides by mid to late morning, giving us lots of time to hand wash our clothes and get them out in the sun to dry, have a mooch around town and spend time on the web. Rich found lots of info about the border crossing which we have since found out has changed, so, just in case anyone stumbles across our blog looking for info on the Aranyanprathet and Poipet border crossing read on.
The border opens at 7am, by 6.30am there were small queue's waiting at immigration in the allotted railed lines, a bit like cows waiting to be milked. At 7am there was a massive rush to get through the double doors and in to the right queue. Foreigners was of course the longest and slowest line. While I was inside getting out of Thailand Rich was outside with the bike, he had walked down the road and was waiting at the barrier. Once I was through we swapped as I was unable to get his passport stamped, unsurprisingly. With both passports stamped we walked the bike through the barrier into no man's land.... this is a very busy place, people everywhere and huge casinos looming.
We walked across the bridge and was told right-side right-side, we have travelled over 2500 miles and this will be the first time we have cycled on the right side of the road. Anyway we walked towards the Cambodian archway with Ankor Wat pineapple turrets on top, we were looking out for a port-a-cabin with a little window at the side as this is what we had read was the visa office. In fact we were directed to a brand new building with border guards saying visa,visa, just to the right of the archway. It was a simple process of filling out the quick form and handing over $20 and 100 baht. The 100 baht is for 'express service', else you will have to pick up your passport in Phnom Pen, as we are not going there we had to pay up. Once the visa had been processed (3 mins) we were free to head out to immigration which is further on, holding back the tuk tuk drivers and moto mafia. Filling in arrival cards and getting the visa stamped was the last in a simple process of getting across the border. As we walked out into Cambodia we were expecting it to be a maelstrom of bustle with pushy moto mafia and crooked money exchangers. However we only had 1 tuk tuk driver offer us a lift to which we simply said no thanks and got on the bike a rode away, I think that was answer enough!
The road out of town has at long last been paved, when I last came in 2003 it was a very long bumpy dusty ride from Poipet to Siem Reap. I was dreading this part of the trip as I remembered what the road was like, but to my surprise we cruised along at 15mph and arrived in Sisophon at around 10am, With aching cheaks from all the smiling and shouts of hello. We spent the following 45 mins looking for the Golden Crown Guest House, as the other hotels were near to a karaoke brothel and we have been traumatised enough by them!!
Saturday 10 July 2010
Back on 2 wheels
What a relief to finally get back under pedal power. One, because it feels like time is short on this leg of the journey as we have lot's of miles to cover into Delhi, and two, because it transpires that our grotty guesthouse (see 2 posts ago) was not just a guest house, but also doubled as a brothel for the Karaoke bar downstairs, (music finished 3am, if you are interested).
So early start at 5.30am, to make the most of the comparatively low humidity and cool temperatures. We headed 40 miles east in the direction of Phanom Sarakham. A bit tired but none the worse for our sleepless night. As the morning wore on it became witheringly hot but at least on a bike, once you get up to speed (about 13mph on a reasonable road) then the air flow means it's not altogether unbearable.
We arrived in Phanom Sarakham by just after 9.30 in the morning and after a bit of snooping we checked into a hotel. One which would give us a higher class of accommodation from than the night before, even if it had seen better days. The place looked like it had been shipped concrete slab by concrete slab from eastern European and showcased the very best of that regions architecture circa 1973. At least it was clean and didn't have a “karaoke” bar below it.
Then we went out to spend some time in a beautifully air conditioned web café, and returned to the hotel to do some reading before getting a bite to eat and an early night.
We went downstairs to enquire about food, and were told that we could eat in the restaurant, lovely, lead on I thought. So we were promptly led into the hotel restaurant, cum karaoke bar, cum massage parlour..... I'm starting to despair of getting a good night's sleep in Thailand.
