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Blog in english

Along the Mekong: Cambodia

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June 2016

After our monstruos day of mud and two rest and exploring days we went off to cycle further along the Mekong. We pointed the bicycles north, eventually going to Laos. And oh boy – it was absolutely stunning! The Mekong Valley burst with green colors which were all the more intense after cycling through Cambodia’s dry and barren plains before.

There was really nothing more I could wish for. Some easy relaxing cycling on small but good roads. Lots of tiny villages with friendly people on the way.

About 25k north of Kampong Cham we took a ferry across the Mekong.

A bit after I noticed a bulge on my back tire. That’s not looking good!

And a short while later there was a “pfffff” sound and all the air was gone. Fortunately we still carried an old spare tire so with the help of at least half the village we were able to change it.

I fell in love with Cambodian houses. Not two of them look the same but each sports a lot of individual features and colors.

After fixing another flat we stopped for sugar cane juice and the obligatory group shot.

Shortly before arriving in Kratie, Torsten noticed his handlebar moving. Wait… That shouldn’t be happening, right? After examining it closer we found this:

Nooo!!! Mud-infested roads, tires exploding, handlebars breaking… What’s up lately? Well, what else to do than look for a solution. We spent the afternoon riding around town and asking in several bicycle shops if they had any handlebars. Not even dropbars, any handlebars. But there were none. The bicycle shops only sell entire bicycles but have no spare parts whatsoever. So Torsten talked to some bicycle shops in Pnomh Penh where we had just come from a few days ago. The offered to get handlebars from Thailand as they didn’t have the right one in stock, too.

Long story and lots of facebook chats short, it was all rather complicated and we weren’t sure if they could get the right part with the right measurements. So Torsten decided that his broken handlebar was still rideable as only the lower part of the dropbar had broken off. He mounted the brake to the frame and off we went!

Spoiler Alert: This makeshift solution held up fine until Hanoi, Vietnam!

After all that excitement it was nice to join the locals for some relaxation and a beautiful sunset at the riverside.

On the next morning we found our favorite breakfast food in Cambodia. Took us a while but it’s delicious!

And suddenly we spent our last full day riding in Cambodia. A few more beautiful houses and small roads…

… and after a visit to the morning market in Stung Treng we were off to Laos! This last stretch along the Mekong has really been stunningly beautiful and I loved cycling through all the small villages greeting many many children. Let’s see what awaits us further north!

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The Angkorian Experience: Nokor Bachay Temple

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May 2016

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Before coming to Cambodia we had decided not to visit Angkor Wat. Firstly it wasn’t really on our route, secondly it is rather expensive and thirdly, we are more interested in the things you discover by the road instead of the big tourist attractions. So the Nokor Bachay Pagoda close to Kampong Cham sparked our interest.

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There is a relatively new Pagoda built in the remains of an Angkorian temple.

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I always love the mixture of old and new…

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… and we found lots of interesting little details, too.

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I’m sure Nokor Bachay doesn’t have the magnificence of Angkor Wat itself. But on the other hand you can just wander around the temples almost by yourself. It was very quiet and the cloudy day added to the “Lost and Forgotten”-atmosphere of the temples. We loved spending some time there and exploring the grounds without crowds of tourists around us.

Blog in english

One of these days: Rainy season in Cambodia

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May 2016

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Can you see the clouds in the picture above? Well, they could have been tell tale sign enough but at that moment we were just busy admiring the temple. We were on our way along the Mekong from Pnomh Penh north bound towards Laos.

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And suddenly it started. Raining, no pouring. Within seconds, sheets of water started hurling down on us and we were lucky in finding shelter in a cafe / garage kind of business. About half an hour later it was all over and we started cycling again. And this is how we discovered the difference between Cambodian dirt roads in rainy season and dry season. It all started innocently enough with just a few puddles of water here and there…

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…until they got a little bigger…

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Oh well, isn’t cycle touring and dirt just like French fries and ketchup anyway?

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We weren’t the only ones facing the mud by the way.

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The chains and cassettes were not happy.

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It could have been really beautiful you know. Lots of these stunning houses on stilts, each individual and different from one another. But this day just turned out to be one of the most challenging on our entire tour.

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The mud just got worse and worse. A few times it was so slippery that we had to push. But even pushing it was hard to keep the bicycles from falling down. Oh and fall down we did. Torsten once and me 3 (!) times! Until this day we had never fallen off the bicycles for the entire year of touring. Today was different. First the slippery mud got to Torsten, then I cycled over a curb in the dark and found myself lying on the ground. A while later I stopped to wait for Torsten and a dog came running and barking towards me. And I fell. While standing. Not a particularly proud moment. The third fall I cannot even remember anymore.

