Feels like a thousand miles away

Sorry for the digital absence but I could not access this blog for inside Vietnam, government block or server problem I do not know but I am well and have put in some good Ks’ since I last wrote.
It was good to be back soloing again as the journey led east the road rising from the Mekong and navigating a path over the mountains into Vietnam and Hanoi. A testing week on a mans endurance, 20k climbs three hours to clear the pass and your rewarded by an endless view of the mountains still to come. Drop 10/15K in as many minutes and start climbing again don’t fret wherever you doss tonight my tent by the road, offered a place by a local villager or make a guest house there’s plenty more of this tomorrow.
The rewards of doing the hard road always seem to pay off and hi-way 8 was the best leg of the journey, it got down with the locals and they were true old schoolers. The people of the villages through the high lands truly held onto their culture and the activity of the everyday was wonderful. The steeps of the hill sides produces corn and the strength of the women marching the trails their backs laden stops me complaining this is their life with no other option. Under their stilted houses a hard working loom producing the most beautiful textiles while the foot operated mortar works on dinner. The villages aren’t so large cling to space as they are on the hillside or a steep valley but their tight nit community and isolation holds their customs and traditions true and things like traditional dress on men in the field normally first to go are still alive and well. There’s a real warm feeling to the villages that I knew I would miss them even before I left.

Through the provincial capital and freewheel it down across the boarder and into Hanoi. I had been gaining altitude for the last two months even if only slowly following the river up stream, back to see level in under a week it’s all pay back. Some of the best runs that I would enjoy so much more if I could just keep air in my tires, I’m onto cheep tubes that aren’t wide enough and Hanoi provided me with nothing better. A great city through it lives and breathes on the street and I spend a lot of time just watching. Pick any street corner and pull up a stool and with one arm resting on the keg drink beer hoi. Its all motorbike traffic and they career into an intersection with commitment, it looks so dangerous a four way crossing with a hundred bikes committed to their line but when you get into it as long as you commit as well and make no sudden moves no one gets hurt. The street venders are cool, got a flat? You wont walk far without a guy on the curb to fix it on the spot, want to know your height and weight they can sort that out too there’s a heap of guys who wheel around scales to fill that niche market, if you have a laminating machine you have a mobile business it’s cool.

Spent some time touring the area but as per my header Hanoi was the goal and although it took a few days to settle in there is a cense of achievement in making your goals not that their s anything special in the destination itself its just a spot on the map that I choose but now as I ride through Sumatra in Indonesia I am a little more confidant about dealing with the journey. The problem is of cause if you make every summit you attempt you ain’t climbing big enough mountains, and with that in mind I’m full of worthy ideas for the next mission. But for now Sumatra was just an ad on and I’m trying to keep my riding easy. It’s lush country if not a little over populated no room for cyclists but that’s ok I’m trying to keep that to a minimum maybe even find a beach for a bit relax and although its never the end I’ll be back in Aus next month. (Yes out of cash)

Monsoon Season

I push out of Vientiane with fresh legs well aware of the gradient of the road ahead it's all mountains from here on through into Vietnam. The road north climbs steadily through rolling hills and we put in some big days I have a time line on my Visa and must exit by the 27. It takes it toll but I rest up hang out with the backpackers drink away some good night in the bars.
It’s a lovely road through some epic scenery hard fought through burning climbs only to be released over the ridge on the 20k rolling decent. A good ride through the clouds, often white out raining and wet, chafing my balls and I still cant wipe the smile from my face some of the best roads yet.
A little concerned when you see the guy with the Ak walking up the road not uncommon all over but I spoke to a guy who was on a bus pulled up by masked rebels on this road in 2003, two hostages taken and executed along with a couple of Dutch cyclists that happened upon the scene a scary tail that seems so out of place for such lovely ride, reminds you to keep your wits about you although it's a safe road today.

