A solitary cyclist in the vastness of China

Wow - what an incredible journey I am on! The road through China was (and still is, long and quite a solitary one) but I am almost in Kashgar and soon will be in Kyrgyzstan, and from there over to Istanbul by the end of April.

I had a bit of a turbulent start as it is very difficult to get sim cards for your mobile phone and even withdraw money from the atm. But once this was sorted things went smoothly again. 

In China you have no access to many of the western websites, so my apologies for such a big gap between blog entries, but now thanks to some assistance from friends I am able to send a short blog update and will post a longer one once I have access again. Thanks for your patience ;) 

The mountains of Dongguan

I started early in the morning, surrounded by the beauty in the middle of the mountains of the Yunnan province. After 110km and two hill tops later I arrived in Dongguan in the late afternoon. A half hour later I found a hotel for 60 yuan. I had a shower and was about to go out to eat when they invited me to join their family for dinner. When I went upstairs the whole family was there to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Nobody could speak English, but these days we have smart phones with translation apps, from Chinese to English and the other way around. Every time anyone had a question they would translate it into English and I wrote my answers back - it was an unforgettable evening. Later when they bring me back to my room, they gave me my 60 yuan back; I was now a friend of the family forever :)

Chinese New Year fireworks

The next day I cycled 80km to Meng-la but I struggled to find an atm to work for me. One of the bank employees was so kind and helpful - she organized a bus for me to Jinghong, 160km from Meng-la and she also paid for the bus ticket. She called a bank and assured me that I could get money in Jinghong and yes, 5 hours later I was a rich man again.

On the road when I was looking for accommodation I met Daniel from Astonia, the only other foreigner I have met since crossing into China, and he could speak English, Russian and Chinese! He was kind enough to show me to a nice hostel, where I met Yu and his wife, who assisted me to get a sim card for my phone. I had a really great time in Jinghong for 2 days. I was invited by Yu who showed me around, and when a Chinese invites you they pay for everything, I was not allowed to pay for anything - thanks Yu :)

After Jinghong I travelled in the direction of Kunming another 700km away, with a lot of mountains, steep mountains. You climb slowly, slowly until you reach heights of 1000m - 1500m long slopes. Quite gentle but 25 to 30km of climbing, whew, and after that the big descent, the longest one was 38km.

The roads in China are a brilliant quality, which means you hardly need to brake, sometimes I reached speeds of 55 - 60km per hour.

After a turbulent start I began to enjoy China very much. Wherever I have been the people were very nice, and their hospitality was superb. More than once I was given meals for free. Once when I was about to leave a restaurant and went to pay, I was told that somebody had already paid for my meal - unbelievably amazing I think I am a lucky guy. 

A sign encouraging people to cycle

Hot air balloon

Daphne - my greatest supporter, a big fashion brand in China

Dongguan to Kashgar

Happy Birthday to me and greetings to you all from Laos!

So the plan was for my 60th birthday to be somewhere in South East Asia, and I made it. Today on my birthday I am travelling through Pakse, Laos. Wow - what a journey it has been, I have shed so much more than just physical weight and I am feeling stronger and more alive than ever - amazing!

Taking a step back to Thailand, the route I travelled went from Bangkok, Chon Buri, Pattaya, Rayong, Ko Samet, Chanthaburi, Trat, Cambodia, Hat Lek, onto Cambodia with Boeng Preav, Sihanoukville, Krong Chbar Mon, Phnom Penh, and from there up through to Laos.

The last thing I did whilst in Bangkok was to have a barbeque close to the sky train station. For only 200baht, you can eat as much as you like! I found it to be the best restaurant in Bangkok for less than $10 - and a lot of fun :)

Another feast!

This part of Bangkok is quite arty, the black statue is made of old biking tyres, and even the toilets are entertaining - a great place for tourists. The following morning I left Bangkok for Pattaya. 

On my way out I passed a very famous elephant temple just outside of Bangkok. I decided to take an offering of a garland of flowers to ask the gods for a good and safe journey. The three headed elephant - I had no idea what it means, but it is very big! And in the front is a smaller elephant covered with gold where you place your offerings.

The trip from Pattaya to Phnom Penh went without a hitch - and from there it was on to Pakse, Laos. The plan was to cycle from Phnom Penh, Srei Santhor, Kampong Cham, Snoul, Kraite, Strung Treng, Laos border, Don Det, Don Khong, Wat Phu and finally Pakse.

From Phnom Penh I followed the big Mekong River. The next 3000km to Chengdu I tried to follow the Mekong as close as possible; that meant a lot of ferries to go to the side of the river, which is the best way to cycle from Thailand into Cambodia.

The roads and traffic got a lot worse, particularly on the highways, where they bump you off the road, and a lot of the roads are under construction which means a lot of dust, I had to design special head gear for that leg of the journey.

