Adventure Travel featuring Bicycle Touring, Organic Vegtables, and ESL

Teaching in Thailand to Trekking in Nepal

2009-10-04T03:56:00.000-07:00

Chiang Mai, Thailand was my home for 6 weeks.

Ancient temple in Chiang Mai/Temple dog/looking down on Chiang Mai from Doi Suthep Temple

After crossing the border Laos border into Thailand by bicycle I hopped on a bus to Chiang Mai where I spent an intensive one month obtaining my TEFL certification through Siam Education. Although I have taught English and varying subjects in the past I never actually learned "how" to teach. The course opened up a door into teaching that I never knew was there. The 4 week course was broken into the two weeks of thai language/grammar/teaching methods and the two final weeks of actual teaching practices and lesson planning. I got to have the experience of tediously preparing lesson plans then teaching hour long lessons to Thai students from kindergarten 3 year olds up to college nursing students in their mid-20s. The Thai language lessons proved to be immensely rewarding as well. My interactions with locals changed drastically when I was able to communicate in Thai. Even though I only mastered basic conversation people responded with beaming faces and a willingness to help me continue learning the language. The Thai language lessons also served as a daily reminder how hard learning a new language can be. What we think as a few simple words or phrases to a new language learner start off as sounds then eventually take on meaning. It was a nice reminder when our class spent an entire 2 hours learning to say in Thai, "how are you?, I’m fine, or I'm not well" then when we ourselves teach language learners we must keep the lessons simple and concise. The Thai language also is a tonal language so we spent hours trying to learn the different tonal inflections. For example, "Suay" with a rising tone means beautiful in Thai and "Suay" in a low tone means bad luck. At first the tonal differential was almost unnoticeable but after practice we started to pick up on the differences, yet I am still leaps and bounds from mastering the tones.

Siam Education/My kindergarten class!/The whole class out to lunch:

The TEFL students, including myself, found the Thai students to have a strong eagerness to learn and kindness towards others that isn't often found in the West. This time in Thailand I really felt that I was able to connect with the culture and people. Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand is easily a city that I could live and work in. There are loads of ex-pats working, especially teaching in the city.

Graduation day!/Jane and I at Siam Education

I said goodbye to Thailand and headed to Kathmandu, Nepal 3 days ago to meet back up with Zach who just finished an amazing 1200 kms cycle across Tibet on some of the highest roads in the world. He is preparing a blog post about his own adventures, but I can promise the pictures and experiences are unbelievable. Other exciting news, our good friend Victor from Seattle just met us in Kathmandu! We are ecstatic to have him here with us and so far hes loving Kathmandu, although anxious to go trekking in the usual Victor fashion. We are leaving Monday morning (Oct 5th) from Kathmandu and taking a 10 hour bus ride to town of Besishahar, marking the start of the Annapurna circuit trek. We are giving ourselves 20 days of trekking to hike the Annapurna Circuit, the highest point is Thorung La pass at the height of 5416m or 17,769 feet. Having 20 days will give us plenty of extra times to acclimatize to the altitude throughout the trek and we are hiking the circuit backwards which apparently is better for acclimatization. The peak trekking time is now and there are many tea houses and accommodation along the way, although we are planning to camp mostly along the way.

Buildings lining a river in Kathmandu/Bulls!/Tibetan stupa within the city

After the trekking I will remain in Kathmandu to volunteer teach while Zach and Victor head to Thailand for a month. We are both unsure where we will meet up after they leave Nepal but we are still planning to work in Southern India come Dec/Jan. Since arriving in Kathmandu I have been busy meeting and spending time with the cycling group that went through Tibet with Zach and also running around buying last minute gear items for the trek. Our friends Katrina and Mike are leaving Nepal for Canada at the end of this week after more than a year cycle touring. Having cycled in 5 countries with Kat and Mike we are sad that they won't be continuing the journey with us.

We will be out of internet range during the trek for the next 4 weeks. Our entire trek is registered with the Nepal Government Trekkers Management System and the guesthouse contact in Kathmandu where our bikes and bags are stored is Hotel Holy Lodge. We love and miss you back home. Its hard to believe that we have almost been gone 1 year, time flys.

Hello and Goodbye: China

2009-09-11T04:15:00.000-07:00

Let me first say that I know how disappointed all you readers must be at the lack of pictures, I apologize but in my haste I left the USB reader with E. thinking it wouldn't be a problem to find a computer with a card reader... and oh how I was wrong!

The more important thing is that I made it to China and I only had to leave two wrenches behind at airport security! The flight was easy, fitting my full size bike into a bike box made for a 20" bike was much more difficult. I left Laos rainy and fitful as it seems that the wet season had finally begun.

The first leg of my multi-stop flight took me to Bangkok for an 11 hour layover. Not a bad airport to spend a night in but I have to say that the air conditioning really starts pumping around 3am and unless you're prepared it can be a cool night. The international wing is alive into the wee hours of the morning with all the incoming and outgoing flights which means that everything from the snack bars to the high-end duty free jewelry shops was still open for business well past my ability to stay awake. I wandered the corridors for a few hours wearing myself out and finally settled down on one of a very few padded couches (in concourse E I believe) for some sleep.

My flight to Chengdu left the next morning on time and as soon as we took off the cabin crew started in with their excellent service, thank you Bangkok Airways! I had a full meal, two coffees, a snack, and watched a ridiculous movie in the 5 hours it took me to arrive. When I got the announcement about our imminent descent I craned my neck from my aisle seat toward the window and all I could see was a thick cloud cover. I kept my eye on the window as we continued down and still a milky white persisted outside. Then I noticed the haze was turning ever browner and I started to make out the shape of buildings, roads, cars, all things city like. We were in fact almost to the touchdown part of the flight and I would guess I could see about 10 blocks out past the airport before the smog had obscured absolutely everything else. Hmmm. I sped through the airport, both the security checkpoint and the immigration desk were a breeze and they didn't even x-ray my clumsily packaged bike box.

The hostel I booked with had a van waiting for me when I arrived, which made the hour trip into the heart of the city that much less of a hassle. On arriving Kat and Mike were already checked in; it was great to reconnect with them after our abrupt split up in Vietnam. I also got to meet Bob, a true adventurer who having arrived in Chengdu with a set of panniers, some camping gear, and a dream to cycle in Tibet, had happened upon Kat and Mike and decided to join up with our group. Mike and Kat had helped him sort out the bike question through a great local mechanic, tourer, visionary, and all around great guy Hans who built up a nice BMC Virus for him. We spent a few days running around Chengdu which is an incredibly easy to navigate and interesting city with every modern amenity any westerner could ever want. Hans took us on a 90km round trip ride out past the city center and up a nice twisty pass where we got to enjoy softball sized local peaches and a great view (with a bit less smog). When we got back to his shop Hans told us that the 45kms we'd cycled away from Chengdu still had us inside the city limits! Whoa!

As the days passed more of the group arrived. Nathan, who'd been cycling in China already (and who'd already made a bid for Lhasa without a permit and had been turned back just weeks before) arrived next and added Kiwi fuel to the fire of stories and experiences from the road that kept us all up late laughing over beers. After Nathan came Adrian, an Ozzy, who'd also been cycling in China already. Marnus arrived from South Africa after many hours in transit with two days to spare and a great classic steel bike and minimalist gear. Billy arrived last with the longest travel itinerary having flown from South America to Las Vegas with one day to sort out his gear (and all Kat's food requests) before taking a multi-leg flight from Las Vegas to Chengdu! Billy also kindly brought along my tent and a brand spanking new Kelty sleeping bag of mine that my mom had graciously gathered and shipped off to Las Vegas a few days before. With everyone gathered, bikes tuned up, snacks galore, and adventure in the air we set off for the train to Lhasa; which is where things got really interesting.

Our tour organizer from Dreams Travel had told us that our bikes would cost us excess baggage fees but would be loaded onto the luggage car of the train... well turns out there is no and has never been any luggage car for this train. We arrived at the station 2 hours early only to discover that our bikes would have to go on another cargo train for god knows how much, and would arrive 5 days later! Never mind though, we went and got in the Lhasa train line with all our stuff to see what they'd do with us. First they made us take off all our bags and the front wheels before we could get in the terminal. We hobbled two at a time, one with bags and one with a bike for 8 rounds of this to get all our stuff inside the train building... saying nothing of getting checked in for our own train this just got us to the next line! After a lot of negotiation they took our tickets, passports, and permits and told us to wait until all the other passengers had loaded and then to load our stuff in. We waited and waited while hundreds of people streamed past us bound for our train. Finally we got the signal to start bringing stuff through - again in waves we moved our bags and then gear to a waiting room. Once in the waiting room we moved the same gear in waves again to the train platform all the while the train is full and we're the last ones to board. We got all the baggage in and then started jamming the bikes into the vestibules where the control panels and toilets sat at the junction of each car. The train people were horrified but we just kept bringing them in until every one was loaded haphazardly and the train started moving! The officials hounded us and we moved the bikes about 6 times before they were satisfied but we did it, we'd gotten all our stuff and our people on the train! The train staff really didn't know what to make of us but they couldn't kick us off so we just stood our ground, bungeed our bikes together and that was that! Wheels and panniers lay everywhere around our bunks and it was a bit of a pain to have to sleep with all my luggage at my feet, making my bed fit for someone maybe 3 foot 5.

Never the less, we were off and headed for Tibet!

When you go out step on the dog, when you come back step on the frog

2009-09-11T03:18:00.001-07:00

The title is an irresistable outtake extolling the virtues of hard work found in a Lao childrens book of proverbs picked up at Big Brother Mouse in Luang Prabang. The translation explained that you should get up and start your day early enough to find the dogs still sleeping at the doorstep, and you should return from your studies and chores late enough that the frogs have come out.

It's strange how Laos can feel so laid back and at the same time the people can be so dilligent and hard working. Don't get me wrong, these guys know how to relax too but I still haven't gotten up early enough to acutally see the first of the morning market stalls being set up - and I've gotten up early... In Luang Prabang, similarly, the night market is still breaking down when I'm stumbling back to my hotel bleary eyed from a long day walking the streets of town, snapping photos, and sampling the local dishes. In one of the wonderful garden bars, also in Luang Prabang, a waiter told us he starts work at 8am and works until close which is 11pm but in saying that he didn't seem to be complaining, rather he was just making conversation. Everyone here works too, like the grandmother in Vang Vieng who came out every evening with her clay oven and cast iron pancake form to set up shop on the dusty main alley that made up the tourist strip. She was still cooking up little silver dollar sized pancakes over glowing embers every time we were headed back to our bungalow; and she always greeted us with the same bright, wrinkled smile. It could be that these folks are putting on a good face for the tourists but I rather think they've sorted out how to enjoy themselves while they're doing whatever it is that they do to scrape by. I see the girls in the markets chatting and laughing loudly with the other sellers as they all lay stretched out behind their neatly arranged merchandise. The tuk tuk men, ever vigilant and always brandishing a big smile, huddle together playing cards or swing languidly in hammocks hung in the back of their rigs, laughing loudly with each other but never missing a potential fare in the passing foot traffic. Everywhere about the tourists districts we found the waiters, reception staff, and store clerks were students with a full class load working 6 or 7 days a week, most times putting in a full 8 hours at their jobs and although they make less in a day than a minimum wage worker flipping burgers back home, we found in talking with many of them that they frequently are able to send money home to support their families. I am in awe of the dedication and work ethic that seems to be intimately threaded through the cluture here and find it in great contrast to the often laisses-faire attitude I've encountered both as a worker and a customer in the states (and I'm not excluding myself from that passing judgement either!).

That said I've spent the last few days of my second round in Vientaine visiting the businesses that hire Lao staff and are working to empower the local people by helping them market their existing skills or by giving them new skills. One particularly interesting place was COPE which had a great UXO educational show along with being situated in the same complex as a wheelchair fabrication shop run by AAR but staffed by and for Lao natives with disabilities. The Visitors center was very well set up with interactive and engaging educational displays including a mock up of a traditional Lao style thatch home stocked with tons of daily life implements that had almost all been fashioned from the remnants of war. It's cool to see the instruments of war being re purposed but there's a bigger problem behind that industry. The scavenging of scrap metal is a lucrative business and secondhand metal detectors help villagers locate metal fragments but it's impossible for them to discern something that will fetch them a months wages in one go from something that can kill them with one swipe of the shovel. As you might well have guessed access to healthcare and especially prosthetics is a little convoluded here which makes what COPE is doing that much more important. If you've got a minute please check out their website and if you feel inspired please make a donation! We've actually spent quite a bit of time now visiting the UXO centers: UXO Laos in Luang Prabang which has a brand new visitors facility, MAG in Phonsavanh where we saw a great documentary about the Secret War in Lao called "Bombies", and now COPE here in Vientaine.

On a completely different thread:

As most of you know I'm headed to meet up with a few cyclists in Chengdu, China in a few days. From there the 8 of us will take the train to Lhasa, Tibet and cycle overland from there to Kathmandu. I'm excited and nervous and have been running around Vientaine trying to square up my gear and tie up any loose ends before I fly out. This will be my first big adventure abroad without E. and I'm excited and apprehensive at the same time. I'll try and post some blog updates along the way but the trip promises very few cities and thus very few options for checking email or getting online. I promise a big post from Kathmandu though!

In the mean time I hope everyone back home is enjoying the last days of a balmy summer and getting some

Reunion Blog Post

2009-08-17T02:29:00.000-07:00

And we're back together again! Z learned first hand the often red-tape laden measures travelers encounter when trying to obtain a visa in Vietnam, especially when that visa is for China. After multiple fruitless attempts it was clear he would not be getting said visa in Vietnam. With a quickly expiring Vietnamese visa he decided to head to Laos and re-apply for the China visa there, after a few friends had reported having luck with the embassy in Vientiane. Fate brought us back together as E was only a few days from, and headed to, Vientiane also! Z easily got his 2 month visa for China and E took advantage of the US embassy in town as she needed more pages added to an overfull passport! We spent a fabulous few days in Vientiane and instead of making a run for the China border after a short reunion, Z decided to stay on in Laos for a while opting to cycle North to Luang Prabang with his favorite tour partner.

Traveling in Laos continues to be serene and supremely rewarding with the beautiful countryside and the warmth of people. When E. awoke early for the 150 km long haul into Vientiane from Paxsan a mix of incense and misty fog blanketed the streets. A air of tranquility lined the roads. Women sat along the side walk quietly chatting while waiting patiently with bags of sticky rice resting in their laps for the passing monks collecting their morning alms. This Buddhist ritual takes place every morning around 5 am as the monks file out silently from the monasteries heading to collect food offerings, their gleaming silver collection bowls shinning in the morning rays. Buddhist chants and prayers rise up among the procession.

The ride between Vientiane and Vang Vieng was stunning, rainy, and anything but flat; introducing us to the mountainous landscape of Northern Laos with a few decent hills that shocked our legs and might have been the principle cause of some serious whining. We arrived in Vang Vieng around 2 in the afternoon and checked into a sweet little bungalow on the small island in the Nam Song river which our guidebook warns is a big party spot, complete with the backpackers holy trinity: all night bars, loud music, and cheap accommodation. Our bungalow was impossible to resist though, complete with a hammock on the deck and abutting the river it was an idyllic setting to spend a few days soaking up the atmosphere of the place.

Our sweet bungalow and sunset in Vang Veing:

We rushed off to catch one of the last runs of tubers heading out to the drop point a few kilometers upstream from town. Considered the rite of passage within SE Asia, Veng Veing has become legendary for its tubing experience. We piled into the back of a tuk-tuk with 8 other sweaty young travelers and our the bumpy way to the drop in site. Seemingly hundreds of happily intoxicated backpackers lined the rivers banks, setting up shop in the make-shift bars along the shore. Besides the river itself, the second main attraction is the giant swings and zip lines that are haphazardly strung out in front of the bars, providing the tubers with an irresistible temptation. We watched countless dare devil sloshed travelers tempt fate with these contraptions. We watched one girl face plant into the river, leaving her bruised and probably with a concussion. E tried one of the zip lines sending her cascading feet first into the river. Luckily we learned from watching that you have to let go before the line reaches the end or else the sling shot effect sends you somersaulting headfirst into the rock-hard river surface. Due to the active monsoon season the river is running swiftly, sending you shooting down the upon entering. Lao bar workers call out to the passing tubers, beckoning them in with promises of free tequila shots and the best drugs. Because your moving so quickly down stream the method of stopping rests upon luck and pure muscle as the bar workers chuck out ropes tied to water bottles to reel you in. If they are not strong enough to pull you in or you miss the hurtling bottle, then you simply continue the journey downriver, with or without your friends. The two hour trip soon passed the make-shift bars, opening onto jungle lined river edges with only the sound of the bubbling river. Overall we had a blast and managed to come out from the experience unscathed and sober.

The following day we pedaled out to the nearby Tamhoy, Thamloup, and Elephant caves where we unwittingly picked up a local guide, without whom we certainly would not have found our way to the second, third, and fourth caves. Most of the caves have religious significance to the Buddhists of the region and each cave has some spectacular incarnation of a Buddha enshrined inside. Past the first cave we wandered behind our guide, meandering through villages, in and out of families yards, and along cattle paths that cut between raised rice paddies. Our guide gave us an incredible tour of the second cave which seemed to go on endlessly! What started as a walk through a muddy but interesting cave soon became a slog through limestone ringed pools and eventually ended with us swimming through narrow caverns to reach huge cathedrals of cave on the other side. We trekked through this cave for what must've been half an hour before our guide decided we should turn back. Only the sound of our sloshing shoes and our guides melodic singing echoed down the length of the cave as we felt utterly alone in the depths of the limestone mountain. The last cave of the day was a tubing cave! Here we hopped in inner tubes, strapped dim lights to our heads and commenced to pull ourselves along an intricate system of ropes into a cave that had been carved out by an active river. During the dry season it is possible to kayak through the cave but at times we had to duck in order to keep from bumping our heads along the cave roof. At the end of the day we paid 5000 kip to take the bridge to get back across a river to our bikes, unfortunately the bridge isn't quite done and only spans three quarters of the river, so we had to ford the last third of the river; luckily we'd already been swimming a few times that day so no harm in getting wet all over again!

Zach swimming in the cave and tubers lining up to enter the cave:

We skipped town the next day and started the ride to Luang Prabang that would take us three days at best, possibly four. The first day we encountered the usual Laos traffic, sunbathing cows, water buffalo, ducks, and chickens… oh and the occasional car, truck, or tuk tuk. The climbs weren't too bad and we topped out at just under 800 meters and ended the day at an awesome little mountain resort in the middle of nowhere called Bor Nam Oon. Our little chalet was just big enough to fit a full size bed and our collection of bags. We woke to incredible views and some incredible fog as well.

So when a small man with a big gun asks to have his picture taken, the answer is YES!

The ride between Bor Nam Oon and Muang Phu Khun was quite a bit more uphill and came in at 76kms. The views were stunning and in the late afternoon the rain was also stunning, but in a different way. We learned quickly that coupled with Laos notorious steep descents and white-out rain squalls our cantilever breaks don’t offer enough stopping power, causing much unneeded hand cramping from the bear like grip we have on the breaks while gingerly making our way down the mountain. We hid under a thatch hut while the worst of one squall passed. Next bike tour we will definitely use disc breaks. Even with the screeching descents and the endless ascents the breathtaking views made this part of the journey completely worthwhile. Laos offers up those type of views that look so stunning and so massive that they almost seem fake, like a pastoral landscape painting. During those wet moments children would come out en mass from the villages scattering the mountainside. Naked they run about singing and playing in the downpour and lake sized mud-puddles. As we rounded one corner four young girls dressed only in bright green galoshes with pink plastic bags on their heads and beaming smiles echoed laughter in unison and began playfully splashing us with their muddy puddle water. We made it in to Kiou Ka Cham and got a chance to chat with a couple of Brits on vacation in Laos in a town otherwise devoid of tourists. The room was not worth mentioning and the concrete box with a hose and tap for a shower was also not worth mentioning.

Zach and one of those views and rain squall:

A little kid waving from home and one of the many roadside veggie stalls:

We left early the next morning and rode a looooong downhill before riding a long windy uphill and then we were coasting the last bit of the way into the lovely world heritage city of Luang Prabang. We cycled through scores of thatched and tin hut villages along the way. A surprising feature dotting the ride was the ubiquitous satellite dish. More prevalent than tin roof and multi-room homes, satellite dishes perch blatantly outside homes, marking Laos unofficial entrance into the 21st Century. As we cycle by its not uncommon to hear the latest American or Thai pop song ringing out from inside.

E. enjoying a magnificent views:

Arriving in the former royal capital of Luang Prabang we were struck by its confluence of French, and Chinese architecture nestled in the surrounding hills. Monks shrouded in bright orange robes scurry about to the town's 32 historic temples. Although we both felt like we could stay a while we decided to make a side trip to visit a well known archaeological site called the Plain of Jars. Currently we are in Phonsovan in North Eastern Laos, having recently arrived via minivan after 8 hours on switch backs roads. This single day journey would have taken us at best 4 days by bicycle.

We spent a whole day exploring the three Plain of Jars sites surrounding Phonsovan town. Little is known about the jars, but archaeologists believe they are ancient funeral urns dating back over 2500 years ago. The three most accessible sites are located near Phonsovan but there are hundreds of jars scattered across Laos. The jars are huge and seemingly placed at random and weigh up to 1 ton each. Situated next to many of the jars are deep craters, remnants from the US secretive bombing missions in Laos during the Vietnam War. As the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) notes it is estimated that at least two million tons or ordnance was dropped on Laos between 1964 and 1973, making Laos the most heavily bombed nation in the world (per capita). Furthermore it is estimated that up to 30% of all bombs dropped failed to explode and now lay resting on Lao soil. Growing up and learning about the Vietnam War we never heard about missions and bombing runs in Laos. The province where Phnosovan lies is in the most heavily bombed region of Laos and it was shocking for us to learn that millions of unexploded bombs (UXO) still lay waiting. Walking around the Plain of Jar sites de-mined markers line the pathways, delineating the safe places to walk free from UXOs. The remnants of American bombing missions can be seen in Phnosovan and the neighboring villages; 3 foot bomb casings line café entrances, flowers grow in halved out bombs, cluster bombs shells used as scrap metal. War for us plays out in stories, books, and in the news. War for the Lao people plays out within daily life; In the rice paddies, having to carefully hoe the fields for fear of uncovered bombs or whether your child will find a cluster bomb the same color as the fruit on the trees. We uploaded the complete Plain of Jars photos here.

We will again part ways in the next few days. Zach having gotten his China visa will fly from Vientiane to Chengdu, China on the 27th. He'll meet up with the group cycling in Tibet and they will start their amazing journey a week later. Elise will be taking the slow boat up the Mekong from Luang Prabang to Thailand on the 20th. Her teaching course in Chang Mai, Thailand starts at the end of the month. We send our love to you back home. Thanks for reading the blog.

Laos Cycling Adventure!

2009-08-01T01:11:00.000-07:00

Well I'm writing my first blog post with 5 days of solo riding under my belt. Currently I'm taking a rest day in the small town of Thakek about 360 kms from the capital city Vientiane. Zach and I parted ways in Hue and will meet again in 2 months Katmandu, Nepal. We are having our separate journeys with my exploration through Lao and his time climbing the Himalayan mountain range through Tibet and Nepal (not an easy feat with one speed!).

Just to recap some, we left Hoi An a week ago heading north towards Hue. We both loved Hoi An with its ancient Chinese style architecture and meandering river waterways, it was a truly unique spot to spend a few days. At night glowing lanterns line the walkways and paper-mache animals perch glowing on their stands above the waterways, casting their silhouettes shimmering onto the surface. The two day trek to Hue, left us spending one night in Danang, Vietnam's 3rd largest city. After securing Z's visa extension we said our farwell to Hoi An and set out the 30 kms to Danang, with one stop at large hill primarily made up of marble and aptly named Marble Mountain. Leaving our bikes with a local marble shop owner, we scrambled up the hundreds of slippery marble steps leading to the top of Marble Mountain. With help by one of the young Vietnamese guides we were shown one of the most spectacular views of our whole trip; a 360 degree view of Danang, surrounding mountain ranges, and the coastline and islands near Hoi An, all at sunset. Pushing the last 10 kms into Danang under nightfall we negotiated the massive free for all traffic circles and found a hotel.

1) Zach a top Marble Mountain 2) I thought I had a heavy load!:

The following day included one 10 km mountain pass directly outside Danang. Luckily we started the climb early because the temperature steadily climbed into the high 90's. At the summit of Hivan Pass was a series of original American artillery bunkers. As we clambered around these war relics it brought to life the reality soldiers faced daily during the Vietnam War. As usual our decent passed far too quickly, dropping us back down to the coast. We spent the last 70 kms into Hue racing the impending storm clouds rumbling behind us. In the tourist guide books Hue is marketed as a tourist hotspot, but having come from Hoi An we all were a little disappointed with this bustling city. Like a watery line the Song Huong (Perfume River) separates the new city from the old city. Across the river, in the old city, lies the crumbling Citadel, housing the 13 emperors under the Nguyen Dynasty between 1802 - 1945. Steve, Zach, and I spent a morning wandering through the imperial enclosure named the Forbidden Purple City. Modernization merged with the ancient evidenced by the multitude of plastic paper-mache modeled animals perched on top of the decaying imperial city. Actively in a state of repair, workers hammered building stones back into place, replaced broken tiles, rebuilt roofs, attempting to delay the inevitable decay. Later that same day we all set off towards the riverfront and alter some heavy negotiating we procured a turquoise tourist boat to take us 4 kms down the river to the Thien Mu Pagado, founded in 1601. This beautiful pagoda also houses a monastery where young monks and nuns study. Clad in striking orange robes the young students peaked out behind their books giggling at the passing tourists.

