Dave & Nat's cycle adventure

Hiroshima to ...............Melbourne!!!!!!

2008-07-06T13:40:00.010+01:00

Hiroshima

On reaching Hiroshima, we had managed just under 500km from Fukuoka. As we were staying in a hotel in Hiroshima we had access to a television and the news/weather. The plan was too leave the next morning after a day in Hiroshima and head along the coast and then down through some small islands where we would pick up a ferry that would take us to Kobe. On the morning that we were to set off.... plans were in the balance! That day we had seen the news and the weather and saw that stormy weather was coming in from the south. This was not camping weather. We had to make a decision on whether we could make it through to the ferry to Kobe over the next couple of days without drowning or not. More and more I could see Nat's face looking worried and we started to scheme up some more plans. From Hiroshima we could take the Bullet train and head to Himeji where the famous castle is and then onto Tokyo, or we cycle for a few days and get a boat to Kobe. By this time we didn't hear back from a friend in Kobe so we weren't sure if we be able to meet them so... we tossed a coin. the coin said.. pack the bikes and get a bullet train ticket. Aww how sad.. it was.. but exciting too as we wanted to take a bullet train anyway and this was just a little earlier than planned. It also meant that we needed to change our flight to Australia as we knew when we would be flying now. Australia.. here we come... time to get jobs/house etc.. !!!

Taking the train, we needed to pack the bikes up as you cannot take bikes as bikes on a Bullet train. We purchased some bike bags (rubbish thin bags that cost a fortune) and set off down the river where there was a small patch of grass where we got very oily cleaning up the bikes and dismantling them. After many broken English/Japanese conversations with shocked locals we had the bikes in two bright red/blue bags. Suddenly we were VERY aware of the weight of the bikes and parts. Before we had two lovely useful shiney bicycles.. now we have two very awkward, heavy lumps of luggage :( Still, we'd get a taxi to the station so shouldn't be much of an issue.

The taxi arrived at the hotel and the driver, all dressed in a nice neat uniform with matching white gloves got out of his cleancar and looked a little shocked to see what he was going to have to put in his taxi. A few minutes later, the taxi, bikes bursting out the back, set off for the short trip to the station. When there we searched for a trolley to take the 4 heavy bags (2 bags containing the panniers and 2 bike bags), up the the platform. After a minute, a nice chap donning a suit came to help and said there weren't any trolleys but he'd help us to the platform. What a nice chap.. but no trolleys? At the platform, the chap mentioned that Japanese people don't tend to take luggage on the train so that is why there were no trolleys about. On the train we also realised there wasn't any luggage area to store the bikes either. All the way to Himeji I was jumping up and down at each station to clear the bike bags out of the way for passengers to get in/out of the train. Oh dear.. how we did feel so awkward!!!!
Himeji

Himeji was fantastic though. We found a nice little hotel in the city and explored our way round the famous castle where James Bond, You Only Live twice was part filmed. GREAT, another Bond location ticked off for me.. I am a Bond fan ;) Inside the castle we also saw some Samurai uniforms which ticked another box for us as something we wanted to see. Around the outside of the castle they had some wonderful Edo style gardens which had the usual ponds with huge koi swimming about.

The next day saw us up early, grabbing another poor taxi driver to get us to the station and catching the Bullet train to Tokyo. Why not leave our luggage in the station I hear you say? Well, again it seemed to us that Japanese don't seem to take much luggage so the left luggage (lockers only), were so small only a bag could fit in there so we had to lug our bike bags about. In the stations I had to take the bike bags about 20m and then go back for the bags as Nat couldn't carry them by herself. it was like some kind of crazy relay game as I needed to do it quickly and go a decent distance to make the trip worth it without causing suspicion over left luggage in the stations. There were loads of notices too about the G-8 summit and high security alerts watching out for left bags in public areas.

The journey to Tokyo was pleasant with a 3 hr trip on the bullet train. We had previously booked a hotel in Tokyo near the main station as we wanted a cheapish short cab ride to the hotel and then back ready for the bus to the airport.
Tokyo

Tokyo was fantastic. It was only here that we made contact with the friend in Kobe but by this time it was sadly too late to meet up. We shall come back one day!!! We did managed to meet up with someone I had met on a bike meeting in the UK though. Peter kindly showed us some of the older parts of the city centre at night and we had some great food and beer. We spent 4 superb days in Tokyo looking around taking pictures of everything and everyone. Nat was desperate to see the people dress up like cartoon characters (cosplay) and wanted to see the mad cross roads where it looks like thousands of people cross in all directions. They have zebra crossings that not only cross in a square on a junction but also cross right over at angle. The traffic lights change at the same time and everyone crosses together... mad stuff!!

It was in Tokyo that we found out why Japanese people don't appear to carry luggage. In fact japanese people DO have luggage after all!!!! What they do though is pay a courier company to collect their luggage and transport it to wherever they are going. This could be when going from one place in the country to another.. like we were.. or even taking bags to the airport. They collect their bags at the airport from the courier. Amazing stuff!.. WISH we knew this before!!!!

Another interesting querky thing we saw was maid cafes. These seem to be cafes where the girls dress up in maid outfits serving you. Well, although this was tempting of course we just saw them from the outside. We have heard they can be quite interesting inside though depending on the type of cafe.

Tokyo and Japan generally wasn't as busy as we had imagined. Maybe coming from London we were used to so many people but we felt there were more busy places in the world. Here the trip had to come to an end. After 4 months on the road and many many fantastic days, some challenging ones, but mostly amazing days, we felt it was time to start a normal-ish life again with jobs/house etc.. Although our plan was to go to Adelaide, we thought we would go to see our friends Rick and Raj in Melbourne first and then head up the coast.

Here we feel we would like to thank everyone we have met that has looked after us on our trip and made it such a fantastic experience. From India to Japan we have met so many wonderful people and amazing escaped any bad experiences!! (you normally have at least one dodgy experience on a trip like this).

We hope you have enjoyed reading about our experiences and wish you all the best.

Dave and Natty

Japan: Fukuoka - Hiroshima

2008-06-15T08:18:00.023+01:00

Taking the overnight ferry to Fukuoka was a an interesting and enlightening introduction to Japan. Our cabin we had ordered was superb and spacious and after checking out the channels on the flat screen tv we set out and about to find some food. Faced with a dozen vending machines that even doshed out fried chicken and chips or another machine that dispensed tickets for a meal to have in the restaurant, we opted for the latter. We managed to compare squiggly character writing with pictures to the machine and managed to get some great spaghetti bolognaise.
After a good nights sleep I awoke to check out the window to see how far we were from the coast. Immediately I jumped up to see we were already there!! I shouted at nat to get up and jump out the cabin to make sure we wouldn`t some how go back to Korea (not that Korea is bad just that we wanted to go to Japan!). Unwashed and tired we rushed about asking everyone how long we had been here. Eventually we found out that although we had been there for an hour, customs wasn`t open for another 30 mins so we had time to relax. PHEW! Off I went to have a shower....