Another early start took us out of town along the eastbound 304/359 highway and for all of our hotel issues of the last couple of days the cycling here is wonderful, other road users, who are used to dealing with slow moving cycles and mopeds are giving us plenty of space. The topography is flat to undulating and the roads well surfaced.
As we were nearing the end of a 50km straight stretch of the 359 we noticed an advert for a resort guest house and as we had nearly reached our intended destination of Sa Kaeo we pulled over and asked to be shown the rooms. OMG! How fantastic were these little bungalows?! Naramon Gold Resort. If you ever pass by, and you need a great place to stay, I can't recommend it enough.
45 miles east we've arrived in the border town of Aranya Prathet, we trawled a few guest houses and hotels looking for a favourite and we ended up opting for the Market Hotel. Rooms are clean and basic, but looks like after last night and tonight our standard of accommodation has turned a corner. Off to explore now. Have seen a few other westerners here so hopefully tonight we'll know what we're ordering off the menu rather than taking pot luck with our ropey Thai language skills.
So early start at 5.30am, to make the most of the comparatively low humidity and cool temperatures. We headed 40 miles east in the direction of Phanom Sarakham. A bit tired but none the worse for our sleepless night. As the morning wore on it became witheringly hot but at least on a bike, once you get up to speed (about 13mph on a reasonable road) then the air flow means it's not altogether unbearable.
We arrived in Phanom Sarakham by just after 9.30 in the morning and after a bit of snooping we checked into a hotel. One which would give us a higher class of accommodation from than the night before, even if it had seen better days. The place looked like it had been shipped concrete slab by concrete slab from eastern European and showcased the very best of that regions architecture circa 1973. At least it was clean and didn't have a “karaoke” bar below it.
Then we went out to spend some time in a beautifully air conditioned web café, and returned to the hotel to do some reading before getting a bite to eat and an early night.
We went downstairs to enquire about food, and were told that we could eat in the restaurant, lovely, lead on I thought. So we were promptly led into the hotel restaurant, cum karaoke bar, cum massage parlour..... I'm starting to despair of getting a good night's sleep in Thailand.
Another early start took us out of town along the eastbound 304/359 highway and for all of our hotel issues of the last couple of days the cycling here is wonderful, other road users, who are used to dealing with slow moving cycles and mopeds are giving us plenty of space. The topography is flat to undulating and the roads well surfaced.
As we were nearing the end of a 50km straight stretch of the 359 we noticed an advert for a resort guest house and as we had nearly reached our intended destination of Sa Kaeo we pulled over and asked to be shown the rooms. OMG! How fantastic were these little bungalows?! Naramon Gold Resort. If you ever pass by, and you need a great place to stay, I can't recommend it enough.
45 miles east we've arrived in the border town of Aranya Prathet, we trawled a few guest houses and hotels looking for a favourite and we ended up opting for the Market Hotel. Rooms are clean and basic, but looks like after last night and tonight our standard of accommodation has turned a corner. Off to explore now. Have seen a few other westerners here so hopefully tonight we'll know what we're ordering off the menu rather than taking pot luck with our ropey Thai language skills.
what we love (and not love) about our bike
There's always one thing that comes back to bite you. In this case, while reassembling the bike we had more problems with our fancy pants 'hydraulic dry coupling' for the disk brake. This was the part that caused us all the problems while disassembling the bike in Australia, and with apologies to readers who don't care for knowing about the technical bits of the bike, the dry coupling, made of a light alloy metal, allows us to have a hydraulic disc brake on the back of the bike while still being able to split the bike in two, by allowing us to split the hydraulic hose on the brake in a couple of seconds.
Unfortunately, in Oz, while using brute force to undo the coupling it seems that we may have accidentally crushed it, causing a hairline crack in the metal, which means that it was impossible to redo the coupling when reassembling the bike. Being an unusual part, it means that we are not able to get a replacement in Thailand (oh, that and the fact that they cost lots) and we'd have to go back to Bangkok for other parts to get the brake working again by other means. It's okay, as we have a second rear rim brake, but we hope we can get the disc brake fixed for the Himalayas.