What I can remember is excessive pushing and cleaning. You see, the slippery mud wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was the sticky mud that stuck to our tyres, brakes, and everything else like glue. For a big part of the day we cycled or pushed the bicycles for a few meters and stopped because the wheels wouldn’t turn anymore. At first we used whatever stick we could find to brush off the big chunks of mud from brakes and tyres but in the end we went in there with our bare hands. Lost a bit of skin in the process but couldn’t have cared less.

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The pushing against resistance reminded me a lot of the day in Australia where we ended up pushing our bicycles through soft sand. Only this time no one came to save us. Well not with a 4 wheel drive anyway. The locals were still fantastic. Many of them gave us sticks, water or even knives to clean off the mud, others helped to push and a few people told us about smaller trails avoiding at least a part of the muddy road. So in the end we made it because we always somehow do. We decided not to camp somewhere along the road but to cycle until Kampong Cham. We needed a shower, a place to rest properly and somewhere to clean the bicycles.

So we kept cycling. I don’t know how exactly because at that point I was beyond tired. But after almost a year of touring I do believe in the following mantra: “It’ll pass.” Because however much a situation sucks, however tired I am, it will pass. Tomorrow is another day and I won’t feel like this forever. So we rode until Kampong Cham, calmy stopped to fix two flats two km before the guest house and finally arrived. The friendly owners allowed us graciously to store our very dirty bicycles inside and we found some food and went to bed. Tomorrow will be another day.

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Funnily we woke up to this. Funny because it seems like such a stark contrast to all the mud and dirt from yesterday. p1190109

We had decided that we would need a day for resting and cleaning and after breakfast we did just that.   p1190114 p1190117 p1190118

In the afternoon we rode the unloaded bicycles over Kampong Cham’s famous bamboo bridge which is newly built every year. Amazing how strong bamboo is! Can you spot the car in the picture?

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Some leisurely halfhearted cycling around the island led us to this temple…

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… and another one of the beautiful houses on stilts.

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But to be honest all I wanted to do was nothing. No new impressions, no new challenges, no more mud. Not today anyway.

See you tomorrow!

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Into Pnomh Penh – Getting a taste of Cambodia’s challenges

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May 2016

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Leaving Battambang after a week we were both happy to be on the road again.  The two days cycling towards Pnomh Penh led us past a lot of agriculture and this interesting earthen structure. We couldn’t quite figure out what it was for though. p1190010

 

p1190019We cycled past temples… p1190025

lots of houses on stilts…

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and found the river which led us into Pnomh Penh. Unfortunately there was some major road construction happening. So the going was rather tough and we were a bit slower than expected. When it was already getting dark two people on a motorcycle rode past us and kept looking back at us. Eventually they stopped and talked to us. And this is how we met Ary and Aude, two French staying in Cambodia to live and work. They invited us to stay with them but as we already had organized a warmshowers host to stay with we decided to meet up for dinner the next day. What a warm welcome!

p1190030_v1 Over the river we had another surprise waiting for us. Our hosts Raphael and Claudia were living right beside the Mekong in a beautiful house with a garden.  p1190040  p1190048 p1190049 p1190053

We spent our days in Pnomh Penh relaxing, cycling around the city and also gave the bicycles a good clean. Cambodia’s secondary roads left a little dust where there should be no dust:

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We also payed a visit to Tuol Sleng Prison where the Khmer Rouge incarcerated and tortured people they didn’t agree with. Not an easy place to be at until today. I was especially interested in the portrayed stories of people who had been forced to resettle somewhere else / to marry someone they didn’t want to marry / to work for something they didn’t believe in. All of this happened not too long ago and all these stories are still a part of today’s society.

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On two days we ended up staying with Ary and Aude in the city as the ferry over the river only runs until 10pm. They cooked a fantastic dinner for us and introduced us to the French way of slowly eating for about 3 hours. We also tagged along for some drinks in the evening and found ourselves in a district that could as well be in Italy or Spain. With lots of small bars and restaurants it looked distinctly European.

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Pnomh Penh was an interesting place to be. It was a cocktail of extremes with simple Cambodian eateries on the one side and fancy French bakeries with fancy prices on the other side. Shiny malls and Tuol Sleng Prison. Lots of old scooters and a few expensive 4 wheel drives. And everything in between.

