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Bahir Dar

2012-01-02T05:43:00.001-08:00

We were happy to have left Addis, it was an interesting city but very busy and large. It was a challenge to get around without taking taxis. Isn't like the taste of knowing that we were being overcharged. They weren't Amsterdam prices but after awhile it added up. It was a pain to carry around the child seat for Anton, though after realising that none of the taxis had functioning seatbelts and setting how allow the traffic moved we soon left it at home.

After 3 nights in Addis we flew to Mekele in the north of the country. It immediately seemed a relief. It was much more relaxed. It also helped that wewere getting used to the altitude and walking up steps wasn't such a puffer. There wasn't much to see in town so we just wandered around. We had a nice time in a church yard/park with 3 teenage girls who practised their English on us and played with Anton, who really got into it. He was really taking to the chance to walk around outside, since his first steps in October the weather was pretty bad in Amsterdam and he'd hardly walked outside.

Our hotel, the Abraha Castle, was on the top of a hill at one end odd town and had a great view over the town and the surrounding hills.

The following morning we were picked up by a car and driven to a lodge from which we'd stay our first TESFA trek.

Freddie's back was getting much better. It was a miracle that we were here at all. Even so the trekking schedule was adjusted to make it a bit easier.

The trek was marvellous. We walked through villages, up mountain sides and stayed in basic mountain top hiking lodges. The only electricity was from torches that we carried and all water was hauled up from the valley below by donkeys. Or guide, Kiros was great. Anton took to it very well. He loved being carried in the backpack. He got lots of attention from everyone. All the Ethiopians expressed surprise that a man was carrying a child.

While it was nice to arrive in a comfortable hotel in Axum at the end of the trek and have a shower it was with regret to nolonger be walking.

We stayed in Axum for 3 nights. Enough to see some of the wonders of the Axumite civilisation which had thrived in this area of Africa and southern Yemen almost 3000 years ago.

We flew from Axum top Gonder, which had been the capital of the Ethiopian empire in the 17th and 18th centuries. We visited the ruins of imperial palaces in the royal compound some of which showed a Portuguese influence. It was a nice town, livelier than either Mekele or Axum but not overwhelming like Addis. On the way in from the airport we shared a cab with a pair of sisters who had a restaurant with 2 now of their sisters, called the 4 Sisters. We ate their during or stay. When in the car I expressed regret that we wouldn't have a chance to experience the traditional Gonder singing where the singer customises the lyrics to suit the customer. When we left the 4 Sisters they arranged a singer to come and give us a demonstration, with a song about Anton, which I think he liked.

From Gonder we went overland to Bahir Dar where we have been for a couple if days. It didn't start to well as the hotel that we'd been booked, the Deb Ambesa not very nice and we soon found ourselves something, much more pleasant on the lakefront,the Ghion, though rather rundown. Anton found a large number of condoms in the bedside table.So perhaps some customers paid by the hour (though we saw/heard) none of this. The staff are very nice and the hotel had the loveliest garden and patio looking out onto the lake.

Yesterday we took a boat trip to see some of the famous monasteries on the lake. This morning we spotted pelikans sitting on done rocks just around the corner from the hotel. We were told that there are hippos in the lake but they are hard to spot.

We have 2 more nights before we head out our second trek, which weer look forward top with much expectation.

Addis arrival

2011-12-18T02:53:00.001-08:00

Our day of flying ended with its being deposited safely at the Taitu hotel in Addis Abeba. For a while it looked like Lufthansa had lost Anton's carrying backpack but it turned up on arrival.

Anton took the travelling so well. He got a bit frustrated about lack of opportunity to walk about on the plane.

Ethiopians are very friendly and absolutely love Anton. He gets loads of attention, which he likes.

Today we take it slow, perhaps go into town to see a museum. Nothing risky to Freddie's recovery.

Walk from Cuijk to Nijmegen

2011-08-25T23:44:00.001-07:00

This past weekend we went on a two day walk from Cuijk to Nijmegen with an overnight in Groesbeek. We'd been on all-day walks with Anton before but this was the most ambitious. We took the train to Cuijk as early as we could manage on Saturday which got us there at 1pm then walked for the next 6 hours in very nice countryside, through rolling hills and forest. The weather treated us kindly. All along Anton watched things happily as the scenery was presented to him.

We'd booked a bed and breakfast for Saturday night in Groesbeek. The couple who ran the place were very sweet, especially with Anton. Were grandparents and often took care of grandchildren so had all the things necessary for dealing with a baby,which we certainly couldn't carry. The next day was even nicer than the first as we descended into the valley of the Waal and Nijmegen.

Escape from Amsterdam

2010-05-04T01:52:00.000-07:00

Queensday fell on a Friday this year. Public holiday, yeah!

While Queensday in Amsterdam is a lot of fun, his year we decided it was time to be out of town, and country even.

I took the loaded tandem into work on Thursday morning and took the train to Belgium after work, collecting Freddie along the way in Den Haag. We changed in Brussels and reached Namur in the Ardennes a bit after 10pm.

It felt really nice to be back in the French speaking World. Though there is much about Amsterdam and the Netherlands that I love, I find the casual rudeness of strangers that happens all too often a bit much, or rather not enough. I respect the Dutch for there Frank honesty but sometimes politeness is preferable.

On Friday morning, as the party unfolded in Amsterdam we cruised down a bicycle path along the Meuse river and admired the wonderful Spring colours.

We branched away from the river and followed the path of an old train line that had been converted into a dedicated bike path. It was so nice to be going through the countryside without having to worry about cars. The straightness of it got a little boring. We stopped for the night in a B&B in a nice old farm house in Macon, a small village just inside Belgium.

The following morning we crossed the border into France. Little stone and brick farmhouses dotted the gently folded landscape. Our road wind its way between fields and forest with the occasional pain au chocolate. We stopped for the night in a cheap and friendly hotel in Cambrai.

In the morning we headed North in the direction of Belgium. The guidebook found a nice path along public roads Tue finally dropped us off in Tournai where we took a train home.

Fusch (Grossglockner)

2009-08-20T14:17:00.000-07:00

What a great day! It was entirely centred around the Grosshlockner Alpine road, which I spent the majority of the day struggling to get up and the remains as the Sun was getting low zooming down the other side.

I headed off reasonably early. The hotel I'd stayed at started breakfast very early. Normally I'm champing at the bit for the breakfast hour to begin. In this case I was still sleeping when it came around. Even so I got in early and long, as it was pretty good value. All while eating I was wondering whether I'd misunderstood the price of the room that I'd been told the previous night and that I'd have a nasty surprise waiting when the bill came. As a result I did my best to get my money's worth. When the bill came it was as I'd heard and I rode off very satisfied.

The hotel sat on a hill, from there I dropped down to the Drau valley a couple of kilometres below. I figured that From just up the valley I would start the long 1700m climb. The ride along the valley was like that of the Gail valley the previous day. There was a nice paved cycle path which ran beside the river. Austria is well set up for cycle touring, even for those with less of an appetite for climbing than I. There were sights signposted off the path as were places to eat and accommodation.

The valley was a couple of kilometres wide and almost all the land that wasn't built on was farmed with corn being a popular crop. There were lots of fields that were being harvested for hay. There were occasional villages which all had a prosperous look. At one point I came across the ruins of a Roman city that was still being excavated.by a team of archaeologists A sign beside the ruins said that it was inhabited until 6C AD and it was only ruined Roman city in the Tirol.

Around here the first climbing started, I was at around 650m, the high point being around 2500m. It was going to be a long day. After getting up to 1200m I realised the limitation of the map that I was using. It wasn't a solid climb, rather I was going over a saddle into another valley. If I'd seen this better I would have come up the valley that I dropped into rather than go over the hill.

Anyway once in the valley I found a nice bike path that took me almost to the base of the Grossglockner Alpine road. It was a mecca for motorcyclists. It was a bit frustrating that they went past so fast and I struggled to go as slow as possible. I'd enjoy the panorama better than they would for having earned it.

The scenery was quite different from that of the Italian Dolomites, more like classic high mountain terrain. There were trees until about 2000m and uninhibited views of the 3000m or higher peaks around. The view from the top was amazing. I arrived quite late so had it mostly to myself.

The way down was very fast. There were switchbacks but plenty of straight between them. I only allowed myself to reach 60km/h but if I hadn't been such a chicken could have gone a lot faster.

I stayed at the rather musty Hotel Post in Fusch for 33 Euros for B&B.

GPS N 47Âº13.599 E 012Âº49.558
Total distance 107km, average 14.2km/hr
7 hours and 33 minutes cycling
2345m altitude gained, maximum altitude 2500m

Gailberg

2009-08-19T14:00:00.000-07:00

When I was doing the planning for this holiday I sketched the route on maps that I had. I looked for roads that took me over passes, the higher the better. Today's stretch looked to be an intermediate day, at the end of the grand Italian Alps I didn't look too closely at clues that would have suggested that it would be a bit more difficult than that.

My first clue came while having a coffee after leaving the campsite. Someone came over to me and asked me if I was going over the Passo di Lanza, which I was. He proceeded to tell me that he climbed it the day before and that it was more difficult than the Zoncolan, which I'd deliberately avoided due to it being extremely steep, a gain of 1200m in less than 12km. I put this down to a little boastful exaggeration.

I can't say whether ot not it was harder than the Zoncolan but I can say that it was the hardest 1000m climb of the trip so far. I even had to push, I was so beaten by it. At one point I was out of the saddle moving forward in jerks as I pushed my feet down or rather let then fall hoping gravity would provide so help. Alonhg came a car and I stopped. Starting again after it passed until I got onto something less than 15% was not an option.

Other than the fact that it was a complete killer it was quite a nice climb.The first part was carved out of the rock with forest above and below, with occasional views to the Italian Alps to the South. Nearer to the top it was completely in forest until the end when it opened out into pasture.

There were two places selling food and drinks before the top and I stopped at both. At the second I was so near the limit that stumbling to a table a challenge, there were a couple of locals there, who'd all come up by car. They all stared at me and shook their heads. It was a sign that I'd recovered sufficiently to continue when I began to notice and care about this.

The way down was quite nice but not one to let off the brakes and ride fast. There were constant hairpins. The view of the Carnic Alpes was lovely. 1000m down I was in Pontebba, which had frontier with Austria right through the centre of town until the end of the first World War.

After lunch in a restaurant I attacked my second 1000m climb of the day (I hope you get the picture, it was not an easy day). Fortunately it was not too hard. I even had a nice little wind on the way up to cool things down. At the top of the climb was the Austrian ski town of Nassfeld where I'd been skiing with friends a few years back.

The way down from Nassfeld was a well graded road which could have been taken much faster than I dared. I enjoy a descent when I feel that I'm in control.

The bottom of the climb dropped me into a long valley. There was a nice bicycle path that followed the Gail river which I followed for a while. Before heading up into the hills at KÃ¶tschach where I faffed around while trying to decide whether to stay at the local campsite. When I finally decided to do so I found that there'd be no way I'd find a spot which allowed me to use my hammock so continued on. I stopped at the first place I could find outside town, fortunately it wasn't expensive as I was completely done and it would have killed me to have continued and to have spent a lot of money on a bed.

I stayied at Gasthof GailberghÃ¶he (618m) GPS N 46Âº42.862 E 012Âº58.043
Total ascent 2309m
Total cycling time 7 hours and 22 mins
Distance 98km
Average speed 13.3km
Kcaleries burned 2075

Paularo

2009-08-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

The great Dolomite climbs were now over. The last one didn't break the forest cover and the ones coming up, at least within Italy were all lower. Though as I was to find later in the day, this didn't make them easy.

As I dropped down I began wishing that I'd finished rather than started the tour with the climbs of the previous two days. With a famous cyclosportif taking them all every July I think I have an excuse to come back.

Though I was almost in spitting distance of Austria the contours of the land had changed. There were still high mountains but they were more distant and my road followed their bas, most of the time. However when it went up it went up brutally. Inevitably I cracked at a certain point. Fortunately the end was in sight and before long a little grit and the road had me delivered safe and sound.

The day ended suberbly, the town that fate had me arrive at with little feasable choice was quite lovely. It sat on the bank of a river and had a cluster of ancient buildings. Far enough of the beaten track to not be over run but near enough to have a campsite to cater for those who came. The best was that it had a wonderful simple osteria set in a small courtyard surrounded by old houses. I had a great meal.

I stayed at the campsite (altitude 623m) which I think is run by the municipality, the cost (4 Euros) of which only just exceded that of a large beer that I treated myself for being so smart/lucky for finding it.

GPS N 46Âº31.843 E 013Âº07.026
Total distance 116km
Total ascent 1574m
1638 kcaleries
Total time 6 hours and 34 minutes
Average speed 17.6 km/hr

Passo di Tre Croci

2009-08-17T13:59:00.000-07:00

The weather was perfect this morning. The thunder and rain of last night had come and gone leaving hardly a cloud behind. What was an inability to continue last night in the morning was endowed the virtue of precience. I would have felt an idiot to be sitting at the bottom of the pass missing the view.

I felt awful this morning. I didn't sleep enough and my stomach gave me plenty to be concerned about. As with the dinner of last night I did my best to get my money's worth, while my heat was into it my stomach wasn't.

The descent was pure joy. It was a bit cold so I took it slow and took in the glorious view that came for free with it. Once in Canazei normal life partially reasserted itself in the form of long slow lines of cars filled with visitors just like me. It was a cute little town but I was glad to be out. As much as I recognise that I am a tourist and enjoy the services that are made available for tourists I don't like to see too many of them when I travel.

It seems not that many were others were going in my direction so once I started the climb up to the Passo Fedaia I had the road mostly to myself. The climb was nice with the Marmolada opening itself up to my personal view as I went up. Without too much stress I found myself at the top and as soon as I'd taken enough photos I continued down the other side - people to see, places to go ...

I'd been rather dreading the second climb of the day. The road to it started off quite low and climbed quite a lot. From the Fedaia there was a drop of 1000m all of which and more needed to be regained. Some of the road had the now feared double arrows, meaning steep I'd learned earlier to avoid roads marked with a triple arrow. It was almost impossible to avoid the double arrow roads around here.

It started nicely and not too hard in thick forest. Once the forest was gone the hurting really begun. And so did a wonderful view. Eventually I got to the top and the view was even better than I could have imagined. I think I can say that never have I reach the top of a hill on a bike and been better rewarded. I am glad that I didn't listen to that part of me that always makes stupid suggestions, this time indicating that there was an alternative and significantly easier way to get to where I wanted to go.

The descent lasted a while and took me into the tourist metropolis of the region, Cortina d'Ampezzo. I shopped for food and got out as soon as the one-way road system would allow.

On the way up the last and by far easiest climb of the day I ate dinner in a road side restaurant. On the other side of the Passo di Tre Croci I slipped down a little unpaved side road and set up my little camping hammock in some trees at 1729m in altitude. During the night I could hear hunters out and about shooting at things. The sounds of shots never got close but it didn't make me feel comfortable.

Distance 94km
Average speed 14km/hr
6 hours & 41 minutes
2255 kcaleries
Total ascent 2586m
GPS N 46Âº33.333 E 012Âº12.828

Passo Pordoi

2009-08-16T13:58:00.000-07:00

I cycled over all the passes of the Sella ring; Passo di Sella, Passo di Gardena, Passo di Campolongo and Passo Pordoi. I am so beat! I cracked half way through the last climb and needed to take 30 minutes out to digest some glucose and convince myself not to give up and drop down to Arraba. I'm glad that I did.