On that note, I feel like we should share our thoughts on the bike, in a review of our Thorn Tandem for any readers who are considering buying one for any adventures. (You may like to skip the rest of this post if you are not that interested in bikes).
If two people of differing cycling abilities are planning a trip, then I would wholly recommend considering a tandem. It takes a while to get comfortable spending long periods of time on it, before which, your bum spends a lot of time aching but the benefits of one person not being left behind, and being able to talk whenever you want more than offset this.
With regards to our Thorn, the S&S couplings (which allow us to split the tandem in two) and the Rohloff speedhub gears (14 gears in the rear hub) are the obvious things that set it apart, and make it more expensive, than a regular tandem, but both have been excellent additions. The S&S couplings have allowed us to transport the bike on planes with no problems, and the Rolhoff is wonderful (though not without fault), as it means the drive chain requires only maybe 20% of the maintenance compared to a regular set up. Overall, the quality of the Thorn is fantastic. I have a Surly Long Haul Trucker solo touring bike with Tubus racks and in every way the Thorn frame and fittings look and feel more solid. Okay, advert for Thorn bikes over.
Problems? Well, the first is that the Rolhoff leaks oil, not a huge amount, but it left a small amount on the rear skewer, and when we attached the trailer this leakage increased, but this is a common issue, and not one that leads to any problems apparently. The hub can also become stuck in gear when changing down under pressure between the high and low ranges of the gear box, widely known about, but can be very frustrating! Certainly, if you are used to a positive Campag or Shimano rapid-fire shifting system then, in comparison, the action of the twist grip on the Rolhoff is very vague, something you get used to, but definitely a case of could do better. Our other problems, have been as a result of the disc brake.
As mentioned above, the dry coupling seized and has now put the Hope disc brake out of action, but before that, the disc brake didn't feel like it had the power relative to the v-brake that you would expect. It seemed to be quickly overwhelmed either by the all up weight of the tandem or the dry coupling caused a degradation in performance, but anyhow, the lever could be pulled back to the bar after only a couple of uses on many hills. When we find a decent bike shop that sells hydraulic hose and a bleed kit, I'll give Denyze the brake lever on the rear stoker bars (no need for the coupling) and we'll get to see what was the cause of the poor performance, but in the mean time, I would recommend to anyone that they stick with the single v-brake on the back and stock up on spare brake pads.... you bank account will thank you for it and you'll stop quicker with the v-brake in any case.
Finally, last piece of info. We originally had drop handlebars on the front of the bike. I spent ages when buying the bike deciding between drops and flat bars (don't think I endeared myself to the sales staff on that one) but eventually went for drops as I find them more comfortable for long distances. Let's be clear about this though, when the riders, the bike and the luggage weigh in excess of 200kg, unless you are riding on sealed roads with very little traffic, you will not get enough leverage to be able to control the bike safely with drops... well I certainly couldn't. Does that make me a bit of a wimp? What do you mean yes?
Unfortunately, in Oz, while using brute force to undo the coupling it seems that we may have accidentally crushed it, causing a hairline crack in the metal, which means that it was impossible to redo the coupling when reassembling the bike. Being an unusual part, it means that we are not able to get a replacement in Thailand (oh, that and the fact that they cost lots) and we'd have to go back to Bangkok for other parts to get the brake working again by other means. It's okay, as we have a second rear rim brake, but we hope we can get the disc brake fixed for the Himalayas.
On that note, I feel like we should share our thoughts on the bike, in a review of our Thorn Tandem for any readers who are considering buying one for any adventures. (You may like to skip the rest of this post if you are not that interested in bikes).
If two people of differing cycling abilities are planning a trip, then I would wholly recommend considering a tandem. It takes a while to get comfortable spending long periods of time on it, before which, your bum spends a lot of time aching but the benefits of one person not being left behind, and being able to talk whenever you want more than offset this.