We decided to stay in a hotel in Fukuoka for the first night so we could meet up with Nat`s Japanese friend from Thailand, Ai. We found a place that looked good off the net so set the GPS up. It turned out that our little hotel was actually a Japanese style hotel named a ryokan. Right away we were in a cultural shock zone wearing slippers for every activity (changing them for the loo even), Japanese robes and joining people for a common bath!! After that experience we met up with Ai for some Ramen noodles which Fukuoka is famous for. Ai even kindly took to the most famous street stall of them all and the food was delicious...."oishi!!! Ok I am learning some Japanese ..some... not much ;)

The first day of cycling took us down the coast passing a fish and chip shop which we excitedly stopped at and sadly found it selling rice not fish and chips, then up and out of main Fukuoka. Outside 7-Eleven shop Nat noticed a bicycle loaded up with panniers and crazy flags. We found the owner who turned out to be Nakamura san (Michio) who had been riding for 7 months and was completing his 5th time around Japan by bicycle. Fortunately for us he was heading in the same direction and offered to cycle with us and show us a free campsite north of where we were. 50km later (Nat getting tired as we had now cycled 70km), we arrived in a small town of Wakamatsu. On top of the nearest hill was a lovely free campsite with facilities other than showers. Why haven`t Japanese campsites we have visited so far got showers? Well we hope to stay at another tomorrow so lets see if that has one. Michio turned out to bve a great guy who introduced us to a famous potter in that area, a Japanese tea teacher who made me three cups of matcha (very green bubbly tea). Nat had one but well, when in Rome.. After tea the teachers husband came back from school and proceeded to sing to us as he was a classical singing teacher. All very shocking in a pleasant way. Michio also introduced us to a friend of in town who kindley gave us coffee and then off we went the town for the day and visited all historical buidings and museeums, finishing off with a wonderful lunch of sashimi (raw fish). We did plan to set off that afternoon to cycle but opted instead when sayng our farewells to Michio, to head back to the free campsite for another night and set off early the next day.

All fresh from our introduction to Japan, new names given to us (Davido san and Natto san) and knoledge gained from Michio on free camping in Japan, we set off north passing a town named Ozuki. After stopping at a shop outside the town for supplies, I noticed a fishing park (Japanese LOVE fishing and no suprise why as there are so many great fishing rivers here). Down by river was plenty of space for camping with toilets nearby and a small shelter for cooking/eating. Perfect! Although Nat worried a little about safety on sleeping 'rough' I reassured her it was safe.. well it had to be as Michio was a living examle ;) It was actually great and after the first night we felt relieved that we had surved the night and set off after a toilet shower (our plastic bowl used with a tap in the toilet, standing naked quickly before anyone wants to use the loo).

Heading up into the hills/mountains we passed amazing Akiyoshi dai, the largest limestone karst plateau in Japan, feeling very much like we were in north England or Scotland. Very strange feeling indeed! Heading down to the coast we landed in Hagi which is a small town with small streets where you can imagine what the town used to be like in Samurai times. Although there was a campsite there in the town we decided to head back up into the hills and rough camp for a night before we got to a 'proper' campsite. After 50km Nat was displaying signs that she couldn't cycle any further so a campsite needed to be found. It was 1800 and light was fading fast. We had two options, back of a disused garage which was so spooky it could be in Scooby Doo, or down a ditch off the road.. mmm we opted for the ditch with proptection of the trees. I was very excited about this option initially but after looking at Nat's face in the tent when we ducked everytime a car went passed, I knew we couldn't do this again. We surved the night though and just as we were packing up at 0500, a dog walker passed us and with a big smile I said good morning in my best Japanese. Although shocked, the lady responded and hurridly walked off. Later that day we passed through a wonderful town named Tsuwano which was very old and bueatiful and any Koi carp experts out there might also know if for the 65000 koi carp there. Brilliant!! Real japanese Koi carp! More Japanese experiences on our list!! This cheered us up and we set off for the 'proper campsite' at the top of a steeeeeep hill. On reaching the top of the hill, Makurase campsite which we were hoping had internet, a shop etc (being Japan), turned out to be .... closed. Oh dear.. this was not going quite to plan. As it was late in the day, we decided to stay there anyway even though a few people came up in their cars for the view and tried to speak to us. They seemed indifferent that we were there though in a closed campsite so we stayed and made ourselves at home. No water in the showers and no electricity, we used our dish and a bucket we found and were lucky that the taps for cleaning pots/pans still worked ok. We stayed there two nights and managed to wash our clothes even though it rained all day and sett off promptly the next day.

Riding down the mountain the weather was great and the damp clothes pegged to our bikes (as usual) dried quickly. We cheered up and started to think about what we had seen so far and what experiences we still wanted to have and what we didn't want to have (sleep in ditches). We passed famous onsen (spa) town named Kakinoki where we thought we would recharged camera batteries and Nat would get her body recharged in a spa! Superb idea and landed up in another friendly ryokan (Japanese hotel) visited the spa. Being quite new to this game I decided to take my towel with me to the spa room just in case the James Bond film (You Only Live Twice) was incorrect and men don't really bath naked with each other. The towels here are tiny though which meant not much got covered but to me relief (I think), the men in the room were all naked like me!! I saw them with their little towels on their heads in a small square so I had a wash (got to shower/scrub before entering the spa), and did the same which caused a bit of laughter (my towel was dry and theirs ere damp to keep their heads cool). The spa was great though and although nat and I had originally decided to stay in there for 2 hrs, 20 mins was enough to boil us alive. We had a WONDERFUL evening with dinner at the ryokan and then an unexpected free trip to the river to see the fireflies! We saw some in Malaysia before and this was a lovely way to finish off the evening courtesy of the friendly lady working at the ryokan.

Heading down towards to the coast, we passed the famous 'Kintaikyo' bridge in Iwakuni. This bridge has fantastic arches and apparently made using no nails. All interesting stuff and great photo opportunities. We headed up the coast for an island named Miyajima. There is a famous shrine here (Itsukushima Shrine) which is built on the coast with the tide in mind flooding around the shrine. It's definitely worth a visit like many of the places we have been too, but this island itself is a beauty spot. We camped in a superb campsite (open this time), and were graced with the local deer that roam this island quite freely. They walk about all over the place and in the campsite, one even got a bit frisky with my pannier at one stage!

Heading up the coast we arrived at Hiroshima. Somehow we ended up on a bit of a nightmare road which turned out to be a dual carriage way and one definately not safe for bikes. Before long we had a black and white car with red flashing lights pull over infront of us. This was of course a police car! before long we were off the busy carriage way and onto nice small roads but not before our particulars are taken including passport details. All good fun for Nat who proceeded to use it as a good photo . With smiles all round we were off to Hiroshima the safer way and before long found ourselves in the Peace Memorial park which used to be the center of Hiroshima and a once busy and prosperous heart of a city. With our guide of Japan we found a cheapish business hotel (but ryokan room.. cool) and made a plan to stay for two nights. Unfortunately made famous by the target of a atom bomb in 1945, the city has some very interesting museums and displays regarding that fateful day. We spent many hours there learning more about the 'A Bomb' explosion. They have a building which managed to that day (well sort of), and they have preserved the 'dome' building as a reminder of war and especially that of the nuclear kind. Another world heritage site and again, definitely worth a visit if you come to Japan. A quick note about visiting Japan if you are thinking of it. Before I came here I was concerned about the cost of visiting but if you are from the UK (like many who will read this are), you should not be put off by the costs here as it's generally cheaper than the UK these days.

Weather depending (been lucky so far but it's raining now), we plan to head up the coast for some island hopping then onto Kobe/Himiji castle and then Tokyo. We wish to try as many things as possible here in the short time we have so another dream of ours is to take the Bullet Train (Shinkansen). This has been a dream of mine ever since I saw it on Tomorrow's World years ago.

Another last point I would like to make is that Nat had developed an unhealthy fascination for trying out public toilets. Many toilets here come with all sorts of gadgets that spray water and even blow dry... They run on 100 volts though so we can't take one to Australia Nat. Shame.