Going back to the start of the day. The pension of last night was just below the top of Alpi di Siusi. After that I dropped down to Saltaria where the asphalt stopped. From there I took a lovely unpaved but mostly quite nicely graded, at least in my direction, mostly downhill route through forest. There were magnificent views of Sasso Lungo and across to the Sella group. On a couple of the uphills I had to walk, a combination of not having a low enough gear and the difficulty of getting enough traction on my 25mm tires. Not having low enough gearing plagued me as much day as yesterday, though generally the grades weren't as killer as yesterday.

I recognised that I'd not nearly drunk enough water yesterday and made an effort to drink drink drink. Though as I got more tired I felt less in control of the bike I avoided taking a water bottle from its holder and suffered for it.

After leaving the unpaved road I arrived in St Cristina and started the climb to the Passo di Sella. It was absolutely wonderful. There were great views of Sella Ring and the other side of the Sasso Lungo from that which I'd seen earlier. Traffic was quite heavy at times. It was a weekend and a holiday one. I hope things quieten down as the week progresses. Near the top it started to rain and I reached the col as it really started to pelt down. It wsas lunch time so I went into a restaurant and ate. Even though I'm working really hard I'm having trouble finishing food. This has happened to me before, when my body is under stress digestion doesn't seem to work so well.

By the time that I'd gotten bored with playing with my food and ate it the rain had stopped and the Sun came out. I retraced my path down the hill that I'd come up and started on the next climb. Like the Sella the Gardena was a famously beautiful pass and it lived up to expectations. I think I liked the view better than Sella but maybe this was because I saw both sides of the pass.

The third pass of the day was relatively easy. I found that my comfortable cadence while in the lowest gear didn't constantly send me into the red zone. I'd been using my Heart rate monitor to make sure that I didn't let my heart rate go too high for long. From the experience of yesterday that would cause me to blow out. Unfortunately the relative ease of the pass was matched by inferior scenery to that of Sella or Gardena. The top had a great view to the South and the way down to the South gave great views of the Sella massive.

In Arraba at the bottom of the pass I immediately started on the last climb of the day. It was the hardest perhaps because it came after so much climbing. It was a beautiful climb. As I went up I could feel the occasional drop of rain and even hailstone. Flashes of lightening could be seen from where I had just come. As I reached the top the rain began and soon it was clear that it was proper rain. I was beat and the thought to try and find a bit of forest to hang my hammock didn't appeal. The hotel on the top of the pass, Hotel Savoia had a room and I didn't hesitate for long even though it was a bit more expensive than I wanted to spend, demi-pension was 72 Euros Euros.

GPS position N 46Âº29.226 E 011Âº48.786
2417m of climbing, max altitude 2236m
Cycling time 6 hours & 20 minutes
Distance 81km/hr
Average 12.8km
2483 kcaleries

Alpi di Siusi

2009-08-15T13:57:00.000-07:00

Finally all the preparation is getting close to be worthwhile. The contents of small piles of equipment and clothes that I'd making, creating shortlists, began to stabilise. Was such and such a thing really necessary? Two or three changes of cycling clothing? Bib shorts or normal ones?

In the end I probably wasn't as discerning as I imagined I would have been when first the plan to cycle light through the Dolomites. The small bag that did me fine for weekends of camping in the forest was just a bit too small, as soon as I realised this and found a mechanism to attach another small bag with bungy cords the flood gates sort of opened. I was quite relieved, the thought of jumping on the bag to compress things every time I packed wasn't so appealing. Though perhaps more because as much as I'd like to travel light, I don't really have it in me to do it properly.
After finishing off a mostly proper day of working from home I headed down the Amsterdam Centraal, managing to restrain myself and only arrive 30 minutes before the scheduled departure. This is another of my weaknesses, which I get from my father, flights and and scheduled trains bring out high anxiety in me. As the deperture time gets nearer I imagine more and more things that could go wrong which provide justification to leave earlier for the airport or whatever. Once this begins I become more focused on the flight and less capable of dealing with much else. In joke Freddie calls me mild autistic in this, I suspect that she's onto something here.
In spite of all the anxiety, or perhaps as a result of it, I arrived in the early afternoon in Bolzano. Along the way I had a very short stop in Verona, just enough time to zip into the old town and take a look at the roman amphitheatre which seems to be about to put on a performance of Aida by the looks of the scenery from ancient Egyptian that was sitting just outside.
Once in Bolzano I fixed an annoying squeeling sound coming from the front wheel due to the axel not sitting in the dropouts properly.
Bolzano is a very Austrian looking city. I recognise the architecture from other places that were part of the Habsburg empire. Linguistically it seemed to be very German. It had a nice feel to it and I lingered a bit, mostly due to coming across a cheap restaurant. With an eye on the climbing to come I ate well.
I left Bolzano and headed North. Initially my route took mealong a bicycle path that ran parallel to the road to the Brenner pass, but only a 10km on it I turned off to the East. Immediately the climbing began and it was brutal. There were quite a few sections of 20% gradiant and some even higher. It wasn't the best way to start off the holiday and I felt pretty blown early on.
I had trouble with the route which I'd sorted out, or thought I'd sorted out before I left. The one I followed took me up the brutish climbs but later I realised that I'd taken a long cut that had also involved more climbing that if I'd picked a better route. Even though it was tough it was a nice quiet road, following a fast flowing stream up a tight valley.
I'd been hoping to go over the Alpi di Siusi and even make the Sella Pass, but my 7pm I was just below the former. Just as I was thinking that I felt pretty done and that I ought to either find dinner a pension with a sign saying zimmer frei appeared. It didn't look to fancy so I dropped in. They had a room and the price was right. Though I'm not much of a believer in providence this did look rather like a sign, so didn't hesitate.

Stayed in Gasthof Frommer, 51.50 Euros for demi pension
GPS position N 46Âº32.322 E 011Âº36.194
1591m of climbing, max altitude 1693m
Cycling time 3 hours & 31 minutes
Distance 44km/hr
Average 12.5km
1620 kcaleries

A walk through Luxembourg

2009-05-27T02:03:00.000-07:00

Ascension is a public holiday in the Netherlands. Being on a Thursday I got the Friday off as a bridge day. Four days off, it was too good to miss. With a forecast of wonderful weather what more could we want? We decided to go walking so took a train on Wednesday afternoon to Luxembourg.

So we set off with backpacks containing minimal clothing, the lightest tent in the collection and enthusiasm at the thought of spending a long weekend walking. We arrived in Luxembourg in the early evening and after a cheap bite at the Youth Hostel we strolled around part of the walls and old city of Luxembourg. The hostel is nicely sited on the edge of the lower town, a short walk from the Railway Station and the upper town. From its terrace there was a nice view of the impressively defensible position of the upper town. It hardly needed city walls, the river that ran between the lower and upper towns had carved such a bluff that would sorely challenge a sieging army.

We hadn't done much preparation for the trip, we didn't hve time to research a route and couldn't find a suitable walking guide in the Amsterdam public library the evening before we left. It was too late get any information the evening of our arrival, everywhere was shut, and with the following day being Ascension only the National Tourist Office in the Railway Station was open. Fortunately they had a couple of brochures which appeared to provide enough clues on where to start walking. We hoped that once shops opened the following day we'd be able to find some more comprehensive information.

We took a train to the middle of the country, to Ettelbruck, a short 20 minutes from Luxembourg. We need not have worried, once we got going on the path we found that the path was so well marked that we didn't need a map.

We started with the Victor Hugo path, which ran for 24km from Ettelbruck to Vianden. Apparently the great man spent some time in Vianden. The path wound its way through farmland, sometimes taking paved public roads and sometimes forest paths. Hills were always present. We rather over estimated our capabilities which combined with an expectation that we'd find places selling food along the way made the day quite a challenge. At around 5pm we were still quite a bit short of our destination. We would have stopped at a campsite at Walsdorf, along the way but for the fact that their restaurant was closed for the holiday, though they kindly said that they'd open their shop for us. The thought of a dinner comprising of biscuits depressed me, so we we decided to press on. While we were thinking about this the thunder that we'd been hearing at a distance got a bit closer and the heavens opened. After a packet of snacks the rain had stopped and we continued on, arriving in Vianden at nearly 8pm.

It was quite a spectacular town with a wonderfully restored castle in the centre. The heavens opened another time, again we had shelter, this time eating a nice pizza dinner. As the sun went down we set up our little tent in a campsite dominated by Dutch campers on the river, from which we had a fine view of the castle.

The following day we had a picnic breakfast by the river in town. We stocked up with food to avoid the previous day's shortage. From Vianden we took another long distance path, the Charles Mathieu path which went as far as Wiltz. We took it as far as Kautenbach, about 22km away. Again it was a bit too long and the soles of our feet we were beginning to complain about the weight of our packs and the distances we were walking. Even so it was lovely walking, up and down hills with hardly another person encountered.

On our final day we followed the North path to Clervaux which went more or less parallel to the North-South railway line, though we were mostly in the hills above the valley. It was a more popular path than the previous days one, with more people as well as places to serve them on it.

From Clervaux we took a train South to Mersch and camped there, the following morning we took the train back to Amsterdam via Luxembourg and Brussels. Unfortunately they were working in the train line and it took forever to arrive home. Which took nothing away from a fabulous weekend!

When we stopped for refreshments along the way we found surprisingly unenthusiastic welcomes at the cafes. We came away with he conclusion that as beautiful as Luxembourg was the people were a bit closed.

Halong Bay

2009-03-30T01:23:00.000-07:00

We purchased a 2-day tour to visit the World Heritage Site of Halong Bay, a couple of hours drive to the East of Hanoi.

In the morning after breakfast we were picked up from our hotel and driven for 3 hours by minibus to a port on the edge of bay where the Red river joined the sea. At the port we were greeted by a tourist spectacle, lots of other buses like ours converged there to feed dozens of similar boats with passenger boats with people all doing the same thing.

Onces we'd been taken to our boat and all port formalities had been completed we were off and what seemed like a regatta started. All the boats were going in the same direction to the same place and did so on mass. In spite of this the setting, hundreds of bush covered kaast islands coming straight out of the sea, could not fail to impress.

We were given a tour of a limestone cave in one of the islands, again along with the contents of all the boats. There was nothing quiet about this trip.

In the section of the bay where the cave entrance was there was a small floating fishing village. They had built platforms on drums and had small houses on them. They operated small fish farms, one of which we visited. I guess now with the advent of mass tourism most income comes from selling things to tourists, which given the mark up on the drinks on the boat they probably did quite well with. In the late afternoon we went for a short cayak int he bay which was a lot of fun and gave me the idea to do so for longer.

That evening we moored in the middle of the bay surrounded by dozen or so other boats. After quite a nice dinner our guide tried to interest everyone in a karaoke session, fortunately no-one was interested so we had a quiet one talking with the other passengers and playing cards.

0km

Hanoi

2009-03-29T01:19:00.000-07:00

The train rolled into Hanoi central station at before 5am. As it approached the station the guard went through the carriages banging on the cabin doors.

I got up and watched the city go past. People had houses right beside the railway lines. From the train window I could see right into their rooms, catching gimpses of TV screens on. It seemed odd having the same view from the train as those in whose houses we were passing.

At 4:45am we arrived and a bit after 5am so did the train that was carrying our tandem. By 6am we got to the hotel that I'd phoned the previous night and dropped our stuff off.

Unfortunately we couldn't get into our room until later in the morning. As the city slowly awoke we wandered into the centre about 10 minutes away, to the Hoan Kiem lake. The lake, more like a large pond, was surrounded by grand buildings and a nice shady walking path, being a fine Saturday morning people were out jogging and doing calistenics. At one end in the water there was an old tower. At the other end there was small island with a temple dedicated to the mythical turtles that were supposed to live in the lake. There were photos of ones that were apparantly sighted there but in such an urban setting it seemed that some degree of fabrication was involved, perhaps to keep the myth alive.

In the morning we took a pedalo, a bicycle taxi, to see the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh aka Uncle Ho. The father of Vietnamese socialism, was preserved in state in a grand building for all respectful visitors to see. After checking in our bags we joined a huge line of people who filed through the building. Guards kept peopple moving and ensured that they did nothing so disrespectful as putting their hands in their pockets. Ho Chi Minh's body sat like a waxwork in a caskette. It was quite a fascinating thing to see.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the old town and learning how to cross roads Hanoi style. The main vehical was the scooter and there were millions of them. Traffic lights were sort of respected. At the first the idea of going into this traffic seemed foolhardy but after watching people do it and survive we realised that it was just a matter of watching for a gap then walking across slowly and steadily. No-one would stop for you or give way or even slow down, instead they would go around you.

In the evening we went to see a traditional show of water puppetry. The stage was a pool of water with background and props sitting in it. The puppets were operated on long poles by puppetiers who were concealed behind a screen. A small band of musicians on the side accompanied the puppetry performance. The show though with little commentary was quite accessable. We had a programme which listed the itles of the short pieces, which all had helpfully descriptive names such as fishing or raising ducks.

Being a Saturday night town was especially full and when we came out of the theatre we marvelled at how the main road had become a maelstrom of scooters, eveyone beeping and jockying for position on the road. We observed no crashes or even altercations which seemed miraculous.

Sunday was a continuation of Saturday with more strolling around town. By the end of it we were ready to leave Hanoi and head somewhere a bit quieter for our last few days.

We stayed at the Tang Trung hotel in Hanoi old town for 2 nights, paying 15 USD per night without breakfast.

0 km
N 21'1.985 E 105'50.885

Night Train to Hanoi

2009-03-27T15:18:00.000-07:00

We were originally going to stay 2 nights in Sapa and spend a day hiking. When we got up the weather looked as if it was going to be miserable so we decided to leave earlier.

We booked tickets on the sleeper train to Hanoi that left from Lao Cai, a nice 35km ride down the mountain. This gave us enough time to walk a little around town and into the countryside nearby. The town itself, while in a beautiful spot suffered from cancerous over development of hotels. It was a serious resort town and a messy one too. The place was filled with wome dressed in traditional tribal clothing from the surrounding villages hawking handicrafts. Being low seaon and not the weekend this and the ratio of tourists to hawkers was not favourable to the former who wished to take a quite walk around. The hawkers would stake out hotels, gathering on mass at the entrances like paperazzi. They would hunt in packs down the main street, quickly surrounding anyone so unwise as to talk to them. We heard a story from a couple that they had been followed for an hour while taking a walk outside town for more than an hour after having being told several times that they had no interest in buying anything.

The ride down the mountain to Lao Cai was great. We dropped from a temperate climatic zone back into tropical forest. The rice terraces were a wonder to behold and almost no pedalling involved.

There was nothing much to Lao Cai other that it was quite a large place and was the end of the train line. We arrived quite early and had quite a lot of time to kill before we got onto the train.The train ticket was quite inexpensive at 24 USD per person in a 4 bed cabin. We shared with a young Dutch couple and managed to get quite a good night's sleep. The only downside was that there was no baggage compartment which mean that the Tandem would travel on a train that left slightly later than ours, though arriving the same morning.

40km - 2 hrs 17 mins - 17.3 km/hr

Sapa

2009-03-26T03:48:00.000-07:00

It had rained quite heavily during the night. The main street of Pa So was nothing but fine red dust when we arrived and we'd expected to find it to have turned into a sea of mud.