With regards to our Thorn, the S&S couplings (which allow us to split the tandem in two) and the Rohloff speedhub gears (14 gears in the rear hub) are the obvious things that set it apart, and make it more expensive, than a regular tandem, but both have been excellent additions. The S&S couplings have allowed us to transport the bike on planes with no problems, and the Rolhoff is wonderful (though not without fault), as it means the drive chain requires only maybe 20% of the maintenance compared to a regular set up. Overall, the quality of the Thorn is fantastic. I have a Surly Long Haul Trucker solo touring bike with Tubus racks and in every way the Thorn frame and fittings look and feel more solid. Okay, advert for Thorn bikes over.
Problems? Well, the first is that the Rolhoff leaks oil, not a huge amount, but it left a small amount on the rear skewer, and when we attached the trailer this leakage increased, but this is a common issue, and not one that leads to any problems apparently. The hub can also become stuck in gear when changing down under pressure between the high and low ranges of the gear box, widely known about, but can be very frustrating! Certainly, if you are used to a positive Campag or Shimano rapid-fire shifting system then, in comparison, the action of the twist grip on the Rolhoff is very vague, something you get used to, but definitely a case of could do better. Our other problems, have been as a result of the disc brake.
As mentioned above, the dry coupling seized and has now put the Hope disc brake out of action, but before that, the disc brake didn't feel like it had the power relative to the v-brake that you would expect. It seemed to be quickly overwhelmed either by the all up weight of the tandem or the dry coupling caused a degradation in performance, but anyhow, the lever could be pulled back to the bar after only a couple of uses on many hills. When we find a decent bike shop that sells hydraulic hose and a bleed kit, I'll give Denyze the brake lever on the rear stoker bars (no need for the coupling) and we'll get to see what was the cause of the poor performance, but in the mean time, I would recommend to anyone that they stick with the single v-brake on the back and stock up on spare brake pads.... you bank account will thank you for it and you'll stop quicker with the v-brake in any case.
Finally, last piece of info. We originally had drop handlebars on the front of the bike. I spent ages when buying the bike deciding between drops and flat bars (don't think I endeared myself to the sales staff on that one) but eventually went for drops as I find them more comfortable for long distances. Let's be clear about this though, when the riders, the bike and the luggage weigh in excess of 200kg, unless you are riding on sealed roads with very little traffic, you will not get enough leverage to be able to control the bike safely with drops... well I certainly couldn't. Does that make me a bit of a wimp? What do you mean yes?
Wednesday 7 July 2010
leaving Bangkok
With the 30 day chinese visa's safely in our passports we headed out of the relative safety of Bangkok today. With it goes western menu's and easy ordering of vegetarian food. Luckliy we arrived in our first port of call Chachoengaso and after dumping our bags in the dump of a guest house we set off exploring looking for food. We have managed to explore all of about 300 meters from the hotel and are at present in the airconditioned luxury of an icecream parlour that does food has a waitress that can speak some English and has free wifi. Talk about intrepid adventurers tasting the wares of the locals!
We are putting off going back to the guest house for as long as possible as it is a little more than grotty but the only one we could find and that was with the help of the taxi driver who drove us from Bangkok. We also have the delight of putting the bike back together and packing all our stuff, although we sent lots home we have managed to buy lots of books just to even it all up.
The big news Rich forgot to say in the last post is that we have decided after much lugging about of the bike in its packed stateis that we really do not want to be gadding about all over China by train as was the first plan, so have revised the route. We have decided that Vitenam will have to wait and to head straight up Laos and into China rather than via North Vietnam, then head straight towards Tibet and the big hills. So no Beijing, no great wall or Terrocotta army but also no lugging the bike around packed up!!
lets see what tomorrow brings.....
