...and a Happy New Year

Hello again

This will be our last post from Laos. Only 3 more days here and then we will be into Vietnam. We spent Christmas in Vientiane and splashed out on a French meal for dinner. No presents, no cake, no tree... (no family either of course!).

This is the monument in Vientiane, built at the end their version of the Champs-Elysees (A.K.A "the vertical runway" as it was supposedly built with concrete donated by the USA for a new airport).

After Vientiane we headed south down the main road - route 13. The way out of the capital was seriously dreary with hideous industrial areas, choking red dust, and a headwind. We were afraid this would continue for the next 400km but luckily things got much nicer. Although this is the main road there is minimal traffic. Plenty of cows, goats, pigs and children frolicking on the tarmac with buses racing full speed down the center line weaving in and out of whomever dares to cohabit their space. Below is a typical village school, of which we pass several a day. Often the kids are screaming at us, and playing krator (volleyball but soccer style, so no use of the arms and with a rattan woven ball) in the field which they share with some cows.


The towns along the way have been small but pretty nice. No English speakers for 3 days so we have been doing plenty of miming and pointing. Not much of an issue at the restaurants as they generally only serve one dish - a nasty noodle soup I think we have mentioned before for its lack of taste and nutritional value.

To get through this nice but somewhat boring section we have done some big days of riding, up to 155km. This is our longest day yet and was a bit of a miscalculation. Expecting to do only 50km we left late but never saw the particular village we were aiming for. Having seen a few places to stay over the first 50km we reasoned there would be more but not so! We arrived in the dark, which we have been trying to avoid due to stories of truck drivers on P and personal witnessing of liberal amounts of whisky with their dinner. However it was fine as half the scooters drive with no lights in the pitch black so the other traffic seemed to slow down in anticipation of this.

Now we are in Savanakhet, the last time we will see the Mekong on this trip. Its a funny town, seems half abandoned with many shops closed and not a great deal of people about. Some nice old buildings but most are pretty run down and the streets are often little more than a gravel pit with piles of rubble along the edges. We cannot figure out aspects of these countries, like the litter everywhere (is it that hard to put it in a bin?), and the rubble and junk piles. At the restaurant we went to for lunch, which was a nice one, there was just a jumble of stones, gravel, and a big pile of sand in the yard. Everything seems to be in a perpetual state of half-finishedness which cannot be taken as maintenance as it is clear that nothing gets any attention after being thrown together.

From here its east to Vietnam. Looking forward to seeing some derelict tanks and helicopters along the way as we are going into one of the main areas of combat in the American War.

We hope all of your dreams have come true for 2007 and that plenty of unachievable resolutions are made for 2008. We are biking to the moon.
D&C

Merry Christmas!

We have finally arrived in Vientiane, the Capital City of Laos, in time for Christmas eating and drinking. Within 5 minutes of arriving here we had been offered opium by three separate tuk-tuk drivers, but I think we'll pass.

It was hard to leave Louang Prabang - the nicest city we've come across in the last two months. The city is incredibly green with coconut and banana palms, and we spent an enjoyable few days wandering through the cobbled back alleys and trying out different restaurants and bakeries. The buildings are a combo of left over French colonial architecture and more traditional Laos wooden houses. There is plenty of the derelict and in some spots a bit too much of the noveau touriste, but overall this is diluted by the fabulous buildings, monks etc and it really is a charming little town.

One of the highlights was splashing out on a "Adventurous Lao Gourmet" meal - a five course tasting menu which included grasshoppers (surprisingly good), bamboo worms (bland), crabs wrapped in banana leaves, riverweed, disgusting pickled fish, sweet sticky rice, and finishing off with "cat poo" dessert, so called because of its look rather than its taste.

We then spent 3 days biking over some spectacular roads - the best in SE Asia so far (and people thought we should get the bus! Pah!). Great hills and views, lots of small villages, and one night spent at the base of a hugely impressive peak. This toothy number came out of nowhere as we turned a corner in the road to see the 2000m mountain towering over the valleys around it. The next 30km were spent basking in the mountain's glory as we headed towards it, and a resort at the foot of it was too good to pass up. This place even had a natural hot pool out the front, although we didn't figure that out until it was time to leave.

However... It also apparently had some lax hygiene standards, which had a lax effect on me (D) - laxative that is. After a truly horrible ride the next day as the symptoms got worse and worse, leaving me a gibbering mess barely able to keep my head up, we arrived in Vang Viang and spent the next 5 days mostly holed up in our guesthouse (I would really describe this as festering in a pit of doom, to be suitably dramatic).