Fortunately it wasn't too bad and nothing worse than a bit more dirt got itself onto the already filthy bike. The rain clouds hadn't completely cleared up and the smell of water on the trees and fields around was wonderful.

Almost immediately the road started to rise and for the next 20 kms we climbed. The way took us slowly from the bottom of the valley where there was intermittent thick forest. As we climbed the forest decreased though I think this rather because the land was more intensively cultivated, though the impression was that we were going towards an alpine zone.

The slopes above and below the road often had rice terraces carved out of them sitting one upon the other looking like the physical representations of altitude lines on a high detail map.
We arrived at Lai Chau at a bit after noon. We'd decided that we wanted to get to Sapa that same day. We'd had enough of staying in dusty inhospitable towns. As the route there was about 80kms with a lot of uphill we decided to cheat and take the bus, at least as far as the pass above Sapa. This involved waiting around for quite a while at the local bus station. Once on the bus we were reminded of the pleasure of not having to deal with buses, at least in places like Vietnam. The hassle from the bus staff. First we had to argue that the ticket that I bought was valid. Then over how much to pay for the tandem on the roof. I figured that we'd need to pay for something for the tandem but the couldn't get the bus conductor to tell us how much. In the end he got nothing, which was his fault at being hopeless at communicating.

It was a relief to be let off the bus at the top of the Tam Trong pass above Sapa. This pass goes through what the French called the Tonkenese alpes and was at about 2000m in altitude. We were well and truely in a different climatic zone. Gone was the thick tropical forest to be replaced by something more temperate looking or any cultivation. The air was noticeably cooler and there were thick clouds covering the higher points above us, one of which was the highest mountain in Vietnam Fansipan at 3143m.

The last 15km into Sapa was downhill though over quite a bumpy road as much of the asphalt had been removed in
preperation for surfacing. It was beginning to get dark when we arrived in Sapa and as it did so the mist for which it is know rolled in. Soon afterwards it started raining cats and dogs. We had a miserable time trying to orientate ourselves in town to find the hotel that we'd chosen. We stayed at the Mountain View Hotel in a room with a lovely veranda view for $15. We ate and collapsed in bed.

50km - 4 hrs 34 mins - avg 10.9 km/hr
N 22'19.964 E 103'50.558

Muong Lay

2009-03-24T00:12:00.000-07:00

We didn't sleep too well. The dogs that were roaming the streets of the town the previous night were making a pain of themselves by having barking duels.

Before dawn loud speakers not far enough from our guesthouse started to blare out what sounded music and announcements. I figured that we were being subjected to propaganda and exorted to work hard for the future of Vietnamese socialism.
The road was quite bad as we followed the river along quite a narrow valley. The work was being done much more by hand than back home. New ditches were dug and rocks were broken up into gravel by gangs of people rather than a single digger or rock smasher. I guess this kept more people in employment and labour seemed to be pretty cheap around here.

The town didn't have anything to recommend it and clear ly didn't get many tourists. It had a single dusty street with a market off it. After we checked into our accomodation we went for a walk and felt all eyes on us. This and the fact that it was the hottest and most humid afternoon we'd experienced so far soon sent us back to the cool of the fan in our room.

We'd planned to make this day a relatively short one and had arrived at our destination just after 1pm. We got a room at the Lan Anh hotel and got a room for 220,000 dong. We'd been led to believe that it was quite a nice place by our guidebook the Lonely Planet who called it one of the most switched on places in the North West of Vietnam. While the place was nice enough, we got a hot shower and a rest. It seemed to us that it was anything other than switched on with millions of staff wondring around who were unable and unwilling to provide much help. Perhaps this was the legacy of communism in combination with little tourism.
46km - 3 hr 23 mins - avg 13.7 km/hr
N 22'3.185 E 103'9.530

Muong Cha

2009-03-23T00:09:00.000-07:00

The guesthouse didn't serve breakfast so we went to the town market, just across the road.

It may have been a small town but it had quite a nice market, with a very asian sense to it. At one side we saw worms being extracted from some kind of branch and put in jars of what looked like honey, there were snakes and lizards in a cage. Rows of ladies in pointy bamboo hats sold piles of small shell fish and live shrimps. There were even vendors of cats, which I presume were not intended to become someone's household pet but rather part of the menu. Freddie even spotted meat which had a tale like a rat, presumably to identify what the customers would be getting.
We found our way to the stall that had fed us the previous evening and hat some noodle soup. I had a suspicion that the stock was based on meat even though we'd gone to great pains to explain that we wanted something without meat. I made a note to self to add that to the list of things to point to in the very helpful Loney Planet phrase book that we'd be lost without here.
As we were leaving the guesthouse we were invited to a cup of green tea with the family of the owner and a neighbour, who spoke A bit of English. He explained that his son was living in Berlin and was married to woman there who was very fat, though this didn't seem to bother him. Looking around here I can imagine that being fat must be quite a thing,
The road out of town was quite nice, though there was lots of road works and was fairly bumpy at times. With Freddie still on pain killers for her sore back muscles it was slow going, especially over the non-smooth sections. It was also very hot.
We went North, following highway 12 which didn't have much traffic on it. The road went up and down a couple of different valleys along the way The hills on either side of the valley were mostly quite bare with a lot of deforestation. There was some burning off apparant, some going on as we passed but not as much as in Laos. Most of the time we were cycling beside green rice paddies which gave off a lovely smell, very similar to cooked rice but with a touch of 'green' added to it.
Everyone that we passed on the tandem who saw us go by stopped what they were doing and stared. Many waved though most waited for us to wave them before doing so. People were pretty friendly, which was a surprise to me. I'd been led to believe that the Vietnamese were diffifcult to deal with and not so sympathetic. I didn't find this to be the case at all, though as mentioned earlier, communicating was sometimes challenging and having a phrase book handy helped a lot.
We'd decided not to make it a hard day and stopped fairly frequently when Freddie needed to stretch or the sore muscles got too much. We'd been told that there was a basic guesthouse in a town up the way and reached it by 4pm. As described the guesthouse was very basic. It was a dormatory for workers It had some charm, being in a building that looked as if it predated the deperture of the French. Our room cost 60,000 dong. For this we got a fan, 4 rock hard beds and greenish painted walls that could use a bit of paint, but a bathroom along the way. Outside our door we had a view out onto the main road out of town, which I guess will quieten down later in the night, otherwise I'll use my ear plugs. It seemed a bit overpriced and I should have bargained better but there wasn't much else obvious on offer.
The town was strung along a river, there were buildings on either side of the road with nothing much behind them. It was big enough to have a market and an Internet cafe, both of which will probably be visited later this evening.
N 21'45.494 E 103'5.517
56km - 13.7 km/hr - 4 hr 4 mins

Dien Bien Phu

2009-03-22T14:48:00.000-07:00

Today represented a bit of a moment of truth. Freddie's back was feeling as bad as ever since the pain began. However we felt that we had to go on. We both felt that we had a great chance to hang out when we were in Muang Ngoi but decided to leave, but we'd blown it. Both of us wanted to be out of Muang Khua as soon as possible. The only way was to go on.
So we continued as planned before the issue of the sore back appear, by taking the 7am bus to Vietnam. We'd heard earlier on that this road was horrible and it lived up to expectations. To get to where the bus left fromwe had to take a ferry to cross the river. We paid 50,000 kip for each of us and another 50,000 to transport the bike strapped on the top of the minivan and set off up the mountainous road on bumpiest bus ride I'd been on for a long time. The bus was kitted out for short Lao and Vietnamese, and not at all comfortable for us. Freddie was in agony whenever the bus bounced which was often. As we got closer to the border she declared that she wanted to cycle down the other side, that no matter how bad the road would be (and it was supposed to be good) it would be better on the back of the tandem than in the torture chamber aka the bus.
It turned out to be a good decision. Once off the bus things looked up. The road from the Vietnam side of the border was good and not much pedaling was required so when it was badshe could stand on her pedals and cushon her back from the shocks. We both felt enormously to be experiencing the journey again from the saddle, looking out at the mountains through dusty bus windows just wasn't the same.
Entry into Vietnam was immediately friendly, with a nice reception by the border guards. Once we left the border post we realised that we didn't have nearly enough water and no food, having not even had time to eat breakfast. To add to this We declined the option to change our remaining Lao kip into Vietnamese dong so had no money. We tried to change money in a couple of places along the way but no-one seemed to be into doing this so by the time we reached Dien Bien Phu we were quite dehydrated and hungry. We had some initial difficulties finding a place as the one that we were aiming for, as listed in the Lonely Planet was hard to find and seemed to be closed. We got a lot of contradictory advise and only gave up the search for it as the lack of food and drink had almost triggered a crisis. After a short break in which I drank most of a 1.5L bottle of Coke and order was restored we went to the centre of town and the market, where we found a friendly clean and cheap (7 USD at a very favourable exchange rate) place (the Nha Nghi Trung Anh Guesthouse) rather easily.
We were both extremely relieved that we'd arrived. Freddie was so courageous having endured horrible back muscle pain but continued on nevertheless.
After spreading ourselves out over the large room and having a wonderful hot shower we set off into the market for something to eat.
I had a really nice impression of Dien Bien Phu and its people. It felt much more foreign than any of the places that we'd visited in Laos or Thailand. English was scarcely
spoken and while Vietnamese used Roman script the language was completely foreign and very few loan words sprung out. In addition Dien Bien Phu wasn't much of a tourist town, even though it has great historical significance to Vietnam and to a lesser extent the West. It was here that the French lost a decisive battle in their struggle to retain hold of Indochina in 1954 and started a chain of events that lead to the Vietnam War.
44.3km - 14.7km/hr - 3 hr 0 mins

Muang Khua

2009-03-21T14:48:00.000-07:00

We got up with a sense that we wanted to go on but were worried about where this would lead us. Freddie's back had improved after the massage of the previous night but not so much to feel comfortable about it. We should have taken this as a sign to stay another night, enjoy the peace and tranquility of Muang Ngoi and let things heal.
Instead we opted for the 5 hour boat ride up the Nam Ou river to Muang Khua. It was a lovely ride, and with plenty of space on the boat Freddie could lay back. Unfortunately by the time we arrived her back was very sore.
The haze that we'd experienced on the trip thus far in Laos had disappeared allowing us full view of the wonderful vertical mountains that came down to the river bank. Every little while we'd pass by a village for whom the river was the mechanism of communication, with no way in by road. Sometimes people would be picked up or dropped off at them. At one point we passed by the site of a market on the river bank, it initially struck me as odd but on further reflection I realised that travel to a market didn't have to involve going by road. In the suburbs everyone had a car for work and shopping, here they had a boat for the same reason. All of these villages had small hydroelectic plants, smaller than the engine of a car but enough to light a few energy saver light bulbs when the sun went down at 6pm. It was interesting seeing the wires from these little contraptions going up to the houses of bamboo above the river banks.
The town was not particularly attractive and we found that the only room available in the guesthouse that we'd aimed for was a horror but we'd commited to the guesthouse by carrying all our stuff too far down steps and with the pain of Freddie's back we decided that it wouldn't matter for one night. It added to a depressed mood when we thought over this and the decision to not stay another day in Muang Ngoi.
The guesthouse however had a very nice balcony and being full there were interesting people to talk to.
We'd expected that lights out would come at around 10pm when the generator for the town was cut and that this would lead to the guesthouse becoming quiet however we hadn't taken into account their little hydropower plant which kept a few lights running and enabled the family that ran the place to enjoy their Saturday night, to our discomfort. That added to the giant cockroach that crawled out from under the bed from time to time. In the morning I saw a large spider attempt to escape from the room by hitchhiking a lift inside a bag. Given the sense of depression that the squalor of the room had triggered in us I felt it better to wait until we were long gone before telling Freddie about this.

Muang Ngoi Neua

2009-03-20T14:47:00.000-07:00

After a night of trying to ignore snoring to wake the dead and on a mattress of monastic hardness we got up to a lovely morning with a nice view from the bungalow balcony. The guesthouse may have been basic but it occupied a nice spot. Before taking the boat upstream to Muang Ngoi Neua we visited caves that were uswed during the second Indochinese war (the first being that with France, ending in 1954, the second being what is called the "Vietnam War" in the West). The stark mountains around the area are riddled with caves and the people of area sheltered in them as the American bombs fell destroying their towns. In the caves down the road from Nong Khiaw housed administration functions if the signs in the cave were to be believed.
At 11 we boarded the boat, much smaller than the one that we took down the Mekong to Luang Prabang. Freddie had developed a very painful back ache some time the previous day and it had gotten much worse. The boat was a bit cramped and it wasn't helping with this. An hour later we were dropped off at a small village up the river, it was a bit of a tourest haven though in the off-season we weren't expecting to encounter many 'falang' (the Lao word for foreigners, derived from French).
We found a nice little guesthouse overlooking the river. It was reasonably basic, no hot water (no guesthouse had this luxuary) but a reasonably comfortable bed and a nice view on the river.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking to a nearby village along a lovely path. The village was only accessable by boat and there were no cars amd scooters. The area was really quiet.

Nong Khiaw

2009-03-19T14:44:00.000-07:00

We stayed in a ricketty old bungalow above by the bridge across the Nam Ou with a nice view over the river. The beds were rock hard and it was best not to look too closely at the sheets but it was cheap, 50,000 kip.
N 20'34.213 E 102'37.024
80km - 4 hrs 34 mins - 17.5km/hrs avg

Between Luang Prabang and Pakmong

2009-03-18T14:42:00.000-07:00

We got up early in the morning in order to see the giving of alms to the monks that happened just after dawn. Every morning all the monks and novices at all of Luang Prabang's 32 temples walk in lines along the main street and people put offerings of food into alms bowls that the monks and novices hold. Some of those who give are devout buddhists and others are tourists getting into the spirit of the occasion. The spectacle while interesting was a bit too profain in tone for a religious one. It was an authentic sight to be seen in Luang Prabang and the tourists came out to see it in spite of the early hour. Many didn't see that by not keep their distance from the procession of monks that they were turning something of meaning into a circus. it wasn't just the tourists with their cameras who were responsible for this, street vendors were selling dodgy rice to allow bystanders to get involved. We saw advertised sticky rice (the staple accompanyment with any meal) for sale for the specific purpose of giving to the monks for sale at 3 USD a bowl, which seemed a little over proced since a meal including this item would normally be a similar price in a resataurant.
We stopped in a village along the road and asked at a shop for somewhere to sleep. Someone took us to a house at the back of the village where they set up a couple of mattresses on the floor for us in the family room where the family slept and cooked us a simple meal of rice and vegetables. We were so relieved to find somewhere we could sleep we didn't settle a price first and in the morning the family asked us for rather a lot, which we bargained down to 72,000 kip.
66km - 3 hrs 41 mins - 17.8km/hr

Luang Prabang

2009-03-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

The Sun sort of came up this morning but was never particularly visible. At 10am when we left it was a red orb squinting through the thick haze. Visibility was no more than a couple of hundred metres. The small landing site, just below, was scarcely visible and looked very picturesque through the haze.
Back on the boat it was quite chilly, those who started the journey in shorts and t-shirts had their sturdier travelling gear on. As with the day before Beer Lao was still the drink of choice. Burnt off hills could be seen from time to time, the burning of which is a prime contributor to the haze that surrounded us.
Around lunch time we passed by a large barge moored beside the river, beside it I saw an elephant dragging a tree trunk. It was quite a sight.
At about 6pm we arrived in Luang Prabang. We spent an hour or so cruising along the banks of the 2 rivers on whose confluence the city sits for a nice guesthouse. It was clear that we had arrived at a touristy place. It seemed that just about every house with a river view was a hotel or guesthouse.
Luang Prabang is a lovely town, many of the buildings in the old centre are either from the French colonial period or mimick that style. This style as practiced here was very elegant. They were all two stories high and had balconies, on the upper floor often with open verandas underneath. There were also quite a few wooden Lao houses, built on stilts. Many of these places were surrounded by gardens. While it isn't the capital of the country it had been in the past and had a number of monuments from those periods, most notably buddhist temples. Some of which were quite superb. Monks dressed in orange robes were all over town. Tourism had arrived in Luang Prabang. Town was filled with nice little tourist shops and fancy restaurants.
We stayed in a small guesthouse just beside the Xieng Thong temple. The place was called Nammavong Guesthouse and was 100,000 kip for an airconditioned room, though we'd have settled with something without either aircon or a fan as it wasn't too hot at night, however we wanted the view on the Mekong.