Lung Prabung a world Heritage listed city with it's old school French style and tropical feel. Set on the river and my last view of the mighty Mekong. I also part with Jukka here and I wish him all the best for his trail, It's not legal to ride through Tibet but if the mountains don’t stop him hears hoping the authorities don't either. I myself am making a b-line for Vietnam taking a short cut that's inevitably going to bite me in the ass but that’s all part of the fun, Ill tell you how it goes.

Southern Lao

Highway 13 the main artery stretching the full length of the country but it still doesn’t carry much traffic and is quite a relaxed road following the low lands along the Mekong and connecting the small towns of southern Laos with the rice fields and their inhabitance. The towns Paisa and Savernake are pleasant places with nothing above two stories you can wonder down by the river and appreciate the French colonial influence crumbling architecture and old men playing botchy. Get accosted by students with questions like “what is your favorite color” and “how many people in your family” straight out of the text book but their keen to talk to a native English speaker and I’m glad to help, their cool and good for a laugh besides I appreciate the rest of the world learning my language, it makes life so much easier for me. I learnt hello (Saba dii) and thank you (kwap ji (li li-very much) but struggle to counting to ten doesn’t seem to be a problem just act it up point and smile mime it out you always get something good to eat and sometimes its just funny how do you ask for diarrhea medication?

I am still travelling with Jukka we keep different schedules we are both solo cyclists but I’m a self confessed traveler with a bicycle where he is a committed man with a long road ahead of him he takes his time to rest his legs. We travel at different paces I do the tourist rout whilst he’s in training, it works kind of well and we meet up at the next town share the stories.
I break from the highway and do a three day loop up into the Bolluvan Plateau a nice reprieve form the heat it’s been in the 30’s but as you climb a 1000m it cools and the rice fields are replaced by lush greenery, fertile soils bananas and cabbage and another legacy of the French, coffee plantations make a welcome addition to my diet.

Highway 13 rolls north and although the mighty Mekong is always close you get very few glimpses of it from the road and it makes for boring riding. Another diversion looms and I fork off through some epic limestone scenery wall up as the hills roll by. I’ve done pretty well but you can’t escape them all and I hit a few rainy days through the stage. The track turns muddy and the pot holes become puddles it make slow going but it’s all part of the adventure if you were to fear the hard days you miss out on the good ones and in the end its only the hard days you remember.
I push on to meet highway eight a section of road that truncates the country a trade route between the Thai and Vietnams boarder and the start of some serious ups and some wicked downs. The rain slows me down as I climb and the undulating terrain wears on you. The mist sets in giving that mystical air to the mountains as you can’t see where one start and another ends. Its getting late the hills had really slowed me down. It’s raining and I’m still climbing with no end in sight when I get my second flat for the day. I’m now walking my bike up the hill with no more spare tubes and the idea of sitting down in the rain and repairing a puncture doesn’t appeal but this place is always good to me and I wave down a buss heading up the hill well a Ute with bench seats in the back the local equivalent and in a flash I’m travelling at 80k all be it over the range and about 50k decent back down to the river you get that. But I do make the guest house for the night wet and exhausted which does beat my tent on a rainy night which was the alternate plan.

Roll into Vientiane the capital of Lao 300k’s up the road Buddist Wats and Burricratic ministeries the hammer and sickelflies strong. A chance to relax and sample some of the best beer in South East Asia and the only beer in Lao, Beer Lao funny enough, got’a love the communists state run brewery keep’n it cheep at about 80c a tally, bring on the revolution. Lao is good and cheep my kind'a place, my rooms $3 and a good meal of something spicy and some sticky rice from a street stall wont push over the U.S dollar mark or 10 000 Kip. Cant stay for ever though got the visa on a time line and the bike don’t travel so fast so I keep pushing on two weeks to make up through the northern hills historic city of Laung Praubang and into Vietnam. It's never the end.