1) Us at the top of the pass 2) US bunker:

1) Hue sunset view 2) Young nun and pagoda

Departing Hue with fond farewells and tears in my eyes I cycled into first solo bicycle tour. The two day ride followed the historic Highway 9 or better known as the DMZ (de-militarized zone) that separated North Vietnam from South Vietnam during the war. Now mainly used as a tour route and a land shipping connection between Vietnam and Laos, the road traverses through beautiful lush valleys, climbing up into the mountains ranges, then back down towards Laos. Besides a massive g-force headwind that stalked me for those two days to the border the road was in excellent condition and offered up some amazing views. At the top of a big climb I even managed to catch up with a stopped group of Aussie tourists, who stared distantly out at what is known as the "Pile of Rocks." Recovering well from the defoliants originally used in the area, the "pile" looks more like a jagged green peak jutting straight up to the sky, than an actual pile of rocks. But their guide let me know that during the Vietnam War the Americans built a helicopter landing pad atop this peak because strategically it is the highest point in the area. Waving goodbye to the Aussies gazing at me in wonderment why anyone would choose to cycle as a mode of transportation we parted ways. 85 kms of rollercoaster roads later I coasted into the border town of Lao Bao just in time to beat the imminent rain clouds chasing me. Wishful thinking on my part, these rain clouds would continue to steadily pour on me hundreds of kilometers into Laos.

1) "Pile of Rocks" 2) Need some bananas?

The following morning I pushed out into the downpour and newly flooded streets of Lao Bao towards the border 1km away. Eyeing me with a mix of suspicion and curiosity the Vietnamese customs official eagerly stamped my passport, waving me into Laos. Less than a minute away was the Laos border office offering a stark contrast to its Vietnamese counterpart. Parking my bike under a awning away from the rain I made my way to the "Visa on Entry" office. A smiling man in a dusty Lao uniform sitting behind an archaic computer met me and a few wild hand gestures later I understood that I needed to fill out one form letting them know I wanted a 30-day visa, another form letting the government know I didn’t have the H1N1 Swine Flue virus, then wait 10 minutes for this man's boss to finish eating his breakfast of noodle soup. An 80's style pleather couch with broken legs beckoned me. While waiting I watched soggy stray dogs run in and out of the office, obviously fond of the border officials for providing them with the occasional food scrap. As promised 10 minutes later I had a Lao visa sticker in my passport and after exchanging my remaining Dong into the Lao currency Kip I cycled out into the unknown.

Immediately the road opened onto the Laos border town of Dene Savan. The soggy mud drenched streets were lined by dismal looking cement bunker style shops and shipment trucks passing to and from the border. I swerved not to hit a giant black bristly haired pig standing its ground in the middle of the road. The town no more than a few hundred meters in length soon opened onto verdant bamboo and tree forests with the regular passing river. The small villages along the road consist of a few bamboo raised huts with roofs constructed primarily out of natural thatched material. It wasn’t until 200 kms later that I started to see village huts with tin roofs. Often these dwellings were in various states of disrepair with leaky holes in the palm thatch roofs. Even compared to Cambodia the level of poverty in villages and towns seems more apparent. Children often naked or wearing torn t-shirts embossed with western logos holler out "Sabaa-Dii!" (hello in Lao) while I pass them bundled in my blue rain jacket. Heading to and from fields and homes, men, women, and kids alike walk up and down the roads carrying various agricultural implements. Women are typically dressed in local embroidered shirts, sometimes adorned with traditional style hats. I even noticed a number of people with tribe specific head shavings. As my Lonely Plant remarks, the people of Laos hail from dozens of ethnic groups, many of which can be found throughout the whole of SE Asia. More than 30% of the county is comprised of non-Lao-speaking non-Buddhist hill tribes.

Pictures from my first day in Laos:

Cycling these last 3 days in Laos people smile and look at me with open eyed intrigue. We share words of "Sabaa-Dii!" and "Sok Dee!" (good luck). On the road I pass tractors loaded with people laughing and waving as I cycle by. The traffic is low, with the occasional passing truck, and even unlikely car, each always giving a wide berth. Chickens, ducks, dogs, water buffalo, cows, pigs, and goats dominate the roadside. Taking little notice of the passing cycle tourists they continue grazing. There are many rivers along the way, sometimes with locals waist deep in the water carrying out a traditional style of drop net fishing, where a large net is sunk the bottom held by the fisher's marionette like poles above. Pulling the net to surface it reveals a few minnow like fish flapping about which are then placed in the wicker basket affixed to the fishers hip. I pulled over multiple times to watch this elegant process, each time myself being spectacle for the locals to check out. So far I have decided to forgo taking pictures certain time and instead experience the moment without my camera. I've found that with photography it can ruin a moment, scare people away, and often can feel like an invasion of another culture and peoples privacy. Now cycling alone a camera seems even more out of place.

1) Approaching rain clouds 2) My soggy feet Day 1 in Laos

I continue to enjoy cycling alone. I've taken to riding with my headphones which helps to pass the hours. For a long time I thought I wasn’t strong enough to cycle tour alone and felt that I needed others there who know how to do it right. But the reality is that there is no one way to travel by bike, every day is a new experience with its own set of physical and mental challenges. I continue to ride at a the same pace too, averaging between 85 - 135 kms per day. And although I do miss Zach, we both have found that this time apart isn't as bad as we thought it would be. Its nice to miss the one you love and look forward to seeing them again soon. Tomorrow I leave to continue the journey north. It will probably rain and I will probably get wet, but the one thing for certain is that I will cycle through amazing scenery and get a glimpse into an unique and beautiful culture unlike my own.

Vietnam: A Photo Set by Elise

2009-07-19T23:14:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share some of my favorite photos taken over the last few weeks. I would love any feedback on the photography. The first photo was taken by Zach and I took the rest.

Epic Blog Post: Vietnam, the first twenty days

2009-07-19T21:32:00.000-07:00

We are much belated on our blog post, but here it goes. We just arrived in Hoi An today with three other cyclists in tow. Kat and Mike are two Canadian cycle tourists on the road for at least a year. If you remember, we met them at the Auckland airport where they watched us fumble around while we put our bikes together for our first official tour day abroad. Steve, who is from New Zealand, we met by chance along the road on the way to Dalat here in Vietnam. Since leaving Thailand we have cycled almost 3000 kilometers in SE Asia! We will continue to cycle with Steve, Katrina, and Mike over the next few weeks. Elise will cut over to Laos for 3 weeks of solo cycling before her teaching course in Chang Mai in September while Zach will continue north via train to Hanoi with the group for some cycling in China, Tibet, and Nepal. Although we are both sad to separate ways for a few months, we are looking forward to having our own adventures along this journey. Oh yeah and it was Elise's Birthday yesterday! She is enjoying a few days off from bike riding and instead is lounging around in bed.

Upon cycling across the Cambodian - Vietnam border we headed to the mountains for some much needed hill climbing with the added benefit of cooler temperatures. Border crossing by bicycle has so far proven to be hassle-free and speedy. We left Cambodian hellos of "Sua s'dei"!" behind and headed onto Vietnamese roads lined with neon green rice paddies and echoing hellos of "Sin Jows!". Our first full day cycling in Vietnam we were treated to coffee by a local man who flagged us down on the road just a couple kilometers from our hotel. We had an extended conversation that included much gesturing, phrasebook referencing, and I'm sure, all of his English vocabulary. We spent a beautiful and quiet two days getting reacquainted with riding rolling hills again before we hit the mountainous Highway 14. After about 6 months of relatively flat riding we were less than prepared for the climbing, but managed to make it through. We were afforded some awesome views, lots of hellos, and some good coffee along the way. Our stint on Highway 14 took us from Chon Thanh -> Duc Phong -> Gia Nghia -> Di Linh.

Heading to Di Linh we expected to climb because we'd been climbing for the past few days and the only thing we could see for sure on the horizon were mountains. The road lacked traffic but more than made up for it in hills! Oh the climbing! We stopped a lot, got coffee a few times, took a lot of photos and even took cover in a tin roofed drink shack during a torrential downpour. We got to cycle through some tiny little hill villages and we saw the dress change from modern western styles to the colorful traditional spun cotton. Soon the road gave way to what could best be described as a dry river bed trying to pass itself off as a road. Sending us into steep descents, we navigated carefully around giant potholes and rocks. At the bottom of this punishing hill one of Zach's seat post bolts snapped in half leaving him with a dangling and useless seat flapping in the wind. Elise, always quick with a backup plan, flagged down a potato truck we'd passed earlier and negotiated a ride for us. Up went the luggage, up went the bikes, and we were prepared to hop up next when we were instead directed to the cab to ride up front while one of the truck guys rode in back on top of all the lumpy potato sacks. We were lucky to get a ride on a Sunday when most of the trucks are out of service. Arriving in Di Linh we checked into one of the few hotels which we discovered later housed another cycle tourist…Steve, who we later met up with in Dalat.

The next day we had the pleasure of cycling up gorgeous valley floors blanketed by rectangular farm plots that even start to creep up the hillsides, giving a surreal sense of one cycling over a big green quilt. The mountains started closing in and the road began to snake around when we arrived at Prenn Falls which marks the beginning of the 7km climb up to Dalat. We stopped for tourisms sake and to snap a few cheesy photos. The waterfalls are kind of theme park like in that you can rent a horse, ride in a giant swan boats, shoot a bow and arrow, or get your photo taken with a Vietnamese cowboy! A few ice cream sandwiches later we were prepared to ride again and began by following motorbikes and innumerable tour busses into the first twists of the climb. The ascent is actually fairly gradual but the mirrors on the corners give it an air of difficulty that's just not there. Taking care to hug the shoulder we did manage to catch a glimpse of some of the spectacular views on the way up, no camera though as it was steadily raining. About half way up we pulled into the entrance of Datanla Falls for a break and some more economic stimulus. Elise jumped at the chance to ride the Alpine Coaster down to the falls and before you could say "Boo" we were in the lead car getting an extremely brief explanation of our self-controlled braking capabilities. A shove from the conductor and we were off… the only rule parlayed was to maintain 25 meters between cars. We took a video of most of the ride, which we both loved and would definitely recommend doing if you're in the area! The falls put Prenn Falls to shame with cascading tiers and viewing platforms built out onto the boulders letting you get right onto the falls. Back on the road we finished out the last 3 kilometers of the climb and within a half hour we were cresting the hill and getting our first views of Dalat.

We spent a few glorious days strolling around the quaint alleyways and steep hills that form the foundation of this hill city. Steve proved to be a great travel partner and roamed around with us off and on during our stay. We tried to ride the cable car, and when for the second day we were turned away for "cable car holidays", who knew cable cars had holidays?

View from cable car station and view of Dalat:

Katrina and Mike caught up with us on our last night in town and we agreed to meet them in Nha Trang in the next few days. Steve rode with us from the mountains to the beach and wrote a great blog post of his own about the days riding.

Our longest day at 148.8 kms coupled with our longest descent at over 27kms made for an incredible experience. The guys at the tour company that provided us with maps of their route called this the "Rollercoaster Ride" and early on it was already living up to it's name as we would climb steadily and then scream down the back side of huge hills. After 47 kilometers and a breakfast stop of stale baguettes and cough syrup style coffee over ice we were at the top of the pass and looking out over a stunning view of the descent and the rolling hills that lay ahead. Tour busses lined the shoulder of the road at the apex and one rowdy group of Vietnamese tourists on their way to Dalat came over to check out what we were about. Steve got in a flexing contest with a very fit guy while another guy took Z's bike for a ride. E. got some great pictures of the muscle show!

Nah Trang had some awesome beaches and felt a bit like Surfers Paradise in Australia with the huge beachfront hotels and all the travelers. We all took the opportunity to dive or snorkel (respective of our abilities) and even got Kat and Mike to come on our dive boat run by Rainbow Dives, for our second trip out. We snorkeled around the fringing coral reefs at Moray Beach, Seahorse Bay, and Mama Hahn. The coral and fish were amazing in the shallow turquoise water; our laundry list of underwater sightings included: soft and hard corals in many varieties, sea cucumbers, pipefish, sea snakes, puffer fish, angel fish, and the list goes on! The dive company was great, if not a bit expensive, but after our snorkel trip in Cambodia we decided to splurge in hopes that we'd have more success in actually seeing things below the surface.

Zach in the water!:

Steve and Z. took a trip out to Vinpearl; an amusement park/ resort on an island across the bay from Nha Trang which can be reached either by ferry or by cable car. We splurged at $16 a piece and caught the cable car. Once on the island we had unlimited access to rides, games, shows, the aquarium, and a water park. Steve rode a mechanical bull, we took a ride on the swings, played video game horse racing, and saw the aquarium where we hit the jackpot and ended up catching the feeding in their main tank. We were too pooped to hit up the waterpark and headed back on the gondolas after about five hours of adventuring around the park. On our last night we all pitched in and did some bike work at the old hotel until it started pouring rain. After twenty minutes of solid downpour the street in front of our hotel was well on it's way to being a river and ten minutes later the flat rooftop of our hotel had filled as well and water was cascading down the five flights of stairs. Mike and Kats room on the top floor was up to at least an inch of water, although luckily nothing was damaged! Thankfully our room escaped the flood! The five of us cycled North together for the next four days hitting Quy Nihon, Tuy Hoa, Quang Nghai, Ha Lam, and ending up in Hoi An for E.'s birthday!

Cycling with a group has been a great experience which is made all the better by all of our personalities meshing so well! Time seems to fly by when you're able to chat away with others and we're finding ourselves whinging a lot less and riding a lot harder. As single speeders we keep our legs spinning like speeding turbines while those gearheads keep shifting around hardly breaking a sweat. We've definitely been working harder to keep up on the flats but we seem to fly up the hills and everyone working hard results in higher overall average speed… oh, and we all get the benefit of a pace line and the inevitable draft! With five agendas to suit we definitely stop more; Kat and Mike get flats, Steve gets hungry, and E. and Z. like to stop at the top of hills to recover. We are certainly a novelty for the locals as our cycle train zips through villages and inundates restaurants and hotels as we descend on small and large towns alike.

The group heading out after food and Kat and Mike on the bikes:

On a non bike related note traveling in tropical climates often has its beautiful perks, yet it does come with a constant supply of creepy crawlies. Many of you know that bugs are to say the least, not Zs favorite visitors, especially the half-dollar sized cockroaches that seem to scuttle there way into our room every night. No matter what Star hotel cockroaches find there way into our room and we are often left with a war of wills, us versus man eating sized roach. Regularly we find ourselves attempting to heard these beasts out of our room, which I would equate to about as easy as trying to herd cats. I only mention the bugs today, because this morning there are sugar ants crawling out from behind our computer keyboard. These pint-sized pests take over our panniers finding sweets that we didn’t even know existed and often times take over our toothbrushes in search of remaining sugary toothpaste.

On our way to Hoi An we made a stop over at the historic site of the Son My Massacre, in the town of My Lai. During the Vietnam War a reported 500 villagers were killed by the American forces. Following the war a museum was built on the site and the actual home foundations were kept to show the layout of the village before the US forces arrived. It is always sobering to visit sites like these, especially when our home country is so intimately connected. We both don't consider ourselves particularly patriotic we find ourselves often wanting to hear another side of the story because often the US is solely portrayed as the wrong-doer for their war time actions. Both our dads did multiple tours during the war in Vietnam and interestingly both of them are outspoken antiwar advocates. Every time visit sites like these we gain more insights into our fathers experiences.

After the museum we had planned on taking a short loop back to the highway, but instead ended up lost on tiny village back roads and by the time we actually found Highway 1 we had cycled over 60 kms (half a whole days ride!). Offering some good entertainment to the locals we pedaled through tiny villages, on and off single track cow paths, all the while with children chasing us shrieking "hellos!". Later that day during a lunch stop over 170 Vietnamese cycle tourists rode by. We ran outside just in time to wave and snap a few photos of their amazing procession. One of the cyclists pulled over and gave us their story. Apparently they are all students in Hanoi who cycle annually over 900 kilometers on the "Green Ride Vietnam" to spread environmental awareness and volunteerism. They were all riding Vietnamese single-speed bikes with long black dress pants and shoes, big hats, long sleeve shirts. And brandishing huge green silk flags. I don’t know how they do it in the heat, but the one student we talked to was inspirational and driven on his second tour of Vietnam.

So to end this epic blog post, we are currently resting well in Hoi An. We have had a stomach bug the last 3 days and are well acquainted with the loo, although not much of actual Hoi An. Much love to you back home.

The Good News or The Bad News

2009-06-27T08:08:00.000-07:00

Current Location: Phnom Penh

On our way to the Penh
Shouldn’t have gone back again

Budget travelers allegiance we seek
Finding a guesthouse not too meek

Dirty, tired, dressed in rags
Bicycles in tow, we stash our bags

A cool breeze blows from afar
Should have noticed a window without bars

Quiet slumber in a dreamless sleep
Only to discover that our thief did reap

Goodbye wallet, Goodbye money, Goodbye phone
You said farewell without even a moan

We sought our goods out round and round
But they were nowhere to be found

A report was filed, a was bribe paid,
But we find no solace on this day

Such a night has caused much grief
But Cambodia also offers much relief

Hiccups all accounted for
We're glad we stayed here two weeks more

For those of you who don't fancy our rhyming couplets we had Elise's wallet stolen (unfortunately containing $600 withdrawn that same evening) along with Zach's I-Phone out of our guesthouse room while we were sleeping. We are thankfully still holding onto our passports, computer, bikes, and clean underwear hanging in the window in question. We awoke around 1am to discover our screen window ajar and the door unlocked. Quickly we took stock and noticed the items missing. The hotel manager and the tourist police both did little. We did manage to file a police "report" after a $30 "report fee" was demanded and an $8 tuk-tuk ride to the distant tourist police station. All in all money is money and stuff is just stuff. We learned a very expensive, but invaluable lesson in securing our valuables and the must-haves for guesthouses.

The trip continues (albeit a day later than anticipated) toward the Vietnam border via Highway 1. Crossing the border at Bavet/Moc Bai, where we then attempt to cycle north towards Dalat via the highlands.

Seasick Bike Sailors: Part II

2009-06-22T05:34:00.000-07:00

Current Location: Kampot, Cambodia

We spent a few nights in Kep and then made our way to Kampot, a little river town about 20km down the road to the West. On our way we stopped by a bakery to indulge in some cinnamon rolls and coffee and wound up running into two South African cycle tourists, one of which Elise had actually already met in Phnom Penh. We chatted for the better part of an hour, exchanging stories and contact info (you can find links to their blogs on our site now) but eventually set off in opposite directions. We hope to meet up with them in the future and possibly attempt the overland ride to India via China, Tibet and Nepal around September.

Kampot boasts a few more pubs, guesthouses, and sights than Kep including Bokor Mountain, spectacular caves, and some very unorganized inner-tubing down the river rapids the latter being more of a locals pastime from what we could tell. There was a bit more going on around town but it's still pretty obviously the low season as many of the advertised pub and grubs and even a few of the nicer guesthouses were shut down for the season. The streets were empty save for a few kids roaming about on bikes and to be honest it felt like a ghost town. The guesthouse we picked was a bit of a haven, with more traffic through the bar at happy hour than most of the town saw in a whole day. We planned to spend two nights in town and then ride out to Sihnokville the following day but a fever and some incredibly rainy weather put a damper on our plans. We did spend the two nights we'd planned but had to skip out on the inner-tubing we both wanted to do, partly because of abdominal rumblings and partly because of heavenward rumblings. A couple storm systems passed through while we were there giving us a good show of lightning and some of the heaviest rain we'd ever seen. From our second story vantage point we watched as the courtyard filled with water, floating laundry baskets along the banks of the guesthouse and generally soaking everything in sight, including all the hotel staff who were still valiantly trying to go about their daily business.

A break in the showers gave us enough opportunity to get ourselves packed up and convinced that riding a motorbike to Sihnoukville was our most sensible option with Z. not feeling 100% and the torrential rain that was on order for the next few days. It only took a mention of our plans before our hotelier had arranged and a moto and two stylish helmets to be delivered to us. Not 10 minutes later we received the keys and the moto with absolutely no paperwork, instruction, deposit, insurance, or any other sort of bothersome formality! It probably helps that we left our bikes and more than half our gear at the guesthouse which stands as collateral and is probably equal in value to the motorbike.

The 110km ride out to Sihnoukville was fraught with stinging rain squalls but the scenery remains incredible and an alternate route through the hills, avoiding hwy 4 (or the death highway as the Blissful Guesthouse owner referred to it) made the trip worth weathering the storms. The alternate route we took for the last 50km wound us around the backside of Sihnoukville and supposedly had us missing the police traps the place is infamous for. It was our luck that we'd ride straight into a trap going the "locals only" way. We'd heard the horror stories about Barangs who are without their Cambodian licenses having their motos confiscated and being heavily fined so we were not surprisingly a little nervous as we pulled over and offered up our Washington State drivers licenses. We were fined and upon not having two single dollar bills the police officer graciously accepted our five dollar bill and sent us on our way, ticketless and feeling exhilarated after paying our first official bribe!

We spent the next 5 days living it up on the beaches, driving the moto bike around, eating westernized food and meeting some fun and interesting people. We stuck mostly to Occheuteal beach which houses the best of the beach shacks when it comes to eating, drinking, music, and lounging in comfy chairs. We could tell it was the slow season but there were by far, more travelers here than anywhere else we've been in Cambodia. There's quite a bit of competition for the few customers that brave the rainy season and all the establishments that have decided to stick out the slow months are keen on using cheap booze and even cheaper nightly bbq's to entice. We settled into our papsan chairs, sand under foot and a steadily darkening sky suspended over clear green gently breaking waves and enjoyed a three dollar mixed seafood grill and a four dollar bbq steak dinner. Lights strung from bamboo poles planted in the sand illuminated our little table as night steadily encroached on the beach. We sipped at margaritas and chatted to our neighbors as we all wondered aloud about the fireworks shooting off at the far end of the beach. We spent a great evening chatting with a couple of university students from Chicago who were working on a research project in Phnom Penh around the Khmer Rouge era's effect on the younger generations. It was great to hear their impressions of Cambodia and their stories about their time spent in Phnom Penh working with college students.

During one of our more active afternoons we ventured off on the motobike to cess out guesthouse/bar that was rumored to rent out kayaks. When we consulted the guidebook it said the beach we meant to find was only 4km or so from where we were staying and that a motorbike path could be accessed to get there quickly. What we didn't take into account was that mornings heavy rain, and what we couldn't know was the condition of the "road". What we got ourselves into was a mess. A muddy, red, long, lost, mess. We drove for what must've been two hours, never found the shop we were in search of, ended up on a rutted out service road that was not on our map and was not taking any chances on us getting out with any suspension left on our scooter. We finally made it back to civilization and pulled up to our hotel only to realize that somewhere along the way the key had rattled out of the loose ignition. There we were covered in mud, hungy, cranky, and unable to turn the godforsaken motobike off! A nice guy at our hotel escorted us to a key maker in town and five dollars and ten minutes later we had a new key for the bike… unfortunately the key to the lock that we'd not anticipated needing and ended up having to rent in Sihnoukville, along with our U-Lock key for the bikes back in Kampot, were also attached to the now lost key fob. I went back over the area we’d ridden but as expected, didn't come up with anything except a sore bum and an emptier stomach. We ended up having to completely replace the rented motobike lock and have the originally rented lock cut off. As if one time wasn't enough I managed to lose a second ignition key on the way back to Kampot but luckily we knew where to go and what to ask for and got a new key made in less time for less money.

Tired of making our own itinerary we booked a "snorkel" trip as our final adventure of our coastal Cambodia trip. The taxi picked us up at 8am sharp and we swung by one other guesthouse to retrieve two other snorkelers before we were all deposited at a beach shack. We enjoyed a meager but free breakfast of slightly stale baugette and coffee with Kevin and Pete as we awaited further instruction. The rest of our 18 person snorkel group trickled in over the next hour and all at once we were approached by a Khmer guy who insisted we all get on the boat NOW… as if we had all been purposefully delaying? We all congregated on the beach looking for the boat and only finding long skinny fishing boats bobbing a hundred meters or so offshore. It didn't occur to anyone until the icechest was being floated out to the closest of the boats that we would be wading to our vessel. Hilarity ensued as girls with gargantuan backpacks, bound for the island resort for a few nights, made the crossing with bags held aloft on shaky arms while simultaneously being unsteadied by the waves breaking just below shoulder height. The boat ride was pretty slow by tour standards taking over an hour to make it to the first snorkel sight and rolling so well with the sizable waves as to make a few passengers *coughElisecough* a bit green. We couldn't complain about the weather or the scenery as neither disappointed and we were even able to snap a few pictures along the way.