Today we managed to leave, after a couple of false starts, and decided to forgo the biking in the heat for a change of pace - kayaking. On hearing that kayaking was our 'break' from cycling, one of the other guys on the tour said "man, that's hardcore". This confirms for you all what we mentioned last time.

We kayaked down the Nam Lik River towards Vientiane, although most of the distance we covered today was actually in sangthaews - a truly terrifying mode of transport. They are the size of a ute with bench seats in the back, filled to the brim and then some with you and 25 of your closest friends. The drivers here don't instill a lot of confidence - they travel fast and they drive like they own the road. At one stage we were four abreast - we were passing a scooter, while being passed by a large bus, with a truck travelling in the opposite direction - and these aren't 4 lane roads. There was also a very near miss with a cow, and in one particularly memorable moment, a tour bus threw a bag of sick out the window which smacked into our windscreen. Bring on the cycling again.

The kayaking itself was great, we were the only people in our group not to fall out on the rapids (did we mention we're hardcore?). Now we are settling into Vientiane and sussing out the best places to eat for Christmas Day when we intend to do nothing else. There are plenty of French restaurants we'd like to try. Christmas is not celebrated here, although some places have made token efforts, and put up trees, singing santas etc.

Hope everyone has a great Christmas and gets everything they asked for Lots of love from Claud and Damien

Sabaidee!

Well, here we are in 'Lay-oss' (this is how Kennedy pronounced it, apparently he thought American soldiers wouldn't want to go to war in a country called "Louse", even though its pronounced with a silent S by the Lao people - another great example of in depth foreign policy research from the worlds only 'super'power). We've just arrived in Luang Prabang, a very civilised town filled with bakeries and great restaurants. We've spent the last week hanging around in the backwaters of Laos (literally, we've spent a lot of time on boats).

The biking has been great - the scenery is good, but also the people are very welcoming. It's hard to convey the sheer excitement of the children as we bike through these tiny villages where they probably don't see too many tourists. Usually our visits are preceded by cries of "falang falang" (white person) then kids come tearing out of houses and run onto the road, calling out sabaidee, SABAIDEE, SABAIDEEEEEEE!!!!! waving and grinning like mad. It's very cute and entertaining.

We started off down the Mekong. The first town we hit was a pretty intense intro to Laos, with locals careening down the hill towards the boat so they could run on board, grab your bags then get a fee for the 'service' of carrying them up the hill. With the bikes to deal with, this left me (D) last but not least off the boat and surrounded by about 20 highly insistent beggars while Claud raced off to beat the other travelers to the best hotel rooms.

Glad to leave this town, we headed off north through a surprising amount of tiny and really basic villages. There are only 6.5 million Lao but the towns are not that big (something like 200,000 in the capital) so there seem to be people spread out over most of the countryside we pass. The villages are as simple and as poor as can be - bamboo shacks on stilts over dirt, no power, with the basics of finding food seeming to be the main pastime. The bigger villages, a couple of which we stayed in, have generators giving power from 6 - 10pm.

After leaving another real dump of a town (apparently a 'dirty weekend' spot for the Chinese, which the condom under our hotel bed would attest to) we carried on north to a river valley - the Nam Ou. This was far more spectacular than the Mekong, with vertical karst peaks towering over the river and a bit of native bush, most of which has been burnt off elsewhere in the country by the locals 'slash and burn' farming techniques. We stayed a couple of nights in a village only accessible by boat and spent a day fishing with 3 Lao guys in their boat. Very cruisy, particularly after a big lunch cooked over a fire washed down with a few shots of Lao Lao which is the local fire water.

A bit over travelling with our bikes, which are a hassle when not using them, we decided to forgo the last day of the boat trip and bike to Luang Prabang. This resulted in our longest day yet at 147km but it was a nice ride (despite the drivers - there may be only a few cars but each one is travelling at light speed on the wrong side of the road, seemingly highly surprised that someone else might be coming the other way). The Hmong villages along the way were celebrating their new year which apparently is a time for match-making games where highly costumed men and women line up opposite each other and throw balls to those they like.

This town is a massive contrast to what we have seen so far, going from the extremes of poverty to french cuisine and artisan silversmiths. Nice to go to a bakery for breakfast today rather than sitting down to another bowl of fue (pronounced fur), or noodle soup, with dodgy mystery meat.