We are putting off going back to the guest house for as long as possible as it is a little more than grotty but the only one we could find and that was with the help of the taxi driver who drove us from Bangkok. We also have the delight of putting the bike back together and packing all our stuff, although we sent lots home we have managed to buy lots of books just to even it all up.
The big news Rich forgot to say in the last post is that we have decided after much lugging about of the bike in its packed stateis that we really do not want to be gadding about all over China by train as was the first plan, so have revised the route. We have decided that Vitenam will have to wait and to head straight up Laos and into China rather than via North Vietnam, then head straight towards Tibet and the big hills. So no Beijing, no great wall or Terrocotta army but also no lugging the bike around packed up!!
lets see what tomorrow brings.....
Tuesday 6 July 2010
Love you long time....
I am very frustrated!! To cycle to from Bangkok to Delhi involves pedalling across a few thousand Km's of China via the Himalayas. The main reason for my frustration is that in Bangkok we decided we would apply for our Chinese visas, and while almost all countries in S.E. Asia only grant a 30 day tourist visa as a matter of course,... so too does China.
Great, I hear you say. And if you are cycling across Laos it is, but China is just a tad bigger. In theory, you can obtain a 90 day visa, but try as we might, the constantly smiling lady in Bangkok's Chinese embassy, would not admit the possibility of getting anything more than a 30 day visa. The upshot of all of this is that either we have to cycle to Hong Kong to try our luck of getting a longer visa there, or rely on the generosity of the PSB (the very communist one party state sounding 'Public Security Bureau') to allow us visa extension once in China. We collect our passport, Chinese visa et al. tomorrow.
Anyway on to impressions of Bangkok. After the relative familiarity of Australia, Bangkok is like a developing world slap in the face. Hawkers, trying to sell you stuff you never knew existed, you never knew you needed and you certainly have never wanted. Street venders pushing the limits of their stalls across the pavement into the road, health and safety be damned. Tuk-Tuk drivers conning naive gap year backpackers straight off the plane for 10 times the going rate for a 2km ride. Yet, it still makes for a soft landing pad into indo-china. We've not yet been given a menu without an English translation, in the area we are staying western tourists outnumber the locals and there's a heavy presence of the ever comforting 'tourist police'.
So from here we are heading to the east, to the Cambodian border, and on to the famous Ankor Wat temples. Apparently the roads have been tarmaced over the last few years... here's hoping! If not, then at least we will be getting a proper dose of adventure cycling!!
Great, I hear you say. And if you are cycling across Laos it is, but China is just a tad bigger. In theory, you can obtain a 90 day visa, but try as we might, the constantly smiling lady in Bangkok's Chinese embassy, would not admit the possibility of getting anything more than a 30 day visa. The upshot of all of this is that either we have to cycle to Hong Kong to try our luck of getting a longer visa there, or rely on the generosity of the PSB (the very communist one party state sounding 'Public Security Bureau') to allow us visa extension once in China. We collect our passport, Chinese visa et al. tomorrow.
Anyway on to impressions of Bangkok. After the relative familiarity of Australia, Bangkok is like a developing world slap in the face. Hawkers, trying to sell you stuff you never knew existed, you never knew you needed and you certainly have never wanted. Street venders pushing the limits of their stalls across the pavement into the road, health and safety be damned. Tuk-Tuk drivers conning naive gap year backpackers straight off the plane for 10 times the going rate for a 2km ride. Yet, it still makes for a soft landing pad into indo-china. We've not yet been given a menu without an English translation, in the area we are staying western tourists outnumber the locals and there's a heavy presence of the ever comforting 'tourist police'.
So from here we are heading to the east, to the Cambodian border, and on to the famous Ankor Wat temples. Apparently the roads have been tarmaced over the last few years... here's hoping! If not, then at least we will be getting a proper dose of adventure cycling!!
Monday 5 July 2010
Australia and beyond......