South Korea (Seoul to Busan)

2008-06-02T04:55:00.024+01:00

With our many air miles saved up we managed to get some pretty good deals on a couple of Thai airlines tickets from Bangkok to Seoul, South Korea. After some negotiations and signing a form to say we acknowledged the fact that we were purchasing a one way ticket only and could be sent back to Thailand, we got ourselves ready for the next instalment of the cycle trip. On the morning of the day of the flight, I had a sudden bought of laziness and knowing the abundance of pick up trucks in Thailand and the fact that anything kind of service, I got Nat on the case for trying to get a pickup and driver to take us to the airport. Well, we did cycle through Bangkok traffic before and it's not pleasant really and in all that heat ;) Wonderfully, Nat came up with the goods and with the bikes loaded in the back with our panniers, we set off for the airport.

Seoul
On arriving at Incheon international airport, Seoul, Jan Boonstra's maps and GPS details in hand, we decided to opt for the cycle from the airport, catch the ferry (airport is on an island), and cycle into Seoul itself. We had the GPS coordinates for the 'start' of the route that Jan had prepared and I had booked a room at Kim's Guesthouse in Seoul which was very close.

When the bikes were waiting for us at the belt I approached as I have down a couple of times now now with a little nervous feeling hoping the bikes managed to survive the flight OK. The flight from UK to India was great, bikes perfect, From India to Singapore Nat's bike suffered some burns to the brake lever after the belt rubbed it and now, my bike looked like it had been thrown on/off the plane rather than being carefully placed. The front brakes we bent and frame scratched badly. With a couple of cable ties, I had the front brake looking a little better. Both bikes now suffered from slightly buckled wheels (Nat's both and my rear wheel). They were rideable though so with a little heavy hearted we put them back together.

Cycling in was pretty easy going although we had prepared for a good night's sleep on the plane beforehand, but forgot the flight was only 4 hours. Just as we got close I got all confused with the bridges, rivers and maps (tired) and suddenly saw an amazing cycle path below the bridge we were on with loads of fully prepared cyclists in all their gear cycling along the river. We nipped down the path and started our best Korean (thank you is the only word we know - and Nat also knows toilet now which is good). After showing maps with Korean language, we managed to get to Kim's Guest house eventually and were met with a very friendly English speaking lady. With a superb relaxing day and two nights in Seoul, with clean clothes and a few Won in our pockets, we set off to the start of Jan Boonstra's route:
Cycle in Korea

Seoul - Busan
The first day saw us cycling down the river Han in the centre of Seoul down an amazing cycle path full of very fully prepared mountain bikers with their matching kit and face masks. We felt a little under dressed with our bare legs and arms, normal shorts (we wear cycle lycra shorts underneath to not scare people) and t-shirts. It was a beautiful day and we felt absolute excitement as we cruised down this path breathing in the seemly good air for a major city. it wasn't long though before Nat's bicycle developed a nasty clicking noise and after my expert mechanical advice of carry on and see what it does, made the clicking noise develop into a clunking noise within a few km. Oh dear, time to see what it wrong. The crank looked like it had developed a wobble and become loose. There was no way I could tighten it though with the tools I had. I have many tools with me but the one for removing the bottom bracket (pedal mechanism) I didn't bring as if I had to take it off, it's mean having to replace the main pedal assembly probably anyway so would need to go to a bike shop. There was no way this bike was going to make 500km to Busan so a quick search was on for an exit off the bike path to get up and find a bike shop. A few minutes into the clunking ride, I noticed a group of serious looking mountain bikes under a bridge. Coming up to them I noticed that actually this was a mobile bike shop!!! What luck!!! Not only did they seem to know what the problem was but the guy had a new bottom bracket assembly in case I needed it. Without a word in English from them and not one from us in Korean, the guy thoroughly cleaned Nat's bike, completely removed the pedal assembly/crank and sorted the problem (come undone), and straightened her wheels! All for 10 pounds! GREAT news.. Nat was extremely pleased as she said her bike felt like new again! We didn't take any more time up by getting him to straighten my rear wheel as it was just a little off true (should have!). The rest of the ride that day was spent eating needles from 7-11, getting 50 pounds out of an ATM (7-11) and spending the night in a love motel! Along with the route info on the GPS, Jan has wonderfully put on cheap motels too (10-12.50 pounds a night). We opted for this in Korea as although sometimes a little scary with the 'love' preparations they put on for you!! Some of these places are built like dodgy Disney castles and have plastic draping down over the car park entrances so you can't see who is parked there. Lots of privacy for those secret hours with loves ones!! For us cyclists we were only too pleased to have them so cheap for the night as they were pretty much like a 4 star hotel inside the rooms. Great for doing your own washing and watching an film after a long day ;) (although channel 2 and 3 were always quite amusing too).

After a about 3 days our money from Seoul was beginning to run out so it was time to visit an ATM and get some more cash out. We were going through a largish town that particularly day so thought good opportunity to go to a bank's ATM rather than 7-11 where it wouldn't let me get more than 50 pounds out. This is where the 'fun' started. I have been travelling on my Visa card now since I was about 19 when I went inter-railing around Europe. You can imagine my surprise when I tried the bank's ATM only to find it spat out the cards (I tried a few) saying error 99. Errr what's that error then???!!! No joke, I must have tried at least 10 ATM's that awful hour in that town getting more desperate by the ATM realising that I was with Nat, in the middle of South Korea, with no money, on bicycles and can't speak Korean!! This was getting worrying! Most bank ATM's either stated that they only worked for local cards or just came up with Korean on the screen. My guessing the buttons idea didn't work work either and sometimes left me standing there waiting for my card to be spat out after about 5 sweating minutes. Error 99!! @#$%&!!! Ahh!! It was only after a helpful G25 convenience store worker helped me that I managed to get 50 pounds out of their machine and after many other stores/bank failures. I seized the opportunity and used all my cards and Nat's bank card too to get some cash out. PHEW!! What we did experience though was this all the way from Seoul to Busan. It was only yesterday in Busan that i got money out again!! if you come to Korea.. bring LOTS of cash. oh, also they couldn't change pounds either.. and my Visa card was looked at by all the bank staff like it was from Mars! Weird considering I could use the card at any motel, tiny shop or anywhere else other than and ATM/Bank.

Back to cycling, we managed 4 days of cycling every day without a rest taking in the river views, rice paddy fields where the farmers are planting this seasons rice shoots (mostly older folks - where are the young farmers?) and meeting friendly locals and trying to have conversations with them with smiles and laughing. On the fourth day we even managed a climb over 500m high. With my dodgy front brake though I decide to use my rear brake more down the steep hill. On the way down I suddenly heard a funny noise and then rubbing sound. Oh dear... didn't sound good! On close inspection, it appeared that using the rear brake so much had heated up the slightly buckled rear wheel which in turn had made it very buckled. It was now rubbing against the frame. With my 'bush mechanic' skills, I managed to get the rear wheel to turn just without rubbing. I couldn't go far though and luckily at the foot of the hill there was a small town. After much demonstrating to locals that I had a buckled wheel (lifting the bike and spinning the rear wheel and going oooooooo...ahhhhhh), we managed to find a small bike shop. The old boy there got to work right away on the spokes and within a short time all was well! SUPERB luck again!!! Wouldn't take any money so with our only word in Korean - thank you 'Gam san hannida' (sounds like that anyway!), we set off again.