Next its south to Vientiane ("The Capital City" as the road markers call it) over a foreboding set of mountains that a few have suggested should be tackled by bus - we say 'stick your bus, we're hardcore'.

Ciao from Laos

D&C

Good bye Thailand!

Hi

Well, we've been in Thailand for 5 weeks, and the time has come to move on. We are currently in Chiang Khong, the border town on the Thai side of the Mekong. It took us 6 days to bike here from Chiang Mai via lots of small, interesting towns.

The first stop was Chiang Dao, a village about 80km north of Chiang Mai where we stayed in a bungalow at the base of an impressive looking mountain. When we arrived we visited the Chiang Dao caves where a guide showed us "interesting" rock formations such as a chicken, an elephant's lung, a lotus flower etc. Some of these were a bit dubious, but the chicken was reasonably convincing.

That evening we had a meal cooked by a 17-year old Thai, and it was delicious. We started with banana flower salad with prawns, followed by pork stew and snapper fish (caught from the stream outside our bungalow) with ginger and apricots. Dessert was parfait with a Thai fruit called Lamut - a bit like a pear but caramelly.

Onto Tha Ton the next day - a small town where life revolves around the river. Very pretty town, but we didn't spend long here. Onwards to Mae Salong - a Chinese settlement perched in the hills (a sweaty, steep ride to get there). Full of character, steep streets, and lots of tea. It felt like we'd left Thailand - the restarants all served Chinese food, the shops had Chinese lanterns and Chinese characters over the doorways, and the slopes of the hills were covered in tea plantations.

Mae Sai was our next stop - a town on the Myanmar border and, incidentally, the northern most point in Thailand. It was packed with markets and Burmese and traffic, and all really quite hectic. Our guest house had a view of Myanmar just over the river, and we amused ourselves by waving at the Burmese. This town was also the end of highway one - 890km back to Bangkok.

From Mae Sai we biked to Chiang Saen via the Golden Triangle which was really not as exciting as you might think. Actually it sucked. You could hardly see the confluence of the rivers over the luxury hotels, hordes of tour buses, massive carparks full of junk stalls and the gaudy statues. But it was our first glimpse of the Mekong which was cool - the road from there to Chiang Khong has pretty much followed it. And we had a massage sitting in chairs overlooking the river which was great.

So thats Thailand done. 1861km in total, which took us 109 hours 38min to bike. We will miss Thailand, especially in light of our Laos guidebook which informs us that malaria is rife, there's no hot water, and electricity is from 6pm-10pm. Still, these books tend to look on the dark side of things so we will probably encounter lavish neon lighting displays and hot water cascading from every faucet. Time will tell.

Living in hope, Claudia & Damien

Food, food, glorious food!

Kia Ora

Just had our last day in Chiang Mai. It was very food oriented and seemed to be worthy of a post. We headed out to a small restaurant for lunch that gave us the best meal since arriving in the city. It turned out to be the one we were looking for last night but could not find - every time we set out to go somewhere specific or buy something in particular they are highly ellusive but we always stumble upon something great when we have no plan.

For lunch we had our recent staple, a local curry called Kao Soi, which is a red curry soup with egg noodle in it and crispy noodles on top - very tasty. And of course Phad Thai, along with a couple of mangos on sticky rice with coconut milk, an espresso, and a hot ginger tea. All were fantastic, and all for under $6! We were very reluctant to leave as the rest of the menu looked highly tempting but we could hardly move from fullness, so called it a day.

Then to walk off our meal and maybe work up another appetite we headed for the local food market. Starting out in the vege section we put our cooking class into action and identified a few random vegetables, such as fresh kaffir limes (which look like a green brain), galangal, and ear mushrooms. The colours were amazing and it is just a fun place to walk around and to see what people are buying. Of course half of it we have no idea what it is. Then it was onto the meat section, which was a little disturbing, from the whole skinned duck and pigs head covered in flies, to the abominable stink of the dried fish area.

Wish we had some facilities to stock up and cook up a storm but there is only so much you can create when your kitchen is a Leatherman and the deck.

Felt like we had to put something in about today's wicked culinary experiences, and look forward to sharing the recipes with those of you who we identify as having checked our blog sufficiently (this will be an arbitrary and likely inequitable calculation).

Much love and fine dining, D and C

Loy Krathong

Hello again

Finally a break from biking! We have been holed up in Chiang Mai for the past few days doing touristy things with two friends from Wellington, Kurt (or Cursed as our guesthouse owner misunderstood) and Bridget.