Finding the Trail

In Cambodia for the adventure the roads have been too good. Yes this cyclists never happy but I brought a mountain bike looking for the adventure route the idea to tackling some tough roads and get amongst it but so far all I’ve encounter has been smooth tarmac and traffic. All my reading had described the hi-ways in disrepair and I was well prepared for some slow days through Cambodia navigating pot holes and corrugations but it seems by our good fortune we have hit all the good roads, recently sealed and in good condition this is an oddity of infrastructure for this part of the world and I am mightily disappointed. Where’s the adventure? The pain and struggle of a sandy trail mud and river crossings, getting lost and running out of food, throwing up your hands in despair and riding headlong into the unknown. “Ah there it is that line there in the map it gets us off the highway and short cuts straight across to the Mekong in about two days. We’ll avoid the traffic and find some real Cambodians simple people living of the land close to the source.”
It was a miner road on my map but it quickly deteriorated into a roller coaster ride of a trail. I wouldn’t have gotten my 4WD through this track and thankfully it stayed dry for us or it would have been impassable even on foot. The main traffic along this route is bullock driven cart, these people are keeper it real with the full oldschool wooden wagon wheels that squeak and groan as their dragged through the mud by the might of these animals. We skirt the puddles finding a dry line and ride on, standing in the saddle you weave and jostle picking you line for the smoothest ride letting it run out as far as you dare on some nice down hill sections. It’s good fun riding and it keeps you on your toes. The land is flat for the most part forested greenery avoids the heat of the day but theirs some hard work ahead. The trail turns sandy in sections and it takes all your effort to keep the bike in a straight line, from side to side the rear tire spinning, it’s just easier to get of and push it through.
We have tents and plan on self serficency but along the trail your never really alone we come across small villages not on our map. A cluster of thirty families in stilted huts have cleared a section of forest and surrounded themselves with rice paddies they take us as welcome guests and offer a place to sleep and a bowl of rice. Their easy going people and since the rains are yet to come there is no planting to be done and the main activity seems to be social. So when we roll into town we are the full oddity, freaks on bicycles and we get a full gallery going. They are all smiles impressed by Jukka’s digital camera or the Thurmarest that never fails to producing a fit of the giggles, you feel like your behind glass for the most part but since I don’t speak a word of Kumer bar name of the next town I smile and point lots its all kinda funny and I enjoy myself in their company.
Not much changes in these places the farming techniques are the same since the agricultural revolution bullock drawn cart and hand made plows. A communal well that’s good for a wash and stilted huts with thatched roof bare except for soot black kettle on the fire in the corner. It seem like a nice life for the most part the kids seem healthy and always smiling; their must be some unwritten law about the poorer the people the happier the kids.

We wave goodbye the next morning and they point us in the right direction. Navigating is a blast as the trail forks quite often and no way of knowing where we are headed we just ride on sooner or later it seems we always find someone when we need to a guy transporting a calf or women laden with baskets. With the next town the only word we know they point us on it all worked surpassingly well and by the third day we cut across the hi-way heading north. It ain’t much better and at the river crossing the bridge is down, the bridge has been down since the seventies but so is the makeshift alternative and we find a fully laden truck winching itself out of the river. We carry our bikes across but it takes them a few hours to unload and reload the truck by human chain but none seems to grumble it’s just part of the daily life here where nothing seems to work that well. Cambodians recent history of consecutive wars and corrupt governments have really taken their toll and it’s the people who suffer.

We made the Mekong and a mighty sight it be for all the heart ache of the trail. A awesome sight wide brown waters rich with silt of it’s journey. Originating from the melting snow of Tibet it captures the imagination as a source of life for those who live along it’s banks. We rest up in Stung Treng and followed it north across the boarder into Laos and another 1500 kilometers it will be my companion all the way to Luang Prabang.

