Killing time

Working on my blog.
Nothing comes easy as I struggle with the HTML for this page I am consoled in the fact that Tim revels in the moto-x stardom. I like the video addition and will try for more; make it a feature of the new camera I will get one day I promise.

My dilemma as always the destination, not such a bad conundrum I suppose, feeling free. I've just done Darwin and want to get out of here. Met a guy who recommended the quiet road following the Gulf of Carpenteria and up into Carins, but it could still be a bit wet for that. I haven't done a winter in a few years and never done Tasmania so... anyway these are the options, but nothing really excites me.

Darwin’s been fun, well hot, humid and a fair waste of time but it has been good to see friends, kick it with cousin, hang out with Tim and Tammy, wishing them good times. Their out of here now I watched them load up the Cruiser with the addition of Dingus and head south taking the long way home, until next time.

I am floundering in Darwin, just over it. Floating through labour hire jobs not getting much out of them, there's just not much else to to do beyond the Beer Gardens around town and with a far whack of apathy towards any real direction I'm just killing time in Darwin. I am enjoying my climbing though a solid Gym community through the wet climb hard and make me envious, their could be something in that, we'll see.

Back in Australia and all is nice, ride through the streets of Darwin and feel like a tourist, notice the ucaliptus in the air and the red dirt on the utes get involved in the drinking culture.
It never really comes together and lingers in the back of my mind with tlttle to hold it together . the experiance is a long way from where i feel i was hoping that somewhere along the track it would all solidify into a coherent experiance. That life-aferming signe that i feel when I'm on the road but life is all so everpresent and within the week I've got place to stay and another labouring job. It all seems so easy to settle into and so hard o break from . Maybe it just takes the repitition to become normal. Brek it again and as soon as and as offen as possable.
But for now back at it, spend another summer in Darwin make another plan.

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.