The cooking course in Pai was definetely a highlight. We spent a few hours in the morning going over ingredients and making curry pastes which we then cooked up into a three curry lunch. After a nap to recover we were back for dinner which was stir fries and soups. A'roi! Very fun hanging out with our relaxed instructor at his house and grilling him about whatever aspect of Thailand was puzzling us at the time. His alcoholic reporter friend popped in too for a few quiet whisky shots.

Then it was 135km over our final massive hill (just over 2hrs up) towards the plains of Chiang Mai. Another long day but a relief to know it would be several days before we had to get back on the saddle.

The Loy Krathong festival was in full swing when we arrived, which has mostly meant a lot of fireworks - dawn 'till dusk and through to dawn again. The festival is about 4 days to celebrate the end of the rainy season. There are people everywhere, night markets lining the streets, parades, four year olds firing sky rockets around... The main pastime at the festival is releasing fire balloons and floating 'krathongs' down the river. The balloons are paper with a flame under them so they fill with hot air and float off into the sky (in theory - the trees and powerlines have also taken a hammering). There are thousands of them taking off and filling the sky with points of light. Very pretty.

We have been to the zoo, up the hill overlooking town to a temple, to the Sunday 'walking market', eaten a few local dishes which have been very tasty, read a couple of books and generally hung around. Tonight we are off to watch some Thai men kick the shit out of each other at a Muay Thai match, before heading off further north to the Golden Triangle and towards Laos. Six more days of biking in Thailand!

Claud and Damien

Hi from Pai

Hi again

We are in Pai now. Had an extremely low motivation day out of Mae Hong Son, with a massive hill we were not really prepared for. Went up to over 1500m, and motivation dived about the same distance the other way. We ended up at a really cool lodge down a bumpy side road in a Shan village. It was called 'Cave Lodge' as it is next to .... A CAVE!

After a nap we headed down to the exit of the cave to watch what can't have been too far off a million birds (swifts) heading back in for the night. They were spiralling around outside before diving in at pace - very impressive and carried on for about half an hour with the sky constantly filled with birds.

Today we had a sleep in before heading over another 1300m hill to Pai. A decent gradient for once and without the annoying downhills every 500m that have plagued us for the last few days - sapping away half of the height you just painfully struggled up.

This town is pretty crazy. Extremely touristy, with guesthouses, eaterys, and tattoo palours every step of the streets. No tattoos for us, yet. We headed into a funky cafe for the first espresso of the trip which was Thai style over condensed milk. Very cool little place in a wooden house, art on the walls, and would certainly stand out as a place to be even in coffee mad Wellington. Local grown beans no less! We are staying at a place called Charlies House, and Charlie is the district health officer/inspector so for once we are confident in the state of hygiene.

Tomorrow we are doing a Thai cooking class at "Lets wok!". Then on over our last 35km hill towards Chiang Mai where we are meeting friends Kurt and Bridget for a few days of relaxation. This is very much in need!

Ciao for now D & C

The top of Thailand

Hi from Khun Yuam!

There is not much in this wee town but we are resting here for a day to recover our legs from their insult over the last two days. North Thailand is very beautiful - full of national parks, tiny villages, mountains, impressive views, and the like. From Lamphun four days ago we cycled to Doi Inthanon National Park which is halfway to the highest point in Thailand. We hired a tent for a couple of nights and on our day off it rained all day - we can now draw the pattern of the canvas in our sleep.

Following this, we braced ourselves, had a huge breakfast, and rode to the top of Thailand! (This is not a joke, we got to the actual top, there was a sign to prove it and everything). Its 2565m above sea level (and we came from there, remember?), about 40km of uphill, and took about 6 hours of cycling. To put this in perspective for the Wellingtonians, its the same height as 12 and a half Mt Vics. This was all in the mist, so for our efforts there was not a view of anything other than our rain-soaked front tires. We hit our first 1000km on this day as well!

But dont you worry, we made up for the lack of views yesterday when we had our hardest ride yet - 105km of mountain ridges in the scorching sun. We were unable to find anyone else who had ridden the road from Mae Chaem to Khun Yuam but our trusty hotel manager said it would be no problem on a bike. Maybe she thought we had the motorised variety as there were certainly some problems. After a rolling start through some beautiful farm land and forrest we were feeling pretty smug at our choice to take the road less travelled. The first 4km hill was not too bad, then the next one came, and the next one and the next one ad nauseum... They got steeper and steeper as we got further into the mountains, with a massive uphill followed by a minor downhill, and into the next climb. The sun was baking us alive, and one particular hill saw D feeling like vomiting and Claud pushing her bike and trying not to cry - not that I could have, I didnt have any spare liquid in me for things like tears.