Day 5 I woke as I usually do at 0600 and made an error of telling Nat that it looked like the perfect weather had ended and rain had come. This immediately had the effect of making Nat jump back into bed and say we HAVE to take a day off today. With much opposition to the idea (staying in bed for a day watching tv bores me), we took a needed day off. The following day it looked like the route took us through some more mountainous territory so actually the day off was good for us. Also the weather went back to the perfect cycling weather that we experienced all the way through our Korean trip. Ok Ok.. good idea Nat ;)

After 10 days (9 cycling), we made it into Busan which is where we are now. We have cycled 515km from Seoul and nearly 1500km since leaving the UK. We have booked our boat ticket for tomorrow night to Fukuoka, Japan. 'Japanese Boy', 'Big in Japan', 'Turning Japanese' and the theme to James Bond 'You Only Live Twice' have all been sung to Nat in preparation for the trip. Nat's pedal is making a clicking noise of which we are ignoring so far and we've done our washing. We are ready.. I think....

A big thank you to Jan Boonstra again for his amazing route, maps and GPS files that helped us have an amazing trip in South Korea. A country we knew little about but now have a soft spot for, especially for it's food (although I wasn't keen on the rabbit stew), very friendly people, and the constant tunes of cuckoos and woodpeckers!

Kalasin, Thailand

2008-05-16T17:30:00.011+01:00

It's been a great 2 weeks here in Kalasin (Thailand), home to Nat's parents and many relatives. Last time we were here was a bit of a whirlwind 1.5 years ago when Nat and I had our Thai wedding with over 500 guests from the village here, other parts of Thailand and my friend's and family. This time was a time for us to relax and try to learn Japanese (or at least some), before out next leg of the journey. Well there has been some relaxing but, not as much as I envisaged ;) Actually it's been great fun and I have been learning all sorts since being here. I have wanted to see how rice is cultivated for a while now but always missed the chance. This time was excellent timing as I managed to see the rice being harvested with a superb rice combine harvester. It looks like a small version of the wheat combine harvesters we have in the UK, but this one has tracks to allow it to navigate the rice paddy fields that have raised banks to hold the water in. Superb machine.. I like machines you can probably tell ;)

Other farming activities Nat's farther has got me involved me in are digging holes for banana trees, marking out land that Nat and I own and preparing it for rice planting. We have also been moving cow sheds ready for some soil to be dumped and flattened out for a new house one day. In this area of Thailand, which is relatively flat and a rice farming area, flooding in the rainy season can be quite common, especially with older houses such as the one Nat's parents have at the moment. Newer houses tend to be built on raised land that is laid a year or two beforehand. This was great fun as it gave me the opportunity to go scorpion hunting as I have a fascination with the little mites. They won't kill you here but they do give you a nasty sting like a bee sting. I ate one once and it was pretty horrible. Better to just look at them. other than the millions of mosquitoes and flies, I have managed to avoid the other little critters that are common here like snakes. I do like snakes but they can be quite nasty in this area as cobras are quite common in the countryside. The new house will be built much further back from the previous one which will be flattened to make a nice jungle garden. I shall get quite involved in the design as I will use the opportunity to make the house into an eco friendly house as much as possible with solar water heating for showers and cleaning, recycling water for toilets and a wind generator that will power a water well pump and lights for the cows and even other electrical items in the house. Ahhh finally.. an opportunity to build a wind generator at last!!! Those of you who knew that I co-designed a wind generator at University in my final year, will know I have been dying to do this for many years!! This time it won't be made of foam!!

Nat and I are also sporting superb short hairstyles now of which you will see after the next update no doubt. Nat has opted for a short above shoulder length and I have a lovely short Thai cut which also came free with a cut throat razor shave (something I always worry about ever since I heard of Sweeney Tod - which was a long time ago of course), my ears cleaned out.....hmmm interesting.., my nose hair trimmed with long scissors (worrying and also don't worry I don't have much nose hair protruding normally - I am sure it's just part of the service for everyone), a massage and my arms and neck twisted with a crack!! All for 60p!!

For the past couple of months I have also been suffering with a problem on one of my teeth where food seems to get caught in it. As we had some time Nat and I decided to get my tooth checked out and Nat would get a normal check up done at a local dentist. Having experienced Thai medical services first hand in the past, I thought it's be a great opportunity to get this tooth sorted. The dentist not only appeared to do an excellent job of sorting out two fillings in the end of which a dodgy dentist in Peckham had originally done, but he also sang throughout the procedure. The chap spent longer on one of my fillings now than the dentist in Peckham did for 3. The lady with the sucker pipe was a little too enthusiastic though!! Nat was fine and with a little polish she was all smiles again.

Nat has been learning to take blood pressure here along with volunteers in the local community to assist the medical services. It's quite good as the hospital staff came out to Nat's house and a group of volunteers all received a little kit with torch for searching water tanks for mosquito larvae, blood pressure kit and stethoscope. This is all good for me one day, although Nat did forget to let the pressure down off her dad's arm after taking the reading until I reminder her! Nat also was given the task of being an interpreter for the day at a children's centre for a Swedish couple who have been sponsoring some children for the past 10 years through school and now university. This earned her some beer tokens that I think must have run out now ;)

Nat's sister and her baby have also been here for the past week (they live in Sweden these days), so that's been great to see them. Today, we went to an amazing attraction that is relatively new (and old in a way) here in this part of Thailand. Not many tourists come to this part of Thailand so whenever there is anything remotely of interest, the local government grasp it with both hands. Here in eastern Thailand (Isan), they are blessed with many discoveries of fossils and a superb dinosaur museum has been created at great expense. They had one here for a few years but the one today has only been open for a few months. If anyone is coming to Thailand and happen to be interested in palaeontology, then you could pop by this superb museum. It's name is Sirindhorn Museum and there is even a 5 star hotel in Kalasin which you can stay at for 10 pounds a night!! (UK). Anyway, raving on a bit but hey, it was certainly a highlight of my whole trip :)

The final thing we have been doing here is preparing for the next leg of course. This means South Korea. We have a flight to Seoul on 20th May and have been buying and testing various bits of kit which will hopefully help on our journey. The route from Seoul takes us south down to the port city of Busan where we intend on taking a ferry to Japan. The route come courtesy of Jan Boonstra who, after finding his website after searching the net, very kindly sent me GPS files and carefully prepared maps of the whole route down to Busan. Excellent stuff and if your are interested here is his site:

South Korea
http://user.chollian.net/~boonstra/korea/cycle.htm

After Korea our plan is to sail to Fukuoka, Japan and cycle our way, as much as possible anyway, to Tokyo. Wish us luck as we may need it due to sheer distance and fact that it's the rainy season in Japan when we cycle there. Can't do much about the weather so hopefully we can manage. If anyone is interested in this route, it was created by a Japanese club and they have done and excellent job of preparing some maps. I have also bought a great GPS Japanese made map system for my Garmin GPS which appears very accurate when tested against Google maps. We shall see how we get on with that. It has to be more accurate than Garmin's own maps as they saw us riding past marine marker buoys in the sea off Malaysia!!! Glad I wasn't using that map for a boat otherwise I would have have been shipwrecked. Garmin said that their world map is only intended be used as a guide when I mentioned this to them. For 100 pounds I would have expected a bit more accuracy than that though! Anyway, here is the Japanese cycle club site for that route and thus our intended route:

Japan
http://www.japancycling.org/v2/cguide/part1/

Anyone interested in joining us, feel free!! We will be cycling in Korea for about a week or two and then Japan.. well we have a flight booked at the moment for Australia on 24th July.

Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos

2008-05-12T03:49:00.011+01:00

Firstly, apologies for no updates whilst we have been away backpacking but I have done my best to compile the few weeks into one update. Slightly longer but something to read on the train to work maybe ;) I have also included a few new photos on the website. Some I have burnt to DVD already and sent abroad so can’t post those unfortunately.

