Between 27 December and 17 January, Sarah and I completed a 2285km cycle tour between Hanoi, Vietnam, and Bangkok, Thailand. This is the last of a four post series. See also:
- Curiosities - as seen from the road - a captioned photo album of some of the stranger sights
- Lessons learned - logistical notes
- Leg 1 - Vietnam
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With two weeks of Vietnamese roads in our legs, we cycled through no man's land, and soon came to the Cambodian border guards. We slowly parked up our bikes, all the better to soak up what was going on around us and to try to intuit the correct process.
There were two other travelers sitting in an outdoor waiting area. We soon joined them, first sitting to fill in a visa application form, and then waiting for it to be processed. Once our passports were returned, sporting a handsome visa sticker, we were ushered into another building, and emerged from that a few minutes later officially admitted to Cambodia.
After almost 1500km of riding through Vietnam, the ebb and flow of the place had become pretty familiar. Differences were immediately apparent across the border. The most welcome change was to discover that the contra flow motorcycle lane wasn't on the road, but tended to be a dirt track alongside - the vast majority of my traffic alarm had been caused by the oncoming motos!
We'd paid for our visas with USD, and didn't have any Cambodian cash. One visit to an ATM later, the same was true! I made a mental note to keep an eye out for another.
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| Dusty roads hadn't really been a thing in Viet Nam |
I was hoping to ride about 40km to a hotel, in order to reduce the length of the next day's ride to Phnom Penh, all of which was on the main road.
The road was incredibly busy, but with relatively slow moving traffic (indeed, sometimes slower than us). There were many buses and vans - all loaded to the gunnels - full of what we thought were probably factory workers heading home. Often, the traffic was at a complete stand-still, and these jams would have been an interesting phenomenon to study. Was the traffic jam causing the salesforce who were eagerly trying to sell their wares to passengers (eggs, fruits, cooked food), or was the marketplace causing the traffic jam? To my eyes, it was a bit of both.
We resolved our cash issue at the next town, but not before Sarah had made a failed attempt to buy some water using USD, the issue seeming to be that the vendor was unsure about the exchange rate, and didn't want to rip us off. Fortunately, we managed to find an ATM, and this one spewed cash at us as requested!
As we neared what I hoped would prove to be our destination, I passed a fellow standing in the road shoulder. He said something to me, which I ignored, but about 20 metres down the road was a whole lot of cash lying on the ground. I stopped and started picking it up (old habits clearly die hard), and then noticed the chap was approaching me. It all started to feel fishy, and I chucked the cash back on the ground and pedaled off, Sarah joining me, wondering what the hell was going on!
We rode into Krong Svay Rieng just on dusk, and saw a couple of hotels exactly where Google said they'd be. We picked the one with the higher rating, and were checked in soon after. Whilst Vietnamese carpark security had been top notch, we were less confident here, and managed to successfully negotiate a parking spot in the foyer.
After a wash, we went next store for dinner. Sarah was keen to order Amok - a Cambodian fish curry - but it wasn't available and she made the mistake of ordering "Fried Chicken Breast" instead. Her meal came, and she'd been given a fried chicken drumstick, which might as well have been described as "Fried Chicken Skin"!!! We'd noticed chooks in this part of the world are really scrawny, and the lack of flesh on the bone wasn't overly surprising! At least Sarah's appetite was back.
Stats: 40km in Cambodia, at the end of a 138km day, running total 1517km
Day 16 - to Phnom Penh
Thanks to riding into the previous evening, as hoped, we were well poised to ride into Phnom Penh. I planned to stick to the main highway as far as the Mekong River, before peeling off to stay on the eastern side of the river. The map seemed to suggest there were a few ferry ports opposite our destination, but I'd not investigated any further.
Our hotel was one of the few we stayed at that didn't provide breakfast, so when we rolled out, finding something to eat was our top priority. Before too long, we'd taken a seat and I was chowing into the local version of a banh my. That demolished, we relocated to a superette, from which we got water, a bit more to eat, and some coffee. Then, it was time to hit the road!
As with the previous evening, we noted how obviously different this place was than Viet Nam. Notably, it was much drier, and there was less farming going on (at least close to the main highway).