To surmise what Kevin put in a much funnier way (which only an Englishman can and my memory wasn't sharp enough to retain): the masks and snorkels were like something you'd get out of a kids bucket and shovel beach set. Once we were all fit with some sort of mask and maybe a snorkel if you were one of the lucky few, we all set off to see the underwater sights. What no-one told us was the biggest sight to see through the unbelievably scratched glass of the masks were the hundreds and hundreds of giant spiky black death urchins. At least two people stepped on urchins during our brief foray into underwater viewing and most people were back on the boat within 20 minutes. We all discovered that it's a lot harder to snorkel when you don't have flippers, which apparently weren't part of the $15 tour package. Back on the boat we motored for another half hour before reaching the lee of the largest island where we were free to roam and where we were fed a delicious bbq lunch of barracuda. We trekked across the island and found the idyllic beach paradise of Kho Ru, complete with goat herd (Karen), a big rope swing, beautiful breaking waves, cheap bungalows, hammocks galore, and a flip flop tree.

Those of us who weren't inclined to stay on the island hiked back to our boat and went for a swim in the decidedly less urchin infested water or lay out on the beach and enjoyed the sun. Eight of us took to the seas to brave the return trip which was quite rough. The swells had gotten pretty large, or at least they seemed large from our low profile trawler that seemed more and more to be shaped more like a rolling pin than a boat. I quite enjoyed the ride from my seat but could see others suffering with each swell that would cause the boat to pitch roughly side to side sending sandals and water bottles into the bilge… ewww. We made it back in one piece, everyone sharing in the relief of being back on solid ground. Although the trip was probably exactly what we should have expected for a Cambodian snorkel trip, in discussions later we agreed that for $15 we'd had a pretty decent experience and were glad we'd gone.

We are now back in Kampot at the Blissful Guesthouse with our bikes and baggage. While in Sihnoukville we sorted out our 30 day visas for our return to Vietnam (managing to bugger up the date enough to buy ourselves an extra week in Cambodia, YAY!). Tomorrow we head Northish toward the border at Bavet. Cross your fingers that the rain gods go easy on us!

What do you think of the changes?

2009-06-17T07:13:00.000-07:00

We slaved away to bring you the new and improved eco-blog colors. Tell us what you think.

Is it easier to read?
Is it better for those of you printing off the blog?
Do you dig the new colors?
Does our blog now better aid in your eco-conscious lifestyle?
Are you ready for us to stop asking questions?

Leave us feedback in the comments section. PLEASE

With sweet adoration,

Zachary and Elise

Two days back on the road, and already we're taking a break?!

2009-06-15T05:41:00.000-07:00

Leaving Phnom Penh was a blessing, we were both tiring of the busy city life and restless from having spent almost 2 full weeks in one spot. In typical Z+E fashion we got up early but hit the road late at around 10am after a number of bike and gear adjustments. We opted to ride Hwy 2 south towards Kep and Kampot basing our decision mostly on the reports of low traffic from other cycle tourists. Getting out of the city took quite a while and I think we ended up cycling about 25km in dense population before getting back to the rice fields and huts we've become accustomed to seeing.

A side trip inspired by our favorite Phnom Penh café took us out to the Phnom Tamao wildlife park about 45kms outside Phnom Penh. The directions were to head down Hwy 2 until you see the sign and then turn right… sounds easy enough but our American Highway Sign reading brains didn't get that what we should be looking for was exactly what we rode right past: the faded, blistered, hand painted sign without an arrow or a "TURN RIGHT HERE" message, and the accompanying dirt road apparently leading off into rural Cambodian oblivion. After cycling back a kilometer or two we got on the right track and 6km and strangely quite a few persistent roadside beggars later we had made it. Where we made it to was the T intersection at the top of a dusty hill where a tiny ticket booth stood baking in the hot sun. The means for keeping unpaid park goers and poachers alike was a rope stretched across the road. Once we paid the $5 each for our tickets the rope was lowered and we were allowed to cycle right over the only security measure we saw separating the rest of the country from the park. Inside the park we were met by a crowd of young men offering us coconuts, a place to park our bikes, a tour guide, a cold drink, and a place to sit in the shade… all at the same time. We're always leery when it comes to leaving our fully loaded bikes out of our immediate vicinity but the enclosures we were going to be wandering through, not surprisingly, weren't set up for cycle tourists who want to muscle around their ungainly luggage racks on wheels everywhere they go. Reluctantly we locked up and took what we knew we couldn't live without and left the rest at the mercy of our new acquaintances. We had declined the offer of a guide but we got one anyway as the best english speaker of the bunch led us toward the first of three sections of the park. Once inside the chain link fence we were face to face with a couple of portly banana loving deer in search of an easy snack.

Back home the animal sanctuaries are run a bit differently… where we're used to feeding stale loaves of bread to buffalos from the windows of our station wagons, safe in the knowledge that we're surrounded for the most part by a safe steel barrier, in Cambodia you're encouraged to pet and feed the full grown deer with a 12 point rack and a penchant for fruit while the only thing surrounding you is a steel fence that's keeping you and the animal in close proximity. But hey, there's a first time for everything right! The next couple critters we got to meet were all in their own pens and though we could get closer than most of the zoo's back home let you, thankfully we weren't being greeted by the crocodiles in the same fashion as we had been by the deer.

We caught the Sun Bear exhibit just in time to see them delighting a gathering crowd by ripping open coconuts that our tour guide was lobbing over the fence at $.50 a piece. Inside the Free The Bears information house we got to chat with an Australian who was working with the project about the park and the Bears in particular, which helped to fill in some of the gaps in our tour guides knowledge.

Inside the Free the Bears exhibit E. kindly posed for this picture to entertain all of you.

A few dusty hours later we'd seen what there was to see, the highlights being the Gibbons, Tigers, and Elephants - although we missed meeting the one elephant whose getting the prosthetic leg because he was out swimming in his new pool.

We set off back down the same highway and in search of a hotel reportedly in the next town to the left of the "supermarket". We've been fooled by this euphemism once before as we searched the streets of Sisiphon for another supposed supermarket. Needless to say we never found the hotel and ended up cycling right through a fabulous sunset and barely making it into Takeo before the twilight had transitioned completely into an amazingly dark sky set with thousands of diamond-like twinkling stars.

Our next days cycling was beautiful and long. We didn't have a clear idea of how many kilometers we had to go, only that we were staying in Kep. The road signs didn't help as the mileage yo-yoed back and forth, sometimes we were only 25km's away, then 10km down the road we were back to being 35kms away. A decent headwind, a longish stretch of unpaved road, and the first small hills we've encountered in longer than we'd like to admit, wore us both out and made us quite happy to find the beds large and comfy and the shower nice and cool on our arrival at Botanica, our guesthouse of choice.

Riding into Kep along the seaside, our first glimpse of the big blue since Vietnam.

Sunday was spent leisurely enjoying breakfast under the large thatch roof of the guesthouse restaurant. A nap may have been enjoyed in the hammock in front of our bungalow as well as some much needed reading time. We hit up the Crab Market in search of some fruit to take on the 8km loop hike we'd planned to tackle on our rest day but as we set out the rain came roaring in, literally. At the crab market everyone was running for cover and trying to keep everything that wasn't bolted down from blowing away. We opted for lunch there in one of the sturdier brick restaurants instead of the hike seeing as the weather was clearly had different ideas about our plans. After lunch the wind was still whipping the waves into whitecaps but the sun had reappeared and the combination of the two had dried everything out in short order. We decided to check out the trail by bike as much as we could and hopefully hit a couple good viewpoints along the way. Turns out the whole "trail" is double track and in pretty good shape, about the equivalent to a fire road back home. We made the whole loop in under an hour and got to check out some spectacular views.

To top off the day we taught ourselves a new card game called Three Thirteen and E. got her first taste of rummy! W00t!

On the road again! Goodbye Phnom Penh!

2009-06-11T06:29:00.001-07:00

Good News - the bike parts arrived yesterday! An early birthday present for Zach. We are having the new bottom-bracket installed at a local bike touring company here called Grasshopper Tours. We both are so excited to get back on the road. Although we've had some amazing experiences in Phnom Penh we both are anxious to hit the road again. Due to our extended stay in the capital city we decided to extend our Cambodian visa for another 30 days. We no longer feel rushed to make the Vietnam border in less than a week. With plenty of time to spare we're off to the beautiful beaches in southern Cambodia. Around 230 kms away Kampot, Kep, and Sihanoukville await our arrival.

We will be cycling into Vietnam via the most southern border crossing called Prek Chak/Xaxia. Having made friends with Adam, the owner of the bike tour company here he showed us a great cycling route through Southern Vietnam, up past Ho Chi Minh city. We both vividly remember the rampant traffic within HCMC and are not surprisingly hesitant about jumping into the mayhem there. In comparison the population of Cambodia is 15 million while Vietnam has over 85 million people. But….on the flip side there are more roads to choose from in Vietnam (hopefully paved).

Ok, onto more exciting news - Its Zach's Birthday! Our first Birthday on the road. We had a luxurious breakfast over card games and dinner out. We both received early birthday gifts - new hammocks! These hammocks sporting built in mosquito nets we hope will come in handy if we opt for a night of bush camping.

Below are a few more photos from our time in Phnom Penh:

Local drag show:

Temple in city central:

Update Phnom Penh: Adventures, Volunteering, and Broken Bicycle

2009-06-07T19:02:00.000-07:00

Current whereabouts: We are still in Phnom Penh waiting for Zach's new bottom-bracket to be shipped from Singapore. As it looks like it will take another few days to arrive we are going to head south via bus/motorbike to the town of Sihanoukville and Kep, leaving the bikes in Phnom Penh. Zach has a cold right now and has been resting up. Below is a account of our adventures and experiences around the city.

The city is bigger than it first appeared and we've taken enough tuk tuks around her streets to be able to attest to the sprawl. It's not busy like Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh but there are a number of swanky cars on the road here, far outnumbering the same class of cars in either of the aforementioned cities. We've found it easy to navigate with the simple street numbering, even numbers running east west and odd numbers running north south in chronological order. The French influence is quite obvious in the architecture, language, and especially the number of French tourists. Cambodia seems to cater quite nicely to the Frogs, but we don't find ourselves getting along too badly as English speakers. The first guesthouse we landed at was French owned and pretty, quiet, and we were keen on enjoying the free breakfasts in their lush, leafy garden cafe. After a few days we decided to make a guesthouse change and packed off towards the Boeng Kak lake guesthouses, a busier backpackers alley with lots of bars, restaurants, guesthouses, internet cafes, and touts. We checked out 6 or 8 places ranging from $3 a night to $20+ and settled on a small windowless room above a happening restaurant. The A/C unit was making a strange smell and our neighbor next door was thumping out some serious bass through the thin walls so in the morning we checked out of there and into our third hotel. Finally we got a great room, complete with two huge windows, A/C, and an ornate and lofty ceiling, at a good price! The owner of Simons Guest House II has also kindly agreed to receive a package for us as we're having to order bike parts from Singapore to fix Z.'s bottom bracket.

Staying in the Boeng Kak district is an experience Phnom Penh will soon be unable to offer backpackers as the lake area has been leased to a huge corporation and is currently on it's way to being completely filled in. Most of the hotels proprietors don't seem immediately worried about how this will affect business as the dock lounges of the raised deck hotels that used to be right on the lake now sit 4 feet above a sad, cracked, brown former lakebed. It's unclear what the development plans are for the former lake, or for the businesses that set themselves up beside it's shores, but it's clear that the development is on the rise as Phnom Penh becomes less a shadow of it's former self, transforming itself into a destination for travel, business, and a little ex-pat haven. We spent an evening at one of the lakefront guesthouse lounges watching the sun set over what's left of the lake while a storm rolled in behind us.

We've skipped a lot of the touristy stuff the guidebook suggests opting instead to explore the city via our many bike related errands instead. We have however made it to see both S21, the high school cum torture facility inside Phnom Penh, and the Killing Fields about 15km's South of the City.

S21 was a sobering experience as we walked through the hallways of the former school finding it in much the same condition as it was on it's discovery by the Vietnamese troops when they captured Phnom Penh in 1985. Inside we were allowed to freely explore the floors of classrooms that had hundreds of tiny rudimentary cells constructed of either brick or wood planks within their walls. Prisoners were held in these cells between torture sessions as the Khmer Rouge attempted to extract confessions of disloyalty to their party from women and men, children, adults, and elders alike. Other floors used for interrogation still contained the leg shackles and bare iron bed frames used as tools to deliver electric shocks to the prisoners. A new addition to the already somber scene were pictures of the final 8 victims found in those very rooms, as they were, on the prisons discovery. One large room was devoted to displaying the mug-shot style pictures of the suspected defectors which the Khmer Rouge were meticulous about taking both on their arrival, and again at the time of their death. Hundreds of faces stare out from the black and white photos, and knowing each one met a horrible end at the hands of the regime, it still seems unfathomable at some level. It's hard to imagine how something like this can happen, and especially how the sweet Cambodian people, normally warm, funny, and gracious could be caught up in the rhetoric and turned into killing machines?

Photo of citizens fleeing Phnom Penh:

We were surprised and pleased to see that the majority of the westerners visiting the site appeared to be twenty-something's, not just in Cambodia for the cheap hash and beer. Everyone at the compound seemed to respect the requested silence and each seemed to be reflecting, reading the historical accounts, and taking their time.

We visited the Killing Fields in Choeung Ek a few days later and opted to ride our bikes out there to remind our legs and butts what it's like. The trip was pretty straightforward and we had only to follow the Barangs in their tuk tuks (although considerably less than at Angkor Wat) to make our way. We pulled up into a gravel lot in front of a fairly unassuming place, except for the tuk tuks and a few transport vans we probably wouldn't have picked it out as "the" place. A small souvenir shop hung close to the lot and was almost totally devoid of anything related to the site, save for some books on the Khmer Rouge. We paid our $2 US each, walked four feet from the lone ticket seller to the lone ticket checker who verified the tickets he'd just watched us purchase were valid. Inside the low, ornate, concrete walls stood a large stupa and at first glance, a network of paths leading around the grassy grounds. Approaching the stupa you were able to see the glass walls towering up at least three stories revealed a dizzying number of skulls stretching toward the sky, just a fraction of those discovered at this mass burial site. Visitors weren't policed here, like most historically significant places we've visited in Cambodia, instead they're only asked to pause and meditate for a moment in front of the stupa before moving on about the grounds. As we walked the paths we realized the large depressions to each side of the path that appeared every few feet were in fact exhumed burial sites. We noticed bits of clothing in the compressed soil of the path and at one point came on a bend in the path that clearly had bleached bone jutting up from the ground in amongst the grass. The gentle breeze, green grassy knolls, flitting butterflies, and chitter of neighboring children belies this places bloody past, making it hard to fathom the reality of what you're strolling around. There's little information around the site and the whole thing feels a bit haphazardly put together, outside of the incredible stupa of course. In an hour we'd been able to take our time and see and read everything there was to see and read and it was time to head back to the city.

On our way back the heavens opened up and bucketed down on us. Huge waves of torrential blowing rain buffeted our t-shirt clad selves as the once cement-like dirt path lining the shoulder of the road quickly churned into soupy mud that caked our bikes, legs, backs, etc. On our way back to the hotel we swung by a bike shop and inquired about some fenders. After some seriously inventive improvisation (E. likened it to a surgical operation completed with a hatchet) on the part of the team of "mechanics" set to the task of fitting Cambodian fenders to our patchwork rigs, we each had one full rear fender. E. got an unmatched but functional front fender too but Z.'s bike wouldn't accommodate any of the front fenders they stocked. By the time the guys were done with our bikes we were on our way to being dry and the rain had passed over completely… guess we'll have to wait for another rainy day to test the newly outfitted bikes.

Another experience we shared in was a day volunteering with the City Municipal Dump Project here in Phnom Penh. Over 500 families make a living at the local dump sifting through huge piles of trash dumped by trucks every few minutes. The project started 6 years ago with a local ex-pat saving around $100 dollars, buying as much food as possible, then driving his own vehicle to the dump and feeding as many of the hundreds and hundreds of children who call the dump home. Now through some informal advertising he travels there three days a week with volunteers. The process is simple, show up at 10am, make donation (we donated $20 USD), travel to wholesale market, buy enough bread/fruit to feed 400-500 children, and travel to the dump. There is no set schedule, they just go at random 3 times a week. When I asked David who started the project why they didn't have a set schedule he said it was because they would have the whole city Phnom Penh there and coming at random allows them to feed on average 500 children each time. Upon arrival hundreds of children flood the truck carrying the food and with some much needed forced organization from the volunteers, the children lined up to receive the food. The project also runs a mobile-clinic and attends to illnesses and wounds while food is being dispersed. The kids were animated and excited, often wanting to practice English, and generally wonderful.

Kampong Cham to Phnom Penh the hard way

2009-05-31T00:09:00.000-07:00

We spent the night in Kampong Cham and listened to the rain pour on the tin roof outside our one tiny window. The fact that it had rained for hours that we knew of and possibly all through the night didn't come into consideration in the morning as we set out to take the alternate route from Kampong Cham to Phnom Penh via route 151.The Lonely Planet cycling book had even warned prospective tourists away from taking this route during the rainy season, or even after a heavy shower, but we figured it's early in the rainy season and a lot has changed in Cambodia since that book was published back around 1999 I think it was. This route appeared on the map to fairly closely follow the Mekong river, winding through small villages and we hoped it would at least offer a change from the traffic on the highways we'd been traversing.

Heeding none of the warnings we started off the day well by taking the wrong road out of town and ended up caught in an early morning market traffic jam of sellers setting up stalls, people buying veggies, and tons of motos and kids on bicycles traversing through all on their way somewhere. We smiled a lot and finally got through and on the right road. The road was initially quiet and much narrower than the highways with lots of banana and palm trees shading the lane. The paving wasn't the best but the little houses that hugged the road with their lively families calling out hello's to us made up for it.

It wasn't long before the pavement gave way to a soupy muddy expanse of road that had no doubt resulted from the rain of the previous night. We dodged huge potholes and started packing sticky wet mud into all the crevices of the bikes. It would be 20kms before we'd see pavement again. We had a break for a breakfast of fried pork and rice with a great view of the Mekong in a little town called Kokor which gave the mud caking our legs and shoes a chance to dry a bit.

On the road again we encountered a few turns that we hadn't anticipated but we were always able to ask any number of the Cambodians congregated around their motorbikes at the crossroads which way was to Phnom Penh and they'd always smilingly point us in the right direction.

The road continued to deteriorate along the 70 kilometer route. Wet sloppy mud with man sized potholes led to sticky hard packed mud permeated with fist sized potholes which turned into thankfully dry but unfortunately rocky road that vibrated our brains, butts, and bikes almost into oblivion.

Along the way we got to see some great Wats seemingly in the middle of nowhere along with a smattering of Mosques and a few obviously Muslim families. We got to share the roads with pony drawn carts carrying all manner of building and farming supplies. Kids came to the roadside to say hello to us as usual but an added bonus today was that they also came out to give us high fives. This day proved to be quite a test for the both of us physically and mentally even though the great interactions with enthusiastic villagers and interesting obstacles helped keep our minds off the difficult riding.

20kms before we would reach the highway Z. discovered a slight problem, he could no longer pedal. His bottom bracket had almost completely seized up. The options for catching a ride were few and far between and instead we decided to push on at least to Highway 61 where it would be easier to pick up a share taxi or some kind of transport. After quite a few breaks and stops to pick up more water we were finally at the road.

We started down the already incredibly busy highway and came shortly upon another Barang that we'd seen walking along our route the day before. We stopped to chat which turned into us getting his incredible story of walking through Cambodia! He's been here 25 days and while we're a little unclear on this crazy Californians entire route we do know that he's walked almost the entire 700km route we've cycled and quite a bit more! The guy is only carrying a small plastic shopping bag with a couple bottles of water that he refills at wells and faucets along the way, and some snacks. He sleeps at these little bamboo roadside huts that line the roads and provide shade and an elevated place to sit to anyone that might need a break from whatever their form of travel is. He relayed his experiences with the incredible hospitality of the Cambodian people, being taken in by locals for a meal and often a place to bed down for the night too. He's got great stories and we're hoping to run into him again while we're in Phnom Penh or on our way to the southern reaches of Cambodia.

We cycled off after spending no less than an hour chatting away with our new acquaintance and spent the next 40km fighting a pretty decent headwind and some persistent traffic to our destination. When we cycled over the Japanese Friendship bridge and into the city our bikes and our selves were thickly coated in mud. As we were rolling around the streets looking for a guesthouse we discovered a carwash and the guys there were nice enough to spray down our bikes for a couple bucks so we'd be a bit more presentable.

We landed a nice A/C room at a French guesthouse in a decent part of town and got a couple much needed showers. We're sitting in bed watching a Governator action movie and snacking on Le Petit Ecolier cookies, both happy to be off the bikes for a few days as we explore the Capital City and sort out our Visas for our return to Thailand around early September.

Oh yeah that reminds us, we have some news about our ever evolving travel plans. E. has enrolled in a TEFL course that will be held in Chaing Mai, Thailand in September. The course runs for a month and gets rave reviews from a couple folks we met at the meditation retreat. Z. isn't sure of his plan for the same time but will certainly find something exciting to do for that month… like possibly riding overland to India with some crazy Canadian cycle tourists or Wwoofing in Northern Thailand, who knows!

Ancient Angkor and Siem Reap

2009-05-25T00:13:00.000-07:00

The riding to Siem Reap further confirmed the awesome cycling in Cambodia as we were serenaded by hellos from the villagers, young and old alike. The bucolic scenery and incredibly laid back feeling that permeated the air made for a relaxing ride. We came up on a lot of student bicycle traffic as we cycled through the small towns that dotted the highway. The kids really interact with us: some cycle alongside us for as long as they can and more often than not the girls will say hello and then giggle to each other excitedly and a little embarrassed. The kilometers really fly by when you've got so many people to engage with and we're both finding it easier to cycle further with fewer breaks overall. We must have said hello over 100 times each on our route. We've talked a lot about how it's difficult to stay upset when you've got such an engaging and decidedly positive audience.

We stopped in one of the little roadside towns for a break and found our order of two coconuts to be quite entertaining for the shop owners. E. showed her skills at coconut eating, using the "spoon" to carve out the meat.

It’s the season for babies here and we're delighted to see all the chicks, ducklings, piglets, puppies, kittens, cowlets, etc… from the road as we cycle by. We're also a bit surprised by how many there are, as it seems like every family has some of each type!

Coming into Siem Reap we were impressed and a little taken aback at just how many monstrous resort type hotels there were lining the highway from about 5kms out. These mega hotels didn't crop up much inside the town though. Most of the hotels, restaurants, and business inside the town itself maintained a certain charm and came in more modest sizes. The streets of the travelers market areas were close and tidy with lots of patio dining spilling into the narrow lanes. The dining and drinking options were impressively international and the smell of food and enticement of cozy chairs and quaint little bistros was a welcome sight. We opted for a dinner of Mexican food (not expecting much after our sad experiences in NZ and AUS) and ended up with excellent food and some seriously stiff margaritas! Our guest house of choice "Ivy Guesthouse II" was a short pleasant 10 minute walk from the hustle and bustle of the Pub Street and Night Markets and meandered along the river. The room was decent and cheap at $6 per night and the restaurant out front was a great shady hideaway, perfect for a quiet breakfast.

We opted for cycling to Angkor Wat and followed the flow of Tuk Tuks toting their foreign or "Barang" passengers. We drew no smiles and hardly any second looks from the other tourists but still got lots of attention from the Cambodians, especially those cycling along the same route.

The roads inside the park are in the process of being upgraded and for the most part were better than 90% of the roads back home in Seattle. I would certainly recommend seeing the temples by bicycle for anyone planning to visit. The wide lanes are shaded by huge trees, the traffic is mostly two wheeled and no one seems to be in a hurry. There are tons of bike rental places around Siem Reap if your hotel doesn't already have a fleet of cycles for you to choose from. We came to the complex without a map, surprise surprise, and figured we'd easily locate one at any of the many small vendors who work around the temples. We did finally manage to find a few ladies with guide books but not until about half way through our first day so we're a little unsure of the history and significance of the first few sites we visited.

The first place we came upon was a mountain-like hill called Phnom Bakheng with its very steep and quite ruined stone stairway flanked by two lion statues. The staircase heads seemingly straight up into the jungle but is closed off to visitors these days in an effort to preserve it as much as that’s possible. We noticed signs and a structure at the foot of the hill that indicated that there was the option of taking an elephant to reach the top, or an option of climbing a newly constructed stairway. The place seemed deserted of both elephants and people, and we thought it'd be reasonably easy to ride our bikes up the elephant track, so we did just that. Half and hour of ruddy switchback riding and one spill later we were at the top; pleased and surprised to find a beautiful temple with an incredible view of the surrounding jungle with temples peeking out here and there. We got our first taste of the steep and ancient stairs that can be found at almost every temple in Angkor Wat. It's great to be able to traverse the temples with little or no policing of your activities and a complete lack of warning signs pointing out all to obvious risks. It's clear that if you don't bring some decent common sense with you on your visit you might end up taking one step too many as you're backing up to get the right shot of that Buddha - and go right off the edge, however we didn't see that happen or hear any ambulances during our visit.