Cambodia
Over the past month, Nat and I have travelled in a loop from Bangkok round to Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, visiting Nat’s eastern neighbours and meeting new friends and wonderful friendly people. Starting off in Bangkok we decided against the risk of Cambodia not building the 150 stretch of dirt road into a sealed road and flew to Siem Reap which is the main town outside the famous temples of Ankor Wat. This turned out to be a good decision as the 2 times I have3 travelled here before they have always talked about the road being sealed but have never actually done it. It’s only 150kms from the Thai border but the road is so bad that it takes about 3 hrs in the dry and 8 hrs when wet as its all mud.

Siem Reap, a town that seems to be growing with 5 Star hotels every other day is starting to get quite busy although still keeping its relaxed charm. Although the centre of accommodation for Ankor Wat, with it’s history of the Khmer Rouge there is also some interesting Mine and War museums to visit round there. In one of the War museums we found a whole load of various weapons that the Khmer Rouge used including an M16 with the ‘Property of the US Government’ words ground off (we found one without the words ground off as a comparison), various AK47’s and pistols and dodgy sawn off shotguns etc. After examining each one in depth, comparing weights and pretending to fire them, we noticed a small sign saying ‘Please don’t touch’… Oops! Oh well.. 
An interesting thing about Cambodia is the money. Although they have their own currency (Rials), US dollars still appear to be the main currency and even the ATM’s dispense them. Pol Pot’s ‘wonderful’ idea of year zero and abolishing money is still affecting the country’s financial system it seems.

After a solid day from 0500 to 1800 of seeing Ankgor Wat we felt quite ‘templed’ and set about looking to see how, without our beloved bicycles, we were going to get down to Phnom Penh. Due to lack of water in the Tonle Sap, a huge lake in western Cambodia (now smaller due to lack of water of course), we couldn’t take a boat down to the capital but a very expensive 3 pound, 6 hour bus journey. It actually turned out OK and calmed our nerves slightly about the prospect of more lengthy bus journeys. With our dodgy photocopied Lonely Planet purchased from a small child in Siem Reap, we decided on heading to the backpacker area by a lake. Last time I came here on my own, I found a really nice place by the river but hey, you have to see different places right? Initially it looked nice with a room for us on the lake and a relaxed atmosphere with a restaurant on site. All very nice. After checking it, I noticed that the atmosphere was indeed relaxed.. possibly a little too relaxed as on closer inspection we noticed that everyone was absolutely wasted on various drugs.. oh joy. Not many interesting conversations to be had here then!
The city itself and it’s excursions of the Killing Fields and Royal palaces and a great Army firing range which Nat found a worrying delight in firing an AK47!!! Unfortunately no rounds left for the M16 so we didn’t get to shoot that. My pistol grouping skills need improving but there wasn’t much left of the target to check grouping after I shot the AK47 

Vietnam
After a many a Khmer history lesson of Ankor Wat and Kmer Rouge we headed east to Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon depending on your preference). It seems the southerners of Vietnam still call it Saigon and even have their local beer named as such. I have heard many differing traveler reports of Vietnam, some saying it’s great, some saying it’s full of money grabbers. We had an open mind and as it was a new country for both Nat and I… VERY exciting for me especially! Being an early 1970’s baby, my early years were filled with Vietnam War related programmes and films (or American war as the Vietnamese call it of course), subsequently I have been quite intrigued to see this country for a while now. Initial thoughts were how modern the country is considering it is meant to be a Communist country run by the words of Chairman Mao’s little red book where everyone is mean tot be farmers and all are equal! It was a particularly good time to view the country’s politics as with the run up to celebrating ‘Reunification’ in 1975, there were hammer and sickle flags and amazing propergander posters everywhere. As an outsider it was as if there posters and flags were some kind of historic reminder of what Vietnam used to be but after a while I realized that the posters were more of what Vietnam is meant to be today. Pictures farming and people collaborating together as equals……… errr.. OK.

Without getting into any heavy politics, lets just say that the government still clinging onto their Communism ideals with their daily propergander tv specials on how they won the war with the woman fighting as well (seemly having great fun doing so!!??), the people of Vietnam as pretty much getting on leaving all that behind and making US dollars and Vietnam Dong… either accepted but dollars are advertised everywhere for hotels and tours.. how interesting! Another observation is how they seem to have embraced the new relationship with the US (since 1996) with American products everywhere including KFC and Ford cars/pick ups everywhere. Old jeeps from the war have been re-sprayed and being used every day to move tourists and even Police cars!! My favorite US related observation was that a year ago since helmets have been compulsory in Vietnam for motorbike users (everyone basically), the manufacturers have designed great helmets that look like baseball caps and Army helmets to name a couple of designs. One of these has a US flag on the side!!!  I was tempted to get one but opted for a more simple desert camouflage baseball cap style instead for all our motorcycle rental adventures in the country.

Heading north on a ‘open bus tourist ticket’, we went to some beaches north of Saigon and then to an old French hill station named Dalat which was nice and cool. As we hadn’t been on our bikes for a little while we rented two mountain bikes and a van and ‘rode’ for 3 hrs downhill from 1600meters to 150meters above sea level!! Fantastic ride and pretty easy as you can imagine… hardest bit was braking for 3 hrs so you didn’t fly off the cliffs! At the bottom we stayed in a town called Nah Trang which was a little too touristy / beachy for us so we headed for Hue and Dong Ha (the previous DMZ). It seems most people who visit the area do so in a one day see most (but very briefly) trips from Hue. One of the highlights of the trip for me, We decided to get up to Dong Ha and spend 2 days seeing all the sights around that area related to the Vietnam War. We visited one old US base which was still heavily surrounded with unexploded ordnance and had to tread very carefully. It rained a lot that day and with the rain capes very similar to old GI capes, weaving about the mud looking out for old live landmines (of which we found!), the old war films we had seen suddenly came very realistic in our minds. Treading very carefully in the guides footsteps we found old parts of bombs, unexploded landmines and old GI size 11 boot rubber soles. Quite strange after 40 years of the war. Due to the unexploded ordnance, the area has been left alone like many parts of Vietnam for all these years. Apparently this counts for about 20% of the country. We were amazed by the amount of people still searching with metal detectors (home made) for scraps of metal. Many of these are children and many unfortunately die every year trying to defuse some of the ordnance that had failed to explode those many years ago. Also around this area there is quite a bit of smuggling of cigarettes. Whilst on a bridge we noticed some strange balls running along the river banks avoiding the police!!! I have posted a pic of the woman…fully loaded with contraband these people run from Laos to Dong Ha in Vietnam for a living. Before leaving the DMZ we had a couple of casualties ourselves but luckily for us, just our cameras. Nat managed to wash the waterproof camera with the back slightly open and I dropped my SLR onto a concrete step. Nat’s died the next day and mine lasted another 2 weeks until the lens packed in. After a day of misery from Nat not having a camera, we replaced her cam with a nice Canon instead…. all smiles from then on!! Phew!!!

After the DMZ trip we headed north on a flight to Hanoi (avoiding a 13 hrs bus journey of whish we had had enough of by now). A interesting busy bustling city, if a little money orientated (oh sorry I thought everyone was equal??), we headed out for 3 days to see Ha Long bay and the surrounding sights and islands. In the process of trying to be voted a natural wonder of the world (what are they all?.. so many these days!! ;-) ), it truly is a wonder. Definitely worth a visit! We stayed on a boat with some Filipino foresters who had been on a conference in Hanoi. We learnt quite a bit about Philippines in that time with them and would love to visit there one day. Sounds a great place to go! One day… mmmmmm

Laos
After Hanoi we caught a flight to Laos with Jenny (from Oz) who we had mysterious kept bumping into for weeks throughout Vietnam. Nat’s local Thai language is very similar to Laos language so it was plain sailing regarding communication (and subsequent discounts). We visited Luang Prabang up in northen Laos. A few years ago when I rode my motorbike from the UK to Singapore, I came up into Laos but has an accident on the way which forced me to take it easy and didn’t quite make it to Luang Prabang. It was great to see it this time with Nat visiting waterfalls, caves and river boat trips. After a few days we headed back to Bangkok to get my camera lens fixed, buy a new lens (good excuse for a nice pro L lens ;) ) and head up to Nat’s parents on the ‘massage seat bus’ for a couple of weeks in Kalasin (north east Thailand).