Pak Beng

2009-03-15T05:47:00.000-07:00

We'd been told by the guesthouse owner that his "nephew" would be picking us up at around 9am. The romantic in me believed this. Once he dropped us off at the pier we realised it was pure business, a production line and we were just raw materials. Bargaining for the price for the bike was without the humour that we had come to expect when discussing the price of things. No doubt like many others we were glad to see the back of him.
After that things became much easier. We were extremely early for the boat. We thought we had an hour or so wait before a 10am departure. It wasn't until a last minute rush at 11 that we looked like departing and another 30 minutes passed before we actually did. The boat even turned back to pick up some late arriving passengers.
The boat was narrow with 30 or so rows of 4 seats with an aisle down the middle. It felt stable enough but rocked about quite a bit as it had no keel. Often when the boat went over a shallow section we could hear it scraping on the bottom of the river. There was a rough wooden canopy above the seating area. We'd been lead to believe that unless we bought cushons we'd have a very uncomfortable ride, though once we arrived we saw that most of the seats had cushons already and some of them were from old buses and quite comfortable but had the tendancy to collapse. The engine was at the back of the boat and had a little shrine with some offerings, this seemed to keep it going as required.
Though there were a few locals on it the boat ride put us very much on the gringo trail. It was a bit disappointing, embarrasing even watching these characters as they swilled beer and bahaved ignorantly.
The landscape was reasonably flat on both sides of the river at the beginning of the ride but after a while the banks became quite steep. Every so often little villages would come into view. The houses were constructed on poles with rooves made from dried leave roofs perhaps from the ever present banana or coconut palms, walls from woven bamboo.
As with previous days it was very hazy and seemed to get more so as the day progressed. I was later told that it was pretty bad at the moment and that it was expected that it would rain some time soon and when this happened the haze should clear up for a while. Though with this being the dry season there was a lot of burning and the rain didn't come so frequently.
Near where there were villages it was clear that the forest was less dense and evidence of clearing by deliberate burn off could be seen. At other points quite thick forest came down to the water. The river though passable was only so to reasonably small boats. The navigator had quite a job with lots of rocks and rapids to avoid.
As the Sun was coming down we arrived in Pak Beng. Everyone was heardedoff the boat and through a rush of locals touting their guesthouse. The town had a single road with all the accomodation and restaurants being there, we had no trouble to find a nice basic room with a bathroom at the Villa Salika for 50,000 kip (~ Euro 4.50). There was no hotwater but as we had been lounging on the boat all day this hardly mattered. The whole town hummed with generators.
Later we wandered up the street and had a simple dinner, including our first introduction to fish sauce which takes more getting used to than we could manage that evening.

Houay Xai

2009-03-14T02:28:00.000-07:00

We left our expensive digs and shortly arrived in Chiang Saen. The town was quite interesting with remains of brick walls and some ruined temples scattered around. We were keen to arrive at the Mekong port of Chiang Kong. There we saw sacks of goods being loaded onto ships that appeared be heading upstream towards China. After a short visit of one of ruined temples we continued on the road. Along the way from Chiang Saen to Chiang Kong we didn't see any river traffic.
Shortly after Chiang Saen we left the main road which was shorter as it cut across a loop that the river had made. As a consequence we had a quieter and flatter route.
We stopped for lunch in a beautiful spot about 20km North of Chiang Kong. It was a bit of an oasis in the middle of no-where. On the sign outside it was marked as being affiliated with Hosteling International but I imagine that not too many backpackers stayed there, though the price for a bungalow overlooking the Mekong was no more than a bed in a dorm in Amsterdam it was a well above the normal Thai guesthouse price.
At Chiang Kong there was an official crossing into Laos. On the other side of the river slow boats started for a 2-day cruise downstream to Luang Prabang. We'd read that getting across the border and onto one of these boats would be challenging and so were quite glad that we arrived in time to get across to Laos in the afternoon. The border formality was pretty simple. Getting a visa on arrival was very simple, though being in the low seaon undoubtably helped. Once through to the Laoation side, the town of Houay Xai, we found a room at the Friendship guesthouse, which was the first listed in a Lonely Planet of some travellers that we met at the border.
First impressions of Laos or least of a Laoation border town was that it was poorer, that travelling there was a bit more raw and basic. We wandered up to a temple and chatted with a couple of friendly English speaking monks then wondered into town to introduce ourselves to street food Lao-style and some famous Beer Lao. The fiid was good, less polished but better in quantity than we had been served in Thailand. The sticky rice was something new. We later read that one eats it with ones fingers (of the right hand) which makes sense as using chopsticks would be impossible and the cutlery that was had simply wasn't strong enough to make much of an impression into it.
After walking up and down the main street of Houay Xai we went back to our hostel and got tickets for the boat. The price for which we later realised we mightily over paid. This hurt a little but not much as the overcharge was not much.
The town was quite loud in the night and we could only sleep thanks to ear plugs.
71kms - 4 hr 9 min - avg 17.1 km/hr

Chiang Saen

2009-03-13T02:25:00.000-07:00

In the morning we were picked up by a driver and taken to another guesthouse where we were expecting to pick up another couple who were also taking a boat downstream but were going up to a local Karin village before. There had been a bit of a mix up and here wasn't enough room in the vehical to carry everyone and their stuff as the couple also had bikes and were adament that theirs would not go on the roof. We wouldn't have minded that our tandem got a ding or two extra to add to the growing collection. Shortly the organiser of ours and the other couples' boat trips arrived and arrange another car, which just happened to aready be there. I suspected that the organiser knew that this might happen and had a second car as backup but wanted to save on the cost if she could get away with it. At the end of it all both couples left in different cars, with us wondering why we didn't go straight to the boat without this mini-drama. I figured this was all part of the Thailand experience. 15 minutes later we were dropped off at the pier where our boat was waiting. The ride down the river was lovely. The water level was quite low and there wre a few rapids that we went over that seemed dramatic, though probably only to those like us who'd never done it before. Though the ir was still very hazy the scenery along the river banks was lovely with villages appearing every so often. We had a couple of stops along the way. One at a village where we were observed with almost complete non-interest. We'd expected to be attacked by trinket sellers but only a couple of old ladies tried it out on us with woven purses and bags. The houses in the village were constructed with wooden beams as supports and rattan and bamboo as walls The village was not connected to the electricity grid but we saw a couple of solar panels. There were a few scooters and a car. A dirt road led along the river. Pigs and chickens roamed free.
The next stop was at a hotspring area. As we'd bathed in one the previous day we just took a look around and went back to the boat.
The end station was a Karin village that had set itself up as an elephant camp. We'd been planning to take an elephant ride in the afternoon. Unfortunately we'd arrived on the only day in the year that these animals get a day off,we'll need to wait until Laos for this. Though the drivers were taking them around and showing them off. They are impressive beasts. After having lunch we hit the road.
We passed just North of Chiang Rai but didn't manage to avoid the main road to the border with Myanmar. At Mae Chen we decided to continue as the town didn't look so nice and it was early. Once out of town it became nicer but we feared that we'd found ourselves on a hotel-less road. We pressed on as the Sun started to go down looking at each sign along the road for words in Roman script which we figured was an indication of our business. We eventually found something in the fading light.
We stayed at Viang Yonok resort on the shore of Chiang Saen Lake. Quite an expensive place but it was getting dark and we were worried about not getting somewhere before it got too dark, easily our most expensive night so far at 1200 baht.
N20'15.700 E100'2.987
77km - 3 hr 51 mins - avg 19.9

Thaton

2009-03-13T02:05:00.000-07:00

In the morning we watched the adventure tourist crowd arrive for breakfast, with their cowboy hats on all ready for what their driver and guide would gently place in front of them for their pleasure. The breakfast was great, pancakes and scrambled egg on a buffet. The only limiting factor was that the cowboys looked to be ex-army. The food was nice but not worth getting into a fight over!
We hit the road to the smiles of the miriad hosts of the resort and being videoed by the cowboys' guide. They even had someone to take the record of the trip!
As with the day before the traffic on the road gradually decreased. We'd decided to make for a point on our map just to the North of Fang which stated there were hotsprings. From the turn off the road was lovely with almost no traffic for the next couple of kilometres. The road went through small villages with rice paddies and fields of onions, always with someone to wave and smile to us. At the entrance to the national park that contained the hot springs we passed a thermal power station. It wasn't high season for taking the waters as we were almost the only people around. By the time we got in it was the middle of the day and already pretty warm. Even so it was really nice to feel the thick mineral laden water on the skin. It would have been nice to lounge longer but the pools were in the plane sun and the skin out of the water would have been fried as that in the water would have been boiled.
Another couple of kilometers up the road and we arrived at our destination, the point where the boats to Chiang Mai left from. We'd been hoping to get a public service boat in the morning but found that the only one left at 12:30. The only other option was to get a charter. The latter turned out not to be much more expensive than going on a public boat and allowed us to go at our own pace and stop when we liked.
N20'03.628 E99'21.689
77.19km - 3 hr 57 min - avg 19.6km/hr

North of Chiang Dao

2009-03-11T09:20:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately the guesthouse didn't serve breakfast and we couldn't see anything around that might so we headed to our first destination of the day, the Chiang Dao cave. Arriving there was had rice and noodles, basically lunch/dinner for the price of 2 croissants in a European bakery.

The cave contained a series of buddhist temples and carved statues and was quite fascinating. A guide took us through the cave system which clearly had been shaped by water and through caverns pointing out racks that looked like elephants or fried eggs.

A little later the road rose and we had our first taste of climbing in the heat. It was quite tough going for only the second day on the road and after the day before in which we'd only just arrived as the Sun went down we decided to try and stop early. We were in between sights so were a bit worried that there'd be no guesthouses but lucked in with a motel on the highway which seemed almost empty and was quite reasonably priced (it was a pricey 10 Euros for a bungalow came a large bedroom and bathroom, even with airconditioning which we didn't really need).

We had plenty of time before dinner to have a nice shower, wash clothes and go for a walk through the Thai village that was beside the motel.

Chiang Dao

2009-03-10T09:32:00.000-07:00

On the 3rd morning we headed North out of Chiang Mai. After the third time that the chain came off I suspected that something was wrong. On investigation I saw that the outer chain ring was slightly bent in and as a result would sometimes throw the chain. A quick visit to a garage and a little bashing with a loaned hammer had it sufficiently 'fixed' that we could continue, with me praying that I had done more damage than I'd repaired.

We headed up the main highway North. There was quite a bit of traffic but there was a decent shoulder and traffic didn't travel either very fast or without manners. Later when the road narrowed we found that everyone gave us plenty of room when they passed or waited for an opportunity when this wasn't immediately possible.

The land intially was quite though we couldn't really see far. There was an incredible haze. The further we got from Chiang Mai the more rural it became with a lot of farmland and orchards. In the afternoon we came into coconut growing country or so it seemed by the number of stalls by the road selling them in big piles. The occasional market showed that it was good farming land, with a good variety of veges, mostly quite familiar. Every so often there was a road side restaurant. We stopped at one for lunch and had some delicious cheap food.

Later in the afternoon the surroundings became more hilly and forested. Though the haze continued. It was late in the dry season and much of the vegetation was quite brown. In places the locals had burned off the dried undergrowth, perhaps this added to the haze. At one point the whole bank of the road that we passing along was alight. Just before we got to Chiang Dao the road passed by a field with so many elephants grazing like cattle. We had been hoping to ride one at a place up the road but when we got there we realised that it was a glorified circus that neither of us felt comfortable to visit.

We stayed at a place just outside Chiang Dao called Hobby Huts. It seems to be newly opened or at least in progress with cement mixers and piles of sand. A friendly sign over a gate announced a restaurant that didn't yet exist. They had finished a couple of strawroofed huts and we rented one for the night for 250 baht. We settled inn with a beer purchased at the local corner store and watched the sun go down behind a mountain beyond the fields that surrounded the huts. Afterwards we wandered back down to town and had a nice dinner during which we learned a few words in Thai.

Chiang Mai

2009-03-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Chiang Mai in the afternoon, not really knowing what to expect. We had arranged a place to stay with someone via the Warmshowers list but shortly before we were to leave he said that he would be away on a tour when we were due to arrive. He arranged for us to stay with a friend, who turned out to be a guesthouse. Actually we never met the friend. It worked out very nicely. The guesthouse was very inexpensive and picked us up from the airport for nothing.

We had arrived the evening of the weekly evening market which took over the city with throngs of tourists and locals taking in great street food and cheap and interesting market things. The temperature was around 20 degrees C, which seemed like heaven after Amsterdam where there was frost on the apartment building roof the morning of our departure.

I was dreading a bit how it would be the next day which was supposed to have a max temperature of 37 degrees. It turned out being quite reasonable when one wears shorts and is able to cool oneself off with a chilled coconut juice straight from the shell. We had a lovely dinner in a rather chic restaurant on the bank of the river that runs through Chiang Mai, expensive by local standards but extremely cheap by Amsterdam's.

We stayed 2 nights in Chiang Mai at the Ben Guesthouse, on the East side of the river. We had a double with a bathroom, which cost the princely sum of 250 baht per night.

Bucharest

2008-09-12T17:40:00.000-07:00

The train deposited us in Bucharest after a surprisingly good night's sleep. I put together the tandem and we set off into the traffic of an early Saturday morning to find our Gheo and Cosmi's place.

Here was the best reason for bringing along the GPS. It almost flawlessly navigated us through the streets of Bucharest to their place. It was almost fun, though later experiences of rush hour traffic in this city made me think that we had it rather easy.

Gheo and Cosmi were extremely welcoming. We had a wonderful time with them which started off with a great shower! After cleaning ourselves up we went for a walk around a lovely park beside their place and then were treated to a tour of the centre of Bucharest and out to dinner. One could see that the city had not done well under the previous regime. There were lovely buildings, particularly from the 19th and early 20th century, in great state as well as others that looked to be falling apart. In between them were such buildings horrible ones from the communist period. Of particular interest and some shame was the maze of cables that hung from lamp posts, some of them put there by my company!