After descending along the same elephant track we spent the next few hours at Bayon, a huge complex with giant faces on every side of the conical towers. There are 54 towers at Bayon with 216 smiling faces seemingly observing you from every direction. This temple is in fine shape and has definitely undergone more rebuilding and maintenance than that of Phnom Bakheng, which was in a glorious statue of disrepair and who's gardeners seemed to be just barely keeping the plants and trees from taking her over. We got our first glimpse of the bas-reliefs that these temples are known for; the Apsara Dancers being some of the most stunning. It's interesting to note that the towers were constructed with the largest blocks at the bottom and increasingly smaller blocks toward the top. This gives an impression of the towers being of even greater height than they already are.

We stopped for lunch where we got our first real taste of the kids that work the tourists over inside the park. We resisted their touting efforts and engaged them in conversation instead. All the kids know certain facts about certain countries and they'll ask "where you from" and when we say the U.S. they say "Capital Washington D.C. president Obama". Most of the time the kids speak more English than their parents who run the shops, and thus do a lot of the translation. We found them fun and funny with good humor even when they were finally convinced that we weren't going to buy 10 bamboo bracelets.

Before the afternoon had thoroughly cooked us we managed to see the Royal Palace grounds. These were the only surviving structures actually built for habitation, the rest of the existing structures around Angkor Wat were purely religious. The terrace of the elephants and Terrace of the Leper King were our last conquests of the day. We got some great pictures of the incredible elephant carvings and some of the more out of the way bas-reliefs in the Terrace of the Leper King. The immense detail becomes a bit overwhelming as you take it all in, trying to see everything and appreciate every detail. It seems as though one could revisit the same sight for days and still miss plenty of the carvings!

Our second day we spent some more time around the Royal Palace Grounds, saw Ta Phrom Kel, Preah Khan, and the famous Ta Phrom temple that you might have seen if you're keen on the Indiana Jones movies. We loved the controlled state of decay at Ta Phrom with the gigantic trees that have made themselves part of the temple, and part of it's decay. The temples a little further from the main tourist complexes are usually littered with stone blocks that have tumbled from their original placements and have since been collected, arranged, and often numbered in preparation for what seems like their inevitable reconstruction. Quite a few of the more prominent temples are currently closed off to the public as foreign countries sponsor their rebuilding, some in their 9th or 10th years of their reconstruction. The rain cut our tour of Ta Phrom short as it came in fast and furious, soaking everyone and everything caught out beyond the shelter of the little restaurant huts that line the roads leading to any of the given temples gates. We slogged back to the hotel soaked to the bone, Gore Tex shoes acting like buckets keeping the water in instead of keeping it out.

Our last day of the Temple Pass we opted to take a Tuk Tuk to see the sunrise at the main Angkor Wat temple. It's a popular thing to do and we weren't even close to being the only foreigners rising and shining before their hotels kitchen staff, to get ourselves out to the temples. Fortunately before the sun had even risen we had already been offered coffee and breakfast by at least 3 separate shop owners who are set up just adjacent to the best photo ops at Angkor Wat. The sunrise was less spectacular than it can be in the dry season but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless. We toured the famous galleries of Angkor Wat and were amazed at the detail in the depiction of the Hindu stories we found there. The temple was beautiful in the low light of early morning and E. got in some great shots with the camera. By day 3 the temples started to run together and we started to run out of steam, taking fewer and fewer photos and finding ourselves looking forward to a cool drink and a breezy tuk tuk ride more than another steep set of temple stairs to yet another fantastic vantage point.

We spent the last night picking up a new laptop at a little computer shop in town, happily ending up with an Acer Aspire One in a bicycle tour friendly size. Weighing in at just over 2 pounds this little blue jewel just barely outweighs E.s current book (A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth coming in at around 1500 pages). We're already Skyping away WITH VIDEO so look us up with Z.'s email address if you want to chat.

CHECK OUT ALL OUR ANGKOR WAT PHOTOS AT:
http://picasaweb.google.com/eehrheart/AngkorWatTempleComplexs?feat=directlink

"Afoot and light-hearted we take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before us... leading wherever we choose." Walt Whitman

2009-05-22T02:58:00.001-07:00

We just cycled into Cambodia; what a different world! We cycled the 400 kms from Bangkok to the border of Thai/Cambodia and spent the night at the border town called Aranya Prathet. The following morning we cycled the 6km to the border. Nestled next to the border is a huge market with smuggled goods from all over SE Asia. From Fruit stalls, to US Army fatigue clothing stalls, to converse shoes stalls, onto lines of tuk-tuks calling out wanting to take us to the border. The dusty road to the Thai border check point is lined with men yelling out wanting to offer us "express visa service." Ignoring their calls we passed through the border quickly and had our visa within 5 minutes of handing over our passports (and we didn’t even have to pay the bribe that a number of people told us we had to give for the "fast service"). Hopping in line with old wooden push cards laden with boxes of fruit and veggies, pulled painstakingly slowly by Cambodians making their livings pushing goods across the border daily, we made our way over the Thai/Cambodia bridge. Poipet, the dusty Cambodian city rife with casinos, met us on the other side. Again, ignoring more calls from people, this time offering us rides to Siem Reap and telling us it would take 10 hours to make it on our bicycles to our destination of Sisiphon - 35 miles away, we pedaled along the bumpy and dusty roads. Luckily one of the customs officials mentioned that they drive on the right side of the road (unlike Thailand) and after quickly switching over our mirrors we were off!

Within 15 minutes the bustling city turned into a well paved road lined on either side with rice paddies and Brahman cattle. About every 10 minutes there is a small shack selling old liter bottles full of gas to passing motor bikes. Children run out of the small villages chasing after us screaming "Hello! Hello! Hello!" with giant smiles across their faces. Overall there is little traffic, the most part consisting of Toyota Camry’s speeding down the roads. These cars are known as "share taxis" and due to a complete lack of busses between the border and Siem Reap these cars make up the public transportation and they hurtle down the road like rockets. I was wondering if maybe after the Khmer Rouge was defeated, Toyota donated a bunch of cars as a part of humanitarian relief?

Showing up our skeptics in Poipet, we made it to our destination town of Sisiphon within 3 hours, averaging a spectacular 23 kilometers per hour! Our ride was full of warm smiling faces and screeching "Helllooooos" on a newly paved flat road with a huge shoulder to ride on. The only thing chasing us while we rode into town was black storm clouds that soon caught up to us. We rode the last hour soaking wet in the warm monsoon rain completely covered head to foot in mud. We needed just this catalyst to force us to construct rain/mud fenders. Arriving at a beautiful hotel we spotted from the highway I promptly wiped out, dumping the bike and myself onto the slick tiles lining the driveway. No broken bones, I suffered a bruised ego, elbow, and upper thigh. The hotel staff was kind enough to literally hose us, our bikes, and our bags off. I'm not usually one to make a grand entrance, but crashing my bike at the marble hotel steps with 30 staff watching wide-eyed tops the charts.

To give my banged up leg and arm a rest we took the next day off. Sisophon is a small city by Cambodian standards. The well paved highway is contrasted with the towns cracked and muddy roads. In the center of town a beautiful bustling market resides. Signs in both English and Khmer dot the roads. The influence of NGOs and humanitarian workers is obvious and it’s not uncommon to see aid-worker trucks zipping down the roads. Most of the health care related businesses we passed were internationally sponsored and one school we walked passed proudly marked it had been “Constructed for Cambodia by the people of Japan”. From what we have read and seen so far Cambodia is trying to rebuild itself post-Khmer Rouge.

Today we cycled to the big city of Siem Reap, famous for the neighboring Ankor Wat Temple Complex. We plan to send about 5 days checking out the city and temples. Overall the cycling here has been smooth and beautiful – even with a few soggy days.

A bit of Thailand by bicycle

2009-05-20T22:33:00.000-07:00

We aspired to take the train out of Bangkok's main train terminal to Ayutthaya instead of riding directly Southeast out of the city. Our host in Bangkoknoi, Supaporn, had also suggested that the temples at Ayutthaya were worth seeing and that the traffic would be considerably less there as well. After a few hiccoughs and a lot of muddling through Thai train ticketing protocol, we finally had 15 baht tickets for our persons and 95 baht tickets for our bicycles. The tourist information booth staffed by two wonderfully patient ladies was indispensable even though individually we seemed to get different answers to the same questions. After 3 hours of waiting, one ticket re-issuing, a few platform changes, and eventually hoisting our loaded bikes up to chest level and into the baggage car we were off and rolling along in Thai 3rd class.

Bangkok Train station and our arrival in Ayutthaya.

The padded seats and relative roominess is a far cry from Indian style 3rd class where you've got about 25% more people than capacity, unpadded bench style seats, and usually an entire train car focused solely on you. The ride itself was pleasantly slow with lots of stops and lots to see as the suburbs of the city stretched for miles, far into what we'd expected to be ruralized areas. In fact, the entire distance between Bangkok and Ayutthaya saw the populous and commercialized townships only briefly broken up any sort of agriculture or general greenery. We found that this kind of ubiquitous urbanization also dominated a good portion of our route through Thailand, where we had expected rural and lush rolling green scenery we found instead ample opportunity to stop for a cold drink, buy a reproduction of a popular handbag, get a coffee, or even play golf!

I'm getting ahead of myself though, so back to Ayutthaya:

We rolled over the bridge and into the city center a mere 1km from the train station and utilizing one of our many maps we navigated our way easily to a fine travelers establishment called "Tony's Place" where the fan room was clean and nice and the ambiance was terrific with it's rough cut wood tables and chairs, hammocks on the upper veranda, and all around low key bungalow feeling. We unloaded the steel steeds, finding it a welcome change to plop the bags down in a hotel room rather than having to set up our tent, stove, mozzie net, etc. We passed on an A/C room for 600 baht, opting instead for a fan room that ran us just 350 baht. We ate a light lunch of noodles and curry on the patio restaurant and set off in search of these temple ruins we'd heard and read about. The temples are situated conveniently inside the boundaries of town, or rather the town has situated itself around the ruins as they've been there a bit longer
(1351 - 1767) .

We wandered a few temple grounds and rode out to a beautiful reclining Buddha on the outskirts of town.

Coming back into town we spent the last few hours of light adjusting the bikes and lubing up all the dusty and dry parts. While we were making a spectacle of ourselves with our spread of tools and parts strewn about out in front of the hotel we were approached by another cycle tourist couple who happened to arrive in town that day and who happened to be staying at the same hotel. We spent the evening chatting, tracking down some local food for dinner, and sharing plans and stories from the road over beers (for Z.) and ice cream sundaes (for E.). We were bummed to hear that Jo and Nick were heading North but wish them the best for their trip and hope they finally intercept Kat and Mike on their route!

The following morning we set out early for our first real day on the road. We followed the main highways and found the roads better than most we encountered in both New Zealand and Australia! The shoulders are wide and clean of debris and the drivers are courteous and always seemed to give us a wide berth. The terrain is flat flat flat and by the mid afternoon our rear ends were feeling the touch of the saddle again. We stopped for lunch at a small family run shop where we were the only lunch customers and secured a seat closest to the pond at the back of the place. We had a fun time using the tiny bit of Thai we knew and ended up pantomiming most of the order shaking our heads at the prawns and nodding vigorously at the chicken the patrons produced from the refrigerator. The food was excellent! Full and with the afternoon heat and humidity rising in tandem we got ourselves back on the bikes and slowly cycled away. The maps we printed from the CD we bought in Bangkok worked well but we took extra precautions stopping at the major intersections and consulting each other and the map to sort out where we were, making sure we weren't too far off course. We saw tons of the ornate, gilded, and colorfully tiled roofs of the many Buddhist temples that dotted our route with regularity. Ending the first day at just over 110km, we collapsed into our hotel/apartment after reaching Nahkon Nayok and just moments before a pretty good storm rocked and rolled the little riverside town. We watched the water cascade off the roofs of the surrounding buildings forgoing any gutter systems, from our fifth floor vantage point. We could have sworn that the lightning was striking just to the left or right of our rooms view as the thunder literally shook the slight single pane sliding glass doors that separated us from the windy wetness outside.

In the morning the town showed no signs of the nights storms and we enjoyed a papaya and coffee in the lobby of our hotel before setting out around 7:30am. We consulted the maps and decided to head North to check out some of the waterfalls listed on our map. Kat and Mike had recommended seeing some of these when we'd had dinner in Bangkok and this looked to be our only relatively close opportunity on this leg of our Thailand trip. We got off the main highways and got some good, quiet, and relaxed riding in around the foothills. We reached the base camp for the waterfalls just about noon. We were alone up there in the shady canopy of trees and E. took the lead, trudging up the cement stairs and path that were in dire need of vegetation management. We trekked around for a bit until we tired of spider webs in the face and mammoth mosquito's buzzing about us like tiny vultures. We saw a few small pools and the water was indeed running but we missed out on any true waterfalls that might have been there. Regardless, we enjoyed the chance to be out in the jungle alone, able to enjoy our surroundings without the usual distractions that come with a popular tourist spot.

Buddha statue at the waterfalls and the incredible scenery on the way up to the falls

We headed for the Khao Yai National Park (now a World Heritage site) but found the entry fee for foreigners a bit steep and with our daylight waning we turned South and headed for Prachinburi. We enjoyed lovely roads through the low and densely forested hills through the afternoon with occasional temples or resort-type hotels peeking up from the treetops unexpectedly along the way. 5km's outside town a local and avid cycling tourist flagged us down in his truck and struck up a lengthy conversation that included offering to try negotiate a stay for us at the house we happened to be stopped in front of should we be too tired to carry on. We declined the offer saying we'd planned to stay in town and instead accepted his offer to escort us into the city and to our hotel. We were a bit slow, but when we arrived at the intersection our hotel was meant to be on, there he was waving to us from his grey Toyota Tacoma and pointing in the direction of the street we'd mentioned. Z. shouted a thanks and then he was off, no doubt back to whatever business he'd been up to before he stopped to chat with us. The hotel we had chosen from the map was no longer and after cruising around town we settled on the only place we could find after being helped by a local fellow who spoke as much English as we spoke Thai. We managed to communicate surprisingly well and didn't find ourselves having to use the silly hand puppet motions we'd been relying so heavily on since leaving Bangkok. The room we ended up with was a bit of a hovel but we made it through unscathed and even found a few English language channels on our tiny t.v. while we basked in the strong current of A/C piping into the tiny room.

We were both awake before the alarm went off and out the door with our bikes packed up ahead of most of the shops opening. The lovely ladies at Bread Cafe down the block made us coffee while they were still P.J. clad and rubbing sleep out of their eyes. A quick breakfast of bread, bananas and black liquid fuel and we were back on the road. 110km to Sa Kaeo was surprisingly uneventful and by 4pm we were through riding and checked into a hotel for the night. We collected a bunch of street vendor food from a market down the road and whiled away the evening hours stuffing ourselves to uncomfortable fullness with the goodies we had amassed. On the way out of town the next day we happened on a monument of King Naresuan the Great which was chock full of rooster statues and completely devoid of visitors. We arrived in the border town of Aranyahpareth in the early afternoon and perused the little streets before heading out for dinner and picking up our professionally cleaned laundry!!! Our underwear came back in a separate smaller bag and we wondered after the fact if it was uncouth to ask your laundress to wash your underwear in Thailand?

We'll cross our first international border by bicycle tomorrow from Thailand into Cambodia; you can be sure we'll be taking tons of photos to commemorate the event!

Seeing Bangkok with The Tour Guide of Food Paradise

2009-05-13T06:03:00.000-07:00

If we haven't raved enough about Warmshowers, here's another glowing post to add to the roster.

When we had finally gotten confirmation of our meditation course and we were ready to make the jump to Thailand, we consulted every cycle tourists favorite internetwork and E. made quick work of contacting the two tourists listed in Bangkok. The couple originally from Portland replied that they were hosting already and were booked up with our Canadian friends after their current guests left. The other host replied that she had room and would love for us to come and stay with her. That's how we ended up staying with and coming to love Supaporn, a wonderful native of Bangkok with a big heart, a big appetite for adventure, and a mental map of the tastiest Thai food any Farang could ever hope to stumble onto in Bangkok.

We were set up with a fantastic private room in Bangkoknoi, which is the former city center and just across the river from the University. We found ourselves engulfed in the shopping district of Wang Lang and often found ourselves the only foreigners around! We were conveniently located just blocks from Wang Lang Pier where we easily and inexpensively caught river ferries to and fro as we explored the city. An added bonus to the piers proximity was the tantalizing walk one could take to get there down a lane 3 blocks long lined with food vendors of all varieties all day and late into the night. Anything your heart desired as far as Thai food is concerned, could easily be found here and we spent many evenings perusing and snacking on our way to or from the apartment.

Supaporn did a terrific job of hosting; having fresh green mango and other lovely culinary treats to our room in the mornings, providing maps and directions according to our tourist whims, inviting us to have dinner with her and her family, teaching us a bit of Thai, and showing us around the neighborhood - always making sure we knew where to find anything we needed.

We dined at a locals only kind of place at Wang Lang pier where we got our first taste of Supaporns fabulous food tourism. We tried no less than six dishes and got a critical lesson in Thai eating - everything goes with rice and you don't treat the dishes like a buffet, piling everything on your plate at once and letting it all meld together, instead you take a bit of this and finish it before you take a bit of that, etc. etc.

On another occasion we were whisked off to Ko Kret Island to see the Mon cultural center of Bangkok and ended up eating dried candied flowers, egg sweets, and great coffee while we toured the waterways by pleasantly slow ferry. The island is known for it's pottery and as we walked the tranquil and winding lanes in the oldest part of the community we got to see first hand the throwing, glazing, firing and incredibly detailed hand work that goes into these crafts.

It seems as though we enjoyed countless meals, each new and more exciting than the last, learning all the time and having great conversations about all aspects of Thai life that we could think of to ask.

As the Principal of a school in the area, Supaporn went above and beyond traditional hosting duties and arranged for us to visit the Temple of the Dawn and the Royal Barges with 9 of her 11-12 year old students. This was a great opportunity for the kids to get to practice their English and E. shone brightly as she guided them to speak, read, learn, and engage with everything inside both the Temple and the boathouse. We ran here and there following the directions of "this way please" and painstakingly reading all the informational signs in English - sounding out difficult words as we went. The kids were great and even the shyest were happily engaged by the time we said our goodbyes after four hours of tramping around.

We both feel incredibly lucky to have had this unique experience here and are forever grateful to our incredible host. Bangkok has been amazing for us and we look forward to visiting again in the future.

10 days of sitting is not as easy as it sounds!

2009-05-12T20:56:00.000-07:00

We persevered and made it through the entire 10 day meditation retreat! Although this doesn't sound like much of a feat, and admittedly we were prepared for this to be a relaxing little vacation, it turned out to be quite an intense and sometimes trying experience... While it was hard for both of us, overall it was completely worth the time and effort. The schedule was rigorous and about as far from our normal routine as we could possibly get. While we have become accustomed to waking up around ten, eating and enjoying coffee almost immediately upon leaving the bed, which inevitably led to an afternoon of strolling about shopping and snacking at any of a number of amazing sidewalk food vendors.

one of the rooms at the Dhamma Abha center

The retreat started with a lovely chartered bus ride from just outside Bangkok to the central Northern town of Phitsanulok. Although we were not required to maintain silence at this stage, the bus ride was very quiet and you got the distinct impression that folks were preparing themselves for what was to come. We arrived at the center in the late afternoon and as we disembarked the bus we were guided to our gender segregated areas so deftly we hardly had time to exchange a parting glance. We surrendered our cell phones, reading material, and pain killers, along with other contraband and in exchange received our room assignments, dish sets, and linen. The rooms were modest and there was truly no luxury about the place to distract one from the experience. The rooms for new students were a modest 12 foot by 6 foot rectangle with a built in platform bed, two shelves, a screened window, four or five coat hooks, a laundry line, several clothes pins, a small stool, and a three speed fan which could be plugged in to the single outlet. Each hall contained about 25 rooms and each room was constructed like a cubicle with walls about seven feet high but still about five feet short of reaching the ceiling. The design meant that all your noises could be observed by your neighbors in the hall and whether this design was to keep up the air circulation in the hot climate, or for the purpose of helping you maintain your "sila" of silence I'm still not sure. The bathrooms were much like the rooms and each of the twelve community stalls contained a toilet and a shower with communal sinks at either end of the bathroom block. These were cleaned every morning and never showed their inevitable heavy use by the many meditators. All in all the accommodations were completely reasonable and acceptable, lacking nothing and providing nothing outside the essentials. We were called to our first dinner by the gentle chiming of a meditation gong (projected through a loudspeaker) and got our first taste of the excellent and completely foreign vegetarian Thai dishes we would be enjoying throughout the course. Our introduction to the schedule was relaxed that evening as we listened to the welcome discourses and watched a video featuring Goenka that explained what we were embarking on. We were in bed by 9:30 with lights out by 10pm! The wake up chiming started at 4am and the first meditation of the day started by 4:30, which for the first couple days seemed completely unreasonable and unworkable as we both found ourselves nodding off again and again. Eventually we both developed techniques that helped us stay awake and aware for the earliest of the meditations but it was certainly a test of willpower. The days schedule followed with more meditations, breakfast, rest period, meditation, meditation, meditation, lunch, rest period, meditation, meditation, meditation, tea and light snack, rest period, meditation, discourse, meditation, then bed. We all did this with complete silence both in speech and body language and were instructed to work as if we were completely alone. Surprisingly, neither of us found that it was too difficult to be silent for the duration instead finding the prolonged sitting and intense concentration required to practice Vipassana to be the most difficult aspects of the course. During the later days of the course we were asked to participate in Sittings of Great Determination which entailed sitting in a single posture without moving for one hour. To those of us who've had desk jobs that might seem like something we do all the time and as such should be simple and painless. It is not so. The first half an hour feels like an hour but it's bearable. The next fifteen minutes seem like two hours and as you become increasingly uncomfortable you find yourself becoming agitated and losing concentration. The last fifteen minutes feel like an eternity with each second pounding itself into existence with the building pressure in your aching legs. It's everything you can do to focus on the meditation practice and if you could open your eyes you'd burn holes in the clock with your stare as you waited for the hour to finish. When it's over and you are free to relieve your body of it's torture you often find a great sense of accomplishment in having stuck it out through the meditation. After days of this it becomes easier and easier to maintain the postures throughout the other meditation hours and a strange thing start to happen to the pain and discomfort you feel - it stops interrupting your meditation practice and instead becomes like other sensations, allowing you to acknowledge that it's there but not stealing all your focus away from the task at hand. This meditation style is certainly not easy but it's difficulty is not exclusive to any particular type of person or personality. This can truly be practiced by all and each and every person could and would certainly benefit from the exercises. After the course completed it was recommended that we maintain a meditation practice for two hours a day in our outside lives - one hour in the morning, one hour in the evening. So far we've been making at least one of those meditations daily and intend to continue the practice, hopefully indefinitely. We're glad to have taken the course and are talking already about taking a second course in India in the next year or so. We would recommend this experience to anyone and have found it to be beneficial in both our lives already and look forward to continued results with continued practice! If you want more info you can check out http://www.dhamma.org/

Looking up at the spire of the main meditation hall and the lovely countryside around the center. So peaceful!

Right now we're back in Bangkok, having and it's drizzling and gray which makes it a bit cooler, a nice change from the heat we felt here before we left for Phitsanulok. We're getting set to ride Southeast to the Cambodian border with 8 days left on our Thailand visas. After 3 iterations of map purchases we've settled on a CD-ROM of max 1:2500 scale maps that seem to be detailed enough to satisfy both of us. We're unloading some books we've finished (or given up on) this morning and using every excuse to avoid getting on our bikes to run our errands. We're both feeling a bit apprehensive about riding again since we've been off our bikes for quite a while now but are confident that we'll get back into the swing of things without much trouble once we get outside Bangkok. Today we'll say goodbye to our lovely host Supaporn and make our way by train to Ayutthaya, about 75km north of Bangkok, to visit the temple ruins and give ourselves a less hectic starting point for our trip toward Cambodia.

Supaporn takes us all over Bangkok showing us the non-Farang (Farang is Thai for foreigner) sights

Oh, and for our friends and family:

Zach has started using skype phone and can be found by his gmail address in a skype user search so if you're using skype you should add us so we can talk to and maybe even see your smiling faces!

On a final note, to all those at the Lexis Bellevue office who have been caught up in the layoff, our sincerest condolences go out to you. We wish you the best of luck in your next venture and remind you all that if you've got some moolah stocked away and feel like traveling with some hardcore budget travelers we're always happy to have people to meet up with along our route! We're true believers that a severance package is best spent on travel!

Zen Zach and Equanimus Elise

Belated Travel Update - Bangkok and Beyond!