Next update coming soon!

Melaka to Penang

2008-03-27T07:57:00.027Z

After a day off in Melaka which is about half way to Penang we set off again on our trip with our 5 am early morning starts. Trying to keep the the sea breezy coast as much as possible, we rode up from Melaka for Port Dickson (sounds like we're sailing - hmm, that's an idea for another trip). The route looked good but there appeared to be a strange part of the road that went round rather than straight and was quite wiggly. On our cheapo 2 year out of date map from Singapore this didn't look too bad until we reached the huge mountainous lump of land we had to cycle over around midday... managed to lose a few pounds in sweat getting up. Every time I reached what I thought was the summit, another bend showed that we still had some way to go... reminded me of cycling to brighton on that nasty hill at the end (those that have done that will know what I mean well). What goes up must come down though so the route down to Port Dicko was pretty good and we were rewarded near the end by a beach resort where we took in a few drinks before the final 20 odd kms to the town.

The next day we set off early as usual but weren't quite sure of the destination as there weren't many places in the distance we can manage (about 80/90km). Nat chose a place called Morib on the coast but being in small print on our map indicated that this might be too small for a hotel, but as it was on the coast, it may have a beach resort type hotel.. who knows!! We rode down some pretty seriously straight roads that make you want to look down at the road and keep thinking of something else so you can look up and relax a little knowing that you have only several more km to go (go where.. not sure but when you can't see the end of a long road you feel better :) ). After a good 90km of that we finally arrived in Morib and all along the coast rose we saw on the map, we hadn't managed to see the coast, not once! We were assured though by a coconut seller that Morib had hotels so not to worry.. phew! Entering Morib we noticed a lovely golf club with 5 star hotel.. great! Not for us though on our budget so closer into Morib we went.. and then.. out again! Where was MORIB? Oh dear... where are all these lovely budget hotels??? On speaking further to some locals we were assured there was a cheaper hotel near the golf course though so back to the area of the 5* hotel we went with a smile on our faces as we pulled into the drive for the hotel. Seemed very quiet though other than some builders... errrrr and the hotel? It was a gutted out building.. Only one thing for it now was the golf club 5*. Nat returning from the desk in the hotel has a huge smile on her face though and starting talking swimming pools and tv etc.. but Natty what is the price??? (even though we had not much choice).. 25 pounds!?? GREAT Lets go!! before long we were drinking and eating and swimming in the pool. We appeared to have the whole hotel to ourselves. Apparently the weather is really bad at the moment due to rain and clouds. No... SUPERB for cycling as sun will drain our energy so fast Nat is in the bus shelter on the side of the road before 11.00am

After a nice relaxing evening in Morib we set off for Klang outside KL for our next night. getting Into KL itself would be a bit of a nightmare on a bike and both of us have visited there before so we decided to save a few km and go to Klang (another bond place on our map so should have a hotel). We have found that Nat does very well when given Gatorade (energy drink) when she's flagging a bit so passing Tesco's we poped in to stock up. Really annoying though as before I left the UK I gave my clubcard to my mother and now I was being reminded to not forget my clubcard.. ahh think of all those points I missed out on. Klang itself was pretty disappointingly built up so an early start saw us leave our smelly smokey nightmare of a hotel.

On viewing the map closely, it looked like there was a 'resort' of some kind in Kuala Sengalor. Not just any kind of resort but a Firefly resort! Sounded cool so that is where we headed. On entering Kuala Senaglor we saw signs for the Firefly park and cycled the 7kms to the park. Park... notice I said park.. well that is because the Firefly Resort is back the way we cycled, 7kms and then another 15kms out north of the town.. oops!! my fault and with an angry Nat we managed to get there about another hot hour later. Although a bit over priced (a third more than the 5 star we had before), and basic (a hut on stilts in a mosquito infested pond), the stay was a good choice as in the evening we had a ride on an electric boat to see some fireflies on the bushes by the river and that was amazing. We missed out on Easter this year being where we were and not getting my usual choco egg with a mug designed to hold a bar of chocolate of some sort BUT, we had another Christmas tree with twinkling lights!! Really superb and something that we agreed we both have loved to see in the past but probably wouldn't have experienced had we not travelled on our bicycles.

The next day saw us ride up to Sabak Burnam another 70km which turned out to be the wettest day so far. Normally the rain seems to come in the evening and really pours down but today.. all day we had a shower.. a serious power on our bikes! Despite the rain though which is mostly warm, we had a good ride other than I started to get a weird tendon pain in my right ankle. After the ride i noticed it hurt quite a bit when walking to the point where I was concerned that I may have actually done some damage somewhere. We ended up taking another day off and relaxing, checking mails and also doing some good internet heath self diagnosis.. always a good thing.. who needs doctors?? (ok maybe not so good but in this case not too bad). it turning out after reviewing some video footage of myself cycling and checking some good cycling sites, I had been 'ankling'. it's a term used for when you dip your toe down when cyling and move your ankle too mich when peddaling. Some people have really hurt themselves doing this apparently and in the cause of trying tpo get performance. me? I was trying to dip my toes into the puddles so I could get some water through my sandles.. well.. it felt nice at the time!! :) Ok silly thing to do but proper peddaling, stretching and tiger balm saw that it didn't get worse. It was here in Sabak that we also discovered the largest joss sticks we had ever seen. They stood about 5 foot tall on top of their posts by a cool Chinese temple next to the river.

We set off for Lumut after our day of rest but the pain in my ankle didn't seem to have gone completely. On out map it looked as though there was a town about 40kms north that had a railway. We decided we would ride to the junction that spilt off to Lumut or Teluk Intan and make the choice there depending on my ankle pain as after that, if we chose Lumut we'd have to cycle all the way to penang as there wouldn't be a station for a choice. Seeing as our main destination fopr cycling is yet to come (Koprea/Japan) and we have to cycle far, we decided that although the pain hadn't gopt worse, we didn't see any point in maybe making a tendon problem worse by cycling 100km or so. We decided upon the extra 16km to Teluk Intan. We were pretty disappointed, well I was, Nat appeared to cheer up a a bit ;) Entering the town we enquired on the station but got some weird looks and surprised faces. it appeared the 2006 map we had must have been out of date and we had to cycle another 30kms to another town.. mm great!! Just what my ankle wanted.

Sure enough after 30 odd km we arrived in a very small railway town named Tapah Road. The station looked amazing though and all spankingly clean. Just hoped there was a train we could get to do the last 100km to Penang (although by this time we had cycled 70km in the wrong direction so might as well have stayed toward Penang!!!) Oh.. more surprised faces though as I entered the station platform and was ushered into the station masters office. If appeared that there was a train going to Butterworth but it wasn't for another 9 hrs and actually.. the station is not open yet and we couldn't buy tickets even. Although this was the case, as with all our experiences so far in Malaysia, people seem to very keen to help us and the 3 different sets of shifts that 9 hrs in the station were all extremely helpful and eventually, at 1120 pm we got on the train which was making a stop at the station to practise for when it's supposed to stop one day. In the 3 mins it stopped we got our bikes on the parcel carriage and were sitting in 0 degree air condition luxury. Well luxury for the first 30 mins and then I froze into a block of ice as I was sweaty and wearing shorts and sandals :) Nat is so small she curled into a small ball and covered herself up in a tiny shawl she had. Whilst we were in the station for 9 hrs we did find out some interesting information. The station in the town we had tried to get a train from earlier (Telok Intan), had closed it's doors and the track left for the jungle 18 years ago! No wonder people looked surprised when we asked where the train station was!!! Our 2006 map needed a bit of an update I think.

