Author Archive
Friday, October 3rd, 2008
Lingering in Mae Sot
We’re still in the border town Mae Sot. Our plans to leave after a couple nights were put on hold when Friedel’s ear infection refused to clear up (it’s been over two weeks now - don’t put a cotton bud in your ear, we know that now!) and we got some bad news about our boat to Seattle. Apparently there was a mistake with the cargo company in Germany that runs the boat and they confirmed a cabin for us when there actually wasn’t one. The ship we thought we were taking is full and we’re not on it. Darn!
That threw our perfectly formed plans into a bit of chaos so between runs to the hospital for more antibiotics we tried to figure out ‘Option B’ for leaving New Zealand. No other ships go to the west coast of North America so unless there’s a cancellation it looks like we’ll just get a flight to one of the big cities, most likely San Francisco or Los Angeles.
It’s disappointing but not all bad. We’ll save a fair bit of money over the cost of taking the ship and we’ll get a bit more time to explore a beautiful part of America. Whatever lies ahead, we’re happy to take it as it comes and have a great time.
Of course we’ve done a bit of walking around Mae Sot in this time. We discovered a great Canadian restaurant of all things here, run by a guy from Toronto who makes the best burgers we’ve ever tasted! He also has a large menu filled with things like bagels, cheddar cheese, back bacon and other delights we haven’t eaten in a long time. It’s safe to say we’ve been his most loyal customers the past few days.
We also rode down to the border with Myanmar. It was a very bizarre sight to see the ‘Friendship Bridge’ between the two countries with its official checkpoints and then locals crossing the river that runs beneath the bridge on inner tubes. As many as six people pile onto one inner tube, one fellow pedals and a few minutes later they emerge on the other side. Several armed guards look on and no one seems too bothered about the whole spectacle. In most other countries you’d probably be shot or arrested if you tried crossing this way and we haven’t yet figured out why the authorities permit it.
Now we’ve been in Mae Sot for four days and the ear infection is finally clearing up so we’ll be on our way tomorrow. Our destination is Kanchanaburi, just west of Bangkok and about a week away.
No Comments » - Posted in Cycling Trips, Journal Entries, Thailand by friedel
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
Watching Myanmar
440km Chiang Mai to Mae Sot
A few nights ago, we sat at a picnic table outside our riverside cabin in the small town of Mae Salit Luang, soothing our muscles after a gruelling day cycling up impossibly steep hills. It was a lot more pushing than cycling, actually. As the sunset colours came out over the surrounding mountain peaks, a family slowly made their way down the mud-coloured river in a long, wooden fishing boat. We were in Thailand. They were in Myanmar. Just a river separated us, with no guards or border posts in sight. Through a crack in the trees, on the other bank we could just make out their simple home: a hut on stilts with a roof of dried leaves.
We won’t be going to Myanmar this trip – not for lack of desire but to really see the country we’d have to fly there. Land border crossings don’t allow you beyond the first district. And, as always, time is running short. But for this evening and the next one that followed we had our own tiny window on the life on one family in Myanmar. We watched them fish, walk to their fields and work by the river’s edge collecting various reeds and plants. At night their hut fell silent, no lights and certainly no satellite dish. It was hard to tell if there was even a dirt track from their home to the main road, although there must have been some way for them to reach the rest of the country. Just across the river in Thailand it was a totally different world with shops, a few restaurants, two schools and a health centre.
The next day we had another view of the shape Myanmar is in, thanks to the useless, brutal and greedy regime running the country. (more…)
1 Comment » - Posted in Cycling Trips, Journal Entries, Thailand by friedel
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
Behind the scenes
Have we dropped off the face of the earth? You could be forgiven for wondering! It’s been over a week since we travelled the road to Chiang Mai, passing sulphuric hot springs and over a mountain pass on the way. The climb was challenging but not enough to tire us out for quite this long. So, what have we been up to? Well, now that’s a very long list…
We were fortunate to find the Wild Orchid Guesthouse in Chiang Mai. It’s one of those places that has a rare combination of friendly owners, clean and comfortable rooms, a reasonable price and free wireless internet with an excellent connection to the world. Result? A flurry of work going on behind the scenes on our site. Just check out the Resources section and you’ll see how much information we’ve added.