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| These gates were ubiquitous in Viet Nam too, but the style was very different |
Gone were the regular coffee carts, but there were opportunities to stop for a pick me up - often in the form of a coconut, which were both easy to spot, and tended to hit the spot perfectly. At one stop next-door to a car-wash facility, Sarah delighted everyone by popping in for a wash herself. (Free of charge, no less!)
It was pretty uninspiring riding through to the river, albeit pleasant enough. The road was busy with traffic, and dead straight for long stretches, and the "this clearly isn't Viet Nam" fascination waned, however, things got interesting when we finally hit the Mekong. We rode under a rather magnificent bridge, and then popped into a layby to check out the river.
After only a couple of minutes ride, I glanced back to check that Sarah was following. Although she did look very Australian when she was wearing her green bibshorts, her mango riding jersey was wonderfully eye-catching, and my brain had become very good at picking it out from the crowd. This time, she was nowhere to be seen. I stopped and looked properly. Still nothing.
About a minute's ride later, we were reunited, Sarah on foot, wheeling a bike with a very flat rear tyre. We pumped it up, and got going again, hoping that the sealant in the tyre would do its work, but it plagued us on and off for the next 30km.
In the meantime, we found ourselves on a lovely stretch of quiet, sealed road. Villages were regular, and through these, we would typically be able to dive off onto a dirt track running parallel with the road. We were a source of fascination, and it very much was a case of the locals watching us watching them!
Finally, the tyre problems came to a head. I'd been unable to find anything fouling the tyre, and there was no sign of sealant oozing out from anywhere. But, air was most definitely escaping! I made the difficult decision to unseat the tyre and put a tube in.
We found a spot in the shade, and I got to work. Inspecting the tyre from inside, I was able to find the culprit, in the form of a massive thorn. If there was a silver lining, it was simply that I hadn't discovered the thorn after puncturing a tube with it!
When we arrived at the ferry terminal, we had to laugh at ourselves for worrying about not being able to get across the river. There were ferries as far as the eye could see, and we had a very short wait before we were on our way to Phnom Penh!
The trip took about 10 minutes, during which time we got a new perspective on Cambodian life.
The deck of our boat was about half full, and we noted those going from the city were fuller - presumably mostly commuter traffic at the end of a working day. Once we'd pushed up against the riverbank, we rolled off into what appeared to be a large, modern city.
We stuck to a nice path along the river, closed to cars, but busy with walkers. There was a large market we could have checked out, but after a stop-start afternoon, we were keen to get to our hotel and wash up. We left the riverside park near the Royal Palace of Cambodia, where it was a touch frustrating that we were out of time.
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| Royal Palace of Cambodia |
The traffic flow was very different to Ho Chi Minh City, both in terms of volume, and how haphazard it all felt. Tuk-tuks were out in force, including a few battery powered ones.
We reached our hotel, and were directed to put our bikes in an underground garage. They were easily accessed from the road, and there was no obvious human security to supplement our feeble lock. Nonetheless, we had little choice but to leave them (as did everyone else)!
The hotel restaurant did indeed serve Amok, and it was soon apparent why Sarah was so keen to have some - it was delicious! After dinner we went out on foot to a nearby laundry, and left our riding kit with them for collection the next day.
Back in our hotel room, we decided to visit the Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre the next morning, before trying to get ourselves to Siem Reap by the day's end.
Stats: 133km ridden, running total 1649km
Day 17 - dark tourism and relocation to Siem Reap
After breakfast, and suited up in most of our evening wear, we struck out for Choeung Ek. This was almost 15km away from our hotel, but there was a nice tailwind breeze blowing, and the day was still cool. I was sporting an embarrassing pair of white socks (i.e. my untanned skin), as I'd sent my riding socks to the laundry, and didn't want to wear knee length compression socks!
A few kilometres from our destination, managing well not to get hot, we turned right, and battled a crosswind for 10 minutes or so. Outside the facility, someone who was very keen to sell us drinks at the end of the visit offered to keep an eye on our bikes. It seemed like a great trade.
We were provided with audio-guides, and these made for some very difficult listening. Truly horrific things happened at this place.
In some ways the worst part of the experience was to see a few other tourists apparently there to get their instagram moment, posing in front of a memorial in a fashion more suited to the Leaning Tour of Pisa. As hard as it was to hear how this place had been used in our lifetimes, it was appalling to see the way some were engaging with the experience.