Cambodia

Where have I been? Just traveling slow. From the hills in the north where I left you I caught the train into Bangkok and hooked up with a guy I had meet briefly in Darwin he’s on his way around the world by bicycle and we arranged to do Cambodia and Laos together. It’s been good the roads in this part of the world are never lonely but its good to have someone to talk to.
Taking the scenic route down the Golf of Thailand our first stop was Patyaya a pumped up tourist haven akin to the Gold Coast but the Gold Coast has morality compared to this place, two square kilometers of clubs, pubs and go-go bars, the girls in this place are of tap. And although Prostitution is illegal in Thailand this place remains the center for the sex tourism industry and a fitting insight into the hypocrisy that works so well in this part of the world. Its an eye opener but way to much and the three days ride to the boarder are coastal roads a bit more kicked back with some nice spots beach towns and fishing villages.

I had been looking forward to Cambodia all along and the first impressions did not disappoint. You feel it straight away and although boarder towns are always a bit rough the total lack of infrastructure that is Cambodia gives it a frontier feel. No street lights, curbs or drainage of any kind for that matter, in Phnom Pen a half hour of monsoon afternoon rain fills the streets to waist deep at the mid town intersection, the filth of the street floats to the surface and you wade through it to get back to the hotel. Traffic makes do and no one complains the market venders just shift everything above the high water mark and the business continues. This happens every afternoon and I assume it only gets worse as the monsoon season is only just beginning.
The road into Phnom Pen was one of my favorites to date, we were told it was impassable but you have to give these things a go and although still under construction it was still a good dirt road. Quiet countryside, rice paddies and simple people, a heap of shunt river crossings and some really nice days riding. The Khmer people are so lovely with big smiles and warm hearts and although they have so little they always bring a smile and a hello for the crazy pherang on a bicyclical. The county is really quite impoverished and many people struggle for the necessities such as clean water and enough to eat, they are mostly farmers and their wooden wagon wheels driven by water buffalo denotes to the timelessness of their methods. Their homes are traditionally stilt huts and thatched roof simple places crammed full of naked kids that sound the chorus of hellos from every house as I ride by. The older kids you pass on the road on their way to school at all times of day the girls in clean white blouse and long blue skirt a crocheted sun hat and a cheep Chinese bicycle. The education system seems one of the few working elements it seems to be a grass roots ground up restructuring for the Khmer have had a hard run in recent history, years of war in the 70’s left them with Pol Pot’s tyrannical régime of crazy social reform where every city was cleared of all inhabitance and everyone sent into the fields as peasant farmers, the intelligencer were murdered some 1.7 million died in a mass genocide that totally crippled the country in the late 70’s. And although there are many sad sights of abject poverty, land mine victims and child prostitution you can only hope that this time of peace is prosperous of Cambodia.
It’s often a hard place to witness but this week I am spending some time at one of Cambodians proudest sites, Angkor Wat the site of epic temples of 12th century construction that testify to a time in history when the Khmer civilization was one of the strongest in Asia. An amazing place of grand stone monuments and walled cities, sculptor and carvings to Hindu and Buddhist gods. On of the eight wonders of the world and an epic peace of history.

Push on tomorrow and head out of Sam Reap and some time next week cross into Laos to follow the Mekong River, north enjoying the adventure and loving the ride.

Northern Hills

People often comment “Oh, you must be very strong, ride bicycle all that way”
“No” I say “the body is easy, easy, no problem, the battle to win is all in my head it is here you must be strong. The body goes on as far as the mind will drag it," and through the mountains of northern Thailand I dragged it through the mud. It’s been an awesome challenge, and I can say without ego that I am the strongest I have ever been.
The mountains have worked me over, the full sun on my back standing off the saddle pumping slowly, slowly. I am down to a crawl 5Km/h and it’s all I can do in my lowest gear. The sweat pours out of me drenches my shirt so it sticks to my back and I have taken to wearing gloves to grip the slimy handle bars. It’s hard going and up ahead as the road stretches around the bend I know it only keeps climbing, I'm strugglaing but I convince myself to make the bend and then have a rest knowing full well that when I get there I’ll look up see the next bend and just push on. There's nothing else for it the thighs burn and the sweat stings my eyes but that’s just the adventure kicking in and I can keep going setting markers and breaking them. The push up is not so bad when its sustained and the two day climb up Di-Athanthnon the highest point in Thailand was just hard work, it’s the relentless days uf undalations up down up down days that really kill, the 20 min thrill of the down just not worth the pain of the 2 hr up and it wears me to the core. The scenery is inspiring though and so much better when you’ve sweated to enjoy it. Smoked filled valleys floating (slash and burn agriculture) Buddhist pagodas on mountain tops it’s the most rewarding cycling I have ever done. I really enjoy the hills there is something in the pain and the struggle that to look back on it is all worth it.