It is very easy for foreigners to get a Cambodian business visa for a year to stay. Volontourism is ever rising and the industry of charity is booming still. There is an ongoing discussion about the effects of Western charity and for anyone considering going to volunteer or work in Cambodia I recommend reading this article on volontourism and Cambodian orphanages :

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2012/05/201252243030438171.html

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With a lot of new impressions and things to think about we left Pnomh Penh after a few days for the countryside. We planned on following the mighty Mekong for a while to see where it would lead us… More on that next time!

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Blog in english

Racing to Cambodia – on passion, hospitality and being sick

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May 2016

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Man it was hard to leave Bangkok. We loved the family atmosphere at Toom’s place and will be forever grateful to him and all the people staying there for our time together. But our visa time was rapidly coming to an end and so we had four days to make it to Cambodia.

On spontaneous hospitality and a lot of passion

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As it was still unbearably hot and no clouds in sight we decided to look for accommodation in Chachoengsao. We asked and asked but it was all too pricey for us. It already got dark when a passing road cyclist took pity on us and ended up leading us to a friend’s place. There we would be sure to find a place to rest and spend the night. And oh my how we did!

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Mit Saladin and his family created a very special place indeed. The Saladin Cafe is a former workshop / now cafe / restaurant / bar / future hostel. They are in the progress of building some rooms where travelers can stay and we got to test one of them. It is in the cellar with very low ceilings and will thus be one of our most memorable sleeping spaces.

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Love the atmosphere! There was also a toilet and a bath tub but fortunately not ready to use yet…

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… which is why we got to use the family bath room! And this is hands down the most beautiful nature bathroom I have ever seen!

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Of course it helps when there is no winter :). In the morning we enjoyed some freshly made noodle soup and got together for a photo shoot with Mit Saladin and his family. What a fantastic start after our break in Bangkok!

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Going to Cambodia

Afterwards we left the populated areas and enjoyed the hell out of the small roads leading us to Cambodia.

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And just before we entered a natural reserve we rolled over another big mile stone: The first 10.000 km! Not that numbers are that important but it amazes me that you can get that far on a bicycle. Not an engine powered car / motorcycle / plane, no, just a simple bicycle. Here’s to the next 10.000 km – I wonder where they will lead us…?

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For the time being we were still in Thailand, cycling through a natural reserve. We had been warned before that it would be dangerous cycling through as there are elephants living here. And said elephants are known to chase cars and motorcyclists. Oh well. The only evidence of those beautiful animals we saw were those heaps of shit. Which seemed most interesting to a bunch of butterflies. What can I say, tastes vary a lot!

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It was still unbearably hot during our last days in Thailand. But the appearing clouds promised a soon to come rainy season and with that some relief from the heat.

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We cycled past many of these spirit houses that Thai people often have in front / near their houses.

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On the very last day of our Visas we finally entered Cambodia. Shamefully I have to admit that I was a bit confused about which side to cycle on. After leaving the crowded border most people seemed to drive on the right side which did confuse me a bit. Eventually Torsten asked me why I was cycling on the other side of the road. Ooops! After almost two years of driving and cycling on the left side it had become so normal that I totally forgot to check about Cambodia’s road laws. Oh well!

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For the rest of the day we turned away from the main road and cycled on dusty dry roads towards Battambang. Temperatures were at an all new high today and as I had an appointment for my last rabies vaccination at 5pm, it turned out to be a bit of a race against time and against the wish to just lie down in the shade and consume a bottle of sugar cane juice per hour.

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But we made it, I got my vaccination, we found a hostel and I got really sick the very next day.

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Which made us stay in Battambang for a week. With lots of tea and coffee, baguettes from one of the bakeries and ample down time it wasn’t too bad for me, but Torsten was getting restless. But sometimes there is just not much you can do except to wait it out. After about a week I finally got better and we set out towards Pnomh Penh. More on that next time!

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Blog in english

Busy, lazy, old and new – Bangkok has it all

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April 2016

Bangkok has given me everything that I needed without even knowing what that was. For a while now the city had been the goal we kept moving towards. Our list of errands was higher than ever and we were also looking for a little break from cycling. After being seriously overwhelmed by all the warmshowers and couchsurfing hosts on the two sites we took our friend Anselm’s advice and asked his friend Toom if we could stay with him for a while. I felt a bit nervous about that as we never actually met Anselm himself, let alone Toom. Oh boy was that unnecessary!

Toom’s couchsurfing / warmshowers / friends paradise

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Toom has an apartment in the north of Bangkok and there are almost always people staying at his place. For some reasons that are his story to tell he likes having guests and friends around and due to the relaxed and inviting atmosphere most of those people tend to stay a bit longer than planned.