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| Choeung Ek Stupa |
Back outside, we were both feeling pretty gross, and it was nice to jump back on the bikes and pedal things out. We returned to the laundry, who happened to also do a mean avocado smoothie, and I celebrated the return of my socks! After collecting our luggage from the hotel, it was time to go find a bus!
This proved to be a much greater challenge than it had been in Kon Tum. At our third "bus station" (per Google), we were rescued by a young woman "Travel Agent". She got straight on the phone, and minutes later confirmed that we had a couple of seats to Siem Reap departing in about 90 minutes time. That gave us an opportunity to track down another helping of amok, which slid down wonderfully!
I almost lost Sarah on the short ride back to the travel agent, and it took me about 5 minutes of hooning up and down between the restaurant and where I'd lost track of her until we were reunited! Luckily, I saw her riding down a random side street, and was able to chase after her.
We had a bit of a wait for our van to arrive, during which time our agent played poker with some of her competitors!
When the van arrived, our bikes were loaded in the boot alongside a motorcycle. Within half an hour or so, every empty seat had someone in it, and at our final pick up, I did wonder if we'd have someone sitting on the floor!
The drive itself was a real experience, and we seemed to spend a good half of it on the wrong side of the road. Vehicles did seem to anticipate this, and even the motorcycles had very bright white lights that flashed a message along the lines of "I'm coming towards you on your part of the road, please get out of my way...". It was dark by the time we reached the outskirts of Siem Reap, and it was nice to be free of the van.
It was a flat 6km ride to our hotel. First, I tried to check into the wrong one, before properly consulting my app. For the first and only time of the trip, we'd be in the same hotel for two nights!! Last task of the evening was to book a couple of one-day tickets to visit the Angkor Archaeological Park via the government's Angkor Enterprise app. Exciting stuff!
Stats: 47km ridden, running total 1696km. A hectic 300km van ride thrown in, all in the name of progress.
Day 18 - Angkor Wat by bicycle
Sarah had lived and worked in Bangkok for 9 months shortly before we met, and had visited Angkor Wat with Khulie back in the day. She recalled far too much walking, particularly for little legs! We were glad we had our bicycles (something that is often true...).
After a solid breakfast, we headed out. Although we'd had no interest in the popular sunrise visit, a clockwise sweep through the large park seemed to make sense, so the first temple we'd see was the big one!
Conditions were amazing, and we quickly settled into a pattern of: show someone our digital tickets, lock the bikes up, walk around the temple, dodging as much as possible the hundreds of others doing the same (well, apart from the bikes).
The contrast to Choeung Ek was something I thought about a lot - the worst of modern mankind, through to this absolutely stunning historical relic. Sarah reported things had changed a lot in the intervening 13 years, where there was much greater access (and fewer people).
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| The tourist steps were still very steep! This made me want to write a trigonometry problem! |
Once we'd had our fill of Angkor Wat, we jumped on our bikes, and headed for the next. I couldn't help but jump onto a bit of singletrack which took us into the jungle. The track was rough in places, and I worried a little bit about getting told off (by Sarah!), but it did take us past a massive statue that I presume very few visitors see. The track ended at the access path to a temple on the top of the small hill we'd almost circumnavigated. At the top, we found ourselves with an amazing vantage point back over the park. It seemed like very few people bothered to climb the hill, so didn't know what they were missing.
Once we were back at the bikes, we found that Sarah's rear tyre was soft. After failing to find anything that might have caused the puncture, I replaced the tube, and we made for the next temple.
It was like deja vu, getting back to the bikes and again finding the tyre soft. It crossed my mind that someone was messing with us, and decided not to replace the tube immediately. Even though the leak was slow enough to get us between temples, eventually I patched it. That seemed to work, but in the meantime I was glad to discover that although the glue I'd brought had been opened, it was still up to the task. We desperately needed to visit a bike shop!!
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| Hers and his. Great when they're running smoothly! |
As the day wore on, the park started to feel large, even when visiting by bike! We agreed that the final temple we'd visit would be Ta Phrom, where we would find ample evidence that nature always wins.
Nonetheless, it was impressive to see how various parts of the old temple were doing an incredible job of staying upright under trying conditions!
We were having a rough day, and while Sarah's dash back to her bike to get her phone hadn't ended in tears (the phone was still in her handlebar bag), somewhere along the lines, she'd lost a bolt out of one of her cleats. I straightened the cleat, relaxed the springs on the pedal as much as possible, and began the earnest hunt for a shop.