Sorry it has been a while and I had some good riding in the south also, warm days and easy people as I moved north along the Myanmar (Burma) boarder and cross to the Gulf of Thailand, Champon. Rubber tapers amongst the plantations, or women on the side if the road weaving their thatched roof trade. They were good days with side trips to water falls and caves the local band of kids as my guide, its school holidays and they’re out in force. I rode some quite relaxed stretches and made my destination with grace, the south has a different feel and it’s like the train journey teleported me. From Malaysia all through the peninsula the change was always so subtle, riding takes time and cultures merge without me noticing. But 1000 kilometers by train and I feel it.

The plan was to train it up into Bangkok in time to meet Jukka but he was postponed, his bike stolen in Melbourne it would take him two weeks to get a new one from his sponsor. He has a hook up with some Finnish magazines and news papers that are publishing his articles and photos of his trip, four years cycling around the world. Felt a Finnish bike company is supplying a new bike and helping him get back on the road, nice for some. But in the meantime I took the opportunity to see some of the north, and a train to Chang-Mi put me in the mountains. A fair city with a strong history as a trade route between China and Burma as the provincial capital it still holds its charm.

The loop from Chang-Mi through the hills took me through small village cultures in timeless valleys. Cycling so easlt puts you amungst it and after A hard day on the road I roll into a small village purly out of necessity I ask around for something to eat and am invited to stay. These people are mainly rice farmers and their life is simple there is no electricity bar a few recent solar panels and the stilted huts are made of a beautiful local teak. The evening is spent visiting you can't walk through the village with out being invited for tea and a chat, my host speaks a little English as he has spent some time guiding elephant treks for tourist in Chang-Mi last year. I drink my watery tea from the suet black kettle that sits in the corner of every hut and nod politely, funny guys even if I understand very little of what’s going on. It’s a nice life for these guys they don’t have much but they seem to get by ok. I spend the night down the back in the elephant camp as they are raising two baby elephants that require constant care. He will use them for tourism but there are still working elephants in this part of the world the old ways are still very much alive. It’s a very rich hill tribe culture on the road you see it every day in the brightly colored dress of the old women or the girl in the market of Me-Hon-Song with the elongating neck, gold bands depressing here collar bones and making her look buitiful.

I ride through the valleys and they stretch out before me with that dazed feeling. These giants stretch north into China and the mass of the continent I feel very isolated, disorientated the furtherist from the ocean I have ever been and I seem to lose my bearings. In my experience all valleys lead to the ocean it’s a weird feeling but after some serious days it’s good to spend the afternoon rolling down hill some 30ks north its awesome. Winding roads just falling away as you just let it all go. The sweat drenched shirt quickly dries flapping in the breeze and you quickly forget the days of struggling hill climbs and enjoy the freedom.