On the Whitsundays cruise a lady asked the question, 'My 5 star friend says that the outer reef is the only place to really go to see great coral, is this true?' the response: The coral here is just as good if not better. I wish we had believed that as we could have saved ourselves a lot of money! Don't get me wrong the reef was great and we did get to go scuba diving (Rich's first time), but the reef was looking sad and very similar. lots of patches of dead reef and apart from the giant clams size -Huge!!! the coral we saw at the Whitsundays was in better shape. We did see one part of the reef that looked like it was out of saving Nemo which made up for the disappointment of the morning snorkel, but would like to know what impact the tourist industry is having on the reef as it was startling how much of the coral was dead.
the last full day in Cairns was spent running round the shops, changing money, buying tyres, getting bike boxes, parcel tape and all the boring stuff you have to do when you move on. Finally when we were back at the campsite we set to work on the bike packing it up, we gave ourselves plenty of daylight hours to complete the job, as last time in Auckland we ended up scrabbling around with head torches on, not great to find that bolt that just pinged off!
So having started the job at 4pm you may ask why we were still struggling with one, yes ONE part of the bike 3 hours later!! we had not had the bike apart for the entire two months which should not cause a problem except it had a good coating of sea water on several occasions, the water got down in to the dry coupling for the hydraulic brake and that was it, not budging. So after about half a can of WD40, Rich's patience had deserted us, pliers, adjustable spanners and a rubber hammer (Thorn, the bike shop's idea) we were no nearer to getting it off and starting to panic. Our saviour was in the guise of a guy who runs cape york 4W drive trips. He had a trailer of wonders and we eventually sorted it with monkey wrenches a and G clamp. Talk about saving the day. Panic over we stripped the rest of the bike and set to work packing the rest of the baggage. Our major moves always seem to have a glitch somewhere.
That was it Australia was over for us and it was on to cheap Bangkok!! We thought we would do a quick summing up of our thought on Australia:
Expensive
Friendly to the unusual traveller
Grey nomads zipping everywhere in their RV's and caravans
Massive divide between indigenous and westerners
same same countryside for very long stretches
Grey nomads more fun, less noisy and friendlier than backpackers
Big difference between tourist and non tourist spots, latter were the better
good trip and got lots of mileage in, but on the whole weighing up the money spent and things seen we could have missed it out and gone straight to Indochina and seen all of Oz another time
the last full day in Cairns was spent running round the shops, changing money, buying tyres, getting bike boxes, parcel tape and all the boring stuff you have to do when you move on. Finally when we were back at the campsite we set to work on the bike packing it up, we gave ourselves plenty of daylight hours to complete the job, as last time in Auckland we ended up scrabbling around with head torches on, not great to find that bolt that just pinged off!
So having started the job at 4pm you may ask why we were still struggling with one, yes ONE part of the bike 3 hours later!! we had not had the bike apart for the entire two months which should not cause a problem except it had a good coating of sea water on several occasions, the water got down in to the dry coupling for the hydraulic brake and that was it, not budging. So after about half a can of WD40, Rich's patience had deserted us, pliers, adjustable spanners and a rubber hammer (Thorn, the bike shop's idea) we were no nearer to getting it off and starting to panic. Our saviour was in the guise of a guy who runs cape york 4W drive trips. He had a trailer of wonders and we eventually sorted it with monkey wrenches a and G clamp. Talk about saving the day. Panic over we stripped the rest of the bike and set to work packing the rest of the baggage. Our major moves always seem to have a glitch somewhere.
That was it Australia was over for us and it was on to cheap Bangkok!! We thought we would do a quick summing up of our thought on Australia:
Expensive
Friendly to the unusual traveller
Grey nomads zipping everywhere in their RV's and caravans
Massive divide between indigenous and westerners
same same countryside for very long stretches
Grey nomads more fun, less noisy and friendlier than backpackers
Big difference between tourist and non tourist spots, latter were the better
good trip and got lots of mileage in, but on the whole weighing up the money spent and things seen we could have missed it out and gone straight to Indochina and seen all of Oz another time
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