2009-04-26T18:49:00.000-07:00

After much finagling and reservation changes we flew into neon lit Bangkok, Thailand late last Friday. As some of you already know we have been trying our best to get into a Vipassana Mediation course in Thailand and although there are four separate locations within the county the majority of the courses, within our time frame, were full. We got the word about a week ago that we were accepted for the April 29th - May 10th course so we went ahead and booked a flight to Thailand. After the course we will start cycling to Cambodia and eventually back to Vietnam. If your interested in reading about the course check out: http://www.abha.dhamma.org/

While we were waiting to hear about our course status we continued our exploration of Ho Chi Minh City. My step-dad Bill and I had a wonderful conversation about his memories and experiences within the city during the Vietnam War. Bill did multiple special forces tours during the Vietnam War from 1963 - 1970. His intimate and personal connection with Saigon (now HCMC) and the whole of Vietnam allowed him to at times give us street by street directions to various sights around the city. Saigon, once known as the "Pearl of the Orient," now blends spiced exoticism with modernistic architecture and mainstream fashion. Because HCMC is a hub for many of the major universities within Vietnam, English language students proliferate the city. And, after two weeks traversing the city our favorite pass time was to hang out in one of the many inner-city parks and practice English with those students. In contrast to what we're used to back home (the idea of a 'personal bubble') people in HCMC constantly approached us wanting to talk about where we're from, especially to practice their English. Our last night in HCMC we met again with two university students in their 20's, talking late into the night about their beliefs, experiences, and goals. From these conversations our own personal Vietnamese dictionary is steadily growing - hopefully proving to be invaluable when we cycle back to Vietnam.

Although the actual blog 'postings' are being neglected we often take little notes about our experiences traveling, especially those things that really give essence to a place. Traffic in HCMC is in a leauge of its own. Everything we read about the traffic is absolutely true. The streets are unbelievably crowded during the day and remain quite busy into the wee hours. Crossing the streets on foot can literally require a leap of faith as you dash off the sidewalk to avoid the motorbike heading straight for you on the ancient, narrow, fractured path landing in the swarm of revving scooters crisscrossing every which way and beeping warning honks at you in the six lane superhighway-like city streets. One valuable piece of advice we received was "Just walk slow and make eye contact with the drivers," which is helpful but does not account for the frequent violation of common sense that occurs when the moto drivers turn into oncoming traffic like salmon fighting the current, driven by some kind of ludicrous urge to go up against incredible odds to get where they need to go. We had some near misses and saw more than one bandaged foreigner who'd met the pavement in one way or another. We also went with our guts and left the bikes packed in their bags and passed up the opportunity to rent a scooter to fulfill our own touring whims.

Are there too many cars on the road? Well, ride on the side walk! Why didn't we think of that before?

Unfortunately much of the Mekong is lined with rubbish inside the city limits. Often areas of the river without a strong current display a kaleidoscope of rubbish as seen below this bridge:

Half way into our time in HCMC we decided to forgo the sweltering metropolis and headed to the beach about 130 kms away in the city of Vung Tau. Our 4 nights there were refreshing and allowed us to finally cure ourselves of our lasting colds. Vung Tau was not the iconic rolling surf and golden sand resort town typical of Australia. The beaches are half work, half play, with vendors renting beach chairs and sun umbrellas, to the fishermen pulling in their nets right next to wading vacationers. Our first glimpse of the beach on Sunday didn't actually have any beach in it. When we crossed the highway and followed the motorbike path, what we found right up next to the sea was an almost endless mass of brightly colored umbrellas shading some of the simplest and most comfortable hammock-like beach chairs. Any space that wasn't occupied by a tiny shade oasis had some variety of push cart food vendor, cart firmly sunk into the loose sand under the weight of soda cans, grilled seafood and meat skewers, and all manner of souvenir one might expect to find in a well stocked tourist shop.

The water was teeming with Vietnamese and tourists alike. The Vietnamese didn't appear to appreciate the concept of bathing attire and instead came trotting our of the surf in the jeans and t-shirts they'd arrived in. Only the foreigners donned the board shorts and bikinis and frankly were outnumbered and outdone by the locals. The beach like the streets everywhere in Vietnam is awash with garbage of all sorts. And although the beach was beautiful with warm ocean water flowing over our feet, we often found ourselves stepping over rubbish tumble-weeding down the sandy stretches. The guilty pleasure of walking down the beach was often times starkly contrasted by the degradation caused by the plastic and other non-recyclables littered about.

A massive approaching storm over Vung Tau. This giant cloud wreaked havoc on the beach front, causing a number of huts to cave in and tossing beach chairs down the sand in huge gusts:

We were welcomed by a generous smile from the security guard as we arrived in Bangkok at our Warmshowers hosts apartment building. Obviously expecting our arrival the guard peered into our cab window, waving happily and holding a cardboard sign, usually reserved for those hitchin' a ride, reading in bold letters "E and Z". She was a welcome and warming sight. Leading into the foyer we were handed a key to our own one room mini-apartment. Amazing! As we later learned our host Supaporn's lovely aunt, in her mid-80s, owns the apartment building. Supaporn took us out to an beautiful lunch yesterday. Ordering for us, she helped to translate the menu and gave us a glimpse into how the the locals eat - no Pad Thai for us! Although Supaporn hasn't dabbled in cycle touring yet, she has an adventurous soul and has traveled all over the world. We are even tossing around the idea that she may come visit us in India!

Look at all the good food! View from the restaurant and the approaching storm thanks to a Chinese typhoon off the coast... what is it with us attracting big storms?:

Although this is our second time in Bangkok, we feel we are meeting the city for the first time. Bangkok has a unique and striking contrast between the old and the new. Ancient glittering Buddhist temples are hugged by modern shiny buildings while the brightly painted tuk-tuks pull up next to the BMWs on sleek paved roads. Getting around primarily by the river ferries and on foot, we have wandered amazed through breath taking Buddhist temples, around the Grand Palace grounds which house His Majesty the King, and in and out of the markets teeming with life.

Bizarres Galore - Bunched Roses:

Are we the only ones disturbed by this?

What Pho (Temple of Reclining Buddha):

Wat Phra Kaew (The Emerald Buddha):

By coincidence, or sheer luck, we arrived in Bangkok at the same time as our Canadian cycling friends did. Having just cycled from Singapore to Bangkok, Mike and Katrina are planning to tune their bikes up and tour the city, then depart north on their bicycles into Laos. We met them on our first day abroad in New Zealand and we would love to cycle with them in SE Asia. The world just keeps getting smaller and smaller. Last night we had dinner with, not only Mike and Katrina, but two other couples - one from Portland, Oregon now living in Bangkok and the other from Ottowa, Canada, on a year long cycling tour. We spent the night talking about cycle touring and life back home, while enjoying our first spaghetti meal since leaving home with actual brownies and ice cream served for dessert. Thank you for the excellent dinner!

The cycle touring group and our friends Katrina and Mike:

Early tomorrow morning we leave for our meditation course. Observing the code of 'noble silence' we won't be talking to each other for the entire 10 day meditation. We are both anxious with excitement, not knowing what to expect and looking forward to this new experience with meditation. We miss and love everyone back home and there isn't a day that goes by that we don't comment on how nice it would be to share every moment of this experience with our family and friends.

Good Morning Vietnam!

2009-04-11T23:06:00.000-07:00

Our first step outside our guesthouse brought sweet memories of India. The air in Saigon is warm with incense and exhaust. Horns honk and motor bikes zoom by packed with people, goods, and animals. Away from our familiarities, the ease of routine, and blending in to our surroundings - We are both happy to be back.

View from our hotel:

Yesterday we took a motor bike tour around the city. Zipping on the back of the motor bikes we got to see what the highway is like directly outside the city. Since Vietnam is teeming with two wheeled vehicles often the highway was separated, 4 wheels left lanes and 2 wheels right lanes with a cement divider. A couple times Zach and I looked over at each other with knowing glances thinking 'how will we ever ride our bikes here?'.

During our tour we ended up seeing a ancient pagoda and a Vietnamese water/amusement pack - what a contrast. The pagoda entrance was lined with ground level stalls selling turtles, fish, incense, and bottles of coconut oil. Before entering the pagoda there are two cement pools, one for the turtles and the other for the fish to be dropped into as good luck offerings.

At the water park we rented swimming shorts and hopped in the water slide line with the hoards of screaming Vietnamese school children. The children followed us saluting, screaming "Heeelllooo!" and "What youuu Name!," and shaking our hands. They thought it was awesome we were swimming. We ended our motor bike day tour with the driver teaching us some local Vietnamese over very strong coffee.

Water park and beautiful Buddha inside park:

The people of Vietnam are gracious and kind. Walking on the street we are met with faces that smile and want to share eye contact. We are excited to travel beyond the city and to experience this amazing country.

Sionara Western World: Hello Vietnam!

2009-04-08T19:00:00.001-07:00

Where to start!?

I think I'll start with the good news and a great book recommendation. If you haven't read it already we were introduced, by one of our wonderful Warmshowers hosts, to an author Gregory David Roberts and his novel Shantaram. Z. has finished this lengthy but captivating book and E. is about to start it. At 933 pages it's a bit of a brick but I assure you it's worth the read.

In other good news we've had an incredible and action packed time here in Darwin.

One of the many spectacular parks just outside Darwin

Z. met E.'s brother Jens for the first time and E. got to get to know her brother quite a bit better after indulging in some sister/brother bonding out a Kakadu National Park.

aboriginal depiction of long-necked turtle at Kakadu Caves

E. also got the pleasure of meeting the newest addition to the Ehrheart family line, Jens' son River!

River hamming it up for the camera

We've cycled the miles of bicycle paths that crisscross the city and suburbs, visited all the bike shops (only 5), seen Friday night track racing, gone to the movies, took the Jumping Croc's river tour,

Jens getting a second go on the Jumping Crocs tour

What would you do for a pork chop on a fishing pole?

visited Jens rural property and his new "locals" bar, and met some incredible hosts some touring cyclist and some non-touring cyclist. In the almost 2 weeks we spent in Darwin we've done a lot, and also spent a fair amount of time relaxing and reading in leisurely luxury (thank you warmshowers.org!). In the last few days we got to spend some good quality time with Jens' friends and roommates shooting the breeze and even getting out on the bay to do some mud crabbing.

Mud Crab!

It was nice to chat with some worldly, interesting, and incredibly funny folks and we'd like to thank them for the send off dinners and the sincere well wishes for good travels. Oh and Rockin' Rob... we didn't even have to listen twice to know that we love the music! You guys should tour the states so we can see you live!

The not-that-good news is that on Thursday, the day we were supposed to fly out to Vietnam, Z. woke up with a toothache that wouldn't quit. He'd already been to the dentist a few days before and was delivered the premolar abscess diagnosis but despite the antibiotics and the Oxycontin the tooth had upped the ante and had swollen out past the surrounding teeth and would not succumb to the heavy pain killers any longer. We'd already made the decision and the appointment to get the tooth worked on at an ex-pat clinic in Ho Chi Minh the morning after we arrived, but that plan was out by five o'clock Thursday morning. Z. just wanted the tooth out and by 8:30 am had the only emergency appointment he could get a 35 minute cab ride outside Darwin. Luckily the dentist was persuasive and educated enough to convince Z. to start a root canal procedure instead of pulling the bastard tooth, assuring him the pain would be virtually completely relieved and the temporary filling backed by antibiotic goop would last at least 2 months. The whole thing cost less than our new camera and Z. was in and out of the clinic in 25 minutes. E. stayed back and sent off a last minute package to the forest project in Auroville containing our sleeping bags and Thermarests - things we don't envision needing in S.E. Asia much but will be glad for in Darjeeling in 2010. E. also packed the straggling bits of our stuff and organized our flight vouchers and info, ready to leave that evening or book a new flight if we were forced to hold off on travel for dental reasons.

With the major disaster averted, our lovely host Theresa delivered us and our luggage to the small but efficient Darwin International Airport. Seriously the whole place was about the size of one terminal of the SeaTac airport back home. We easily cleared the bikes and other luggage and tried to spend our last few Aussie dollars on overpriced snacks and drinks. The flight boarded on time and left the gate without incident - more than we can say for most flights back in the states! We spent the flight leaning over one another to peer out the window into the dark, gauging poorly with the airline magazine map what island we thought we were flying over whenever we'd spot any concentration of light in the black below. We landed on time and zipped through the airport immigration counters and the customs queue. We exchanged about $300usd and received millions of dong in return, these denomination would take some serious getting used to and neither of us could discern how much we had actually payed for a cab ride to our hotel.

The night was warm and the air smelled vaguely like that of India, a bit sweetly smokey and with a distinctly foreign ring. The city streamed by in comparable chaos to what we'd experienced in the past five months. Motobikes flew past our windows in full career, seemingly heading in every conceivable direction at once. Traffic moved much more quickly here and with the accompanying of every tone and length of honking imaginable. When by chance we got caught up at a light we watched as rider after rider filed their bikes, cargo, and passengers into a thick, teeming mass of bright lights and dark eyes, tanned skin and polished metal, worn tires and dangling thongs. The light changed and we all accelerated as one off into the city beeping and maneuvering about each other. No one seemed to be in a particular hurry and the vying for position and posturing seemed, to my eyes, to be missing from the drivers interactions altogether. Shops were open everywhere and people were out on the town doing everything from drinking at bars to playing with children and it was all happening at ground level and spilling out from the sidewalks into the streets. Moto repair shops seemed to be doing a swift business right alongside electronics stores boasting the latest techie gadgets which were down the block from ice cream parlors offering a refreshing cool against the evenings heat. We arrived on our guesthouses street and a young guy showed us down a side street to a hotel, but not the one we'd booked. He didn't seem too put off when we declined his preferred guest house and slogged our way alone another 50 meters to 178/32 Co Giang. This was the only hotel E. had managed to confirm a booking with after trying a number of places listed in the Lonely Planet and online from our hosts house in Darwin. We were met at the door by the bright faces of 3 lovely young ladies who fetched the hotel manager for us. The girls then preceded us up the stairs carrying our lighter luggage and giggling at our sputtering struggle up the four steep and narrow flights of marble stairs that lead up to our room. We stumbled in our socks on the polished floor making our struggle that much more entertaining for the gigglers. After signing in to the guest log and saying a winded goodnight to the proprietor we headed back up the four flights of stairs to our first room on our first leg of our first ever S.E. Asia bike tour. We took a few moments to marvel at our good fortune before falling into bed.

Headed to Darwin

2009-03-24T23:19:00.000-07:00

Well we've done it. We picked up our four wheel drive diesel guzzling home on wheels and we set the compass bearing for West. On a beautiful Thursday afternoon in Cairns the two of us packed up our twelve bags of assorted sizes, wedged our partially disassembled bikes into the back of the Land Cruiser, and said our goodbyes to the East coast of Oz.

Good lord how is all that going to fit in there?!

E. bravely took the first driving shift navigating us through the busy city center to collect our things from the hotel. we couldn't have picked a more winding route to reach the Tablelands and E. showed great poise and composure while navigating the constant twists and turns and even weathered the moderate rains without the slightest trouble. Pretty good for a rookie left-side drivers first day out! We treated ourselves to a nights stay at the Innot Hot Springs (or thermal pools as they're called here). It took us just a few moments to get set up for the night and we rediscovered that cooking is a breeze when you don't have to saute veggies at ground level! A nice dip in the pools and a hot shower loosened the old bodies and we settled in for a tough night of reading in bed. Z. took the next days first driving shift from Innot to Prairie - 627 kilometers away, or about 9 days of bicycling! The road was a schizophrenic patchwork of potholed single land sometimes paved sometimes dirt, with huge compact gravel "passing" shoulders strung together with sections of hasty washout repairs that, when driven over at 80km per hour, would threaten to rattle the teeth right out of your head. Each time we were faced with an oncoming vehicle, the inevitable game of chicken ensued. The last minute swerve halfway off the pavement and onto the dusty shoulder would have Z. slowing down considerably and white knuckling the wheel while the other driver would casually lift a hand and give a little wave and zip on by without lifting their foot from the accelerator.

When we hit Prairie that evening we pulled up to the hotel/ van park/ bar and accepted the very reasonable price for a powered camp site out behind the bar. We were met by the curious stares on one very cranky alpaca and an incredibly sweet and very rotund water buffalo. We cleaned ourselves up and headed to the bar at the invite of the owner who enticed us with the promise of a good Aussie football game. We met the characters who were there to lay their bets on the entire seasons match-ups and to alternately harass each other when trys were scored or refs called questionable penalties during the game. The bar itself was quite a scene with it's collection of akubras, or cowboy hats, nailed to the ceiling, it's taxidermied collection of native wildlife, and it's worn and weathered wood floors used mostly as a tricycle raceway for the clutch of toddlers that entertained us while the footy was in half-time.

The nights have gotten cooler out here which is a pleasant change and has made sleeping that much easier. We were up early the following morning feeling refreshed and as a result we got back to the asphalt by 8:30am. E. was behind the wheel for a very jarring morning of driving along routes rutted by the many and giant road trains and softened by the intense afternoon heats. We watched as the landscape changed again and again from Eucalyptus stands that became sparse groups of scrubby trees, then morphing into intermittent groups of low brush which finally fizzled out leaving us to look on long expanses of incredibly flat grassland.

Where have all the trees gone?

Road Train!

We glimpsed a group of Emus along the roadside but missed the photo opportunity because of the ever increasing speed limit (now up to 110km p/h!). We made a few pit stops in the little towns along the way mostly just to break the monotony of sitting for hours on end. We got a chance to call our friend Eli from Mt. Isa to wish him an early happy birthday (22nd is the actual day for any of you that know and want to harass him, we're pretty sure he's turning a miserly 28!). We decided to push a long day so we could buy ourselves some extra time at the Mataranka Hot Springs the following day and that's how we ended up literally driving into the sunset. It was beautiful, but not a pleasant experience from the drivers point of view!

Against the warning sticker displayed in our vehicle which reads "Night driving in Outback areas is not advised" we did just that. We didn't see (or hit) any kangaroos but we did have a bit of trouble with the flocks of birds that were camped out on the road, busily snacking on the grasshoppers that were plentiful and either dead or stunned from the days traffic. Z. resorted to sounding the horn in short bursts every few seconds to try and warn them away, which may have helped some but didn't prevent him from a few collisions with the startled diners. As a result, we decided to pull off at a remote rest stop and wait for morning to get going again. From our vantage point in the camper we could watch the road trains pass by on the highway, lit up like some sort of twisted Aussie version of St. Nicks sleigh and sounding like a herd of elephants stampeding through the night.

Welcome to the Northern Territory!

Pictures and Ponderings

2009-03-17T20:04:00.000-07:00

We are due to embark on a long haul road trip across Australia to Darwin in the Northern Territory. Many cyclists have made the 3000 km trek across but we've opted for the luxury of a 4x4 Bushcamper.

I visited Cairns 8 years ago on my first trip to Australia and sharing the experience with Zach was always a highlight I looked forward to. We've taken a few great tours here. First out to the outer Great Barrier Reef for a day of snorkeling

Zach in the stinger suit, our friend the sea turtle, and the submerged reef below:

and second a trip on a scenic railway and a gondola sky ride to the Kuranda National Park.

View from the train and gondola of Cairns far below:

Us at the falls along the train route:

In Kuranda we visited a bat rescue center and learned how amazing the flying fox bats are:

Our April 9th departure to Vietnam marks a new and uncertain leg of this journey for us. We are both apprehensive and excited for our upcoming time in SE Asia. Its been years for the both of us not to have set schedules. Besides our departure from Australia and our eventual goal to end our trip in India, the road ahead is unmarked (and mostly unpaved). In addition we have been talking about how to greater incorporate our life goals and ambitions into this trip. This has led us to look greater into international organizations to volunteer with and to continue our experiences through WWOOF. Our conversations are often filled with the continual growth and evolution of this journey. Including what the journey means for us as a couple and as individuals. Just some ponderings.

Keep warm back in Seattle, summer is near. Our family and friends are continually in our thoughts. We wish you well.

Cairns marks the end of a great cycling adventure through Australia

2009-03-15T19:50:00.000-07:00

Townsville was great. We met up with E's friend Alicia and her wife Lynda who were excellent, witty, and full of great stories. They picked us up just a few hours after we checked into our hostel and took us out on the town for an excellent dinner and drinks at a great local restaurant situated right on the Esplanade with a view of Magnetic Island and the waterfront. Z. was treated to his first dose of Kangaroo... which is a very lean meat and surprising has great flavor as well! We chatted until we were the last folks in the joint, hearing all about Lyndas copper stories (not copper like the metal - police officer) and Alicias Army stories.

They both suggested that we spend a couple days out on Magnetic Island, or as the locals call it "Maggie", which is where they had their wedding just a few months prior. We took them up on the offer, although we stuck around town for a few days before heading out, mainly because we found our awesome hostel and A/C room too comforting to leave right away. While we were in town we participated in one of our favorite off-the-bike activities, visiting the local cinema! We saw "The Wrestler" after catching some of the Oscar's and being convinced by it's nomination there that it might be worth seeing, a notion that was in direct opposition to our original feeling about the movie after seeing the previews. We were both nonplussed... but I'm not sure if the intense smell of industrial cleaner with undertones of mildew that prevailed in the theater might have had and effect on our experience of the movie? I feel for the business owners here in that it must be so difficult to suppress the moisture and ensuing mold in their shops because with as much rain as they get there in the wet season (average rainfall: 1143mm over just 90 days) there just can't be any avoiding it short of hermetically sealing the entire building... All in all Townsville CBD was a pretty quiet place with a lot of empty storefronts, a plethora of "For Lease" signs, and not much foot traffic in the pedestrian malls. The CBD is however situated just at the base of Castle Hill which juts out of the relatively flat landscape like one of the rock formations found around Sedona, AZ. With a hot and uncharacteristically arid afternoon, and the marked change in landscape on our arrival we almost felt like we were riding into Phoenix! After a few days of putzing around we loaded up the bikes and hopped a ferry over to Magnetic Island which is, as Lynda put it, a one beer ride across or about 1/2 hour. We arrived and having decided on Horseshoe Bay for our stay we took the only road out that direction. What anyone, including our new friends who recommended the trip, had failed to mention to us was the fantastic hill we would encounter on our way out there.

Needless to say we were unprepared when we hit the 1.2 km stretch of 12% grade with our fully loaded single speeds after having cycled the last 2 weeks on some of the longest flattest stretches we've encountered to date. We both walked some of the really steep and winding sections which were made that much harder by the intense afternoon sun/heat. We almost called it quits and headed back but decided to venture around one more steep curve to see if we were nearing the top. We were indeed just a few hundred meters from the top and a nice shady vantage point. After a rest we whizzed down the other side and found ourselves at the backpackers resort just a few hundred meters from an all but deserted stretch of beach in Horseshoe Bay. We camped two nights there enjoying the troupe of brush tailed possums who visited the camp kitchen nightly and even gave E. a light nibble on the foot when we wouldn't produce any scraps for them. We also got a shot at Coconut Bowling where E. scored 100pts and a free beer and Z. barely knocked down 2 pins for an exciting 60pts! We took a great hike around the Island, venturing out with snorkel gear in hand to check out the islands fringing reef. We donned the sexy stinger suits at all 3 beaches but found the visibility too low to see much and resolved just to enjoy the change of pace that hiking was providing. We had a lovely afternoon even after losing the trail for a bit and having to forge our own trail as well as a small estuarine stream to get back to our beach.

We enjoyed Popsicles on the beach as a reward for our hard work and watched the other beach goers enjoying a dip inside the stinger proof swimming enclosure which effectively turns a bit of the shore into a saltwater kiddie pool. After our second night we prepared ourselves for the trip back over the mountain to the ferry with the promise of a pickup for ourselves and our gear at the ferry on the Townsville side. We learned as we were heading out from our Maggie resort that a category 3 cyclone was whipping itself up off the coast of Cairns - our next destination just 300km north of Townsville. We spent the next two nights with Alicia and Lynda watching the storms progress as it grew to a category 5 and then passed right by Townsville and dipped south winding itself out after giving everyone quite a lot of rain and a bit of a scare in the Airlie Beach area! We said our goodbyes after a wonderful time (and a visit from the ladies in blue and their squad car!)

and set out for Cairns with blue skies and a favorable wind.

On our way North to Cairns we found some of the best swimming holes of our trip so far and spent 3 afternoons blundering our way down little rocky rapids, bathing ourselves in cool fresh streams, and chasing fish with the goggles we've been toting around since Byron Bay. Our first night at Rollingstone we hopped in the creek and managed to free camp at the great council run park situated right on the river.

The second day we hit up Five Mile Creek outside Ingham. When we got there the place was 2km down a dirt road and the place was deserted after the only other couple who were clearing out when we arrived had gone. We took the opportunity to jump in with just our skivvies on.
The water was deep and clear and we splashed around for a while before we noticed 3 guys standing around and rolling cigarettes on the stairs leading to the creek. We hopped out feeling refreshed and quickly wrapped our towels around ourselves and headed up the stairs. At the top we were met by the friendly stares of about 35 OZ Experience travelers with their music playing and the BBQ's fired up and packed into all the picnic tables except the one we'd chosen to lean our bikes up against. OZ Experience seems like a summer camp type experience for twenty-somethings where you tour around the country in a small bus with a group of other twenty-somethings and form cliques and alliances while you enjoy farm stays, learn-to-surf packages, and happy hour at all the popular backpacking destinations. Could be a fun way to travel but looks like torture to us. We donned our bikey outfits again and set off with The Killers singing us a farewell song from the OZ Experience bus. The next day we hit the pass between Ingham and Cardwell, which we'd been warned about but we found to be much more pleasant than the trek over the hills on Magnetic Island.