Climbing Hat Ton Si

It's hard to leave, I drag myself from my bungalo for one last bannana Lassi on the beach, kick back on a cushan and watch the early morning crankers pull through 7c+ moves under Ton Si wall. It's been a good week cliping through some stunning routs with really cool people and although it's hard to leave it's feels good to be moving.
I'v been giving the bike a rest and hanging out on Hat Ton Si beach, a cove walled in by towering limestone cliffs and a beach resort for climbers. They come from all over the world it's very cool and sitting at the bar you can watch the coolest of them pump straight off the beach through some very steep layback climbing or crank your neck to see the guys on the fourth pitch of Humanality some 200m up. A bit much for me and I head off to find more acheavable climbing, plenty of choices this place is full of good lines that come with a view, well protected quality rock. Get some people together and hire a boat and try some deep water solo action (very scarry very quickly) or just kick back with new friends the climbing guide always find its way to the table. It's very relaxed finding some really nice people and pushing some personal bests, enjoying the sceen.
There's too much good climbing not just on Ton Si but all around Krabi province including Ko Pi Pi the filming location for The Beach if your having trouble understanding what I'm dealing with, I gota come back here with a full rack and and alot more time but for now I look forward to being back in the saddel. The roads are bussy in Thailand and I'v taken to the west hoping to avoid some of the worst traffic but it may be a bite more on the hillly side but thats no problem the body hold'n up fine and seems to be lov'n the abuse. Their's a thousand K's between me and Bankok Ill be there before the end of the month even if it means a train up the east coast. The plan is to hook up with Jukka a guy I met in Darwin on his way around the world, it i'll be good to have a riding partner to head into Cambodia with although I dont feel alone in this part of the world their seems to be plenty of cycle tourers around their good for bata and the reasurance that I'm not the only crazy one.

Deep South

Failed disciseivly on my comitment not push myself as I crossed the boarder into Thailand clocking concecutive 150k days. I feel the differance instantly as I rode across the boarder the city humms, not like Malaysia from atop a moqsue with the evening prayers but for the street, from the moterbikes and the kareoky bars it steps up a notch. I'v enjoyed the Mouslem style its anciant and the people breath their religion, the act of worship is very much apart of their everyday even if they are a bit keen to tell me about it. That and the lack of pubs, luckely I made Thailand just in time for my traditional 1000 kilometer beer.
The Muslims in the bourder provences of Thailand arn't so friendly and the reason I'v been putting in the k's. There has been some 1200 deaths in the last two years from sepratist groups and with the elections on Sunday several bomes expoloded outside polling stations in in the city of Thawatiwat that I had planned to ride through. The deal was to skip the south by train but I woke up late and no one seemd too concerned about safety commenting that it was fine. I felt safe most of the time but if the road blocks every ten K's with razor wire, sand baged bunkers fully mounted machine guns and soildires in full battel gear; vest, helmet and M16 are ment to make me feel safe it ain't woking. I ride through and they smile, I do wonder if they are laughing at me but their friendly and help me with directions.

http://www.manager.co.th/IHT/ViewNews.aspx?NewsID=9490000046914

I'm in the city of Hat-Yi for a few days the real deal asia crazy, it's a lot and I only like it in small doses so I'm pushing on. Rather over the freeway riding the day drags when your in traffic and there's a lot more before Bangkok so to save myself some days I'm takeing my bike on the bus across to the Arnderman sea.

Sorry this page is lacking in visual stimulation my new camera was stolen the other day and I dont think I'll replace it.
bye for now.

Nuts and Bolts

Made Kuala Terengganu the state capital and another of Malaysias uninspiring cities. Bland concreate buildings with that lived in feel about the streets that makes the excperiance of being part of them so rewarding. The industery surrounding the town mainly oil has turned it from the fishing village to an eye sore with the usual lack of consideration that has effected the surrounding landscape. Power lines and refineryies have replaced my plantation and simple living people.
Having a rest day here nuntheless, been clocking too many big k days just lov’n the ride, sceenery moveing at an ideal pace along flat sunny roads and I remind myself to rest and refuel. No excuses for not eating well plenty of food stalls along the road serving up the local fair direct and I’m always enjoying something new, chilly fish, curries and a sartay thats the bomb.
Clocking 80/100km a day up the coast road, bodys holding out fine it just always takes me a few days to settel in, not push so hard and fiind my rythem.