Distance 12 km
Time ~1 hour
GPS position N 44Â°25.728" E 26Â°09.329"

Night Train to Bucharest

2008-09-12T09:03:00.000-07:00

We awake to misty rain. We'd been counting on getting breakfast at the monastery and had nothing more than tea. Unfortunately the welcome in the morning to our request for breakfast was less warm than that the previous evening for dinner.

I felt a bit at a loose end. It was the last real cycling day of our tour and we were more or less already at the point where we were going to finish. We had tickets for the night train to Bucharest which left from the station nearby the monastery. We hadn't enjoyed the ride through Suceava the previous afternoon and didn't fancy heading into town. What to do? In the end we had to go into town to get things to hide the filthy nature of the tandem and hopefully make it acceptable to the train guard when we boarded the train in the evening.

We'd spotted a large shopping centre while looking for the station yesterday so went there for breakfast and to get the things that we needed. It was run by Carrefour, the French chain. It was an odd experience being in such place after being in the country for the previous 2 weeks.

After a circuit around Suceava we arrived back at the railway station in time to prepare the tandem for the night train. I dismantled the tandem as much as possible and covered the frame in large black bin liners. That done there was nothing more to do but wait for the train and to arrive and pray for a sympathetic train conductor. Once the train arrived we put everything on the train, we figured that once we were boarded it would be more of a pain to kick us off but decided that it best to find the conductor shortly before departure to avoid giving them an unpleasant surprise that might cause a scene. As it was the station staff had warned the conductor who was very sympathetic and let us leave the tandem in the corridor of the train. We'd expected to have to bribe the conductor, the going rate was about 10 Euros. However all we had to pay was a small fee for excess luggage. We had a 6 place compartment all to ourselves, which permitted us to get quite a good night's sleep.

Distance 91km
Time 5 hours 37 minutes

Dragomirna

2008-09-11T09:01:00.000-07:00

Though it wasn't our last day it felt much like it. We needed to organise to get ourselves and bike back to Bucharest. It hit home just how difficult this could be.

The evening before the husband of our host had called the station in Suceava to ask about bikes on trains and was told that it wasn't possible as no trains had baggage wagons anymore. We didn't entirely believe this as it didn't correlate with what I'd heard from the central train agency in Bucharest when I phoned them. So we decided to go directly to the station of departure and find out ourselves.

We rode down the hill into to Moldova river valley, leaving the foot hills of the Carpathians behind into the busy city of Suceava. The impression wasn't so nice there with lots of traffic, here I tried not to think of Bucharest which would surely be worse. Suceava had been an early capital of the nascent Romania and the glorious painted Buchovine monasteries that we'd visited had been commissioned from here. We arrived at the main station to find interest in our trip by staff but no sympathy with our situation and certainly no answer to question about transporting the bike than that it wasn't possible. Trying not to be disheartened we went to the other train station in town, from which the train we wanted to take would leave. There we managed to talk with the 'chef de train' of another train to Bucharest. This was a good move, up to now we'd been talking to people who knew rules and had no power, now we'd found the 'king' of the domain in which we needed mercy. When we explained that we could reduce the size of the tandem by taking off the wheels, rack etc he proclaimed that so long as it was shorter than 2.10m and we paid for excess baggage (I'm sure he meant bribe but I didn't care) we'd be we purchased 1st class tickets on the sleeper train for the following night and then left town to Dragomirna monastery, luckily for us the road for which left from by the station.

On arrival it looked great. The monastery built in the 17C was surrounded by a 13 metre high stone wall with strong looking corner and gate towers. We'd hoped that we'd be able to stay in it but when asked were shown an unattractive guesthouse outside the walls. We did manage to get a meal in the monastery which allowed us to take a peak at the inside. When we'd come out from dinner it was raining. I spite of this we decided to camp and with the permission of one of the nuns we put up our tent by the walls of the monastery.

Distance 90 km
Time 5 hours & 12 minutes
GPS position N 47Â°45.721" E 26Â°13.775"

Sucevita

2008-09-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

After a difficult couple of days we figured that we could give ourselves a slightly lazy day. We washed clothes, I tighten bolts etc on the bike which had also had a pretty tough time, read and visited the monastery which was yet another UNESCO World Heritage site. In the evening we had yet another delicious dinner at the pension.

Distance 0km
GPS N 47Â°46.767 E 25Â°43.349

Sucevita

2008-09-09T06:59:00.000-07:00

No bears found our ridge top hiding spot, though rain on our tent roof and the occasional falling branch brought us out of our light nervous sleep. The rain had partially filled the pots and cups that I'd left out the previous night so we had a warm cup of sweet tea. We packed up and headed back the way we'd come.

After about 2 hours of struggling we arrived back at the road. What a relief that was. I briefly considered of suggest that we make another try to find the right road to Sucevita, but thought better of it.

Instead we back tracked and found another route, While this road was better than the one we'd found ourselves on the previous day it wasn't by much. At one point the road as a formal entity completely disappeared. It was clear where it went, though equally clear was that it wasn't an official one no matter. It was nothing more than a wide path, made very muddy by the rain of the previous night. So muddy that I had to use a screwdriver to dislodge the sticky mud from between the mudguards and wheels. The asfalt was a real pleasure to see when finally it arrived.

The road that we'd found ourselves on was the main road across the part of Northern Romania and passed just to the North of the mountains that we'd been stuck in. The effect of the flooding on the road was obvious. As the road ran parallel to the line of the mountains it went up and down over the foothills. At the bottom of every hill the road cross a little river or stream and there was fresh construction work on all of them. I guess the rain in summer must have taken them all out.

When we arrived at Sucevita it was such a relief to find that the place that we'd booked,Casa Felice, was absolutely lovely. Our room was ub a lovingly restored old building with the interior decorated in Romanian handcrafts. The room was once the kitchen of the place and had a big old wood burning stove dominating it. The owner of the pension uses it in the off season for making preserves. The price of the room, 20 Euros each, included a wonderful dinner and breakfast. After our fast the previous 24 hours the meals were especially appreciated.

Distance 91km
Time 9 hours 4 minutes
GPS N 47Â°46.767 E 25Â°43.349

Mountains between Humor & Sucevita

2008-09-08T07:19:00.000-07:00

We left Voronets having been wowed by the monastery and with plans to see more of the same. The idea being to go North via another monastery and cross the mountains to Sucevita.We'd been told that the direct road had been cut by the terrible rains of the earlier part of the summer. However we figured that we ought to be able to make it with the tandem. Things turned out a little different.

After visiting the first monastery we headed up a white gravel road into the mountains. The scenery was lovely, the leaves on the trees were beginning to to change colour and the were so many hay stacks looking like chrysalises of an invading alien army. We'd heard that rain had made the road impossible or at least difficult to pass with a car. We figured that by bike it wouldn't be too bad. After all carrying a bike on our shoulders, even a tandem, is a lot easier than a car!

After the last village we took a rest and made the mistake of asking a local whether we were on the right road, misunderstanding his response and not realising our mistakes until too late. The local indicated that we couldn't go on and we must turn around and take a road that would be come up on our left. We followed, or thought we followed, his direction and took what looked like a forest road that came along. It didn't look much but we figured that this was probably bypassing some sort of blockage caused by the rain and flooding. Man were we wrong! At a point the road became impossible to cycle on so we started to push. We should have turned back at that point but we didn't. Hours of pushing later a thunderstorm started, it was clear that we were not on a road that was going to take us where we wanted to go and it was too late to turn back that day so we set up camp. We were short of food, had no water and were worried about sharing a forest with bears. Fortunately the bears weren't interested enough in us to show themselves.

GPS position N 47Â°41.639" E 25Â°41.180"

Voronet

2008-09-07T06:58:00.000-07:00

We were looking forward to this as our first visit to one of the famous Buchovina monasteries. Which was a gem. We'd decided to try out staying at a cazare, a room in someone's home. We struck gold! We stayed in the house of an old couple. Our room was pure 1950s! That evening we had a nice dinner overlooking the vallery.

Distance 89 km
Time 5 hours 35 minutes
Position N47Â°31.383 E25Â°51.862

Poiana

2008-09-06T06:55:00.000-07:00

We found a lovely camp site after a long bumpy ride through a village. It was in a large clearing in a forest and just after we set up camp a local came through collecting firewood, and later a shepherd took his flock through the clearing.

Distance 83 km
Time 4 hours & 51 minutes
GPS position N 47Â°31.376" E 25Â°51.854"

Durau

2008-09-05T06:57:00.000-07:00

Today was designated as a rest day. We got up a bit later, had a nice breakfast, did some washing and went walking. I ought to say that we intended to have a rest day but it turned out to be much more energetic than restful.

The villages of Durau sat at about 700m in altitude. Towering above it was the Ceahlau massif with a peak of 1900m or so. We walked up to a plateau at a bit over 1700m, from which we had a great view of the previous day's journey around the lake. It was a great walk up the mountain range. On the way up we passed a sign warning of bears, though it would be hard to imagine that they'd be seen near such an area with so much human traffic, though maybe they'd be up for a bit of a snack! I was amazed at how much garbage people left up the mountain. It was quite disappointing.

We stayed again in the Casa Bella pension.

Distance 0km
GPS position N 46Â°59.975" 225.554349

Durau

2008-09-04T06:56:00.000-07:00

We awoke having not been spotted by either a bear or a park ranger and had a slightly chilly breakfast. The sun didn't reach into the deep gorge until after we left. Before heading off we took a stroll up the road that we'd camped beside and it gave us the idea to spend a day walking soon.

Fortunately the camping spot was near the top of the gorge so we were left with something to see of it in the morning and it was quite spectacular. The road switched back and forward with vertical tock walls climbing several hundred metres above.

We cruised into the town of Bicaz then followed the dammed lake. We'd decided later in the morning that we'd have a day off the bike at a point on the other side of the lake from Bicaz. We'd seen that there was a mountain road on the west side of the lake that would take us to where we wanted to go but thought the quality would be too bad and too steep. In the end the road we took around the east shore of the lake was twice as long and certainly every bit as difficult. The ups and downs seemed endless.

We struggled up to the centre of the village of Durau and stayed at the Casa Bella pension. It was a small friendly hotel with about 10 rooms. We paid 80 lei for a double (with a squeaky bed) with a shared bathroom without breakfast.

Distance 92km
Time cycling 6 hours 5 minutes
GPS position N 46Â°59.975" 225.554349

Bicaz Gorge

2008-09-03T06:56:00.000-07:00

We did some climbing today, covering our second col of the trip. This one being 1256m in height. We had arrived in the Carpathian mountains! It was a lovely climb up a lightly trafficked road. Along the way we overtook two Slovak cyclists with considerably less luggage than we were carrying.

We passed by Lacu Rosu, a site that our Lonely Planet raved about but unfortunately left us rather cold. It was an odd place in the middle of the mountains but without the sense of clarity that ought to come at such a place, it was a sordid spot. What we found was an odd lake with a bunch of tree stumps sticking out of it, surrounded by rubbish and insensitive development, to add to this it seemed the sort of people who came were not the walker types. We left quickly after realising that there were no wild camping possibilities in the area. It was getting late when we arrived at the top of the Bicaz gorge which was gorgeous. Fortunately we quickly found a suitable wild camping spot down a side road that would leave us the greater part of the gorge to look at in the morning when we'd be more appreciative of the natural wonders around us.

Distance 84km
Time cycling 5 hours 48 minutes
GPS position N 46Â°48.393" 254480.423"

Subcetate

2008-09-02T06:54:00.000-07:00

The day didn't start so well. Getting travellers cheques cashed took a long time as did our search for a pump to replace the one that we'd lost on arrival. We were both feeling that we should have left Sighisoara earlier, though it was nice chatting to the daughter of the pension owner and her Australian husband. To add to this the road out of Sighisoara was a nightmare with next to no hard shoulder and heavy traffic. We both were in bad moods until we got onto a quieter road.

After leaving Sighisoara we passed from the region historically inhabited by Germans to one by which Hungarians dominate. Ask a Hungarian about Transylvania and if they are historically minded they may tell you that it forms a part of greater Hungary. With the European Union embracing both Hungary and Romania such considerations as 'Greater Hungary' don't matter much any more to anyone other than those of questionable political leanings. However it makes interesting viewing. By what I've read the local Hungarian community is proud of its heritage, which is as it should be, and works hard to maintain its Hungarian-ness. The area had a much more prosperous air to it than the one that we left and I drew the totally uninformed conclusion that this was somehow related to the continuity of the Hungarian community, something lacking in the German area since the Germans left.

With the change in community the appearance of the towns immediately changed, the almost identical buildings of the German area disappeared. The 'theme' here was an intricately carved wooden gate. Every residence with pride seemed to have one, no matter how much its owners may have embraced anonymous styling for their house. We passed through a couple of larger towns which had quite a few buildings which exuded a Central European feeling and I was reminded that the Habsburgs had ruled this region until the beginning of the last century.

The really warm weather on us today. and we needed frequent shade breaks.

We camped for the night in a field behind a small pension.

Distance 62km
GPS position N 46Â°26.074" E 25Â°23.264"

Sighisoara

2008-09-01T06:53:00.000-07:00

We continued through an area of Romania that was until quite recently inhabited by Germans. They were brought in as colonists in the 13th century by a Hungarian overlord to what was virtually unbroken forest to secure what would have been the border with the Turkish empire. They built towns and villages in which a central feature was a fortified church. These churches looked like castles though without the manorial dwelling of them. When the communist fell and the Ceausescu regime ended the German community uprooted en mass and moved 'back' to Germany. The move being triggered by economic incentives from the German government and the promise of a better life in what was (and still is) a poor place. I wonder how much they would have had in common with the Germany that their forefathers had left 600 years before.

One of the town that we passed through, Biertan was once the seat of a protestant bishop. Its church sitting behind high double walls looked very 'western'. It was quite magnificent, especially since we came to it through a rough mountain road and our first view of the town was of the church on its fortified mound. UNESCO agreed and had inscribed in in the list of World Heritage sites. The lower part of town followed a pattern that we'd seen in other 'German' towns with little two story dwellings strung along the main road. Most of these houses followed a pattern, whether constructed in 19C or more recently constructed.

Unfortunately after Biertan we had to follow a rather big road to get to Sighisoara which was our destination for the night. Trucks zoomed past us without giving us much space but we survived.

We stayed at the Couli B&B in the centre of the old town costing 130 lei including breakfast.

Distance 94km
Time cycling 5 hours 21 minutes
GPS position N 46Â°13.158" E 24Â°47.457

Cincsor

2008-08-31T06:51:00.000-07:00

We finished putting together the tandem and baggage and headed off to see Bran castle. The centre of Bran village was given over to tourism, and despite the extremely tenuous link to Vlad Tepes, on whose character Dracula is said to be based, the souvenir shops were filled with Dracula merchandise.

Bran is quite high in the Bucegi mountains and our aim was North in much lower lands so we had a nice cruise downhill. We found nice minor roads to follow which while in the mountains followed tight little valleys on whose high slopes were farms with wonderfully picturesque haystacks. It would be a bit of an exaggeration to say we saw as many horses and carts as cars but the latter were quite common and the former uncommon enough to not be bothersome. We'd feared that the traffic would be bad but this proved to be unfounded, at least when off the highways.

We wild camped beside a lovely field a little past an old German village with a fortified church.