We managed to find Sam's Bike Shop, which was neatly camouflaged and took us a couple of attempts to locate. Sam was rebuilding his mountain bike after a tour, and was happy to help us resolve the cleat bolt issue.
During our conversation, he mentioned trying to get his wife into mountain biking, but noted she "was worried about her skin". I immediately thought of Sarah's scarred knees, before he added "Asian women value white skin", and I realised it was about the sun, rather than the ground!
Sam wasn't able to sell us some new glue, but he did note that "most people here run tubeless", before giving us a recommendation of a nearby shop to visit. There, I was able to buy a new patch kit, some small bottles of tubeless fluid, and another tube, all of which significantly alleviated my concerns about our dwindling supplies.
They also had a compressor out on the street, and I thought I might as well have a crack at re-tubelessing the tyre. I had vivid memories of fluid remnants being squeezed out of the thorn-hole when I inflated the first tube, and it was funny to discover that the tyre had "healed" in that spot. Once I'd bought a new valve core, everything went perfectly, and we rolled away feeling very chuffed.
The punctures had taken a bit of a shine off the park visit, but it had still been an incredible day. I could see why they recommended a three-day pass, as every temple demanded a lot of walking, and we'd barely coped ourselves!
Stats: 58km ridden, running total 1754km
Day 19 - Siem Reap to Aranyaprathet, Thailand
Even though we'd had our fill of Siem Reap, it was too early to make a beeline for Bangkok. We had up to five riding days left, and a straight run would have been 400km. Given a week, I'd have made for Chanthaburi to maximise time near the coast, but we didn't quite have time for that. Also, accommodation options for another night in Cambodia looked scarce, so I decided to head straight for the Thai border.
The deal was sealed when booking.com turned up a cycling-themed hotel a few klicks down the road from the main crossing at Krong Poi Pet. It was meant to be!
Alas, at that point the cycling gods stopped smiling on us - not in the form of a beastly headwind, but of more tyre dramas. While initially OK, by the end of the morning, we were stopping every few kilometres to put some more air in the same tyre as the previous day, in the hope that the sealant would eventually do its thing.
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| These were (up to that point) the only cycle tourists we'd seen |
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| But wait, there's more! (4 hours later) |
After a few too many stops more than made any sense, I decided it was time to put a tube in. I turned off the highway to find a shady spot that wasn't someone's front yard. We immediately attracted the attention of a group of young children, and Sarah suggested we could seek help. For some weird but deeply ingrained reason, I don't like asking for help, but thankfully my protestations were ignored.
Next thing, we were surrounded by helpers, and a woman from across the road had even brought over a container of water large enough that we could submerge at least part of the tyre. The kids watched on as I rotated the wheel slowly, and a stream of small bubbles finally revealed the source of the problem. The hole was quite close to the rim, but I thought I'd try to plug it.
Between the onlookers, the awkward position of the hole, poor eyesight, lack of practice, and still being a bit flustered by the whole help thing, I either plugged a hole that hadn't previously been there (i.e. I made another hole in the tyre), or, the damage was a bit more extensive than we all thought.
While the repair was a bit of a disaster, the resolution was simple (put in a tube), and the interaction with this group of kids was a lovely thing. We had bugger all local currency left, but we still had some USD, and we asked the woman to share $20 amongst the workers!
The rest of the ride was uneventful, thank goodness. The border crossing went smoothly, and while we were a bit fractious after a difficult day and our longest ride of the trip (albeit pan flat), the sight of local kids blatting around the pump track outside our hotel warmed the cockles of our hearts.
We struck out on foot to a night market, and there managed to sample a range of cheap and tasty Thai street food to take the edge off the long and difficult day.
Stats: 160km ridden, running total 1915km
Day 20 - to Khlong Takrao
One of the very weirdest aspects of the previous day's border crossing, was that we'd swapped from the right side of the road to the left! Unfortunately, this had happened while we were walking our bikes, so we didn't see how the cars are dealt with.
After breakfast, and a somewhat poor lap of the pump track myself (I was glad the wee shredders were at school...), we hit the road, and it was notable how weird it felt to be on the NZ side of the road. I found myself struggling to adjust!