The south was really cool jungle full of simple living people, monkeys and eguarners but with the population and industery in the north the traffic increassing and the raods are a little less scenic. Everydays a new and I alweys find something that keeps me smilling be it a side excersion into some crazy little fishing village or the eclectic market that forms around any Moqsue. The people are so friendly and I get to meet lots of them on the street and with every meal. All interisted in what I’m doing and keen to assist, we have little chatts most speek some english and we get by. Through the market I am the spectical, every eye turns to me and my bike as I wheel it through the labrinth of stalls, bright silks, fish and fresh produce. They don’t get much tourisum along the hiways most travellers heading for the island resorts the only westerners I’v seen were bacpackers in Mersing but its ok I’m getting use to it, I smile and play it up their always good for a laugh.

Enjoying the ride on all counts with few complaints, my panniers are failing me and I got the squirts this morning but that’s the bulk of my complaints section miner in the sceem of things and I ride on looking forward to tomorrow.

On The Road

Singapore was good place to start I think the pace of asian culture will inevitablyt set a newbi back a step, fast and furious but I love it the size and diversity of such a place it just took a few days to get into it. English is the state language but most peoples second, Chinease, Malaysian and indian all in make it the economic kingpin of asia. It makes me laugh that Australia can boast its Multiculturalism in the wake of Crunnella, it just seems so normal here that it doesent need nameing. An Epic city but i was keen to get on the road. Taking a ferry across the Straights Of Jahor and onto the Malaysian paninsula from the endless city state to the jungels of Malaysia in half an hour, cool this is what I'm after. The road flows north and I find my rythem, the roads are good with a wide shoulder frequented by the 125 moterbikes a stapel and drivers are concious of slow moving traffic they give me plenty of room, rubber necking. It always takes a few days on evey to tour to get useto the fact that you are a spectical and a crazy one at that. But thay are lovley people and wave with a big Halloo! I stop at the stalls on the side of the road, there are plenty food, fruit and suger cane juice, a great pick me up. We get by with my bad english, (sorry about the spelling people) and their eys go wide when I point to Bangkok confused that I would want to travel solo, I dont think it's somthing they really get very social and family orientated. I point to what the boy at the tabel is eating and she brings me over a bowl, crushed ice covered in a golden syrip, milk and and small green worm'e things' pea flower I'm told. Cold & sweet just the thing for the 50K's aheah I'm lov'n it, remberber Chandol for next time. I have my tent and will make camp of the road in the abundent palm plantations tonight I dont plan on making the next town theirs no need to push it I'm just warming up. The wind is on my back and I realise I am wearing a beaming smile all is good On The Road, thankyou for the insperation Jack Karouack.

It Had To Start Somewhere

Prpoposing to go bicicyle touring begs the responce from the "nay" sayers outthere and there are many, "why would you want to do that","your crazy" or " I'm going that way do you want a lift" but they will never know the satisfation that comes with making the top and rolling down the other side. Yes there is the realization of the sadist within that enjoys the up hill slog, burning calf mussels and sweat not to mention my brass (the bridge to your ass) but these are all par and parcell of that larger thing the journey. I never really iddentified with the cycliest (I don't own licra shorts) more like the flenuer, the traveller lacking the destination but enjoying the process, cycling allows me the time to travel slow.
I have looked at a map but it's hard to decide on a route, "just head north", avoid the traffic and keep to the west coast of Melaysia seems like the go, avoid the bussy hiways and KL and try and find my rythem. Lacking the cycle tourer self propeltion commitment there is agood rail system through Thailand where I may avoid the southern provinces and help me make Bangkok by the end of April.
Singapor today a good as any place to start (TigerAirways cheap $244 return) A modern self consuming constructionan that I am kinda keen to get out of. Impressive skyscraper archectecture and harbour I need to buy a camera so you may appreciate the number and size of the cargo ships.
It's good to be on the road.