Distance 90km
Time cycling 4 hours 54 minutes
GPS position N 45Â°51.446" E 24Â°50.948"

Bran

2008-08-30T06:50:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Bucharest not knowing what to expect. We'd contacted a couple through the Warm Showers List in order to have a place to leave the box which protected the tandem during the flight there and back. What we got was so much more. Gheo & Cosmi met us at the airport & drove us 150km north across the mountains in Transylvania, fed us along the way, left us food for the following day's breakfast & lunch & saved us from disaster when it turned out that somewhere between the airport & Bran our pump had been lost. They were so kind to us that it took our breath away. To solve the last issue they drove to Brasov (30km away) and miraculously found a shop open on Saturday evening that had a pump for sale. As they left to go back to Bucharest we learned that Gheo had to work the night shift which would start almost as soon as they arrived back in Bucharest.

We stayed at the very friendly Vampire camp site in Bran which cost 41 lei.

GPS position N 45Â°31.698" E 25Â°22.268"

Preparation for Romania

2008-08-27T01:24:00.000-07:00

The trip to Romania is getting closer and closer. On Saturday I hauled home a huge cardboard bike box hoping it would fit the tandem. Yesterday evening I spent a couple of hours puling the tandem apart and got it to approximate quite a compact shape, which will easily fit into the maximum dimensions permitted by the airline.

We fly into Bucharest and will be hosted by people we contacted through the WSL (Warm Showers List). Initially the idea being to stay with them the first and last nights and to store the travel box with them. Very generously they offered to meet us at the airport and drive us out of Bucharest in the direction of Transylvannia.

Since we decided to go to Romania the thought of the trip has given me many feelings of worry, whether the tandem would fit into a bike box that the airline would take or if the various technical issues that have struck the tandem over the course of its time with us would have solutions found or new problems arise. The worries are at last being overtaken by the positive thoughts of the trip itself. It's really happening and it's going to be great!

Terracota Warriers

2008-08-13T22:19:00.000-07:00

The whole World was impressed with the display at the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing. Though personally I found the reports of the cost somewhat disturbing, if correct the national debt of many a country could have been paid off in a stroke. Of course the purpose of the event was to show the World that China had arrived as a power on the geopolitical stage.

Over the weekend Freddie and I went by tandem to Assen to see some examples of China as a geopolitical play of the first order in ancient times. No doubt the exhibition of the Terracotta warriers that has been to London and now in Assen in North Eastern Netherlands was timed to coincide with the build-up to the Olympics. As an impression of greatness it was second to none.

About a dozen of the famous nearly life size figures were on display, plus a lot more smaller pieces. It was described how an entire tomb city was buit as a resting place for the dead empiror and some of his later successors. Other than providing a resting place there is no doubt it was also intended to fulfill the more practical purpose to show off China's power, much like that on view with the Olympics. The small museum in Assen was packed, we waited patiently in a queue outside for an hour. The wait was worth it. The figurines had an amazing lifelike quality and in spite of their number (the tomb contained hundreds) each had a different look. Also on display were representations of objects and chattels to accompany the imperial household into the next life. Interestingly some were clearly not intended for actual use as they only imitated the form of household objects but were not functional.

Warm Showers List

2008-08-02T15:15:00.000-07:00

In the last couple of months we've had quite a few guests. I'd been thinking of making a deposit or two to the karma bank after a long period of being in debt to it. I became a member of the warmshowers list a couple of years ago but only just lately ticked the box which said that people could stay. The warmshowers list or WSL is as it suggests a list of people who can offer a passing touring cyclist a warmshower and a place to sleep or who want one themselves. It must be wholey offered without fee. Within a short period we had requests coming in.
The first group was a couple from Pittsburg. The female half had arrived to join her boyfriend who was touring through Ireland, Scotland, England and Netherlands. They were suffering a bit, she'd come down with a cold. On these terms it was easy to invite them in and when the time came I had no issue handing them over the keys when I went to work. This had been the difficult call and one that had made me think long about hosting people.
The second lot came a week later and were from California. They were delighted that Leonard Cohen was playing in Westerpark and even though it not a free gig the fences around it were charitably placed to permit freeloaders, like us, quite a nice show.
The latest were a pair of lads from Zaragoza in Spain. They were nice kids but hadn't had the experience of hosting people and seemed to take advantage a bit of the situation.
The experience of hosting has been great,we've learned a lot about hosting people and hope that more will come through Amsterdam to be hosted by us.

Easter in the Ardennes

2008-03-29T04:33:00.000-07:00

During an early Easter Freddie and I took a spin on our Christmas purchase, a second-hand 20-year old Vittorio tandem. We'd been out with it on day trips from time to time. I was a bit nervous about it as most of the time we went out something broke on it, this trip was no exception but we got through nevertheless and had a great time too!

On Thursday evening we took the train from Amsterdam to Maastricht. Unfortunately we lost the bag the contained Freddie's gloves, her warm moon boots, scarf and rain overshoes. It looked like the trip was turning into the tragedy from the get go. However I'd brought a spare pair of gloves, her cycling shoes were warm enough and with my neoprene overboots and some waterproof overshoes that we got from a shop the next morning all was ok. We stayed with a couple who participate in the Vrienden op de Fiets network, which provides cheap places for cyclists and walkers to stay. We'd stayed with them before in November and rented their tandem, which cemented our desire to get one of our own.

The rain fell in sheets on Friday, until it started to sleet! It was definitely a Good Friday. We were very happy to have our warm gear. None of the cold weather dampened our spirits. So we weren't at all phased when it started to snow! Our destination for the day was the German town of Monschau, a cute old town that has been far enough from the 20th century economic mainstream to have escaped being effected by WW2 and by much development, except that which relates to tourism. It sat in the bottom of the kind of steep valley that characterises the Eifel and Ardenne region. We stayed in the youth hostel, which was warm, cheap and friendly.

Saturday was snow day, after plenty of ups and downs we arrived and a border crossing we came to the Belgium town of Sankt-Vith. Until Napoleon came along it had formed part of an independant Duchy, but got parceled up with Germany. The town was been part of Belgium's settlement in the Treaty of Versailles. Other than the number plates it seemed as German as the towns 20km away on the other side of the border.

Sunday was a gloriously cold but sunny day. We wound our way north into the French speaking part of Belgium staying mostly on small roads, though sometimes having to turn off onto the bigger ones due to icy snow. It was the best day so far with lots of ups and downs. We stayed in a hostel that was part of an old castle that the provincial government of Liege administered.

Monday was the last day, not feeling too much like pushing for long in the cold and rather looking forward to taking a nice shower/bath was cut the day short just after lunch and took a train home from Maastricht. All in all it was a great little break and we both learned that we could have a great time on the tandem even in conditions that weren't ideal.

Back again!

2008-03-28T16:05:00.000-07:00

After a very long time away from the blog I've decided to come back!

The last year and a bit has been very full of events.

After a brief period but very pleasant time in Geneva I am back in Amsterdam, back at UPC and have been so since the beginning of 2007.

I rode the PBP is August of that year, not being one of the 30% of those starters who pulled out along the way. The weather was absolutely rotton but I kept on the path.

In October Freddie came back to Amsterdam from Geneva, we are living together. She starts a new job at the beginning of next month, and is very exited about it! More on this later.

In the European summer Mum and Dad visited Europe and we all, including Freddie who was still in Geneva, went on a road trip to the Alps where we went walking. Freddie and I spent Christmas in Morocco, including the day itself in the Sahara. How magnificent!

I visited New Zealand for the first time in over 4 years. Some things have changed, my sister Em is a double Mum and Mum and Dad have done some big house re-building, and some things haven't, it's still a wonderful place. I promised myself and Freddie, who couldn't come with me this time, to go back again in the New Zealand summer of 2010.

Most recently Spring has begun. In anticipation of this Freddie and I took our recently purchase tandem on a trip through the Ardennes in the southern part of the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. It was Easter so we had 4 days off in a row. It just so happened that Easter came early and the winter decided to finish late, we had lots of snow. There was more snow than anyone could remember at Easter. In spite of and perhaps because of this we had a great time.

Back in Europe

2006-10-11T07:56:00.000-07:00

On Saturday morning arrived back in Europe. The trip is over! Though I'd been feeling that it really finished when I cycled into Peshawar a bit over a week ago. After 6+ months on the road and almost 12,000km I was feeling the call of stability and home, or more accurately to make a home since Geneva isn't really home just yet.

In between arriving here and my last blog update from Peshawar I traveled to Lahore by train. The train rolled from the the friendly but wild feeling Peshawar across the plains by the Indus river to the big city of Lahore. Mountains or even the hint of them were no more. Instead it was green and more green plantations and when I got onto the Lahore, a wall of heat and humidity. Lahore was quite a city. the humidity, heat and pollution rather got the better of me and the ceiling fans and convivial nature of my guest house meant I didn't that much time on the streets, especially during the hotter time of day which was from 10am to 4pm or so. Add Ramadan into the mix and venturing far from the privacy of the guest house (where cool water could be drunk whenever) became undesirable.

I did a fair bit of walking around, going to see the Mughal masterpiece, the Badshahi mosque at Sunrise and checking out the rambling Lahore fort. The old town was great, with plenty of shade in its narrow streets. I had been sporting a nascent beard, no shave since Kashgar, and figured this wouldn't be well received by Freddie in Geneva so had it removed for 10 rupies (about 15 cents US) in a barber shop. One afternoon the owner of the guest house took a bunch of the guests to listen to qawali or Sufi devotional singing at a shrine in the city. For about 2 hours a series of qawali groups, a single or pair of lead singers backed up by other singers, drummers and an instrument like an accordion. The music and singing had spiritual significance to Sufi muslims. Each group had around 5 minutes before being hussled off and replaced by a new one. The music was amazingly energetic and some in the crowd really got into it. The organisers of the event or even fans would come through the crowd collecting donations for the musicians, there was no entrance charge. From time to time groups of men would get up and toss handfuls of 10 rupie notes over the musicians or each other. Aparantly to toss notes over someone's head was a blessing for good health. Clearly the quality of the music encouraged people to do this, for the more popular groups the floor in front of the stage would be covered in money.

I flew out of Lahore early on Friday morning and had a layover in Abu Dhabi, a state in the United Arab Emirates. I wondered around town for a bit but being Friday the place was deserted. Its abundant oil wealth had been spent on building sparkling tower blocks. In the city centre around my hotel there seemed to be nothing older than a decade or so. It was so hot and humid and I was so tried from my red-eye flight that I spent most of the time lounging in my hotel room.

Another red-eye flight followed, dropping me off in decidedly autumnal Geneva and a very warm welcome by Freddie. It was so nice to arrive back in Europe!

Lahore

2006-09-30T02:16:00.000-07:00

I took the 7am train from Lahore to Peshawar. Though the distance was only around 400km it took almost 10 hours. I'm not complaining as the ticket was only a bit more expensive than the one I'd buy when I took the train to work, a journey of 15 minutes. The train went past the strategic fortress of Attock on the Indus river & along the fertile Punjab plain. It was totally flat & would have been pretty boring cycling.

I arrived in Lahore in the late afternoon. It was the biggest city that I'd been to for quite a long time. It felt quite different from Peshawar. There were many more women on the streets & instead of the all covering burka they wore saris. A large proportion of the men I saw wore Western style trousers & t-shirts rather than shalwar kameez. As I cycled to my guesthouse I saw another touring cyclist who was wearing lycra cycling shorts without loose pants over the top, he'd probably have been stoned by passers-by if he wore such in Peshawar & around.

My guesthouse was just off the colonial era principal axis of town, the Mall. I caught a glimpse of some grand Victorian-era buildings along the way. It was a well known travelers' hangout. It was stocked with a few interesting characters, some of whom I hope to get to know over the next few days. It was quite a pokey place with dorm beds packed in every room that were cooled by ceiling fans. The power & water failed from time to time. Even so it was a bit of a haven, having a small but pleasant roof terrace with a small kitchen.

My stomach started to trouble me again, certainly due to the rather reckless abandon with which I'd shown in trying everything I saw in Peshawar. It didn't seem as bad as my last bout but to be sure to clear it quickly I put myself on antibiotics.

Peshawar

2006-09-29T02:16:00.000-07:00

I spent the day dealing with matters relating to transportation, how to go home. Nothing quite worked out as planned. I'd hoped to arrange my flight ticket back to Europe from Lahore. I found a reasonably cheap fare on on a Middle-Eastern carrier & made a reservation but later cancelled it when I discovered that I couldn't take my bike on the plane. I also arranged a train ticket from Peshawar to Lahore. To my grim amusement there was a discounted fair that didn't require the foreigners' concession that was cheaper. In other words the time I'd spent getting the concession had been wasted. It was an interesting look into bureaucracy.

Peshawar

2006-09-27T21:08:00.000-07:00

I decided last night to see whether I'd be able to follow the rules of Ramadan for a day. To do this I would have to refrain from eating, drinking, smoking & fornicating during the hours of daylight. I didn't think I'd have a problem with the last 2. Mostly I was worried about the interdiction on eating. As it was it didn't turn out to be too difficult. It was the not drinking bit that I couldn't manage. Breakfast arrived with a bang on the door at 3:30am. 2 eggs, 2 pratha & a small pot of tea was all I ate till the fast was broken at a little after 6pm. I only lasted until a bit after 9am before thirst got the better of me. I think I started off in a hole, I was still a bit dehydrated from the day before.

There was no need for me to fast. I had opportunities to go back to my hotel room to eat & drink. I had carrying around some very nice Chinese instant noodles since Kashgar exactly for this purpose. I was doing this partly out of curiosity, partly of respect & also a desire to share a little in what was going on around me. I hope the last reason doesn't sound too pretentious. The streets of Peshawar after the fast had been broken the previous evening had been filled with warmth. Everyone seemed to be happy, not just that their stomachs were finally full but also contentment with their fellows. I enjoyed being a part of that & thought, a little naively perhaps, that this could be augmented by fasting. It also meant that my day wouldn't be poisoned by a sense of doing something that everyone around couldn't do & some disapproved of.

Once the fast broke, like the previous evening, I wandered around & tried different things. Many were simply given to me by passers by with whom I chatted a short while or vendors who wouldn't accept money. Every interaction I had with someone was positive & made me smile. The only negative note was the annoyance that one street vendor had with another who had tried to rip me off. He, a complete stranger to me, wasn't going to let it happen & made sure the little punk who tried knew all about it. I had begun the trip to Pakistan dreading Ramadan, it was quickly becoming a highlight.

During the day travel plans began to firm up. I had spoken to a few travel agencies about flights out of Lahore. I also had some fun dealing with Pakistan Railway bureaucracy. I'd read in my guidebook that foreigners were eligible for a 25% discount on the already pretty cheap rail travel in Pakistan. All one needed to do was go & see the commercial department at the departure station for a concession certificate. This I imagined would be something like like a discount card. It was more complicated than that. The whole thing started off the previous day when I rolled up to the ticket office to ask about it all at 2pm & was told to come back the following day as the commercial office closed at 1pm during Ramadan. The next day I arrived in the morning at the (open) commercial office & was told I needed first to get a 'tourist certificate' from the tourism office. I almost jacked it all in here, I should point out that I was calculating on saving approximately 1.50USD on my ticket to Lahore with this discount. However I knew where the tourist office was & it wasn't out of the way. I wanted to see it through to the end. At the tourist office they made me fill out a form containing my name, nationality & passport number; which then got signed & stamped by the head walla. I expressed my opinion that this was unnecessarily bureaucratic, to which they responded that this was how it had always been done. Back to the commercial office I went & presented them with my certificate. I then had to fill out another form stating my destination & date of travel. It dawned on me that I'd need to go through this for every ticket I wished to purchase. My tentative date of travel, this Saturday coming, had to be firmed up or my 1.50USD discount or 2 hours worth of trotting around would be lost. The details of my form were transcribed by hand to another form which was taken away for stamping & signing by another head walla. The office in which this business was conducted can hardly have changed since the British, though the desks in the room were marked with the insignia of Pakistan Rail. There were antique cabinets overflowing with cardboard folders filled with yellowing documentation. Everything was done with pen & paper.