The gaurdrail at the top of the pass here is littered with signatures from foreigners who've stopped by the scenic lookout and we even managed to find one cycle tourist in among the crowd! The rest of the days ride was marked by flat stretches that undulated between eucalyptus stands and cane fields. In Cardwell we camped behind the great historic hotel Noorla that had done an amazing conversion on a shipping container,

creating two en suite rooms separated by a laundry facility in order to accommodate more guests. We were both intrigued and impressed and will definitely look into container living as an option in the future. E. took a bunch of photos of the simple foundation, great porch, and the great fitting done inside. In addition to the cool container conversion the place was incredibly stately with great antique furniture, a great bar with a library adjoining all done in dark woods and all very well maintained.

The following day we turned off the Bruce Highway for the last time in order to see Mission Beach. We unknowingly entered Cassowary country and were met by sign after sign warning drivers to slow down and be aware of the giant flightless birds that forage in the tropical forests and often cross the road
.
We also got a good dose of afternoon rain as we got closer to town and rolled in with shoes sloshing and bikes dirty and dripping wet. We opted for a hostel room so we could dry ourselves and our stuff out. We also got a glimpse of about 12 skydivers floating down from the clouds and landing on the beach right in front of the hostel! Still doesn't make Z. want to jump out of a plane but it was fun to watch. Turns out drying out was futile as we pushed out in the morning in a pretty good downpour that quickly escalated into torrential rain as we headed to Babinda. We rode over our first bridge that was under water and saw quickly how the area could easily become flooded and the roads cut. We also ran into two cycle tourists heading south from Cairns to Perth! And I thought we'd come a long way! In Babinda we camped at the Babinda Boulders and had yet another great swim! The water was pretty high from the recent rain and the current was running pretty fast. Z. was able to swim in place against the current! We took advantage of the trails around the area and got some great views of the boulders the place is named for. Possibly the quietest night of camping we've had yet as we were the only people up at the campground. We let ourselves sleep late knowing we only had 60km to cycle into Cairns the next day.

We've arrived! ...almost!

2009-02-28T22:49:00.001-08:00

We've arrived! ...almost!

It's true! As I whittle away at this post, typing with great care on
the iPhones tiny keyboard, we're just fifty some odd kilometers south
of Townsville. We said that we would cycle from Sydney to Townsville
whilst in Australia and now that we've almost finished the 3000+ km
ride it's time to pause for some reflection. (actually we plan to
cycle on to cairns so this is a bit premature but we're still assesing
the weather and a good downpour could cut the road and so on and so
forth). E. says that the closer we get to our destination the less it
feels like it's about getting to our destination, it's more about the
journey inbetween. It's hard to start from somewhere on a bike and say
"okay we're going to start here and end some obscurely long distance
away.". It's been essential for us to break the trip down into daily
portions which figure in about 90km distances with pit stops, pee
breaks, and usually a fail safe camp spot in case we're not feeling up
to par that day. Sometimes we exceed our own daily goals and sometimes
we decide it's just too hot to make it the whole way but either way we
end up somewhere interesting.
Z says that he's found that every place is interesting and that his
attitude has everything to do with how hard or easy, fun or torturous,
bearable or unbearable each days riding and each nights camping is.
Some places have been beautiful with great bathrooms, free showers,
entertaining campers, and favorable cross breezes through the tent -
while others have had dank cave like bathrooms, barren post-
apocolyptic feeling landscapes, and smells of the nearby chicken farm
wafting on the breeze. The quality of each ride and each campsite is
completely up to me to decide. I choose how I interpret each situation
and in doing so I determine my own satisfaction, or lack there of.
We joke and poke fun a lot in our posts here but overall we're both
incredibly struck by this beautiful place and we feel a great sense of
gratitude that we've led lives that have afforded us the opportunity
to see the world the way we are, and I don't just mean in a monetary
sense. We've had great support from and lifted insights off of well
traveled friends and family as well as being mentally and spiritually
inspired by people we look up to and love. Long hours are provided to
us daily for reflection and thought and we have many wonderful
conversations from our lives to recall for fuel during those times.

Seasick Bike Sailors

2009-02-24T22:11:00.000-08:00

Its official we're not invincible. After 2 nights at sea sailing through the Whitsunday Islands we came down with a stomach bug. After managing not to loose our stomachs during the rough seas we are surprised to be sick on land. We've been held up for 3 nights in Airlie Beach in a holiday apartment with A/C, watching copious amounts of TV on our 5! channels, taking long hard naps, and becoming very acquainted with our toilet. Tomorrow we continue the slow push North towards Townsville where we will spend a some nights with friends.

On the boat:

Our ride to Airlie Beach through the dreaded Marlborough Straits - according to most drivers and truckies the most boring stretch of road in whole Queensland. Our experience was much different by bicycle we found it long yes, but lined with beautiful lush green mountain ranges and plenty of Roadhouses (the Aussie authentic truck stops) to keep us entertained. We did find ourselves at times frantically avoiding approaching storms.

Marlborough Straits:

Approaching storm into St Lawrence:

Leaving Yeppoon we visited the Capricorn Caves. Our tour guide took us into the caves with two other adventurous souls. Thousands of bats flew around your head while walking through - darting just centimeters away from our eyes - a bit maddening, but overall it was refreshing to have someone else doing the tour guiding for us. Sometimes it just feels nice to be a tourist.

From Yeppoon to Mackay we camped at various locations along the road. From behind a pub, a rest stop, to probably our most interesting a cattle pen. Heading into the small town of St Lawrence with a small general store meagerly stocked with basics we watched the black storm clouds tumble in behind us. Taking refuge in the towns free camping at their Fairgrounds we set up our tent under the tin roof cattle stalls. We knew we were in for a big storm because St Lawrence was inundated with 9 inches of rain water the night before. In one night - 9 inches! Seattle doesn't even get 9 inches of snow in one year! Just after dark it rained extremely hard for an hour. It was raining so hard that 10 minutes into the storm we knew the water would wash down in rivers toward the tent. Although we picked the stall with highest ground we knew the rain channel couldn't hold this downpour. To add to this saga the thunder and lightening was deafening. Crawling out of the tent covered in mozzie repellent, shirts tied around our heads to keep the mosquitos off, and our only digging tools - our cutlery and a scavenged piece of hard plastic. Outside the tent the rain was just starting to wash down the channels. We frantically began cutting deeper channels and clearing out pools where the water threatened to flood over toward the tent. At this point we both start to realize, as the lightening is cracking, the rain floods in around us, and we're both on our knees scraping compacted cow dung channels into the earth in our undies, just how insane we must look. Looking toward each other with our bug collecting headlamps we break out in laughter. This remains one of our most trying and ridiculous nights of the entire tour. The moral of the story is if you find yourself sleeping in a cow pen during a severe tropical storm remember to cut deeper dung channels. Obviously we survived the night, even managing to stay dry, although we did smell a bit funny.

The day after:

The remaining trip to Airlie Beach was anticlimatic compared to our night in St Lawrence. We met many kind hearted and warm individuals at the roadhouses along the way. Heading into Airlie Beach we stopped at a bakery in Proserpine. Halfway into our sweets another cycle tourists rides by the window. Bounding out the door Elise runs after the cyclists yelling like a banshee. The cyclist is a young Japanese man touring from Cairns heading South, unfortunately not the direction we are heading. Our brief encounter was refreshing. To know your not alone out there on the long lone roads. Freeing the other cyclists from our barrage of questions we headed into Airlie with the wind and sun at our backs.

Elise and her new sunnies in Mackay:

Sunset for our beach camp in Carmila Beach:

Yeppoon: Wwoofing, Llama Love, and Alpaca Kicks

2009-02-10T20:18:00.000-08:00

After a soggy short day of riding we made it to our farm stay outside of Yeppoon. Bumping along a dirt road leading to the llama and alpaca farm we arrived at the long drive way marked by a mailbox with a sticker saying "Life's too short to own ugly animals. Get an Alpaca.". At the gate we were met by a gaggle of barking Labradors and one barking small pink pig. All bark and no bite the labradores offered nothing but sweet love once we'd gotten inside the gate.

Soon we were met by the whole family arriving back from Yeppoon in their 8 seater LandCruiser. Leah and David run the farm with the help of their 4 children Anne, Charlotte, Davey, and Jonathon - all teenagers now. We were shown where we'd be staying; a private room in a mother-in-law type house behind the main house. Great windows, a chest of drawers, a small coat rack... oh and a real BED! We unpacked and settled in quickly so we could get a tour of the farm. We were introduced again and by name to all the dogs: Tilly, Mingus, Sheila, Rufus, Lucy, and Maggie. Then the cats: Buddy, Jublyt, Pellon, Ron, Nuke, Brick, and Shwankey. The Alpacas and Llamas are too numerous to name but we'll give you the highlights: there's Bon Jovi, Matador, J.J. and the list goes on... There are 6 camels, a few big cows, and 5 horses. There are three baby cows; Maisy, Daisy, and Crazy, that get bottle fed every day (twice a day!), a whole host of goats, a small flock of chickens (including turkey chickens and silky chickens) and a rescued wild parrot. I think that about covers it for animals... oh let's not forget Rosie pig! The animals are all great and you can tell that they are treated with great respect and an immense amount of love, which makes them all pretty good cuddlers! We have more than gotten our fix of dog pats and have found that we both really enjoy giving the camels a scratch at the end of the day too. (Leah's facebook will give you all a good idea of who everybody is here.)

Two of the boy camels plus Zach:

Rosie: Pig or Dog?

There's plenty to do around the farm but the required work load for the four of us is very reasonable leaving us at least a couple hours each day to read, nap, and enjoy tea (the kind you drink). Each morning the WWOOFers let the alpacas and llamas out to their respective grazing paddocks - which are gender segregated so no fights or babies result from intermixing. Next we feed the dogs, calling them by yelling "Jonathan! Feed the Dogs!" which brings them running to the feed shed where they offer us sits and hand shakes while they wait for their kibble. After that we mix up bins of feed for the pregnant alpacas and the one baby cow that won't take a bottle because she was weaned too early. The two baby cows that will bottle feed get a bucket of sweet smelling milk powder mixed up with water in a bucket. They suck this down through black rubber nipples attached to lengths of hose that sit in the bucket, and they can get quite pushy if you're not ready for them in time mooing and butting each other out of the way as they vie for position at the first available nipple. At this juncture the milk dispenser person has to be wary of the pig because she'll jump in and tip the bucket over at the first opportunity. If she's foiled and doesn't at least get her face well into the bucket she protests loudly squealing and screeching until she either scores a dish of milk off one of us or returns dejectedly to her pig pellet breakfast... mind you most of the time she's already enjoyed the left over porridge from our own human breakfast. What a PIG!

When feeding's over we shovel alpaca/llama poo moving it all to the poo pile where poo buying patrons come and fill bags ($7 a piece for a big bag full) to use in their own gardens. We clean and fill water buckets, check the chicken coop for eggs and do odd jobs around the farm as required. I should mention that we're accompanied here on the farm by two other WWOOFers who are wonderful and ton's of fun. Maggie has come to Australia from Wales and is working on extending her visa here. This is her second WWOOF stay so she's the most experienced of all of us at this stuff. Laura is here from Bavarian Germany for 7 months to do some traveling, hoping like Zach to sort out what she might like to study at University when she returns home in September. In fact all us WWOOFers here are in a similar state of limbo, each spending time and energy to sort through the expectations, experiences, and possible futures of and for ourselves. Seems like Australia is a popular place to go when you're trying to sort out the course of your life, or perhaps just to take a break to consider the course you're already on.

Since we arrived on the farm we've come to learn a lot about llama and alpaca love by helping with their mating. When we left for this bike tour never did we imagine we would spend hours 'assisting' alpaca sex. (We are doing you all a favor and sparing you all the gory details...). On the big Sunday work day we set up a run for the alpacas and llamas to weigh in. This exercise involves shoving the animal from behind down a narrow fence gauntlet, often having to carry them wheel-barrow style, and convincing them that they want to stand still on a slippery metal scale for a moment. We found that sometimes we had to lift the entire animal onto the scale because they have gone into cush (lying down). And in a rare successful attempt at catching a male alpaca, who's especially known for his surly attitude, Elise recieved a hard kick right in the thigh (don't worry though not even a bruise!).

Our time here has been beautifully chaotic and we are sad to leave the farm and family. The family has been wonderfully hospitable, welcoming us into their family and giving us a glimpse into their incredible lives. We've shared many laughs around the biggest dining room table we've both ever sat at, were included in a friday night with their friends complete with pig cuddling, and even made an appearance at the local Yeppoon pub to sit in as part of the "Llama Farmers" trivia night team (We came in a respectable 4th out of 9)! We were also refreshed to find that T.V. wasn't a major fixture and I don't think either of us even watched 10 minutes during our whole stay!

Pending monsoon-like showers we plan to leave the farm tomorrow morning. There are still storm systems coming in over the top end of Australia but we feel the need to push on in order to make it to Townsville by a reasonable date allowing us enough time to explore the Northern Territory. It will take us a number of days to reach the majorly flooded areas of Queensland so we hope most of the rain will have passed and that the roads will be open (cross your fingers!). We have been checking the Australian Bureau of Meteorology "the bomb" for their latest updates - wish us a dry ride!

Wet Sleeping Bags, Mondo Spiders, and Wwoofing

2009-02-09T18:47:00.000-08:00

Departing Brisbane we hopped on the train and started our journey north 40 miles outside Brizzy, in Nambour. Having already decided to stay off the main highway as much as possible, we headed toward Noosa Head. Our first night out we camped in the backyard of a young Australians guys house and his 5 Irish mates. We had just met the fellows by sheer coincidence as we rode by. We found we could help them out with their two flat tired bikes by supplying them with our pump and in exchange they offered us a few beers and a spot to camp in the backyard! We had a great night with these witty guys, sharing dinner and drinks, and learning some interesting new card games.

The next day we sluggishly rode to the small town of Kin Kin, which boasting only one raucous tavern. On the way we passed through the surfing and tourist laden beaches of Noosa Heads. This day was the first where we experienced the summer seasons stifling humidity. Feeling like we were riding through a brightly lit sauna room, we stopped numerous times during the day to peel our wet clothes off of our sticky bodies. In Kin Kin we camped in a sports field next to the tavern. Every town has one of these fields that they call "The Oval" and we're pretty sure the only sporting that goes on is Cricket. Having not expected such strong rain this night we awoke to the feeling of sleeping on a water bed! The rain was pooling on top of and underneath our tent leaving us damp and our sleeping bags wet.

After a couple of nights of sloppy sleeping we headed off the Bruce Highway 1 to the Great Sandy National Park at Tin Can Bay. Deciding to take a short cut we spent much of our 120 km day on a gravel rode. We climbed and skitteringly descended what seemed like an endless line of hill tops - up and down up and down. A thick coat of dust would shroud over us as the 4WDs zoomed past. We are used to gritty sand between our teeth these days. Coming into Tin Can Bay we passed an Australian Military Training Base, their signs warned us of laser beams and fatal explosives. Hopefully they warn the kangaroos of these threats as well! We stayed at a lovely caravan park that evening and when Elise went to open her pannier out jumped the largest spider we both had ever seen. Yelling and thrashing about she threw the pannier on the ground forcing the giant spider to take cover farther inside the bag. Both Elise and the spider made it out alive. It turns out the spider is called a Huntsman and it is the only spider known to feed its young. Although Australia is home to some of the most poisonous spiders in the world the Huntsman only packs a small punch and hardly ever bites when unprovoked. The next morning we rode into the town marina where dolphins regularly come into feed out of tourists hands. Supervised by marina volunteers the dolphins will gingerly take the small fish out of each persons hand - no petting or swimming with the dolphins though. On the way out of town we passed a few large groups or "mobs" of kangaroos including little joey roos hopping about.

Said Spider:

Each day we set a riding goal based on where we plan to stay that night. On this day in particular we hoped to make it past the town of Maryborough. Following an old logging road most of the way we descended on Howard outside of Maryborough. Often we will pass through or stop shortly before bigger towns, preferring to camp in smaller places because we find it easier to free camp. This night we spent in a local park along a stream. Soon we will no longer be able to camp near a water due to the crocodiles that are known to gobble up unsuspecting tourists. Surprisingly we met two extremely friendly local track cyclists walking their cute and slightly gimpy greyhound mutt whilst we were stealtfully setting up our camp. They tipped us off to some races that would be going on in Bundaberg the following night and assured us that we were in no danger of being persecuted for camping illegally.

Like the new bright bags?

The ride to Bundaberg was beautiful and relatively quiet as we routed ourselves along a less major road. This was our first day of really loooooong straight flat stretches and both our butts were terribly sore by the time we arrived in the mid afternoon. We followed our normal routine: Stop at grocery store and get food, visit the Tourist Information center to ask about caravan parks, find said place and set up tent, shower, and eat dinner. We also threw in a trip to the local bicycle shop to peruse the stock and to inquire about the velodrome. We were pointed in the right direction and the nights races were confirmed by the shop owner. We decided to cook dinner and take it with us to the track to watch the races... I'm sure we made a great impression as we ate our mashed potato surprise out of a camping pot with our sporks while the guys and kids warmed up. Their track has almost no bank in the corners but is fairly long and it's interesting in that it's the best lit anything in all of Bundaberg at 7:30 on a Monday night. The racing was pretty good and their turnout was about 30 in all with about 10 of those folks being under the age of 14. They had an interesting handicap system where the younger kids or slower adults would start a certain distance ahead on the track. This seemed to work well, especially for the kids. The littlest of the kids couldn't have been more than 6 and was on a fixed gear bmx with special 650c wheels (which he rode standing most of the time) and he got to do 3 time trials. Each time he'd get the bell he'd keep going for an extra lap until his dad would call him off saying he was done and other people we're wanting to race too! Cute. We met two more Irish guys and an English guy at the caravan park we stayed at who warned us off of visiting the late night take away shops in town citing that their friend had been jumped the night before and was busy getting his jaw wired shut back in Brisbane. One of the Irish guys had been with him and his face said as much with a black eye, bloody lip, and butterfly bandages here and there. There's been a bit of tension between the locals and the travelers who come to Bundy to get labor jobs picking fruit. With the economy doing so poorly everyone's on edge and although we hear the kids in Bundy would never pick up the fruit picking jobs they're not keen on foreigners taking the wages and work from their community. In the morning we walked to the McDonalds and picked up breakfast sandwiches for ourselves and the guys, who were gracious and grateful. We hope they've gotten out of Bundaberg, healed up, and found some work by now!

We left Bundaberg (the Ginger Beer capital of Australia) headed for Agnes Water with a long day in store for ourselves. After the previous days flat stretches we were glad for the rise and fall of the slight rollers and kept a good 23 kilometer per hour pace almost the whole day... It helped that we had a few soda and candy breaks along the way :0 ! We got a TON of waves and honks from the drivers starting as soon as we took the turn off bound for Agnes Waters. We had headed here,and more so even to the town of Seventeen Seventy, because Hugh (of Gretta and Hugh) had told us all about Lady Muskgrave Island during our stay in Ormeau. We'd decided that we'd make the extra 40km detour off our route to visit this magical place. The town of Agnes water is not much more than a dozen store fronts with a grocer that closes at 7:30 most days. We stopped in to the Tourist Information center and got an update on the status of our intended cruise, not good... the trip had been cancelled for the past 3 days due to strong winds and would be cancelled for sure the following day with a possibility of going the day after. We decided to stay and see if Mondays sailing would go out seeing the opportunity for a rest day as a great idea after our longest day yet at 125km. The council run Workmans Beach campground we got ourselves situated at was great and cheap at $5.50pp/pd. There were nice composting toilets and free bbq's and even an outdoor shower! Our campsite was situated under a great big banyan tree and the rest of the campground was shady and sheltered by eucalyptus of all varieties. Scrub turkeys abounded and were willing to eat anything and everything we couldn't finish, I assume they also keep the frog and lizard population to a minimum but we did manage to see some great big tree frogs and even a small goanna (which really aren't that small). We slept well and welcomed the change of a cool breeze through the tent after opting to keep the rain flys open despite the warning of rain.

From Agnes Waters we made a big push to Rockhampton (Rocky), stopping one night outside Gladstone in Tannum Sands. We quietly rode through Gladstone on Sunday morning. All shops seemed closed, with few people out walking about. The sound of us loudly chatting on our bikes echoed through the streets. Heading out of Gladstone we saw our first "No Swimming Crocodiles" signs lining the river. We took a beautiful quiet side road back to Highway 1 where we abruptly got back on the road with the truckies. Many over sized vehicles passed us as we rode - often we would have to pull completely off the highway to let the trucks pass transporting giant sized pieces of farm equipment. We were both looking forward getting to Rocky because we made arrangements to work on a farm through Wwoof (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) for a week outside of Rocky near Yeppoon. We spend 2 nights in Rocky because Zach had to get is bottom bracket on his bike re-set. For weeks he had been riding with crank arms rocking back and forth causing his bike mechanic mind to shutter. Different Cycles in Rocky completed the work for a nice 20 bucks. The refreshingly surly mechanic gave us a talking to regarding our single-speed touring bikes - asking why we should be so crazy!

Brisbane is bicycle heaven

2009-01-24T17:13:00.001-08:00

Brisbane is bicycle heaven

We've finally ousted ourselves from the comfort of Brisbane and we're at the train station awaiting our trolley that will sweep us off almost to Noosa Heads. We said goodbye to our lovely and incredibly gracious hosts, Heather and Lindsay this morning. We thanked them with a big hearty home cooked breakfast of French toast, potato-onion- capsicum scramble, and a heap of fresh fruit salad.

These folks that put us up offered us a great fully furnished basement unit, a wonderful backyard garden to admire, a flock of chickens to visit with, and a menagere of suburban wildlife to be dazzled by. Ohnandvthey had an incredible hot meal waiting for us when we arrived! They are both lively conversationalists as bike advocates and tourers with heaps of local knowledge as well as having quite a bit to say about traveling through many parts of Australia. We were invited to attend a dinner among friends of theirs, their primary source of friendhip stemming from all of their membership in the BBTC or Brisbane Bicycle Touring Club. The best Indian food of our trip was enjoyed whilst discussing gear ratios, past tour foibles, and projected routes. It was supeising to learn that there seem to be quite a few large supported tours being held throughout Australia with upwards of 1000 riders in most of the ones mentioned among the dinner group. When we weren't dining out with worldly cyclists we spent our time in Brizzy riding along her beautiful network of dedicated cycleways, most butting up against the river and running up to 10ks. We discovered a number of cycle shops around the suburbs which gave us a chance to experience the less tourist parts of town. Sadly our hopes of catching a not of the Tour Down Under featuing Lances infamous comeback, were dashed when we discovers that not one sports pub or coffee shop equipped with a television would be playing any coverage. The locals were much more intrigued with the Australian Open which soundly beat out the tour in both Aussie enthsiasm and channel coverage. Before arriving in Brisbane we stayed with Greta and Hugh smack dab in between the Gold Coast and Brisbane city in the little township of Ormeau. We spent 4 glorious days and three restful nights reading, relaxing, eating, and getting to know these two wonderful and quirky people. While there, we were given a tour of Mt. Tambourine and had our first walk in a true tropical forest at Witches Falls - which interestingly was the first park established in Australia in 1890 (or thereabouts).

We've also undergone another series of gear changes, which we like to think of as part of our cycletouring evolution. E. is now part of the front rack and pannier club and is enjoying the freedom to pack more books and snacks. Z. got a proper low rider front rack made for suspension forks which despite being a rigid fork, is working out MUCH better. Consequently we're not using pipe clamps on either of the bikes anymore and the loads seem more balanced and secure.

We are heading up to a WWOOF farm stay outside Rockhampton about 6 days ride from Brizzy. We'll stop in Noosa Heads for a look around and then set off into a few days of hinterland riding.
We hope everyone back home is doing well and we are desperately trying to send some of this hot weather your way!

The Gold Coast - Surfers Paradise and Family

2009-01-14T20:34:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Surfers Paradise today on the Gold Coast. We have been following a tourist road up the coast the last two nights.

Storm clouds have been following us these last days but we have yet to feel rain only heat and humidity. The roads have become much more populated as we enter the Gold Coast. This popular holiday area is lined with white beaches, clear blue water, and hoards of beach goes. We are giving our sunburns a few days rest prior to jumping back into the ocean.

The towers of the Gold Coast in the distance:

Like the safety vests?

Tonight we are catching a local train to Greta's home outside Brisbane.Greta was married to my dad years ago and this will be my first time meeting her as an adult. She last saw me when I was 9 years old. Z and I will spend the weekend at her home before heading into Brisband central for a few nights. I am looking forward to reconnecting with the side of my family living in Australia.

All the best to those back home.