As with the transition from Viet Nam into Cambodia, we immediately noticed differences. There didn't seem to be scrawny chickens, nor skinny but tall cows, but there were plenty of dogs, and pretty much all of them wanted to scare us off.
Land use seemed different too. The Vietnamese were raking muddy rice paddies almost everywhere we looked, while the Cambodian countryside didn't seem to be growing much of anything. Here in Thailand, crops were being grown on a more industrial scale, and it seemed likely that the land was being managed by a company, rather than a community.
I was surprised that very many of the minor roads we rode had military check-points on them. I hadn't recalled much of a police presence when we'd last ridden in Thailand, and indeed, these eventually dried up. I concluded they were checkpoints related to the border.
I'd scoped out a fairly random route for two days' ride to a hotel we'd booked just north of Pattaya, a big city on the coast. Half way in between was a "Resort" on the far side of a forest park, and that was our target for the day.
I spent the morning looking for "better" alternatives than the roads I'd mapped, based on what I could see. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten that one of the highlights of the morning was meant to be riding within spitting distance of the border. I promised that I'd have a play with Google Streetview when I got home...
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| We may not have been missing much...! |
The route I had mapped, once we were back on it, started to be lined by signs suggesting we might see elephants.
Cool!
Before too long, the elephant signs were surpassed by elephant sign, and I did start to wonder what exactly we ought to do if we did see elephants. The poo was all on our side of the road, so surely they'd be walking away from us...
We reached the turn off for a wildlife park, so we went to have a look. As in both Viet Nam and Cambodia, the vast majority of the signage was in local script, and we struggled to find anything like a visitor centre. We saw a few deer, and were amazed that a strange barking sound we'd heard was being made by them.
We were almost back at the road when we were stopped by a fellow on foot. He didn't speak English (and we don't speak Thai), so we communicated via an app. He told us to stay where we were "and rangers will come to escort you out of the forest"! We asked if we were in trouble, but it soon became clear that he was worried about our welfare!!!
In a few minutes, a truck arrived, and the guy joined a few others on the back. We followed them for the next few kilometres until they peeled off, and left us to it! In hindsight, it was probably a good thing that we never did see an elephant!
Beyond the forest, it wasn't far to our accommodation. We passed through a small town, to which we returned after a wash. The night market had plenty of options, and we had full tummies when we rode back to base. By that stage it was dark, and I greatly enjoyed terrorising the dogs that had terrorised us a while earlier. I had my helmet mounted light on, and they clearly had no idea what the source was when it was trained directly at them.
Stats: 118km ridden, no elephants encountered, running total 2032km!
Day 21 - to Laem Chabang
Our "free breakfast" was pretty terrible - a recently fried egg, piece of white bread, strawberry jam, and a couple of very strange bits of meat, maybe best described as stale luncheon sausage, with a nasty case of sunburn (i.e. a weird pink colour). Nonetheless, we didn't feel like riding the dog gauntlet back to town, and decided to take our chances on the road.
After about a kilometre on the main (albeit deserted) road, we peeled off and were soon riding on a dirt road through a rubber plantation. We stopped to investigate the latex collection process, which included a section of trunk that had been de-barked, a small spigot, and a cup to collect the fluid. We got a good sense of the whole process, thanks to a few blobs lying around that at some point had been tipped out of their cup.
This was a lovely stretch of riding, which included the relatively unfamiliar concept of small hills! We connected with a paved road and soon came upon a store. There were a few bakery items which slid down very nicely, the highlight for me being pandan custard filled donuts, which I was good enough to share with Sarah!
We immediately started burning those off, in the shape of more hills. One stretch of dirt road turned into a beautiful bit of tarmac, though we soon realised we needed to pay attention, as every few hundred metres or so would be a 10 metre stretch of small craters! All rather odd.
We passed a woman selling watermelon, and decided to stop. I knew the moment Sarah committed to buying some, she'd be given the whole thing - a lesson long since learned with bunches of bananas, which no one is ever willing to split.
Sarah borrowed a knife, and made an impressive dent in the smallest melon available. She cut the rest up, and stowed it in a plastic bag, hung on her handlebar. I thought her legs would soon be covered in juice, but remarkably, it didn't leak at all.