It was quite a good thing to have been forced to have decided on a date. Though I've been enjoying the friendliness of Peshawar at the end of the fast the town itself has not set me alight. While its bazaar filled old town is interesting to wander around something is missing for me. Perhaps I'm being unfair on it & it's all because the travel bug is being suppressed by a desire to have a home again.

I cycled 0 km

Peshawar

2006-09-26T23:14:00.000-07:00

I sleep quite poorly. I was awoken at 3:30am by a bang on my door, which I did my best to ignore. Just as I was about ready to go back to sleep it was followed up by another bang. I think this was a hotel service to give guests a chance to eat before dawn prayers & the daytime fast. I hardly slept after that.

I hadn't caught up with liquid intake after the previous long dry day. Walking around Peshawar proved to be equally long & dry. I went to investigate a part of town quite distant from my hotel so had no easily accessible haven. Unable to contemplate waiting until Sundown to drink something I had a cold drink while seated in the relative privacy of the toilet in an expensive hotel, feeling like someone with an alcohol problem. Nevertheless it was quite a relief.

As with the previous day the town transformed as the Sun set. Stalls selling food lined the streets & people were out en mass enjoying it. The atmosphere was extremely friendly. I was invited to join an Afghani man to share his dinner & later for tea with others. There was someone greeting me at every turn. With the memory of my last illness in Gilgit fading I ate & drank with gusto, having roti & beef here, rice somewhere else, sugarcane juice & pomegranate juice. All was delicious. None had any ill effect.

I cycled 0 km

Peshawar

2006-09-25T23:12:00.000-07:00

Camping may have been free but it wasn't without cost. It happened that the camping spot was in an area claimed by a jealous stray dog. At 1am he made a move. I was woken by the sense that my tent was being tugged on. I opened the tent to see the dog running away, the bloody creature had ripped one of the edges of the tent with his teeth! It wasn't serious damage & I figured that I'd be able to get it fixed quite cheaply. However the dog wasn't yet done. He let me sleep uninterrupted for the rest of the night but when I left my baggage unattended for a few minutes he had another go, this time ripping my sleeping bag open, munching on my book & tearing the strap on one of my cycling sandals. Again none of the damage was too serious. I was fortunate that he only ate the back cover of the book rather than the all important end, who wants to read a book without being able to finish it!

Though Ramadan was in its second day I was fairly unaffected by it, at least for the morning. I was not bound by its rules as a non-Muslim. Shops but not restaurants were open. I just needed to be circumspect where to eat & drink, not to do so in front of people.

My route took me over the Malakand pass onto a wide flat plain. The mountains were just a memory. It was a lot warmer. The land around was a lush green, so different from the rocky aridness of the North. Population density went up markedly & I had problems to find places to have a quiet drink.

I dropped by the ruins of a Buddhist monastery by the town of Takht-i-Bhai. This area, along with much of Central Asia, had been Buddhist until Mohammed's generals had brought Islam in the 8th C. While they were impressive there wasn't much information on the ruins at the site, I could have done with a guide. The attendants did their best to pocket my entrance fee but I demand a receipt. They didn't provide me with any useful service so I wasn't about to let them steal the 200 Rupees.

From Takht-i-Bhai it was all flat to Peshawar. I arrived in town, the biggest since Kashgar just as the Sun was setting & the daily fast was being broken. The streets were thronged with people, almost exclusively men though a few burka cloaked women could be seen. I had become desperately thirsty as the road into Peshawar didn't offer any possibilities to drink anything. It was such a relief when the fast was broken & I could inhale the contents of a 1.5L softdrink bottle.

I found a hotel on the edge of the old town on Cinema Road, so called because it has a number of cinemas on it. I was glad to have a ceiling fan to move the air around as there were a bunch of rather smelly leather tanning works in the area. Later I went for a walk along the edge of the old town with the crowds enjoying the end of the fast.

I cycled 116 km in 7 hours & 14 minutes
Total so far 11697 km in 183 days

Chakdara

2006-09-25T04:12:00.000-07:00

Ramadan started today. I was woken at about 4am to the sound of activity & the smell of pratha (fried nan) being cooked. During Ramadan practicing Muslims are not permitted to do a variety of things from Sunrise to Sunset, eating & drinking being one of them. As the Sun came up at around 6am this meant an early breakfast for the devout. Though I've become an early riser this was a bit too early for even me & I was soon back to sleep. When I got up the Sun was up & I made use of my hotel room's balcony to fire up my stove & cooked some porridge.

After breakfast I took a walk around Dir to try & find a money changer. All the hotel staff were asleep. Many shops weren't yet open, at a time when they would normally be outside Ramadan. I found quite an unfriendly vibe in town as I walked & quickly returned to the hotel, finished packing & left.

The unfriendly vibe continued on the road. I had a few stones thrown at me, though none hit. People just stared at me as I passed didn't respond to my greetings. That & the terrible road surface put me in a terrible mood. Of course I got a flat tire. It was only due to the lack of trucks on the road that I didn't pack in cycling & hitch to Peshawar. I'm glad I didn't as things improved as the afternoon progressed. I left the Dir valley & crossed over to the lower part of the Swat valley. I was told that the upper Dir valley was pretty conservative (I saw plenty of burkas there) & since the American-led war in Afghanistan many people have become quite anti-Western. I guess I copped a little resentment. While the people of the Dir & Swat valleys are both Pashtun, like those being hurt by stray American bombs on the other side of the border, the Swat valley is not right beside the border so perhaps the people are less personally affected by the war.

There had been an abrupt change in the landscape from the day before. The Dir valley was much greener than the Chitral. Terracing used to grow crops or for grazing was cut right up the mountain sides rather than just on ledges above the river. Where there wasn't terracing there was natural growth. The mountains were smaller & became hills as I descended. I realised that I had said goodbye to the mountains & would be spending little time above 1000m.

As the day came to an end I had trouble finding a place to stay. Fortunately I came across a government run PTDC (Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation) motel with friendly staff who let me camp on the front lawn. It was a lovely spot right beside the river. I think I was the only 'guest' for the night. It was quite luxurious, there was even a policeman assigned to the motel. The price was right too, camping was free & even including dinner & breakfast it was cheaper than the slightly grimy place I was in the previous night.

I cycled 116 km in 7 hours & 17 minutes
Total so far 11581 km in 182 days

Dir

2006-09-24T04:11:00.000-07:00

I'd been somewhat dreading this section of the trip. I'd heard that the Lowari pass, that separated Chitral district from the lower lands to the South, was a pretty tough road. It was very steep & was in pretty bad condition. After the Shandur pass I was in no mood to cycle over a really bad road. In addition my legs were quite sore from the previous day's hike. I'd decided to try cycling up it & if it was too tough I'd hitch a lift.

The way to the base of the pass was quite pleasant, down mostly a verdant valley. Apart from the occasional group of boisterous boys who would demand pens or money & semi-seriously throw stones when their demands weren't me, worryingly many of them had slingshots.

As soon as I reached the base of the climb it became clear that it would be every bit as tough as the Shandur & more so. Though the road wasn't as bad it was steeper & the climb much longer. After struggling up for a while I'd had enough & stopped. Fairly soon after one of the old decorated Bedford trucks that haul loads over Pakistan stopped & picked me up. Initially they seemed to want money but this was forgotten when they dropped me off. I sat in the open-topped back on comfortable bags of straw & watched. There was a nice view from the back. Soon after setting off it clouded over, became quite cold & began to rain, towards the top of the 3118m pass it was slushy snow. The road was muddy. What would have been a very challenging climb on a sunny day looked pretty unpleasant. Even the truck took it slowly I was picked up at about 3pm & dropped off a few kilometres North of Dir, a distance of about 60km, at around 7:30pm.

It was completely dark on the road & fortunately a car sat behind me at I cycled down to Dir so that I could see the road. I was extremely relieved to check into a hotel. Though it hadn't been a long cycling day I was exhausted & asleep by shortly after 8:30pm.

I cycled 62 km in 5 hours & 28 minutes
Total so far 11465 km in 181 days

Grom

2006-09-23T04:10:00.000-07:00

After breakfast I walked up the ridge, a spur of the Hindu Kush, that separated the Rumbur valley from the Chitral valley. It was a stout walk, climbing 1300m in about 8km. The reward was a nice view down onto both the Rumbur & Chitral valleys as well as towards Tirich Mir, at 7700m the highest mountain in the Hindu Kush. I hurried down when a mean looking cloud came over ahead & it started to snow.

On the way up the path I passed a very isolated Kalash village that was only reachable on foot. It consisted of a dozen or so scattered log houses. The village was not connected to either the electricity or telephone networks.

When I arrived back at the guesthouse my traveling companion Nick had arrived. In the valley it was raining which was a great excuse to sit under the covered balcony & chat. Later the guesthouse owner came home from his job as a school teacher at the local school. He was accompanied by a fellow teacher who was a Muslim. He was quite a devout fellow but very open to talk. We had a long conversation about Islam & in particular its rules & laws. His view which I believe is the orthodox one on the flexibility of Islamic law or Sharia came into direct conflict with fundamental principals on which Western law is based, in particular that a punishment for certain crimes is unalterable if it was laid out in the Koran. Examples of this are those for murder & theft, both of whose punishments may have suited a more chaotic & brutal time but are out of place in a modern society. Unless Islamic scholars are able to find some way of re-interpreting this I see this as a source of conflict between secular Western society & even open & liberal religious Muslim society.

Later after dinner we chatted with the owner of the guesthouse who was a bit of a local celebrity. He was the first Kalasha to have graduated from university. After finishing university he'd decided to come back to the valleys & set up a Kalash language primary school with support from the government. Up until then the only option were Muslim ones. Parents feared that their children would be converted to Muslims & thus lose their Kalash identify so kept them out of school. With the opening of the Kalash school parents were convinced to allow their kids to be educated. Since then the system has produced many Kalash graduates, most of whom have returned to the valleys & used their education to the benefit of the Kalash.

I cycled 0 km

Grom

2006-09-22T04:05:00.000-07:00

This morning I awoke very early, before even the morning call for prayer rang out from the half a dozen mosques around Chitral at about 5:30am! Though I slept fine the need to decide whether to fly back from Lahore or Delhi & the consequences of this decision had me thinking too much during the night.

Another matter on which I was undecided was whether to sidetrack into one of the Kalasha valleys. I'd heard many nice things of the area but thought I wouldn't have the time. I left the matter to fate, with nice weather I'd go there otherwise not. After 2 days of bad weather there was a change over night , totally for the better. That settled it, to Kalasha I went!

The road out of Chitral to the Kalash town I'd chosen to see made for slow going. There was lots of up, some of it quite steep & all on a road that only 4WDs could cope with, though I managed on my 1WD. I suppose it had to be this way, if they'd been more easily accessible they'd have been wiped out, converted or colonised out of existence. Knowing that the road was short I enjoyed all of it, especially the thought of how nice it would be to go back down in a couple of days time.

I had a bit of bad luck with my bike. I caught one of my gear shifting levers on my trouser hem as I was getting off. It made the alarming sound of something breaking. A part of it had been broken irreparably with the consequence that I could use only half my gears. I'll be able to continue but it's very annoying. Though I'm glad that it happened now that the trip is nearly over rather than a couple of months ago.

To balance things out when I stopped at a small shop for a cold drink & to ask whether there was somewhere to eat in the area I was given lunch by the shopkeeper. He sent his son to his house to arrange things with his wife & had him escort me over to eat. When I arrived there was a table outside with a plate of rice, dal, some chapati & some water. I didn't meet anyone from the family & when I'd finished the shopkeeper had closed the shop in order to pray.

The Kalash people live in 3 isolated valleys between the Chitral river valley & the Afghan border. I headed for the village of Grom in the Rumbur valley. I did so entirely based on the recommendation of a nice guesthouse there.

They, all 50,000 of them, have miraculously retained their belief system in the face of pressure from the sea of Islam that surrounds them. Please note this is not an anti-Islamic statement, Christianity would do the same. Only their isolation has allowed their unconverted survival. They are true pagans (unlike the English lot who hang around Stonehenge & don't wash too frequently).

Apparently they used to live all over the Chitral valley however over the centuries Muslims moved in, Ismaelis from Badakshan to the North & Sunni from Afghanistan in the South, & over time pushed them into the high valleys where they now live.

It's a miracle that they've managed to survive at all. A related group just across the border in Afghanistan were converted at the tip of the sword in the late 19C. Some fled into the top of the Kalash valleys but over time they converted to Islam.

They, or least the woman, dress quite distinctly & not it would seem to please tourists. The woman don't follow the Pakistani & Islamic practice of covering themselves nor are they shy & unresponsive. They wear bright coloured woven clothing & lovely flat topped hats with long tails. After hardly seeing a female in the last while it was pleasure to talk to to representatives of the other half of the human race who were not tourists.

They also make & drink quite palatable (for someone used to the European-style) wine. Many Pakistani Muslims seem drawn to visit the area just to have a drink & since they aren't used to it get drunk quite easily. A group of respectable doctors had had lunch at the guesthouse & were being 'poured' into their transport when I arrived.

I cycled 33 km in 3 hours & 48 minutes
Total so far 11403 km in 179 days
GPS Coordinates of end point - N 35Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â°46.260, E 71Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â°41.735

Chitral

2006-09-20T21:23:00.000-07:00

The previous day I decided to speed up my progress to the end of the trip. Coincidentally I got an email from Freddie saying that she'd found a reasonably priced place in Geneva that we could both live in. Concern about where to live while job hunting had been significant. It was a load off my mind & it became clear that I should get to Lahore as soon as could reasonably be done while getting as much cycling as possible.

The plan is to cycle to Peshawar, a distance of about 350km & arrange a flight from there. Most likely the cheapest will be to fly out of Delhi, which seems to be a couple of hundred dollars less than out of Lahore. However flying from Lahore will save me a trip to Islamabad & the hassle of getting an Indian visa there. In spite of the higher cost I'm leaning towards flying out of Lahore.

My decision to speed up coincided with Nick coming down with a stomach bug. He'll be staying put in Chitral & not be continuing on his bike for a couple of day. This means that our cycling partnership that began a little over a month ago will come to a close. I've enjoyed traveling with him but also have missed the peace of traveling alone.

Chitral is a cool little place, much more compact than Gilgit. It straddles the Chitral river. An old fort of the local royal family sits by the river in a state of decay. The town mosque is quite handsome. Unfortunately the weather has been pretty bad most of the time & not good for taking photos. The main street, on which my hotel is situated, is lined with simple shops. In the hills above nice looking houses peer down to the town below. I found some delicious snacks to keep me happy; wonderful deep fried battered potatoes, fried bread dough served with what I think is semolina & sweet dough balls dripping in sugar syrup - yum!