It took 6 hrs to do the 100km in the night (not sure where we went or what we did) but I was grateful that we had arrived in Butterworth for the ferry to Penang!! Yippeee!! another 20km saw us on the beach and drinking beer with 806km on the clock! No cycling for a few days so beer it was and mm red I got as I swam in the sea and lazed on the beach. As I type this I am covered in after sun cream but hopefully it'll all be over in a few days and I won't feel like I have some kind of lighter fluid over myself and set myself alight. Even with a lovely 'developing tan' (I don't usually get burnt honest and I usually don cream!), we have managed to swap our bikes for horse riding on the beach and in the jungle (well the horse let us sit on their backs for 1.5 hrs.. not sure if we were really in control and 'riding'), rented a scooter and toured Penang, visited a lovely butterfly farm, snake temple with venoumous Pit Vipers (only me as Nat is scared of snakes which is a good job as we are going to Australia we there aren't any, or is that Ireland?) and Nat has been paragliding (I have sunburn so decided to have a boat ride and take pics ;) ).

We leave tomorrow bound for Bangkok but leave Malaysia with a smile and a sad face as it's been a wonderful trip and everyone we have met have been lovely hosts. When in Bangkok we will purchase some small backpacks and camping equipment. Packs for backpack tours over the next few weeks and camping equipment for the next leg of the cycling.

Singapore noodles and two very wet cyclists

2008-03-17T09:50:00.014Z

From our wonderful run down 1930's hotel in Calcutta we set off for the 20km cycle of hell to the airport so we could get on the Singapore airlines flight to Singapore. The traffic was pretty horrendous and with the sun beating down hard as we followed the GPS to the airport were both VERY happy to get into the air conditioned airport safe and sound. We got there with hours to spare but this gave us the time to relax and strip down the bikes and repack ready for the flight. Singapore Airlines give 20kg's for checked in baggage but we had nearly 60kgs for the both of us. We got ready to discuss how they would take the bikes completely unpacked and pay the excess baggage costs. Amazingly though the staff just helped me with the bikes and then just double checked the combined weight but said all was in order... without any excess! Yippee!! We had our boarding passes and all set for Singapore!

The shortish flight to Singapore landed us in Changi airport around 0630 and gave us plenty of time to relax, assemble the bikes and look at our tourist info map that I got at the airport to see how we would cycle to my friend HT's house in the centre of the city. I had her house 'GPS'd' of course but didn't have a road map at all. I kind of remembered the route slightly from my trip a few years ago when I rode around Singapore for hours without a map on my motorbike whilst trying to keep out the way of the police and expressway cameras (another story). Whilst assembling the bikes though an ex Singapore Airlines pilot expressed a great interest in our cycle trip and told us about a cycle path going from the airport right down the coast to the city. That sounded excellent.. the only thing we had to do was get down the expressway from the airport as quick as possible and try to avoid the expressway police cameras and of course not get flattened. It was only a couple of km's apparently. Oh and what a couple of km's it was... and why is it whenever I come here I seem to be trying to avoid police??!! All good though and with just an hours sleep on the plane in over 24hrs we managed to get down the expressway and find the AMAZING cycle path by the beach which was simply paradise for us. We didn't make it too far before finding a McDonalds and I threw myself into the sea and had a little swim.. mmm SUPERB!! I LOVE Singapore!

A few superb days in Singapore staying at HT's flat (thanks SO MUCH), we saw quite a few of the touristy things like the big lion and zoo etc and we had to tear ourselves away and plan our first days cycle. We set off early and then managed to stay in the food court until 10.00 with HT talking before we cycled to the border and entered Malaysia. Simple border to cross with a quick stamp of the passport and onwards we went straight to a ATM and fried chicken outlet to refuel. Before we managed to get back on the bikes it started to pour with rain... REALLY pour. Tough cyclists that we are, we set off in the rain (actually it's nice as it's cooler.. as we're not that tough really ;) ). We suddenly found ourselves cycling down the equivalent of the A1(M) on the hard shoulder which is not so nice. Checking the GPS and the map it was the right road though and we just prayed that it'd get a little smaller and quieter the further we went. It did fortunately and with the help of a kind chap who stopped and verified that the road we'd chosen to head to coast was ok to cycle down, we headed west. 8 Kms later and we managed to reach Pontian next to the coast. After a good nights sleep we set off again along the coast to Batu Pahat. ALong the way we met two Polish cyclists who had been cycling for nearly 2 years from Poland. We stopped to chat for a few mins and they mentioned a UK chap named Tim to look out for. It was all very exciting to see other cyclists even if they looked much fitter than us fatty oldies. Just coming into the town we got completely soaked but it was great.. like a power shower!!!.. I held my face the rain and wished I had my shampoo. A lovely chilled out evening in a small hotel and we thought all was going well. The next day we got up nice and early and set off for the 100km trek to Malaka. We saw English Tim along the way and discovered he was nearing the end of his 2 year cycle to Australia. With out short few months we couldn't hope to cycle all the way so it started to come to light that we'd have to use the train a bit as well as our bikes for some of the way. All was going great.... until we reached the 48km mark. This is where the hot sun must had got poor little Natty and she started to get tired. We ended up staying the night in a place called Muar and realised 100km might be a bit far too soon in this heat. In the air conditioned room I set about removing Nat's important cosmetics and some of her lothes. Her bags were just so heavy and wasn't helping at all. I moved a load of heavy stuff to my bike and threw some things away. Poor old Nat, but... she agreed it was a good idea. Now she had a nice light bike.. and mine? Well who know what it weighs now but the things reminds me more of my motorbike trip now.. without the engine! Well all good training to get rid of my belly I guess ;)

Well, a few great days eating durian by the road (that smelly fruit that Nat and I love so much), and a rest day here in Melaka and we're going to try and reach our destination of Penang for a couple of days holiday. May take a week but we're doing ok and the country is so friendly so far.

Varanasi to Kolkatta (Calcutta)

2008-03-07T13:34:00.011Z

Written by Nat:

After we left Varanasi by train and I had a very exciting experience that night. We left Varanasi around 9 pm and fell asleep but woke up at 3 am as I saw some guy look very dodgy. He was standing around our area and at first I saw him staring at a Japanase tourist below Dave but then thought he must be a thief. I was not sure and it was happened quite quick and then he walked away. Then at 4 am an Indian guy who was sleeping below me turned the light on and started panicking and said someone stole his bag! He held the cut chain up in the air. Dave had always warned me about this issue on the train but this time I saw it myself. It was lucky as I was tempted to leave my bag under the seat below but Dave insisted we should sleep next to them. After 4 am I didn't sleep properly until we arrived at Kolkatta. On the train we slept on the bunk beds the top one which very close to the fan on the roof and it was very small just enough for my size. Poor Dave had to bend his knees for 13 hours journey even though he can straight his legs cross over to my side but it was very uncomfortable for us.

We cycled from Howrah station to Sudder street in Kolkatta where we hoped to find a hotel as it's the back packer area. It was very difficult like other cities in India but to add to the chaos we had the added bonus of the summer heat coming. Each time we stopped to buy fruit or work out where we were, we attracted a huge staring crowd. We were pretty messy by the time we arrived (with the GPS again!).