Afetr struggling up that one we finally came across a crone selling drinks and negotiated some for ourselves. Feeling a little better, the rest of the way saw us continuing over progressivly smaller hills as we came to this side of the ranges. No idea how many we climbed but the three that had altitude markers were at 900m, 1500m, and 1200m. The last 20km down into this valley were pretty spectacular - the mountains stretched forever into Myanmar, the roads were lined with sunflowers, we had plenty of honks, waves and thumbs-up signs, and we even got to see the sunset as we rolled the last 3km into town. My god, the relief at having arrived. We are having a day off today to rehydrate before heading to Mae Hong Son tomorrow.

There have been some days of contrast along the way. From full rain jacket, pants, shoe covers and thermals at the top of Doi Inthanon, to 35degrees plus and heat rash the next; and 90bht in accommodation in the rainy tent to a 1200 baht resort with a pool and english TV channels.

Another stunning day today, and looking forward to some lesser hills tomorrow. Despite the trauma of yesterday this area is pretty amazing and well worth the effort. Apostrophes and photos to follow, when we find a slightly better computer.

Love C&D

South Northern Thailand

Sawadee

We have made it out of Central Thailand - which gave us a rude exit. We stayed at some dive of a motel in Si Satchanalai which was the only accommodation in this small town. We were in bed at our usual 8.30 but the temple down the road had other ideas about sleep and was pumping out some ungodly worshipping to a drum and bass backing. This was added to with noise competition from the local karaoke bar over the road - the duets were a particular treat with new levels of disharmony that were previously unrealised in music. Not to be out done the local scooter club held an 'up and down the drive way' rally outside out room till 4am. Just to top it off someone tried the door to our room at one stage - probably a whore we think, this place had the look of rental by the hour being norm.

The next day we were out of there before first light. Into the hills for the first time, and some great scenery. Lush forest with some tiny villages peppered about. This was a hard 6hr day but one of the better ones yet with quiet roads and plenty to look at. Have enjoyed the small towns we have been through, Kamphaeng Phet, (Si Satchanalai - see above), Phrae was really laid back which was a great relief from the hectic pace of the other towns, Lampang, and now we are in Lamphun which is about 30km south of Chiang Mai. We have done a decent amount of riding over the last few days, with plenty of hills and heat. Rashes are on the way out but other ailments are taking over.

On the way today we stopped at an elephant conservation centre for a couple of hours and watched them bathe and put on a bit of a show which included log pushing, painting, and some musical interludes. There were tourists staying for 3 days who were riding the elephants. One American woman asked one of them how old the elephant was. He said 18. "But how do you know?" "Well, someone told me". I was dying to say that you have to chop its trunk off and look for the rings but she was obviously beyond hope.

Now we are off on a wee 600km loop to the west, close to the Myanmar border. It goes through the biggest national park in the country and includes the highest mountains. Should be some cool sights (and potentially some cool temperatures), and many more hills to climb. Wish us luck!

Love C and D

PS we have had a few dog chases including the first uphill one, and the dog buzzer has proved ineffective at best. It does appear to work on a particularly meek dog but any hint of aggression, or even mild aliveness and it is better used as a missile.

Sukhothai

Hi again

We're in Sukhothai, the old Thai capital (another one). Lots to see here so we will stay a couple of days. This will also give the legs a chance to recover before the hills start.

It's still hot - someone said that athletes adjust better to the heat but I am pretty certain this is a lie. Or perhaps we are just not athletic enough - guess we will have to do some more biking.

It was 133km to Kamphaeng Phet where we spent a day looking around some more ruins/temples. Had the place to ourselves which was great. Today we came 85km north through the best scenery we have had so far, and on the quietest roads. Only 100 scooters a minute that means, and only 2 disemboweled dogs. Road kill has been our most rewarding view of Thai wildlife thus far. There has been an assortment of snakes, frogs, lizards, dogs, and birds. Much easier to look at than the swift moving live variety.

Getting a sore arm from waving at all the locals that call out "HELLO". We attract our fair share of attention. Not too many close calls with dogs yet, only a couple of half hearted chasers. Most are too hot or malnourished to care.