We continued ducking and diving on minor roads. Sarah lost a bottle when she quickly fled from a wee-stop, having attracted some large ants! And, I saw not one but two 1.5m-long snakes sunning themselves on the road (an hour or so apart) - both quickly retreating before I'd been able to get my camera out, and before Sarah had had a chance to see them.
We'd stopped to admire a building when a ute stopped behind us, and out popped a lovely gentleman wearing a cycling jersey. We enjoyed telling him a bit about our trip, while he shared a few of his was stories, while also offering us cold water, and some tasty baked goodies!
The day got hotter and hotter, and the scenery got less and less appealing. We eventually ran out of minor roads, hitting a massive highway about 30km from our destination.
It was very strange being on the highway, and while safe enough due to a wide shoulder, there was a lot of traffic, and the noise was a touch overwhelming after so much recent riding on our own. After 10km or so, I finally identified a parallel route we could use, and that made for a more relaxing run to our hotel.
After a wash, we struck out on foot for dinner, and ended up walking into a spot of domestic disharmony. All's well that end's well though, and after almost 4km of walking in jandals in search of somewhere suitable, we found a night market, and had a good feed. Food was washed down by avocado smoothies, which we'd both become partial to, and with it vanished my hangriness.
Stats: 120km ridden, running total 2152km
Final day - to Bangkok
For a bit of a change, I didn't design the route into Bangkok myself. Instead, I "drew" the first and last few hundred metres in Strava's Route Builder, and let it fill in the 130km gap!
Within about 8km, we'd joined Sukhumvit Road (a detail that had evaded me until moments ago). This road turns out to be almost 500km long, though the reason we like it, is that our friends, Margarete and Roland live on a side street near its northern terminus. We peeled off it at Bang Saen, and rode along the beach for a while. This included a cobbled stretch, along which I was astonished at how much vibration the beautifully smooth looking pavers were sending through my fat-tyred road bike. (Having ridden some of the Paris Roubaix cobbles myself, those bad boys need to be felt to be believed...)
We popped off the cobbles onto seaside promenade lined with vendors, and we cruised along there for a while, before meeting another cyclist and striking up conversation. He was equal parts lovely and remarkable, well into his 70s and on his daily 50km ride up and down the coast. He was eager to show us a few nice spots, one which of which was a deviation from Strava's route.
After about 20 minutes together, we turned into a headwind, and I was keen to crack on, so we said our farewells. I think he may have attempted to hold Sarah's wheel for a while, and although I wasn't motivated to drop him, drop him we did.
Soon after, we had a coffee stop, and then another break not long after that for a coconut. Had we wanted to buy a mortar and pestle, for 10 minutes or so we seemed to be riding through a town specialising in them! As we passed a spectacular temple, Sarah suspected this was the final local attraction our friend had wanted to show us.
Once back on Sukhumvit Road, we noticed it had grown, and before too long, we were starting to question Strava's routing. There were a couple of short parallel routes which we took, but these soon forced us back onto the main road. Luckily, by the time we'd done so, the road had divided into various chunks, and one felt reasonably accommodating!
After crossing the Bang Pakong River, we turned left, away from the highway, sticking, as it turned out, to Sukhumvit Road! The change of angle helped with the wind, and we began a westward run towards Bangkok.
With 30km or so still to ride, I noticed this weird blank screen sweeping across my GPS unit map, though the Strava route was still visible. This confused me for a few minutes, until I realised I must not have been careful enough when I defined the edges of the basemap when I'd prepared it for download!
We passed under the flight path for Suvarnabhumi Airport, from which we'd soon depart, and around about then we were officially in Bangkok! We donned masks briefly, on account of a massive plume of black smoke, which seemed likely to be emanating from a really nasty fire, and was drifting across our path.
A few kilometres from Sukhumvit Soi 38, our final destination, we passed a pile of bike boxes on the footpath and I stopped to investigate. While they'd almost surely been thrown out by the small bike shop, they un-threw-out a couple and sold them to us. It was impractical to ride with them, but we said that we'd be back in a couple of hours to grab them, via the conveniently located MRT stop.
Very soon after, we turned off Sukhumvit Road, and pulled in to celebrate with a plate of mango sticky rice, before chasing it down with showers at Margarete and Roland's place, job well done!
Stats: 133km ridden, final total 2285km
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A month has passed since we returned to Wellington, and there's been a lot of time for reflection.