In the last couple days in Kolkatta we have enjoyed ourselves very much here. We went to see the Victoria Memorial which is amazing and I have learned more about the relationship between Britain and India history. It's great! The memorial was built in 1906 just 5 years after Queen Victoria died. It was very great place to visit and best place to avoid all the crazy stuff outside. The other good place we visited was the botanical garden which has the largest banyan tree in the world. It was very impressive and the whole garden looks like a jungle. We even saw a few Indian Kingfisher birds! That gave us a nice appetite for some beers in the evening. :-)

Tomorrow we have a flight booked to Singapore and we will make the trip by bicycle again which is around 13 km. We have a very itchy bums to start cycle properly from Singapore. We have enjoyed ourselves very much here in India but I feel it's time for us to CYCLE!!! Dave is looking forward to cycling with a coolie hat on I think.

ps. Dave says so far he hasn't had a repeat of what he got last time he came here (15 yrs ago). What's that? :-)

AGRA - VARANASI - BODH GAYA - VARANASI

2008-03-03T10:27:00.011Z

From Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal, we headed east with our bikes but again using the train to cover the 600kms distance (13 hrs). It would have 6 days of dust, trucks and and a very unhappy wife had we gone by bicycle. Although it was not in the original plan to cycle in India, it was still tempting slightly as the hassle of putting the bikes on the train can be a bit much sometimes.
Varanasi is situated on the river Ganges and is a deeply religious place for Hindus. For us tourists it's a great place for pictures and the feeling of being surround by thousands and thousands of people. We arrived with the bikes all safe and sound and set the GPS up to head for the 'Dasashvamedh Ghat' (main one) where it all happens. This is where the Guest house I wanted to stay at was. The same one that I stated at 15 years ago when I was the closest I have ever been to being a hippie and came to India to find out where I'd gone wrong on my degree, but found out that I was just being lazy. On the way a chap beckoned us to follow him on his motorbike as he apparently worked in the Yogi lodge (the one I wanted to stay at). Were followed him suspiciously (always suspicious here in India ;) ), and along dusty tracks, alleys and roads we came to the Yogi Lodge. Or did we? Didn't look anything like I remember and sure enough the GPS suggest we still had a good 1.5 kms to go. We had just come to a fake Yogi Lodge! Mmm well.. we decided to head off and follow the GPS instead and within a few mins we were in the most busiest traffic jams ever .. after about 15 mins of going nowhere and Nat going mad due to horns and people asking here is she wanted a guest house, we decided to walk and go the wrong way up the other side of the road. After a short walk it all started to come back to me (not my degree but my memory of the area).
We walked down the tiny alleyway knocking all the people over with our panniers but along with other people and their motorbikes/cycles (when in Rome). Viola.. amongst the cows and their large pats, there was the Yogi Lodge I remember .. est. 1978. Nat was getting slightly worried about where I was taking her but after she saw the place and checked the room out.. all was well... PHEW for me! I don't know how I found this place with my cousin all those years ago. We had a couple of great days with seeing the evening Pooja (prayers) and sunrise by the Ganges for a nice morning bath. Not us though, but lots of other people as unfortunately we had already had a shower so felt we'd let everyone else go.

Our next destination was to be an equally religious place but this time for Buddhists and Nat being Buddhist, she was of course very excited about coming here. The place is Bodh Gaya and is where Lord Buddha found enlightenment under a banyan tree over 2500 years ago. The tree is the Bodhi Tree (of which we now have a few leaves :) ). There are also many temples built by the main Buddhist nations including Thailand, Japan, Bangladesh, Tibet (oh I called it a nation..better watch out when I go to China) and China. Shortly after arriving Nat was spoken to in Thai and soon wherever we looked, there were Thai tourists straight in by direct flight from Bangkok. With the Thai tourists come Thai restaurants and that makes Nat a very happy girl!

Leaving Bodh Gaya after one night we set off back to Varanasi on another 'Super fast express' train (4hrs to do 200kms - i.e average 50kph or 30mph). To avoid the hassle of taking our bikes for a short journey we left them at the Yogi Lodge in Varanasi. All was safe and sound when we got back 'home'. We have since been the cinema twice.. excellent first film about the Moguls in a great modern cinema.. and the second.. well we lasted an hour before we gave up on the macho slow and quite terrible film :) Sorry to say that that was the first film I have ever walked out on before it finished. If I was on my own though I would have probably watched it all the way through..even though it was terrible ;)

Tomorrow night we are booked on an overnight train to Calcutta . Apparently our 'cycles' are ok to go on that train so good luck to us!

London - Delhi - Agra

2008-02-24T13:46:00.001Z

As planned Nat and I set for London Heathrow Airport on Tuesday for our evening flight. However.... we didn't set off to Nepal as planned but to India instead. Monday morning after closely watching the Nepal news we decided that due to riots and a general strike in Nepal bringing road closures, curfews, fuel and food shortages.. we decided at this late stage to not try and cycle down through Nepal. We were both pretty sad by the decision but it made sense. Instead we decided to head down to Delhi and then travel across India and pick up the plan at Agra where the Taj Mahal is.
Arriving at New Delhi airport we assembled our bikes which made the trip as well as we did and all was well. We cycled into the city which was around 20kms without too much hassle although it did feel a lot like the North Circular at rush hour :) Using one of my many gadgets (GPS) we rode straight to a back packer hotel I stayed at 15 years ago called Ringo's and there it was.. same as ever!! We even managed to get the bikes up the stairs and into the room.
Right.. the journey has started!! Now the idea with India was that we would use the train to get across and put our bikes on saving days of dust and beeping from huge trucks. Trying to get a ticket and get your bike on the train is not all that simple though as we found out.. Getting past the touts at the station is actually bad enough just so we could get up the stairs to get a ticket. We did actually manage it though and although much of the rest of the world you can put your bike on the train with you, in India, it has to go in the parcel carriage (if there is one!!). We were assured that we would be able to do this and purchased the ticket from the chaps in the Tourist ticket place in the station. The next day we set off to the parcel area with our bike and did what we were told.. get the bags off and tie a little piece of string to the handlebars with a small piece of paper. We took the bags to the platform and some chaps wheeled our beloved bikes and that's when we got the news. We can't go on this train because there is only 4 minutes stopping at Agra!! Well nice of them to decide that just when we had 20 minutes before the train was going. Well we could wait 6 hrs and then get the next one.. oh what an opportunity :) After pleading with the guys it seemed we were doomed to go 6 hours later and spend that time relaxing in New Delhi station.. anyone been there before? You will know what I mean. About 5 minutes before the train went though Nat tried her girlie Thai charm on the men and boom.. suddenly the bikes were squashed on .. and I mean squashed.. but that was our green light.. we were going on that train whoopppee!!! After 3 nice hours on the floor next to the toilet with some other friendly people who liked using their phones to play Hindi music as loud as they could (which we both love), we arrived at Agra... panic was on.. get the bikes off! All excited we managed to drag the bikes off with the guard and put them back together with the bags. We cycled into Agra which slightly dusty to say the least but we enjoyed escaping the touts at the station. Using the GPS again we headed straight to the Taj Mahal where I remembered a great backpacker place that we could try.. sure enough it was still there after 15 years and hasn't changed a bit. Still only 250 rupees a night (under 4 pounds). All was well and Natty cheered up after a lovely cold bucket shower. With rest and food we have managed to see the Taj Mahal and Agra fort and took everyone's pictures.. well Nat did anyway :)

Preparation cycle

2008-02-12T17:06:00.000Z

Short trips around Norfolk to prepare for our cycle trip...