There is a pool at the guesthouse where we are staying so that is where we will be if you need anything.

Claud and Damien

The biking has begun!

We've got two days of biking under our belts now - 80km yesterday to Sing Buri and 120km today to Nakhon Sawan. The guide book descibes N.S as "an unwelcome sprawl" but after sweating it out on the main highway with trucks thundering past, I can assure you it was not unwelcome at all.

We're getting into the swing of things, like starting at 5am to beat the heat (didn't help us avoid a good heat rash though from todays 30+ degrees). Yesterday and half of todays ride was pretty rural through the rice paddies, but this morning we hit highway 1. This involved negotiating 10 lanes of traffic - the adrenaline increased our speed.

Have finally found the rumoured cheap hotels - 290bht tonight which is about $10-11 for a pretty decent hotel room with aircon, ensuite, free bottled water... The food is going down pretty well too, with nice meals for 1-3 bucks each. Snacks are bit dubious but todays rice crackers with "flossy pork" hit the spot. Last nights mini octopus with legs dangling was hard to get past the lips but not too bad once in there.

Tomorrow we're off to some place starting with K which is a bit of a change of plan from the place starting with P. Seems like it will be a nicer spot and a shorter ride (another 120km).

Bye for now and thanks for all the comments - keep 'em coming!

PS, Nova the bells have been attached and used sporadically. They're good and loud which is certainly a requirement here

Ayutthuya

We're in Ayutthuya which is about 80km North of Bangkok. We hired a ute to drive us here due to overwhelming Bangkok highways and traffic. Brave, but not that brave.

Got the bikes out today and rode around the town - there are heaps of temples here and plenty of ruins from when the Burmese invaded 500 years ago. The Burmese love bloggers so we'll be watching our backs. We've spent two days here and we're heading north tomorrow to Sing Buri (get your maps out).

It's bloody hot but we're slowly getting used to it. We'll be starting out tomorrow at 0600 hours to try and avoid the worst of the heat.

Ciao for now, hope y'all aren't working too hard xxoo

Bangkok

Howdy all

We made it to Bangkok pretty much unscathed. After a slightly frightening moment when Thai Airways did not want to let us leave NZ because we don't have a ticket home, we did eventually make it onto the plane (this involved a trip to an 'official's' office in the depths of the airport to prove our worth).

Today we walked for a fair distance to the Laos Embassy to get our visa. That was a wholly successful trip without getting lost, ordering first 'real' meal by means of pointing, and running across some terrifying 8 lane roads. Ped Xings are there but for show only.

Now we have to try to figure out how to get out of town tomorrow on the bikes. So far we have no map, and no idea where we are headed other than north. We are on the east of town so thats a start...

Wish us luck
Love Claud and Damien

Claud's leaving drinks

Thanks to the CCU staff (and assorted others) for a good leaving do! Big night had by all - especially moi, still recovering. Love Claud

Farewell

Thanks to all those that came to say goodbye on the weekend. We had a great time.

Our inaugural post

A trip overseas was inevitable but the specifics were unfathomable. Where do you go when you’ve got the whole world to choose from? We wanted to have a journey and a purpose – travel for travel’s sake didn’t appeal. Someone (not Damien) suggested some biking. The other half quickly agreed. Someone suggested an epic. The world map was consulted at length. Asia was settled on, people were told, and it quickly snowballed out of control. Before we knew it we were biking from Bangkok to Beijing (what better premise to base a bike ride on than alliteration?).

Easy. But this was 18 months ago. Now, with three weeks until we leave, it’s slowly dawning on us that we ACTUALLY have to do this. So we’ve created some semblance of organisation:

• We’ve been vaccinated against every disease known to man (except the ones that matter, like bird flu and SARS)
• We’ve (and this term is used loosely) researched, bought, and assembled thousands of cogs, tubes, and cables into two functional shiny bikes
• We’ve saved our pennies like our wee lives depended on it, which they will
• And we’ve read screeds of literature – we’ve got our route planned down to the last pothole. Except for Vietnam which we’ve seen on a map but that’s about it
  

So on the 30th of October, 2007, we will be departing the Land of the Long White Cloud and heading for the Land of Smiles. We’ll use this website to update you on our progress, show you some photos, and try not to gloat too much about what we're doing and you're not.

Love from Claudia and Damien

P.S. Our travel consultant advised us to create a photographic poo diary – thanks for that Mike, be sure to stay tuned.