Surfers, Sunsets, and Sizzling Sunburns

2009-01-13T14:24:00.000-08:00

Finally we've had a couple of rest days. After 10 days of solid riding we rode into Byrons Bay just 150 km shy of Brisbane (our first major destination). Byrons Bay is akin to those hip backpackers enclaves that litter the world. A place of young summer love, sizzling sunburns, and an unprecedented level of alcohol consumption. Exactly the type of place where Z and I bumble around awkwardly, searching for a quiet place to read and people watch.

Byrons Bay at dusk:

We're approaching our 3rd and final night in Byrons Bay. Our discount caravan park outside town has treated us well. Originally we had planned to stay at a hotel here but with everyone on holiday the rates have skyrocketed. So back to the familiar spot on the ground at $20/night.

Little did we know boogie-boarding and body surfing is such an Australian past-time. The locals have taken it up with such feverishness it puts the Americans and their trucks to shame. Z and I have felt the true essence of being 'white washed' - the moment in time where all control is lost and the wave tosses you about - similar to the spin cycle in a washing machine. Yesterday after hours in the ocean we managed to get the hang of it with only a mild plumling from the waves.

We have surprisingly found the roads to be well suited for cycling, with many off the highway routes and wide shoulders. About half of our nights we free camp. About half-way to Brisbane, a little south of Coffs Harbor we set up camp at a truck stop in Clybucca. A friendly staff, 24hs shop, and showers this was one of our best nights sleep. We met numerous truckers who wanted to know all about our cycling journey. The following days we pushed on making it to a little inland city called Grafton. The roads to Grafton were rural, scenic, and very hilly. I had to get off and push my bike up two hills. Z amazingly was able to trudge up the hills without stopping. He earned his Polka-Dot cycle jersey for the top tour hill climber that day. We camped that night at a caravan park and we finally had our first dinner along. So far we have been joined by strangers interested in our tour - swapping stories about cycling and traveling.

Us outside Byrons Bay:

Earlier that day while and I were hill climbing we heard a thumping sound in the farm field next to us and there we're two huge kangaroos bounding about. This wasn't the first time we had seen the Joeys (one almost ran Z off the road the other day) but we hadn't seen ones this BIG. Around 6ft sitting up these Redback Roos can pack a nasty punch is you happen to tangle with them. We arrived that day in Grafton a small in land city. After spending time searching for their Velodrome we unfortunately learned that they had filled it in with dirt. We were hoping for some fast track racing. From Grafton we cycled back to the coast heading towards Byrons Bay.

90 degrees + 85% humidity =

Sydney to Taree - New Years, Goanas, and roughing it Aussie style

2009-01-05T19:37:00.000-08:00

We've been on the road now for about a week and it's definitely summertime here! Holiday Parks are bustling with activity and finding a space can be a nightmare in the smaller highly sought after tourist towns. We've met about a dozen interesting people along the way and we've been able to hand out a couple more of our cards to interested parties!

We cycled out of Manly as our last post implies we had planned to. It was an absolute madhouse. Wish we'd gotten a picture of the onslaught of families, tan bodies, boogie boards and beach bags of all sizes and impossible dimensions that we snugged up to as we squeezed our way along the queue and onto the ferry. The way they stage payees to board the ferry makes one wonder if every other rider will be seated in the lap of another but somehow once the rush (and I do mean rush as people actually run full tilt onto the boat when the gates are opened to allow boarding to begin) subsides and you board the ferry towards the end of the line you find a surprising amount of room on board, at least inside the cabin. We gathered our wits on the boardwalk at Manly Beach and bid farewell to Sydney. Z. also almost bid farewell to his gloves as they flew off the back of his bike not even 10 feet down the road. Disaster averted and gloves retrieved we set off along the coast. Not long into what we imagined to be our fairly flat Australian tour we encountered our first hill. We both happily passed a huffing, puffing, fairly fit gentleman on his geared mountain bike and flew down the other side feeling quite good about ourselves. Egoic karma would catch up with us later that evening as we had our first free camping OZ experience. We cycled out of the populous areas and hit some lovely windy and shady roads that skirted the coast. A catamaran ferry took us across the gorgeous inlet between Palm Beach and Ettalong beach. We tired early, only about 40kms into our day, and pulled off in a fairly sparsely populated area which had a nice nature reserve with a beautiful new sign that illustrated the reserves wildlife and a nice looking grassy patch. There was no sign posted saying we couldn't camp so we set down our bikes and bags and began to receive the best mosquito lashing of our trip. The bloodsuckers were relentless. In the end Z. almost quit the tour, we moved camp to what seemed like a less infested area, and E. tromped our dinner fixings out next to the road to get some distance from the bugs and Z. The noises after dusk were tremendous. Cicadas and crickets sang, frogs croaked, the brush rustled with life, and we were both struck by the incredible bird calls going on all across the dark forest. It was just like walking into the Nocturnal house at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle! The only critter we encountered that was warm blooded was a mouse that zipped back and forth across a surprisingly steep tent wall. E. gave the little guy a gentle flick to let it know who was boss... and to discourage any further exploration of our tent. The last thing we needed was a gnawed mouse hole in our tent wall letting the mosquitoes in. The morning finally arrived and we hurriedly swept up our things, hastily clapped them onto our bikes and got back on the road as fast as possible - even skipping teeth brushing. We were no match in for the mosquitoes when it came to speed though and we'd been thoroughly barraged before we could get on the road.

As we loosely planned our route through Australia while we lounged in the four star hotel we mapped ourselves out a route that while decidedly longer and more meandering than the highway, would keep us closer to the coast and offer us potentially quieter roads. Today we passed through our first national park which provided us with the quiet roads we were seeking. Not much in the way of views but the road was decent, traffic low, and we got a quick glimpse of a very brown, very shiny, fairly large lizard sunning itself along the road. It skittered off as soon as we circled back to have a closer look but Z. got the distinct impression that prehistoria was lurking just inside the tightly knit trees that lined the roads, and that this would not be the comfortable and safe sheep and cow tour that New Zealand had been. We stopped for a break and a chat with the tourist information booth in The Entrance. We napped under a big pine tree situated right next to a traveling carnival setup, skipping the best of the afternoon heat. Just as we were setting ourselves upright and getting ready to leave we spotted a number of bright yellow boxes attached to a black bike ridden by a svelte and remarkably tan fellow. He was heading for the information site. We cruzed by and said hello after he'd collected his maps. We didn't speak German and he spoke a little english. From what we picked up he was headed to Brisbane and then back to Adelaide all in two weeks time. We snapped a few pictures of his unusual setup and home engineered rack and pannier sets. We only saw him once more on the road that day and both hope he's made it there and back. We ended our day at Munmorah National Recreation Area - Frazer Campground - where there was not a spot left. We asked around and eventually set up our tent very tidily in a communal lawn area and decided to chance an encounter with the rangers. We were prepared to throw down a sob story about "...the heat and our exhaustion and how we couldn't go on and where else could we go on New Years Eve safely on bicycles?" Fortunately we didn't see a single ranger and instead showered, cooked dinner, and spent hours entertained by Kevin and Diana and their troupe of friends and family (of which we cannot recall their names!) who offered us steak, chicken, comfy camp chairs and great commentary on lots of aspects of Australian life. They had a great camping setup complete with a zipper fronted pantry and tents with multiple rooms. We were warmed by their hospitality and hope to get a call from them someday when they wind up traveling in the U.S. again. We strolled to the beach after the sun had set and watched a great fireworks show on the horizon... Could have been the Sydney bridge show, we're not sure. The stars were incredible, we counted satellites and talked about how lucky we were to be standing there. We hit the bedrolls before the turn of midnight but our kamikaze neighbor campers let us know it was the new year by engaging in a "Happy Nudie Year" run through camp after a countdown that culminated with a long blow on an airhorn. We laughed and eventually got back to sleep. In the morning the Nudie Year boys were still imbibing and carrying on. We were out and on the road by half past six. We decided against our original plan of a three hour afternoon break and opted for getting up earlier and finishing our ride at the start of the afternoon heat. Today was day one of operation get up early and it was already paying off. The air was cool and it was plenty light out. We cycled along more good roads with plenty of shade this time due to the early hour. We stopped in Swansea and tried to pick up the next tourist map. We discovered that our road atlas maps were not a good scale for day to day riding and had found Cartoscope maps at the tourism offices that worked much better. In Swansea we also stopped for a coffee and muffin to sustain us for our first longish push since we'd gotten back on the road. Sitting outside consulting our maps as we're want to do over a cup of coffee, we were approached by an entertaining group who offered insight into our tentative route up the coast, teased each other for the benefit of our entertainment, and imparted their own travel stories. Before departing the ensemble invited us to join them in Surfers Paradise when they'd be vacationing there later in the month. Again we were pleasantly surprised by the friendly nature of the folks we were meeting. We pushed on and endured a ridiculous heat that had us gasping and drenched in sweat before eleven. We passed through sleepy towns inland and busy beachward retreats on our way to Nelsons Bay. Once there we were discouraged by the apparent lack of an official camp spot for ourselves after visiting a holiday park we were told there was "nothing left in town". We decided to put ourselves out there and ask some homeowners if we might camp on their lawns... we got 3 no's and with the last no, the fellow pointed us in the direction of more holiday parks to try down the road. It panned out for us and in the end we got a tent site in a great backpackers style place that did wild animal rescue and had among other things, cockatoos, dogs, and a small kangaroo who roamed the tent field and who we were advised, would happily tear through and possibly eat any plastic bags we carelessly left unsecured. We spent our first rest day here and road further into Nelsons Bay where we bought a lotto ticket and daydreamed back and forth about how we'd spend our winnings. We decided we'd fly everyone we loved over here to travel with us, oh and buy a house in Santa Cruz to return to once we all tired of traveling. (Sadly we didn't win). We visited the beach that was a short walk from our camp twice and made a wonderful dinner of bangers and mash in the communal kitchen. It was nice to see big groups of people traveling together, cooking, and playing music outside their tents. It made us both wish we had people here to share our travels with.

We (well Z. really) reluctantly left Nelson Bay, catching a small ferry to Teagardens. Along the way we passed through some very shallow waters, got a nautical chart tour from the ferry captain, and even saw dolphins on our way into port. The morning was overcast and cool as a result. For a moment it threatened to rain and we even threw on our rain gear. Rain gear is futile in this kind of heat though and we were soon braving the little misty droplets bare armed. We were soon on our first bit of unsealed (gravel) road and bouncing along hoping our bikes didn't rattle apart. We crossed a small river on a cable guided river ferry for one dollar each. Z. thought we could ford it ourselves but acquiesced when he realized there was no way he could pick his loaded bike up 2 inches off the ground let along carry it overhead for 20 meters. Once on the other side we lunched outside an Eco resort and met a couple riding Kona Stinky's both with tots in tow. They'd been checking out the local trails and confirmed what we'd heard... the fire road we'd hoped to take all the way to Seal Rocks was too sandy to maneuver - especially with the kind of load we were carrying. We stuck to our reroute plan and set ourselves back onto sealed road. It was a fairly uneventful ride to Bulahdelah and with only 20km left from there we sat back to relax into the last bit of our days ride. About 3km outside town we crossed the highway and headed up. And up. And up. Our last 20km seemed to include passing over not one but TWO small ranges. Our tourist center provided maps failed to provide a topographical overlay and so we found ourselves a bit shocked at this turn of events. We reached the camp and set up only to find no potable water. We went for a swim in the bathwater warm lake and later boiled the same lakes water for our dinner. The black Quinoa we'd picked up in Newtown (a suburb of Sydney) stubbornly would not cook, the vegetables were mush by the time we gave up and neither one of us could really stomach much of the mess. We boiled another pot of water for tea to have with our evening staple of Ginger Snaps but found the steeped tea undrinkable. The lake water must have been brackish. The next few days would prove that water source choice to be unwise as we both wrestled with upset stomachs. That night we awoke to a silver Volvo station wagon wildly driving forward and then reversing almost over our tent. The driver was quite intoxicated and thankfully gave up trying to go wherever she was trying to go but shaken and queasy we both slept our worst night of sleep so far. We left in the morning which couldn't have come soon enough.
We had a beautiful ride through Forster. The water here was an incredible translucent blue and a protected bay gave the city a surface around which to build itself. It was modest and we've both since wished that we'd stayed for a day, taken a dip, and walked the numerous sandbars. We headed inland for a hot and uneventful but nice ride until we ended up in Taree. Our caravan park was situated on the river and we got a great spot under a tree and near the kitchen. We met a great family there who made for lively dinner conversation. We met their smushed face cat and their bearded dragon. We heard wild tales of huge blue tounged skinks and the boys catching water dragons. The family had tons of questions and everyone was quite interested in telling us about their travels in the U.S.. We slept well with the sides of our rainfly open and a light breeze from the river cooling us. An uneventful evening was much needed after the previous nights excitement!

Merry Belated Christmas!

2008-12-28T18:41:00.000-08:00

We've been busy living the easy life here in Australia so far - but that's all about to change as we head off tomorrow on our bikes for our first taste of touring OZ.

We had a quiet but great Christmas with E.'s mom still here. Z.'s mom unfortunately had to head home on Christmas Eve due to a booking error on our part early on in trip planning. Susan landed in Seattle welcomed by a blanket of snow, and while she took with her a nasty cold, she did enjoy a white Christmas.

Here we enjoyed a movie and the baking sun down on the wharf on a day that felt not at all like the winter holiday we're used to savoring with close friends and family. We saw Slumdog Millionaire, which we HIGHLY recommend, at a great little theater that served beer and wine in actual glasses (as opposed to plastic dixie cups) and didn't hassle us with tons of ads during the previews. U.S. theaters could take a lesson from these guys...

We've ventured out around the Sydney suburbs and discovered some wonderfully queer neighborhoods boasting lots of secondhand shops, artsy cafes, and even a few decent bike shops. Not too surprisingly these neighborhoods feel lived in, which is something you definitely don't get staying right off Hyde Park in the city center. It still feels as if we could just be somewhere in the U.S. though; there haven't been too many striking differences so far.

Today we packed up the bikes and headed back to budget accommodations for our last night in Sydney. While we can account for a few small items that our mom's graciously tucked into their suitcases for us, we both experienced a large amount of pannier bloat whilst reassembling our rigs in the hotel lobby this morning. We rode away feeling lopsided, unsteady, and with bags clearly packed to their extreme limits. We certainly don't look like the minimalists that we felt like we'd become when we left NZ. This is something we'll have to investigate further...

We have both felt anxious about getting back on the road, it's easy to get complacent and we must cop to having watched an embarrassing amount of television while we've been "resting". We're tough though and we'll get right back into the groove of touring.

We hope everyone at home, and others like us on the road, have had wonderful holidays.

***Sorry to disappoint those of you who just look at the blog for the pictures, we'll post some pictures soon but the camera's buried in the luggage bloat right now!

Moms Downunder: Sydney, Adelaide, & Melbourne

2008-12-21T01:29:00.000-08:00

We have heard the news of the hurricane force storm blowing into the Northwest. Hold onto your hats and stand guard next to your heaters. Approaching Christmas here is surreal, a little bit like someone telling you it is going to snow in July. Christmas around Oceania is marked by the fast approach of summer and heaps of school aged children on summer break. Zach and I were at the beach last Friday trying futilely to boogie-board and we almost thought we were at the a beach themed high school dance with the number of bikini clad teenagers prancing about. I miss the snow. My memories of slipping around snow covered Seattle are some of my favorite. Please be safe those of you driving and cycling in this weather. We wish you all a beautiful quiet snowy Christmas with lots of electrical power.

We are blessed to be spending this time in Australia with our moms. At the present we're calling Melbourne, in the SE state of Victoria, home. Time with our moms has been refreshing. There is nothing like having a little piece of home during the holidays. With over two weeks of travel time with our moms we've traversed the countryside via plane, boat, and tram sightseeing some of southern Australia's key tourist sights. Now in the final leg of "Moms Downunder" we're moving a bit slower - Sleeping in, religiously globing aloe onto our sunburned bodies, and walking just a little bit slower. Here are a few of our travel highlights:

Sydney

Sydney Harbor passenger ferries. From speedy catamaran to sluggish tugboat design these boats are perfect for exploring Sydney and are a mighty fine excuse to put your legs up.

Don't forget the sunscreen:

My mom (Miro) and I took a hiatus from our four person family tour to visit the Coney Island themed amusement park in Sydney.

A leisurely stroll through the Royal Botanical Gardens where we viewed beautiful blossoms, bats, and bamboo. Some years ago a family of fox bats started calling the botanic gardens home. Now literally hundreds, perhaps thousands, call the trees their home.

Adelaide

Sit back and enjoy the ride in Adelaide. That's exactly what we did with our own personal tour guide Pauline, my mom's friendly a Sedona, AZ visiting artist. Our local Aussie friend took the moms around the city and countryside. Visiting beautiful lookouts and sprawling vineyards they had quite a prestigious tour. One of our main destinations was Kangaroo Island, a 150km long island off the coast of Adelaide boasting seal colonies, kangaroos, wallabies, unique rock formations, and perched lighthouses. Unfortunately Zach was feeling down with a stomach bug so he slept our tour hours away in bed.

On the tour bus we relaxed and listened to our tour guide while off the bus our moms and Pauline trekked all over.

Our last two nights in Adelaide were spent on the beach in a luxurious service apartment, boasting our own private balcony. Four stars above our ramshackle hostel room. We immediately went for an ocean swim. Finally we had warm swimming water. Pauline warned us about seasonal shark attacks along the coast and although we swam within watch of lifeguards the thought of meeting a tiger shark still lingered. After jumping around in the waves for an hour I was lucky enough to meet a jellyfish. Wrapping one of its tendrils around my left leg, I was left with quite a burn. Its nearly impossible to see a jellyfish in the churning sea, but they sure let you know they're there.

Hi from Zach:

Melbourne

With a quick two night jaunt through Melbourne we ended up staying in a funky section named Fitzroy. Having broken in their walking shoes, our moms tour the city by foot. Zach and I both feel like we could call Melbourne home. With its eccentric lived in feel, graffiti art lined streets, and visible cycling scene, we love it. Navigating through last minute holiday shoppers we perused through a crafty outdoor market along the Yarra River then onto a great contemporary exhibit at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Tomorrow evening we're flying back to Sydney for the final leg with our moms. I've heard mention of relaxing by Sydney's Manly or Bondi beach.

Much love,

Elise (and Zach)

Sydney: the sister city to Seattle?

2008-12-13T17:10:00.003-08:00

Sydney: the sister city to Seattle?

On our first few days traveling with the moms Sydney really showed us it's wet underbelly. The rain drizzled and then poured. We wet weather veterans donned our jackets and hit the streets for some sightseeing regardless. First stop was, well FIRST we had to get coffee but after that we were off to see the aquarium after the glowing recommendation from Stephanie and Todd who'd recently been in Australia. We LOVED it and E's mom is thinking about going back for a second look. Later that afternoon we hit up a museum and stopped for a snack at a tea shop.

Exhausted we trekked back to the hotel and collapsed onto our beds. We were all asleep by 8, but we blame it on the time change!

Our second day was W.E.T. We endured the drizzle in the morning visiting The Rocks, the first settlement in Sydney, now a market area on the weekends as well as a docking point for gigantic cruise ships and their passengers. We saw the opera joust through a haze of rain and before long Z. And his mom decided to bag the sightseeing and opted for a movie instead. E. and her mom saw the Contemporary Art Museum at The Rocks and a few galleries along the adjacent street before heading to the train to get back to the room. We called it a day around 7 and enjoyed dinner in our little suite.

Arrival: Sydney

2008-12-10T17:10:00.000-08:00

Arrival: Sydney

We have officially left New Zealand and have embarked on our next adventure in Australia. The flight and (surprisingly) security leaving Christchurch were easily navigated and flawless. A 15 minute delay(which doesn't even register for us U.S.ers) was explained and apologized for by the pilot before departure. We also got a full meal, drink service, and an ice cream bar on a 3 hour flight! Made it through customs and agriculture check without a hassle even after declaring that we had been on a farm recently and had TONS of camping gear which we meticulously cleaned and carefully packed. With promises of a Warm Showers host close to the city of Sydney we set out into the muggy late afternoon heat, opting to take the train instead of a taxi. We pulled the backpack straps out of our S&S coupler cases, grabbed our panniers and joined the masses on the crowded rush hour train.

We arrived easily at out destination station and walked the three blocks to our hosts beautiful building. Dave and Nancy were wonderful hosts offering us dinner, the finest of Australia's beers, a super comfy bed, and of course a much needed warm shower! We chatted until late, something that seems easy to do when you pair up cycle tourists. They got out the maps of Australia and we swapped cycle travel stories and talked about the differences between cycling in the U.S. and Oceania. Excited by our hosts stories we brought out and rough sketched our route immediately outside Sydney and about 100k up the coast. The next morning we were up early navigating the trains and streets through morning rush hour. We arrived at our hotel hours before check-in and dropped our bags off for storage and commenced watching the street for any and all taxis that could be ferrying in our moms from the airport. They arrived and tipped the driver before we could explain what we had learned about not tipping in Australia. We all exchanged hugs and stories about airplane flights and bee keepers, sheep farmers and news from home. The birds sang in the palm and plumeria trees overhead and it was so good to have family close. We strolled to the waterfront, then through Kings Cross stopping for a snack and tea. All a bit jet lagged we headed for the hotel and checked in to our apartment, complete with kitchenette and bunk beds! We all headed for bed with visions of sightseeing dancing behind our eyelids.

The Birds and the Bees - Christchurch

2008-12-08T17:09:00.000-08:00

The Birds and the Bees - Christchurch

Christchurch came a day early for us as we seemingly raced down the coast of the south island. We arrived on Saturday but our first Warm Showers host wasn't expecting us until Sunday. We checked out a few hostels close to the city center looking for camping, then settled on a nice place called Frienz for a little extra $$ but walking distance to everything. We reveled in the luxury of our private bathroom and complimentary shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, toothbrushes, lotion, and an unidentifiable packet with directions only in an Asian dialect. In true backpacker hostel style we jockeyed for position at one of the range tops in the small but well stocked kitchen and made dinner. We fell asleep in a room lit like day from the hostel sign right outside our window; lulled by the sounds of Saturday night in a big city.

Backpacker kitchen organization at its best:

The next day promised us: our first warm showers host, a national criterium race, and a Santa Parade. What more could we ask for?! We packed up and headed out setting off to meet Jeff Chandler our host. When we arrived at Jeff's house we were greeted warmly and welcomed into a lush and densely shrub lined piece of heaven. Jeff is a bee keeper hobbyist (although you can easily tell he's passionate about it beyond mere hobby) and his bees were busily working around the hives outside the front door. We were offered either a camping spot on the lawn or the extra bedroom - we took the bedroom and the opportunity to wash up our tent so that we might stand a chance at passing through the Aussie biosecurity with all our gear. We chatted briefly with our
host and headed back into the city for an exciting afternoon. In the early heats of the criterium we ran into Katrina, one of the folks we assembled bikes with at the Auckland airport. We were all planning on seeing the Santa parade so we set a place to meet and she headed off to see about some repairs they were having done at a local bike shop. The criterium races were great! The two hairpin turns in the course made for some major wipe outs as the riders clipped their pedals trying to accelerate through the turns. We checked out the Santa parade from Cathedral square and found Mike and Katrina there chatting with a German cycle tourist they'd just met and hawking candy being tossed to the crowd from passing floats. We were shortly joined by a Swiss couple with a very unusual half recumbent tandem touring bike. The couple had been making quite a name for themselves around NZ with such an unusual bike and Mike and Katrina were excited to meet with them. Rides were given, stories swapped, housing arranged, and touring friendships forged amongst complete strangers as the interconnectedness of cycle touring worked it's magic on all of us that afternoon.

We witnessed a very strange array of floats and bands throughout the Santa parade, seemingly no one theme tied any of the floats together, certainly this was not a Christmas themed event! We saw exactly one Santa on the last float, he and his reindeer closed down a very odd but fun show and we parted ways with our friends exchanging email addresses and hoping to cross paths with all of them again.

Back at the bee ranch Jeff offered us a tour of one of his hives. Z. reluctantly accepted and E. excitedly donned the white canvas bee keepers suit. Jeff showed and explained away about the hive, the bees, the social structure in there, and answered our inevitable killer bee questions all with great humor and lots of knowledge and interest!

The next day and evening were spent sharing cycling stories and chatting about bees and honey. Jeff graciously offered us his garage (an early 1900's milking shed) for our bike cleaning and packing project. We scrubbed, wiped, degreased, and meticulously dug the NZ crud out of tires in hopes, again, that we would make it though biosecurity unscathed. Two nights with Jeff were supremely relaxing and we were delighted to wake up to honey harvesting happening in the kitchen!

Soon we were saying our goodbyes and saying to ourselves how fortunate we'd been to have been taken in by Jeff and all the other unlikely hosts we'd had throughout New Zealand.

Finally other Tourists!

2008-12-04T15:34:00.000-08:00

We've had a wonderful time traveling through the South Island so far and we've take it pretty easy putting in days anywhere from 35km to 89km. We've pushed up some pretty tremedous hills and have battled some heinous headwinds of up to 35k p/h, on the flip side though we've enjoyed fabulously dry and sunny (sometimes downright HOT) weather and yesterday we caught a tailwind that allowed us to coast almost 10k at an average of 32km p/h!!! That is by far the longest coast of our lives!