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There is not a lot of privacy as everyone shares the available rooms. We slept on beds or mattresses on the floor, as close to the fans as possible to get some relief from the April heat wave. And I absolutely loved it. Usually I need some time to myself and some privacy at that. But somehow at Toom’s place I did not miss it at all. First of all, Toom is an amazing person. Funny, softspoken, interesting to talk to, he is one of these people who manages to include people into the group so that everyone feels welcome. And we met so many more awesome people during our stay and I loved all the talks, the cooking and eating together, the time to just relax and not do much. The feeling of having a home base for a while is something that we don’t have very often during this journey and thus enjoye even more.

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Cycling in Bangkok

We had quite a few errands to run during our time in Bangkok. From finding affordable sunscreen with a high SPF to finally getting our Chinese Visa and repair / replace my waterlogged phone.

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At first we tried using public transport which was partly fast (Metro) / fun (boat) / not moving at all (several busses) / not showing up (busses again). So in the end we cycled mostly everywhere. From reading many blogs I had thought that cycling in Bangkok would be a nightmare but it was actually fine. We were usually faster than public transport (excluding the metro maybe) and the traffic didn’t bother me too much. Yes you have to be a 100% alert at all times and listening to your favourite drum n bass band at high volume is probably not the best idea.

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But given that traffic was either stuck in gridlock or slow moving most of the time it was actually fine for cycling. We’re not talking fine as in meandering along a quiet country lane, it’s still Bangkok. But you know, fine. Overall traffic here is really just too much in my opinion. Too many cars, too many traffic jams.

High and low, old and new

p1180751 We didn’t really do any sightseeing per se but cycling through the city we still discovered a lot. To me Bangkok seems to have it all. There are the huge skyscrapers but also small wooden houses nestled in between sometimes.

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There are crazy busy 8 lane roads and then you take one or two turns and find yourself in a narrow motorcycle road in old Chinatown. There are touristy areas but it’s not hard to avoid them.

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There are western supermarkets and a myriad of local markets which are absolutely amazing. Lots of parks, gardens, nice cafes, museums and so much more. My tip to stay sane: Don’t try to do it all, it might overwhelm you. Take it slow, get lost in it all and find a thousand big and small surprises.

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In the end we stayed for a full two weeks. When we noticed we were both surprised as the time had passed in an instant seemingly. There was just so much to see and do, people to meet and talk to, coffee and beers to be drunk and food to be eaten.

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For all of that, thanks to everyone of you and especially to you Toom!! Never ever would it have been the same without you and your oasis of friends. Thanks heaps and please do come visit us anytime!

It was also fantastic to meet May, one of Torsten’s friends back from his studies in Bangkok and to see Lily, our friend from Penang again!

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Cycletouring Thailand – from Prachuap Khiri Khan to Bangkok

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April 2016

After a few days of rest we left Prachuap Khiri Khan early in the morning and cycled past Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park.

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When we got hungry there was always a small store or restaurant nearby.

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Sometimes when we took a break at the perfect beach location…

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… the perfect food (fresh Papaya Salad) even came to us!

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Life cannot get much better really! On our way to Bangkok we still encountered several highlights though:

We cycled past some stunning salt fields:

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We also visited Tha Kha Floating Market which is just a bit south west of Bangkok. There are some tourists there but overall it was pretty quiet and nice to just wander around and sit on the dock watching people.

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For our last night before Bangkok we had contacted a warmshowers host in Nakhon Pathom who had written to us that he wasn’t home but invited us to sleep at his cafe. We accepted gladly as this meant that we would have a short day cycling into Bangkok. And this is how we found another paradise…

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We were heartily welcomed at Kumnumm cafe which doubles as a book and art store. It felt like a small oasis in the city and was a good place to relax for an afternoon. So we enjoyed a good night’s sleep and took our sweet time the next morning before cycling into Bangkok… More on that next time!

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Cycletouring Thailand – Ranong to Prachuap Khiri Khan

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April 2016

After getting our first rabies shots in Ranong, enjoying the hell out of the small town Songkran festival and doing a visa run to Kawthaung, Myanmar, we left in the general direction of Bangkok.

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Songkran was still going on, so we enjoyed the occasional splash (or bucket) of water over our heated bodies. Oh and we got some face paint :). I loved cycling though the country side and meeting people with water buckets and paint along the road. Everyone was very respectful and we were usually asked if they could pour water over us. Somehow it felt like a blessing each time.

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Four our route planning we trusted Google Maps and were usually quite happy with it. Many of the smaller roads changed between tarmac and gravel a lot but we were so happy about the beautiful rides out in the countryside that it didn’t really matter.