Physically, it was really nice to pull this off. I dug into some old data, and confirmed that this was Sarah's longest tour, by some 600km (she skipped a hundy of our ride from Kerikeri to Wellington). I've only done two longer trips myself - Le Cycle Tour de France in 2013, and the 2018 Tour de France route One Day Ahead in 2018, both when I was a damn sight fitter. The table below includes those two rides, alongside the multi-day tours we've done together.
Sarah had the gut issues caused by Nurofen but in response to slightly tender knees, and also complained from time to time about numbness in her hands. Those minor issues aside, bodies coped incredibly well with the demands of the trip, which to be fair, we'd not exactly trained for.
The bikes ran well, and the only issue we had was with Sarah's rear tyre. Since returning home, they've been treated to a visit to Oli's workshop, and he's given them the patented "stem to stern" once over.
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| Photo: the wonderful Oli Brooke-White |
Unsurprisingly, there was dust and grime pretty much everywhere I cannot reach with a rag (and NZ Customs cannot easily see), but that is now all gone! We're both sporting new cassettes and chains, as well as our now favoured Supacaz bar tape. And, I've been reminded I need to be a bit more disciplined about rinsing my cockpit - the handlebar and shifter hardware were a wee bit corroded beneath the bar tape. Otherwise, all was well with our trusty steeds!
Sarah and I both loved the format, and the region. The route wasn't always awesome, but it was never horrible. We enjoyed the variation of terrain and environment, saw some incredible natural phenomena, and got plenty of opportunity to see Vietnamese, Cambodians and Thai living their lives, highlights of which I've documented in this series of blogs.
It was a very agreeable time to visit, weather wise. The maximum temperature for the first 8 days was 22 to 26 degrees, after which it hit 31 for three days before spiking to 41 on day 12 (though probably when the bike was leaning against a wall while we stopped for coffee)! Over the whole trip, the daily maximum range was 22 to 45, and the daily minimum was in the range 12 to 27 degrees. It never got humid, which was a bit of a surprise, and Roland told us this was unusual for Bangkok, so may have been an aberration. Air quality was occasionally really bad, but we had plenty of blue sky days too, as evident from the photos.
Sarah and I are a good team at home, and on the road. Since we met in early 2013, we've been harmoniously making incredible memories together, and I feel insanely lucky. Indeed, at all would be lucky. But, to think that the relatively short history of this blog prior to introducing my new family has been surpassed by adventure after adventure with Sarah (and occasionally our two beautiful daughters), is a real privilege that I don't take for granted. This was "my thing" when we met, and it is now well and truly "our thing", to the extent that I've even struggled to enjoy a trip on my own.
We've both stepped back into testing work environments, and while past holiday memories spur us on, better yet are holiday plans.
To that end, we have pinned down a few which I'll enjoy documenting before too long. We have ferry tickets at Easter, and hope to finally check out the Old Ghost Road and Paparoa Tracks with Khulie.
Our winter highlight is going to be a trip to northern Italy with Mum and Dad - we had a plan to do this together in 2020, but of course COVID intervened. We are all looking forward to that immensely.
Finally, we'd thought to make a winter trip to Mongolia (in NZ's summer), but Sarah's classmates are all intending to flee the minus-40-degree temperatures, so Sarah and I wasted no time in hatching an exciting Plan B, taking a leaf out of the trip I've just written up. We know where to get bike boxes in Bangkok, so it seems only fitting to finish up there again. Next time, we'll be starting in Kuala Lumpur, and we'll have up to 18 riding days.
Plenty to look forward to, and a good reason to keep working hard!
I don't know how often I've commented on this before, but I've been reflecting on how much this blog affects my holiday experience (for the better). Once home, I really enjoy the writing process, and in particular, as a creative outlet. I also like having an artefact I can dip into from time to time, and sincerely hope that others get something useful out of it too (it was awesome to learn that my Taiwan blogs had influenced friends from Wellington to go there for their own cycle tour last year). A less obvious benefit, is the way it affects the experience I'm having while I'm having it - I am sure it makes me pay attention differently, that it makes me take more photos, better observe the quirky stuff, and lock into what turns out to be a pretty deep memory bank, all sorts of wonderful experiences. I suspect that were it not for the blog, more things would just slip by unnoticed.
Thanks for reading!
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| Hanoi to Bangkok, 2285km total, 27/12/24 to 17/1/2025 |