What exactly we've been up to:

We left Wellington after camping on a sweet little creek in a sleeply little port town. Having seen an advertisement in the camp kitchen about a cycling specific hostel we set our sights South the following morning and looked to cover about 70km. The climbs were gradual, the traffic was easily timed by the ferry arrivals and after the rush of a few big trucks and campervans packed to the brim, we were back to fairly lonely roads. The sun heated up the pavement in areas of new seal we started to pick up rocks and tar that would stick to our shirts, legs, bags, and bikes... (good thing we brought that citrus cleaner!) We climbed through collosal ranges sticking to the low lying valley roads and geting spectacular views all day. We passed through sprawling wine country with pictureesque vineyards set in a valley between two mountain ranges, we rode out and up into hot dry hills and climbed a twisty and fairly steep section out of the valley and toward the coast. We hit the coast after rolling over foothills for a few hours and were met by a strong headwind. As promised in the advertisement, in the middle of nowhere we happened upon a large white water tank with a bicycle situated atop it. An arrow pointed 1.5km down a gravel road. We were a bit skeptical but also dusty, salty, and a bit whipped from the heat so we headed in. The 1.5km road was the worst we'd ridden to date but ariving at the gate to Peddlers Rest Stop we were greeted by beautiful gardens, a small vineyard and a lovely host who showed us to a WONDERFUL and incredibly inexpensive guest house where we found bunks, showers, a fully stocked kitchen, guestbooks with cycling tourist entries back to 1993, and maps galore!!! We stretched on the covered porch and wished we had other cyclists to share the accomodations and swap stories with. About an hour later our host showed up with a German couple and their bikes in tow! Perfect! We made dinner and chatted into the night.

The next morning we padded around lazily making breakfast and waking up slowly as the sun heated up our little piece of paradise. We set ourselves back on our bikes and headed south down the coast unsure of our destination for the day but ready to put in the miles. The wind howled in our faces, good for our new friends heading North, but a hard way for us to start out the day. We each took 5km pulls at the front while the other rested and stuck as close to the wheel of the puller as possible to stay out of the wind. The coast was beautiful and we let ourselves stop at a tearoom on the coast for some tea and a bathroom break. Back on the road we followed the coast most of the day, although the wind let up later into the afternoon. As we neared Kaikoura we encountered an interesting smell along the rocky coast, this was shortly discovered to belong to the barking fur seal colony basking in the afternoon sun. The road twisted and turned along the craggy coast and we made stops where we could to let the larger traffic pass. The ocean glittered aquamarine and the waves crashed into the jutting rocks. It was incredible. We decided before we even arrived to stay an extra day in Kaikoura (to give our sore behinds a rest!).

Kaikoura boasted a nice market area and tons of whalewatching and seal swimming tours. We found a quiet, clean, and sauna boasting motorcamp and happily slapped down the fare for two nights stay, already looking forward to not having to pack up everything the next morning. We stretched, did a bit of yoga and waved to the cows in the paddock across the stream from our tent site. Dinner was spaghetti and pesto with a big fresh baguette and a bottle of loaclly grown Cab-Merlot. We learned in Kaikoura that even when the liquor store says everything is 20% off today only, they've got nothing on the deals at the loacal markets when it comes to wine selection and price.

The next morning we headed out to take in the fresh air on Kaikouras famous (in New Zealand) walk. We toured along the old whaling docks, the new whaling docks, out to the seal colony, up to the top of the bluffs, across the grassy plains, and through a forested ravine that dropped up just one street behind the main drag where we'd started. Unfortunately Z. used up what was left of the camera battery early on that day trying to use the 10x zoom to see if a dark shape off in the distance was a whale or not, so no pictures of the walk although we assure you it's worth doing if you're out this way. Back at camp we bobbed around in the hot tub for a bit and took a well deserved shower with some less than desirable "multipurpose" soap called Sard Wondersoap... We wonder if it's actually SOAP or just a laundry detergent bar although the packaging assures that it's good for everything, Well it is certianly not meant for delicate parts... like faces... and it's probably a safe bet that extended use is not recommeded by any dermatologist in the western hemisphere. We shared the kitchen that night with families from Germany, Holland, and Ireland and everyone watched "The Day After Tomorrow" on the tiny T.V. in the dining room. It's funny how T.V. mezmerizes people, even when it's an english speaking moving and the people watching speak very little english...

We slept through a night of blustery rain and awoke a bit damp and clammy. Back on our bikes and off for another day of who knows where we end up! We followed the coast for a short while and then the climbing began. We took Highway 1 South, which is the main route from the North end of the Island to Christchurch and palces beyond. The hills on this day were steep, windy, lots of rock debris, and LOTS of truck traffic. We had a short but extremely physically and emotionally exhausting day which ended with headaches all around and an impromptu stop at a place not even listed on any of our maps. Hawkswood is the starting point for a 5 day costal tramping track and is run by a sweet and incredibly industrious older couple. After some aspirin and a good dose of water we got the full tour which included a blacksmithing shop, a collection of immaculate horse drawn carriages (some built on site), a stage hidden back among the eucalyptus trees, a pool, wonderful handbuilt cabins, truly free-range chickens, and quirky little signs everywhere telling you about the drought they've been having since 2003 and reminding you to save water. The wind whipped everything dry from the previous nights rain and we relaxed playing farkle and eating dinner in the waning light.

Chickens roosting in trees? Who would have thought!

Sunny South Island!

2008-11-30T15:00:00.000-08:00

We made it to the South Island of New Zealand! After a sunny sweltering 3 hour ferry boat ride we motored through lush beautiful fjords leading into Picton - the main port connecting the two islands. Zach and I are still amazed at how easy it has been to meet people. Something about the combination of wandering travelers meet exhausted cyclists makes for a quick conversation starter. Boarding the Interislander Ferry we met a svelte mountain biker/mechanic named Andrew heading for an off road ride on the Queen Charolette ride on the South Island peninsula. Despite a few chipped teeth and a pair of scuffed up legs, he promised us the South Island has some of the most beautiful and smooth riding. Hard to believe since our daily rides cast off into lush picturesque layered landscapes. Along the way we've learned that what people tell you about roads, weather conditions, and hilly terrain is completely up to interpretation. Finding the South Island so far to be very hilly, dry, and hot - equating it to east of the mountains in WA State - we're still looking for the cool, wet climate many North Islanders told us the South Island would offer.

Views of Wellington and from the ferry ride:

We rode 86 kilometers our first day our on the South Island - from Picton to a little pedlar's rest stop outside a town called Ward on Highway 1. Riding along Route 1 we we're passed by hundreds of cards loaded to the brim with mountain bikes. Apparently just down the road from our boarding house there was a massive 40 km off road race. I find it hard riding 40 km on the road let alone in the mountains with no shade. Zach and I have been amazed by the huge mountain bike culture here. Its seems like its turning into their No. 1 sport here (excluding rugby of course).

Currently our transient life is allowing us to call Kaikoura home - half way between Picton and Christchurch. The Kaikoura mountain ranges loom shadowy above the small towns, reminding us of alpine villages, constrasting sharply with the coastal beaches and tropical temperature. We decided to take a day off from cycling, resting our sore bums and legs in trade for a scenic beach walk. The towns rocky limestone beaches are lined with colonies of sea lions. Looking like hundreds of giant slugs drying on warm rocks they called out to us on our bicycles as we rode past. On Tuesday we plan to continue our journey down Route 1 heading to Christchurch. We're both looking foward to seeing our moms in 8 days! Although we're having an amazing trip we still could use a taste of home. We hope all is well with everyone at home!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T14:29:00.000-08:00

We know we have lots of posts left to write about where we've been and what we've been up to but the internet connections are a bit fewer and further between than we had anticipated! In the meantime here's some photos of our latest travels, finally having arrived at the East coast beaches, and into Wellington

We've arrived on the east coast to warm weather and a pounding surf

Highway 1 follows the East coast for miles on our way into Wellington

Bays like these dot the coast as we head closer into Wellington

Wellington: we definitely found the happening area of this little city. Large malls with no car access made for great people watching and offered lots of dinng choices for our very non-traditonal Thanksgiving dinner.

Sheep Shearers and their Sheds!

2008-11-25T17:34:00.000-08:00

We're back online again - at a local library in a very very small town. We've had quite an adventure over the last few days. We visited Lake Taupo last Saturday. Taupo summed up our longest day yet at 110 kilometers following many miles of back roads, full of rolling hills. We're learning how to be nice to each other when we're exhausted, thirsty, and hungry. We took ourselves out to an Indian restaurant, learning quickly that our local Indian food in Seattle puts Taupo's to shame. Lake Taupo is a huge lake, dwarfing Lake Washington. The next morning there were hundreds of small racing boats shooting about the lake. We spend Sunday riding around the lake and heading into the mountain ranges of central New Zealand.

Sunday we spent the day climbing up along the central mountain ranges. We had already planned on stealth camping that evening so we could make headway through the ranges the following day. But as it turns out it was our lucky day - a man took pity on us and offered us a ride over the pass. It turned out our chauffeur Simon is a sheep farmer, owning over 9,000 sheep/cows on 1400 acres of land. We ended up heading all the way back to his beautiful farm - where we spent the next day and a half roaming the farm on his 4x4 Quads, herding hundreds of sheep, and playing with his herding dogs. We spent the night in his 19th century shearing shed, sharing it with the nesting birds and little mice.

2008-11-20T19:25:00.001-08:00

2008-11-20T19:02:00.000-08:00

Hello all you adoring fans, friends, and family!

We're on our 4th day in New Zealand and the adventure has truly begun. Our blog title has already reflected our trip very well. We've mapped our travels, remapped, and remapped again. Z. dropped the ball on getting all our N.Z. cue sheets (little maps cyclists use for their handlebar map cases to tell them road names and direction changes) printed out for the North Island so we've been working off his memory for mapping our route. We discovered early on that our big waterproof map of N. and S. islands was very inadequate when we tried to make our way from the airport to Auckland city center. After finding a quiet hostel in an alley off the main drag we shopped for all the items we couldn't bring on the plane - and a new road atlas of both islands, which has been invaluable. In true thrifty traveler fashion we cooked rice and blanched veggies in the hostel kitchen the first night and headed to bed early in hopes of an earlyish start to the first day of real touring.

Day 2
We got the going to bed early but we lazed about until about 9 and headed out after some routing consultation around 11. We headed out of Auckland on the train to Papakura which saved us about 3 hours of riding through the industrial suburbs of Auckland. Off the train we stopped and ate our lunch of crumpets and oranges outside a waterpark and Z. got trapped inside the kid proof fence of the waterpark after being let in to fill the water bottles. After escaping the waterpark we set off through some of the most spectacular landscapes we've ever encountered. We were struck by the lush and intense green of the hillsides, the knolls dotted with sheep, the curious cows that trot along the fence lines as we cycle past, and the wonderfully sweet smell of Jasmine in bloom which is ubiquitous. We arrived at our intended destination after battling some late afternoon headwinds along the East coast and wearily we wound the last few pedal strokes into a holiday park (think KOA campground) with a much welcomed hot springs, impressively clean showers, and tons of friendly campers. Met another cycle tourist from the Yukon and a couple from England on a two week holiday. Everyone is incredibly friendly and willing to offer insiders information. Things are expensive but we've controlled our spending well and we're on budget so far.

We've missed our friends and family and find that things all along the way remind us of them. E. found the smell of diesel and fresh cut lumber reminding her of her dad while Z. found some of the long uninhabited stretches and constant search for water reminding him of Victor and the long ride from Seattle to Portland.

More to come! and Pictures!

E. and Z.

Day 2

2008-11-20T12:50:00.000-08:00

We woke around 7 to lots of singing birds nesting in fragrant bushes quite near the head of our tent. Quick breakfast of eggs, toast, and some terrible brown powder the kiwis try and pass off as instant coffee (tastes more like hot prune juice than coffee) in the deserted camp kitchen. Packed up the bikes and headed to the hot spring pool so Z. could soak his legs before taking off. Met a nice Polish Canadian who was also cycling through and who'd already had a run in with the local drivers who tend to cross the center line around the curves. He'd made it through unscathed due in large part to good bike handling. We exchanged route information and made idle chat for quite a while. The pool closed for cleaning shortly after we arrived and we (Z. begrudgingly) pulled on our knee braces and pedaled away into a gorgeous day. The coast is dead flat and the road is quite straight; which is great except when there's a headwind and you're riding directly into and will be until as far as the eye can see! We pedaled our hearts out that afternoon making what felt like little headway until we turned west and headed into the foothills. We arrived in Morrinsville around 4:30, about 20k short of our desired destination. We pulled into the first grocery we saw and sat down to loot at the maps when a big bearded guy of about 45 came by to check out what we were about. He offered to help us plan a better route along the back roads as well as offering up his yard for our camping pleasure. We accepted and headed off to get the makings for dinner and to see about getting online. The library in town took care of the Internet connection to the tune of $2 per 15 minutes. E. posted a quick note and a few pictures about our first day to the blog before the place closed. We headed to Pete's house to setup camp and while we waited for him to arrive, the neighbours introduced themselves by asking tons of questions and offering us bourbon and cokes and insight into everything from our new President to the politics of bicycling in New Zealand. Pete got home around dusk from eel fishing with his wife, two daughters, and a heap of friends in tow. They lit up a fire in the back and brought out the beer all to celebrate another evening with their "family". We laughed, asked and answered questions and eventually got those directions from Pete about staying off the main highway. We sauntered off to bed light from the friendliness and probably a bit from imbibing!

We made it!

2008-11-19T19:48:00.000-08:00

Hello All!

Here we finally are - our much belated post. After a minor plan mechanical at Seatac we made it on time to LA where we flew 12 sleepy hours to Auckland at 5am. We met a couple of cyclists from Canada at the NZ airport and we ended up biking the whole way into Auckland with them. We've been amazed at how many friendly and open people we met within the first day of arrival. We are both safe, in good health (although mildly sunburned :), and in great spirits.

We're onto our second day of beautiful bike riding and we will be posting more soon. The library where this is posting from is currently closing so we must run. We love and miss you!

Leaving Today

2008-11-16T02:56:00.000-08:00

Departure time has reached T minus 8 hours and counting. Everyone we could think of should have recieved an email with our blog address in it so there should be a lot more comments on this and future posts...

hint hint

For those of you who want to know when and where we'll be (really just a rough guide) here's a map with some dates. Pretty much all of it is subject to change... kind of like everything in life!

For those of you who like to read here's the rough guide to E. and Z.'s travel plans in the textual format - note the lack of really hard and fast dates after our mom's leave Australia!:

Seattle, Wa USA - Home Base [Depart 11-16-08]
Auckland, New Zealand [Arrive 11-18-08]
Christchurch, New Zealand [Depart 12-8-08]
Sydney, Australia [Depart 12-14-08]
Melbourne, Australia [Depart 12-17-08]
Adelaide, Australia [Depart 12-22-08]
Sydney, Australia [12-28-08]
Brisbane, Australia [Jan/Feb 2009]
Townsville (Cairns), Australia [Feb/Mar 2009]
Darwin, Australia [Depart 4-10-09]

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam [Arrive 4-10-09]
Hanoi, Vietnam [Arrive around 5-10-09]
Laos [May/June 2009]
Thailand [July/Aug 2009]
Cambodia [June/July 2009]
India [Sep 09 - $0.00(until the $$$ runs out!)]

Bicycles and their Bags

2008-11-15T17:00:00.000-08:00

We have had a few of you ask what our bikes look like all packed up. Well...here are a few photos. Although we have 'practice' packed a few times, this time it took us an exorbitant amount time - trying to get things just right, wrapping the frame in foam, packing frame upon frame. We spent a good couple hours today painting "FRAGILE" on the bags, in the hope the airline loaders will show us mercy.

Adieu and Farewell

2008-11-14T17:55:00.000-08:00

Namaste.

We feel immense gratitude and love for the people in our lives. Thank you all for your encouragement and support! We will be departing this Sunday November 16th for New Zealand. New Zealand will be the first stop on what will be an 18 month bicycling and volunteering journey through 8 countries.

Many of you have been listening to us banter on year after year about this obscure 'trip' and its hard for even us to believe that its actually happening. We're both inspired, amazed, and unbelievably excited for our upcoming adventure. And, we would love to share it with you, beyond blogs and postcards - we would love for you to come travel with us! If you have ever had the desire or inkling to travel in NZ, Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, India, or Nepal - we will be traversing these countries over the next 18 months and would love to share the experience with you.

With Peace and Gratitude,

Elise and Zach

2008-10-27T19:30:00.001-07:00

shoe review - Pearl Izumi mid Alp GTX

Z. recently received his second choice of touring shoe from bikebling.com (the first choice being a new shoe put out by Northwave - the expedition GTX) and the break-in has begun. Out of the box these shoes look and feel like there's quality construction behind them. the soles have deep tread and the cleat recess is pretty good for Time ATAC cleats although there is a slight contact with the ground. The uppers are mesh and vulcanized canvas or cordura-like material with an internal Goretex membrane. these are a bit higher at the ankle which lends itself to extra support which will be great for our intended trekking. The soles are stiff and the laces and eyelets seem tough enough. An interestinly placed minimalist Velcro strap kind of holds the laces in place - not sure what Pearl really meant to do there. The overall fit is comfortable even for Z's narrow feet and the break in has been easy save for the seeming overabundance of stuffing around the ankle and over the bridge of the right foot, hopefully this will break down a bit and become more comfy. All in all Z is impressed and it seems that Pearl has made a great shoe. We'll certianly put these to the test in the coming months!
Posted via Pixelpipe.

Party Success!

2008-10-27T12:44:00.000-07:00

We threw a going away party for ourselves this past weekend and it was a hit! We had 22 pumpkins for carving, 10 pizzas (take and bake), a couple bottles of liquor, lots of good beer, a hot tub, a free pile, music, games, one happy dog, and a ton of friends and family.

K + E (two of our incredibly loyal friends) helped us set up, brought chairs, a table, carving knives, and their unending good cheer to help us out Saturday morning. They partied like rock stars into the late evening and then came back bright and early to help clean up Sunday morning. Oh yeah and don't let us forget to mention that they also COOKED US BREAKFAST Sunday morning!!! Who are these wonderful people and where have they been all our lives?! Seriously though, we couldn't have done it without their support... and furniture.

Z's mom was also integral to the party planning, allowing us to move BACK in some of the furniture that had just recently migrated to her new condo, as well as bringing wine, candy, entertaining guests that we found ourselves unable to spend as much time with as we would have liked, and executing a quick and tidy cleanup of the single broken wine glass of the night! Thanks Mom!

We collected as many email and physical addresses as we could wrangle but if you're reading this and you either

a.) couldn't make it
- or -
b.) squirmed away before we could squeeze you for your personal info

leave us a comment and we'll make sure and get it from you. Don't leave your phone number or address in any comments here though... we don't want you to end up with some weirdo's (that aren't us) showing up at your doorstep or more junkmail filling up your inbox which could totally happen as this is a public blog and anyone can see your comments!

Thanks to everyone who attended. We both appreciated seeing everyone and we both found that we couldn't spend nearly enough one-on-one time with the people who were there. Everyone that attended means so much to the collective us and to each of us individually. We're sad to be leaving you all but your warm send off makes it easier knowing precisely the people we will miss the most are supporting us in our endeavor and are excited for our adventures.

Those of you who are planning on traveling with us - we can't wait!

Those of you who are even considering traveling with us - get off the fence and just do it!

Those of you who are bound to your jobs, families, lives, or who just don't want to go any of the places we're going - we'll look forward to bombarding you with pictures and stories on our return and wish you all the best in the interim!

We love you all!

Z+E

Almost there!

2008-10-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

We're wrapping up the gear shakedown over the next few weeks and we've
made some hopefully wise decisions about how to achieve a minimalist
packing list. E. got a pair of '08 shimano hike-a-bike shoes with
incredibly stiff soles which when paired with our favorite time ATAC
pedals and a bike/shoe fit with Craig at Cycle University should make
for hours of riding without numb feet!
Z. Got a pair of Pearl Izumi '07 Mid Alp GTX hike-a-bike shoes that
have ridden and strolled around town very well so far. We're both
happy to have found shoes that replace our need for bringing along
multiple pairs of shoes and pretty well match our requirements list
which was:
- hikeable with preferrably a Vibram sole
- clipless compatible with a deep enough cleat recess to allow walking
without sounding like you're in tap shoes
- waterproof preferrably goretex
- no funny buckle closure systems that will break in the middle of
nowhere
We're scheduling some time with our seasoned bike tourist friend to
get an objective opinion on our "essential" packing list which should
help us collectively drop around 10#. And with the exception of a
small list of replacement parts we're gear ready and excited as heck!

Sent from my iPhone

2008-10-14T17:47:00.001-07:00

on misty mountain

fig and Z waiting for the clouds to part so we could enjoy the view from the saddle on the way up to Mount Pugh.

Handsome and rugged

2008-10-14T17:46:00.000-07:00

Victor and Eli are offically responsible for all of my physical training to prepare for this upcoming trip. Here they are taking me up mount pugh on stefans birthday weekend. We hiked throught the clouds all day lending to a strange sense of encapsulation and a disconnect with our realized altitude. Everything felt close and quiet, very dream-like. Nice to have shared the experience with two incredible guys.

And now for some relieving news: we have gone and actually purchased the tickets for the first two legs of our trip!

2008-06-25T06:39:00.000-07:00

And now for some relieving news: we have gone and actually purchased
the tickets for the first two legs of our trip!

on our fourth and longest trip to see our travel agent we finally bit
the proverbial bullet and bought tickets for the New Zealand and
Australia portions of our trip. We'll be heading out november 16th and
arriving the 18th in Auckland. three weeks in New Zealand, leaving
from Christchurch. the day after we arrive in Sydney both our mothers
arrive and stay with us for just a bit under 3 weeks.

its hard to say that change has descended ON us when we create all the chaos, but it certainly feels that way.

2008-05-28T22:53:00.000-07:00

its been over a month since I
completed the Seattle Tilth program and longer since I've update the
blog about traveling. a LOT has changed.
for starters:
we're suprisingly ahead of schedule with travel savings.
we are almost ready to move out to west Seattle.
We placed Otis and got him back.
Z. left his job of seven years and started a new job working in
lanscaping.
E. is working 40+ hours of overtime a week with the parks dept.
we've sold the majority of the stuff we've acquired over the past four
years including BIKES.
And last but not least we've pushed the trip back (again) to mid
november.

it scarcely feels like there's time to breathe let alone maintain
meaningful relationships with each other or our friends. at the same
time it feels increasingly important to keep up on those closest
friendships we both have. striking that balance has never been my
strong suit but I am trying.

Otis searches for a new home: Round Two

2008-04-01T15:16:00.000-07:00

Otis is looking for a new home and finding the right place isn't easy.

We posted Otis on petfinder and our local craigslist a few weeks back now and had a number of responses; some good, some not ideal - all were thoroughly considered, most were called and discussions had.

Unfortunately not one of the families that we talked to ever materialized to meet him.

We've posted him again and had a few responses trickling in but no solid hits so far.

He's a good guy, comes with a great trainer, and has been very well taken care of... now he just needs the right home.

Accepted to the Seattle Tilth Master Composters Program!

2008-03-03T14:35:00.000-08:00

I got my acceptance package in the mail today and as of March 19th I'll be enrolled in the master composter/soil builder program through Seattle Tilth! Looks like this will be about a 12 hour a week commitment through April. Seattle Tilth has a ton of volunteer opportunities as well. I'll look into getting involved in the April 1st orientation so I can work around the city some before we leave.

We've sold off 4 bikes, a bunch of miscellaneous bike stuff, as well as dropping off a box of things at our beloved Recycled Cycles for some much needed store credit. 2 more boxes of books were sold to Half Price Books, a box donated to Lambert House, and a couple of our favorite cookbooks and coffee table books went in a bag to Z's mom's house for safe keeping (and probable use/display). We're widdling away at all the stuff we've amassed over the last few years living together but there's still a ton to go through. Craigslisters have been respoding to ads recently, probably the good weather has something to do with this as most of the ads are bike related, and those who've responded have mostly been showing up!

Z is dismantling the bike shop and A is working on general cleanup and giant tupperware storage bin procurement.

Things are moving along rather well and if we keep it up we won't have to scramble too much once the end of June rolls around.

In addition to all the trip related goings on, the mountain bike season has started in our household as the first two early season races are now behind us. The BuDu series races we've done have both been in the very bumpy, very winding, beautiful single track of Black Diamond. These races have really challenged our incredibly novice mountain biking skills making us look forward to the faster, smoother singletrack of the South Seatac park where the rest of the BuDu races will be held.
Mountain biking lesson of the week: Tire Pressure is key, too much is bad, too little is bad, finding the right balance is good and when you find something that works you should write it down so you don't argue about what it was at the day of the race, 20 minutes before it starts, and decide to split the difference between both your recalled psi's only to find you both have to pull over and let air out in the first half of the first lap.