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A short while before Chumphon we met Frank, a German long distance cyclist. He had started in Germany and was planning to go at least to Australia (which he did in the meantime).  It was awesome meeting him and we quickly found a small store, bought some drinks and chatted for about two hours. We also liked him because he was carrying even more luggage than us :).

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After Chumphon we cycled along the beach. It was absolutely stunning scenery wise…

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…what you can’t see though is the heat. April is the hottest month in Thailand, just before the rainy season starts. We often cycled in about 40 degrees Celsius. Combined with the high humidity that is not a perfect combination. Of course we tried starting early each day (and sometimes we were even successful) but when it has 35 degrees Celsius at 8am there is really only so much you can do.

One windy day we tried camping at some sand dunes and even put up the tent. Of course at about 8pm the wind completely died and our tent turned into a sauna. So we just slept on the beach. The nights didn’t really cool off any more and so we spent a restless night, sweating continuously in the humid 30 degree heat. After that we decided that camping during the hot season in South East Asia is not for us. I keep admiring people who can always sleep outside but I can’t seem to get any rest when it’s that hot. Thankfully there is a lot of accommodation with relatively cheap fan rooms in Thailand.

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Food was available really is almost everywhere around us. We especially loved finding those small town night markets where everyone just buys a lot of different food to bring home to their families. It just bums me out how much plastic is used to pack all the delicacies. After documenting that here we promised ourselves to use our reusable containers to get street food whenever possible.

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Writing this entry on a cold November day from Germany I can’t really see the appeal of very sweet iced coffee any longer. But when cycle touring in that heat there’s just nothing better than a pitcher of strong iced coffee. Mmhhhh…

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After a few more days of cycling on the beach…

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… and on some inland dirt roads…

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… we arrived in Prachuap Khiri Khan and took some days off. We slept in, wandered around, had coffees and frequented the local night market a lot. It seems that we take more and more breaks compared to the beginning of our cycle tour. It might just be the continuous heat or also the overall length of our tour and the need to let all the impressions sink in. Who knows. For now we love our time in Thailand! p1180546 p1180548 p1180549 p1180555 p1180563

Blog in english

The pleasures of home – a break in Germany

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Some of you might remember – there was this wedding I didn’t want to miss in September. So after about a year of cycling we changed our plans slightly, ditched the bicycles in southern China and boarded a lot of trains and busses through China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Poland to finally step off in Berlin, Germany, about a month later. We did miss our bicycles but since I had experienced quite a bit of travel fatigue in the past months I was all for a change of pace. And I fell head over heels in love with travelling by train.
But all of that is nothing in comparison to arriving at my home town train station and hugging my parents for the first time in over a year. Or to actually being there to help with wedding preparations and thus creating some more family stories instead of listening to those stories over the phone. And oh yeah, there’s all the food that came with us celebrating being together.
Suffice to say, I’m pretty happy at the moment. There’s time for rest, time to be alone, time to process some of all the things that happened. And also time to organise some things for the rest of our trip. After two years of travelling, pretty much all of my clothes have been mended at least once, have either several holes in them or are totally sun bleached or stretched beyond wearable. So some replacements are due. Also, my sleeping pad literally popped a while back in Hanoi and I had to build a funny charging construction with a sawing needle for my laptop as the original needle thing broke. So, also time for a new (used) one. Oh and we’re getting a second passport with hopefully some Visa stamps in it.
But most importantly, there is time to see and hug all the people I’ve been missing a lot for the past two years. With all the Internet, cheap phone plans and messaging apps we have, there is nothing like talking to each other in person.
So, don’t worry, there will be more updates and stories on our cycling trip some time soon. But for now I’m a bit busy trying to locate a used ThermaRest sleeping pad and coordinate a lot of visits to friends and family. See you all soon!

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Island days on Koh Payam

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April 2016

So how to cycle in Thailand and not spend some time on an island? Exactly. That’s why our next destination was Koh Payam, just a couple of hours off the coast of Ranong. We spent a few days there, enjoying the beach, sunsets, cycling around, cooking and eating out, doing nothing. Not a lot of stories to tell here, so enjoy the pictures:

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It was pure bliss until we were innocently looking at some coffee at a shop and I felt something climbing up my leg… Wait. I looked down only to see a baby monkey on my leg trying to bite me. So this was not a deserted beach with monkeys in the trees or the monkey forest in Ubud. This was in the middle of the main village on Koh Payam and apparently the coffee shop owner’s pet monkey was trying to play with me. Or something.

Anyway, nothing really happened but as there is still some danger of getting rabies, this incident cut our island time a bit short. So we left Koh Payam first thing next morning which was also my 30th birthday… More on that next time!