Friedel has also had an exciting breakthrough with her travel writing, getting an article published in an upcoming issue of Transitions Abroad, with the possibility of more to come. Paid work is always welcome but more than that it’s an honour to be included alongside big names in the industry like Rick Steeves and Tim Leffel. The article will be published in October. Watch this space!
When not attached to the computer, we’ve been getting medical tests done (nothing serious, just the usual yearly checkups), renewing our gear, cutting our hair, sorting paperwork, sending home stuff we don’t need and - most exciting of all - planning our trip to Australia and New Zealand! We now plan to be on our next continent by mid-December, which will leave us with at least five months to explore before we board a cargo ship to Seattle. Yes, a cargo ship! It’s hard to know which we’re more excited about, going ‘down under’ or sailing the seas.
And finally, you’ll notice that picture slideshow up there. We discovered a site called redbubble and decided to offer up some of our best photos for sale as cards, prints and posters. You can see them by clicking on the photos in this post or go to our redbubble gallery to browse our images.
Are we ever hitting the road again? Even with all our current comforts and the never ending list of work we could do, we are getting itchy feet. As soon as we can finalise our arrangements for the cargo ship, we’ll set a course west towards Burma and then south towards Bangkok. From there it’s on to Malaysia and soon afterwards Perth, Australia.
2 Comments » - Posted in Australia, Cycling Trips, Journal Entries, New Zealand, Thailand by friedel
Saturday, August 30th, 2008
It’s flat. Honest…
195km Vientiane to Vang Vieng
After our marathon bus ride to Vientiane and a day of sightseeing, we decide to leave the capital city on Friday for our ride north to Luang Prabang. There’s no natural light in our hotel room but we still manage to wake up around 5am and after cooking breakfast outside on the patio we’re ready to go. These are the best hours for cycling, when the air is cool and refreshing.
Our initially promising early start is soon delayed when we stop at a motorbike shop to fix a very slow leak in Friedel’s front tire. It’s been losing air for about three months now and we’ve just topped it up once a week, being too lazy to find the hole in the tube. Today we decide we’ll sort it out so we stop by the shop to use their compressed air and start to pull the tube out. We instantly attract the attention of four underemployed mechanics and for a moment we wonder if we shouldn’t just get them to do this but then we remember a photo another cyclist showed us of a Lao repair to his tube that went wrong. The patch turned into a big bubble when the tire was inflated. Better to do it ourselves, we think. Unfortunately our five minute stop turns into a half hour job when we realise the new tube we’ve put in also has a hole and it’s a quick leak this time! Off comes the tire again, we patch the hole and eventually we’re on our way. (more…)
No Comments » - Posted in Cycling Trips, Journal Entries, Laos by friedel
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
Happy under the clouds
140km Don Det to Champasak
We’ve never smiled quite so much at grey skies as we have lately here in oppressively hot and humid Southeast Asia. Under normal conditions we’re quickly covered in sweat and by the end of the day a rash spreads across our legs and backs from all the salt that sits on our skin. We get sunburnt too because we can’t seem to find a sunscreen that stays applied well when we sweat. Under cloud cover though it’s a different story. Feeling still a bit burnt from our journey through northern Cambodia, we breathed a sigh of relief when we pulled the curtains back on Sunday to discover the sun well hidden.
After a few days of relaxing it was time to leave the islands in the Mekong, the highlight of which was our journey across Don Som. It was a short trip that took only a couple hours, a way to branch the distance between two more populated islands, but our few hours on this completely untouristed patch of land were adventurous and fascinating. When we landed at the pier, just a five minute journey from Don Det, we immediately noticed the land all around was covered in a few inches of water. We’ve seen this many times now and it almost seems normal to start stripping off our shoes and socks as we arrive at a dock before plodding in bare feet through the muck to get to higher ground. (more…)