I cycled 0 km

Chitral

2006-09-20T01:28:00.000-07:00

I awoke early, I'm getting myself ready to be able to cope with pre-dawn breakfasts when Ramadan starts in a couple of days time.

The sky was ominously gray & it started to rain while I was sitting in the guesthouse's garden waiting for the staff to wake up. A couple of them were sleeping outside on charpoys, not for long once it really started to pound down.

I was facing my first proper rainy day on the bike since late Spring in Iran. It felt like a bit of relief though it also spoiled my view of the mountains as I descended into Chitral. I donned all my rain gear & set off. As Nick didn't have any proper rainwear he planned to hang around the guesthouse until it looked to be becoming dryer & meet me later in Chitral.

The ride to Chitral followed the river down the valley, which like every other I'd been up or down was steep-sided & flanked by high mountains, gray skree slopes came down to the road & the villages. Clearly it had been raining for a few days prior to us coming over the Shandur pass & I was aware that this increased the possibility of rock falls though there was no sign of any having happened. However there was evidence of large volumes of silt having been carried down streams, in one case across the road & through a village. As beautiful as this valley was life in it was tightly held in the hands of Mother Nature.

Apart from a few climbs the road was mostly down & on nice smooth asphalt so I completed the 66km to Chitral & was checked into a cheap hotel there before lunch.

After 5 days on I'd hoped that Chitral would be a bit like Gilgit, with plentiful food & a decent Internet cafÃƒÆ’Ã‚Â©. I didn't factor in that while it's the largest town around it's still quite isolated thus the range of things available was limited. This meant no fast Internet. Land access to Chitral requires going over either the 3100m Lowari pass to Peshawar & Punjab province or the Shandur pass that we'd just come over, both snow-bound during Winter. Later I learned that there was an alternative route to Peshawar that avoided the Lowari pass that cut through Afghanistan.

I cycled 66 km in 3 hours & 51 minutes
Total so far 11370 km in 176 days

Koragh

2006-09-19T04:35:00.000-07:00

Another awful road day, though fortunately mostly down.

I was definitely regretting the gung-ho decision to go over the Shandur pass. It was the worst road that I'd ever experienced & it seemed to go on forever. Having said that the scenery was magnificent, from the desolation of the top of the pass to the villages nestled on ledges between the steep mountainsides & the fast flowing river.

In the morning we passed through a police checkpoint where all foreigners were obliged to write our details, including their mode of transport. This gave me a chance to see how popular this route was for cyclists. I counted 4 other cyclists in the last 2 months. This was not a well worn path. It was clear from the wide eyed stares of the locals that they weren't used to seeing many foreigners or cyclists. As a pleasant side effect the local kids seemed too gobsmacked to big for things as I passed by.

Towards the end of the day the rough road thankfully turned into asphalt & I promised myself no further such tortuous excursions on this trip. Tomorrow promises a nice roll down into Chitral.

Exhausted we stopped at a cheap but friendly dirt & concrete floored guesthouse. Soon after we arrived I got wind of the distinctive smell of burning hash. From then on it became quite difficult to communicate with the owner, smoking seemed to have reduced his comprehension to the point that simple requests for tea were comically misunderstood.

I cycled 56 km in 5 hours & 15 minutes
Total so far 11304 km in 175 days

Near Harchin

2006-09-18T04:31:00.000-07:00

The road out of Teru was pretty bad. It was heavy going even though it was flat. Soon the road started to climb very dramatically, with the steepness came a deterioration in the road surface. This combined with the altitude had me pushing for quite a while.

We reached the top of the pass at lunch time, it had taken us 3 1/2 hours to cover 25km! There were glorious views of the Hindu Raj mountain range. The place was almost deserted, 2 cars had passed us all morning. It was hard to imagine that thousands came up for the polo tournament in July.

At the top there was a sign indicating that the road was completed in 2004. The way down was even worse than the way up. It was hard to go faster than 10 km/h down hill! One can only suppose how bad it was before. Later I was told that the previous road had been built before the partition by the British & was just fit enough for jeeps. I think I've become a bit of a wimp in the last month or so as I didn't enjoy the rough road over the pass. I'm looking forward to asphalt.

We camped behind an old farmhouse just off the highway. We were visited at dinner time by a couple of guys from the nearby village coming home from an afternoon hunting. They stopped for a chat, impressing on us that we were their (they meant of Pakistan) guests & gave us their names in case we should need help while in the area. I've almost become used to this expression of hospitality though it always gives me a feeling of warmth.

I cycled 56 km in 6 hours & 33 minutes
Total so far 11248 km in 174 days
GPS Coordinates of end point - N 36Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â°8.963, E 72Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â°28.558

Teru

2006-09-17T04:27:00.000-07:00

The road continued up the narrow river valley as with the day before. Small villages were strung along it from time to time. Rocks on the side of the road were painted with slogans exhorting various improvements in behaviour, amongst them "help the tourist", "cooperate with govt." & "educate your children".

The cycling was very pleasant with very little traffic in either direction & quite a good road. My legs felt the effects of the previous day being a bit too long.

We were invited to lunch in a small town by a student back for summer break from university in Karachi. We accepted the invitation though unfortunately not much conversation was possible with our host due to his limited English. Accepting the invitation turned out to be a very good idea as the road passed through what seemed to be a restaurant free zone.

Along the way I heard the echoing sound of a substantial rock fall up a side valley. Though for all I knew it could have been an American raid on a nearby Taliban hideout. (Note for those nervous about such things - this is a joke, there are no Taliban hideouts in this area).

The area is solidly Ismaeli, an offshoot of Shia Islam which holds the Aga Khan as the Imam or spiritual leader. They are relatively liberal compared to orthodox Sunni with women not being hidden away, not always veiled & even responsive to waves & 'hellos'. The Taliban don't have any friends in this neighbourhood. As with everywhere else I've been in Pakistan people are very friendly. Though the young kids can be a bit of a pain, demanding pens or sometimes money. Nick had a couple of stones thrown at him when he failed to respond to their demands.

Yet again we pushed on too long & found accommodation as darkness fell. We arrived at the only guesthouse in Teru with no choice but to stay there. The place was totally minimalistic. It was the size of a one-car garage. By the door the proprietor cooked dinner for his guests, at the other end of the room was a raised platform covered with thin mattresses. All those dining in (there was no other place to eat in the village) got the same dish; rice, potatoes & chapati followed by tea. The place was a bit of a local hangout on accounts of the DVD player on which odd, slightly voyeuristic videos of women dancing were played. None of it was inappropriate or (there was no hit of it being even vaguely pornographic) or well produced however for mountain men in segregated Pakistan it was riveting stuff. Eventually we went to bed on rather pungent mattresses in an adjacent storeroom.

I cycled 67 km in 6 hours & 1 minute
Total so far 11192 km in 173 days

Jhandrot

2006-09-16T04:25:00.000-07:00

We are back cycling on a new road. It feels good to be back into 'discovery' mode, after the returning to Gilgit over the same road as we'd passed by bus. I felt a million times better this morning than I had for the last week.

We headed West from Gilgit up the Gilgit river. It was a little odd to go West after so many months of going East. This direction will last for a few days, until Chitral. I'd become used to having the Sun set behind me. I like the last light of day, for the next few days I'll need to look back to enjoy it.

The river valley was rather nice to ride up. There was a steady climb but it was never steep for long & was supported by a convenient tail wind. As with all the valleys that I've passed through in Pakistan its sides were steep & dry & the valley floor quite narrow. The little flat land available was used for cultivation. As with much of the Northern Areas corn was a popular crop.

We'd decided that we wanted to camp & passed up an opportunity to stop in the town of Gupis. This turned out to be a mistake as later we could find no suitable spots in the failing light. We ended out backtracking to a hotel that we had passed earlier.

I cycled 121 km in 7 hours & 53 minutes
Total so far 11125 km in 172 days

Gilgit

2006-09-15T04:24:00.000-07:00

I caught the first day of a polo tournament.The opening ceremony was rather charming with local dancing, singing & a tug of war. Amongst the large crowd the only females visible were tourists or small children.

The polo was much more serious than that of the practice match that I'd watched a few days before. This game meant something, the winner went forward in the competition to participate in the Shandur Cup tournament in July next year.

I had a seat in the protected stand, along with local dignitaries. A chain linked fence separated us from the dangers of the game. However the view wasn't as good so at half-time I crossed the field to uncovered stand where the normal crowd was & had a much better view.

I spent more time watching the game & less trying to photograph the action. Sometimes it was quite hard to follow, when I would lose the players in clouds of kicked up dust down the far end of the field. The control that the players had over their horses was very impressive, they could turn in tight spaces with sticks whirling. The horses toughness was equally impressive. They were constantly under pressure, galloping, turning, colliding with other horses & being hit (accidentally, this is a game of gentlemen) by stick & ball. I could imagine that polo would make excellent training for cavalry combat. In fact in the opening ceremony the teams competed to pick up stakes in the ground with lances at a gallop. At the very end of the game one of the horses fell reminding all just how dangerous the game is. The horse later got up & was lead away. The rider looked to be in pain, I suppose his tournament was over.

I cycled 0 km

Gilgit

2006-09-14T04:23:00.000-07:00

It was cloudy & surprisingly cool in the afternoon. It even rained, something that has hardly happened where I have been in months. I did little more than sit around the guesthouse reading.

I cycled 0 km

2006-08-17T07:40:00.000-07:00

The headwind of the previous day hadn't gone away though was less strong. We broke camp as early as possible, thinking that the wind would get stronger. Our goal was to cross a 2900m pass & camp as close to the town of Kazarman. The longer term goal being to cross the Fergana mountain range & drop down to Osh before leaving the country for China.

We chatted through the morning about this & that, getting quite in-depth on the Argentinian financial crises of a few years ago (Nick's from Buenos Aires). Unfortunately neither of us paid much attention to the road & missed our turn off & not noticing the mistake until we reached the next town 15km later. This error & its correction cost us 1 1/2 hours & made the day very long.

The right track was found, & it turned out to be a horribly bumpy one. Our estimate of where we would reach was looking rather optimistic, especially since we'd planned to cross the pass in the end of the afternoon. Normally passes don't have too many camping opportunities once the real climbing had begun. So we had to be sure we'd have time to get over the pass & down the other side before sunset. We weren't sure but went anyway. The climb was a difficult one as it was reasonably steep at times & the surface was dirt & semi-packed gravel. Views on the way up were superb, of the desert-like Naryn valley & the desiccated hills around it. Time ran out when we were about an hour from the pass. Fortunately there was a flat spot suitable for camping a couple of hundred metres below the pass & much relieved we stopped.

I cycled 94 km in 8 hours & 39 minutes
Total so far 9862 km in 143 days
GPS Coordinates of end point - N 41Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â°30.808, E 74Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â°43.287

Near Ak-Tal

2006-08-16T07:38:00.000-07:00

We had quite a relaxing start. With the road for the next couple of days ahead having little aside basic food we took the advantage of Naryn's bazaar. Roman was going to the same endpoint as Nick & myself but by a different path. Nick & I planned to take a relatively minor road across the Fergana ran. We put off starting cycling as we knew it would be going straight into a steady wind, one that would likely stay with us for the next couple of days.

The road out of town followed the gray & brown Naryn river. The valley floor had either sparse tussock grass or wheat fields. Irrigation channels lined with low trees ran parallel to the road. Above the valley on each side were bone dry hills that wouldn't have looked out of place in a Western. Very little traffic passed us in either direction as we struggled against.

There were a few villages along the road, none that we passed through had much going on. This was a road that wasn't really going anywhere. When we dropped into the centre of one of the villages in hope of finding a shop selling watermelons our presence was greeted with dumbstruck surprise. There were no shops.

As the afternoon progressed the headwind grew stronger & stronger. When it came time to find a camping spot we were on a flat straight road with no shelter on either side. We eventually camped on the lea-side of a concrete wall just by the road in order that we'd not have our tents blown away while putting them up.

I cycled 74 km in 6 hours & 1 minute
Total so far 9768 km in 142 days
GPS Coordinates of end point - N 41Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â°23.434, E 75Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â°14.336

Naryn

2006-08-14T21:53:00.000-07:00

I realised that my camping spot was sub-optimal. All through the evening & night trucks past by. The road surface by where I camped (but better elsewhere) was quite bad & the trucks made an awful clattering sound & shook the ground as they went across it.

It was a very long (in time) cycling day. I'd only done a few longer since the beginning of the trip. I'd hoped to get close to Naryn & cycle the rest the following day in order to meet up with Nick. However I felt good & though I didn't start early (I cooked pancakes, which took a long time) I didn't stop frequently. Most of the work was done in the 1st part of the day to cross the 3038m Dolon Pass, which was an 1100m climb spread over 60km. After the pass it was pretty much downhill all the way to Naryn.

I only arrived in Naryn because I misjudged how close it was & kept passing up camping possibilities before it. Once there I couldn't turn back. To my fortune the private tourist office that I'd expected a message would have been left for was open. To my surprise Nick & Roman were there using the Internet.

I cycled 115 km in 8 hours & 28 minutes
Total so far 9694 km in 141 days
GPS Coordinates of end point - N 41Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â°25.480, E 76Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â°1.748

Near Kochkor

2006-08-13T21:51:00.000-07:00

The morning didn't start terribly well. It turned out to be much more difficult to hitchhike out of Bishkek than I'd imagined. I'm sure that the long straight road that the traffic wizzed down at high speed was a contributing factor.

Even before getting my first lift a bit on my bike broke. It was a mounting bracket for my not so fabulous new rack. When I surveyed the broken piece it was pretty clear that this was bound to happen sooner or later. I was able replace it with something that I hope will last longer. I started formulating plans if further failures occurred on the rack, which in hindsight may not have been a good idea.

It wasn't until 11am that I got my first lift & soon after being dropped off I got my second. I'd hoped to hitchhike all the way to Kochkor & thereby get back the lost time for the return to Bishkek. However traffic was all going along Lake Issyk-kul & very little my way. Normally I would have loved this but today I needed cars to score a lift. After a short while I gave up on hitchhiking & cycled along what was a pretty nice road.

Soon after the road left the lake the countryside dried out & became quite sandy with low sparse grass covering the flatter land. On each side of the road rose dry hills with the sharp edges that come from a lack of vegetarian. It was reminiscent of the mountains in the desert around Yazd in Iran. I would have appreciated it more had it not been for wicked wind that was only a fraction from being from where I was going. Happily the road shifted direction & dropped into a narrow valley, I now had a tailwind which propelled me to Kochkor.

I'd decided that it would have to be a long day in order to try & catch up. That task made even more difficult when I got a message from Nick that the meeting place would now be Naryn, 110km up the road. To my delight I discovered frozen chicken pieces in a small grocery store in Kochkor. Such finds are rare & I grabbed my chance. I couldn't find a spot any better than 5m back from the road & I used almost all that was left of the day unsuccessfully looking for something better. I only just pitched my tent before night fall. While I was setting things up a local farmer watched & talked to me in Russian. He seemed to have difficulty comprehending that someone wouldn't speak it & continued to talk even though I told him several times that I didn't understand. I eventually ignored him & waited for him to get bored & leave, which eventually he did. Not being too sure of the provenance of the chicken I cooked it for a long time & that was after thawing it. I didn't eat until 10pm but it was worth it.

I cycled 106 km in 6 hours & 13 minutes
Total so far 9579 km in 140 days
GPS Coordinates of end point - N 42Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â°10.406, E 75Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â°40.427