When I arrived in Kratie, Cambodia I was fortunate enough to see the Irrawaddy dolphins; there are two groups in the world of these rare creatures, one in Cambodia and Laos in the Mekong River and one in Bangladesh. I tried to take a photo but they didn’t want to jump out the water for me ok guys next time.

From Kratie I went to Treng which is close to Laos. At the hostel I stayed in they were making a new concrete road - not with power tools, but hand made with concrete mixers and a lot of man power - that is hard work!

Hand made concrete road making

After Treng I travelled over another very dusty road to Laos and ended up in a guest house 20 km after the border. I met a couple of people from the BBC who were making a documentary about fishing on the Mekong river. There are apparently 40 different ways of fishing on the Mekong - really amazing.

The BBC guide gave me a tip to go to the Don Det islands - what an amazing experience! This is a must if you are in that area. No cars, they pick you up from the shore with a long boat, put your bike in it and bring you to the other side.

Beautiful waterfalls at the Mekong River

Peaceful Mekong riverside

I jumped from island to island to get to the other side of the river on my way to Pakse. It is almost Spring time here and the farmers are putting the rice out in the fields. I have now cycled 9450 km and one of my wishes to be cycling through South East Asia when I turned 60 has come true - I want to thank everybody for their support and especially Daphne, who has followed me everywhere I go, always cheering me on - thanks dear, I love you.

Greetings from Pakse

Merry Christmas (Reek-reay Bon-noel) and Happy New Year from Cambodia

 

I have just arrived in Cambodia and will be posting a full update soon, but I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Thank you all for supporting me so far, it has been such an amazing journey and I look forward to sharing the rest with you along the way.

In the meantime I leave you with some festive Cambodian Christmas tunes - enjoy!

Merry Christmas

Hello Singapore - Apa Kabar

Singapore to Thailand

And so the journey continues, I arrived in Singapore, rearing and ready to go! The route I was travelling was from Singapore, Benut, Batu Pahat, Malacca, Port Dickson, Kuala Lumour, Batu Caves, Kuala Selangor Sungai Besar, Marina Island, Lumut, Taiping and then on to Thailand.

Singapore is a big city, I did my best to navigate without GPS, but there are just too many highays, subways, and other ways to choose from, so I decided rather to buy a chip for my phone so I could find my way to Malaysia before next year ;)
One night I stayed at the Wink Hostel, a nice Chinese area, with very good food, but way too expensive after Indonesia. There I met Beh Kong Wing and his friend, both from Malaysia and we had lots of fun together.

At Wink Hostel with Beh Kong Wing

 
The news building in Singapore, a strange building but I like it.

After Singapore I crossed the border and headed into Malaysia - I got a very easy and quick visa without any difficulty. From there I started towards Benut about a 90km ride, but now also in the rainy season. Just before I got to Benut I stopped and asked a local if there were any hostels in Benut, but; "no sorry, not for another 45km". Then it started to rain, of course, so I stopped along the road and someone came to me and offered for me to stay in one of his rooms - my luck day! After a hot shower, he drove me to the nearest town for a meal, and in the morning at 7'o clock, he brought me breakfast - amazing!

From Benut it was another 350km to Kuala Lumpur, but before that Malacca. On the road I saw two signs commemorating the Malaysia airlines flights - the photos speak for themselves....

Malacca became my first Warmshowers address in Asia - I tried many times but had no luck until now. Howard has a hostel in the middle of Malacca, a wonderful old city. Full of bikes  on the rooftop, there is a special room for the Warmshowers guests! I put my tent up and stayed there for 2 nights. Being an old city, even the Dutch were there for a while, after the Portuguese and before the British, but they have also a famous Arnold Schwarzenegger with his own statue and park.

With the canal, small streets, markets, and the bikers of the night, Malacca has a European atmosphere with lots of Chinese people.

Port Dickson was my next destination. Half way there I met a group of bikers “the Cayo group” who were touring Port Dickson and invited me to come with them. We biked to Port Dickson and camped on the beach. All the guys work in the same factory and cycle a couple times of the year for a weekend together. There was a lot of talking with our hands and feet, and we had great fun - thanks guys!

 

I had to visit Kuala Lumpur to get a visa for Thailand. At the border I only got a 2 week visa, and that is not enough to travel the 1400km to get to Cambodia! Kuala Lumpur is a nice city, with big roads and lots of traffic! But two days later I had a visa for 3 months and then headed off to Batu Caves. I did not know that the population of Malaysia is 40% Chinese, 20% Indian and the rest is Malay - that means that it is more multi-cultural than Indonesia. So everywhere you can find a Chinese or Indian temple beside mosques.

Along the road to Taiping I saw a lot of signs and thought it was a restaurant, I followed them and after 2km I ended up at a Chinese temple. They were finishing a celebration for one of their gods, I wanted to leave but they insisted that I stay and eat with them. They gave me lots of food and Jason Tan C Hong explained the whole ceremony to me from the last 3 days. He took a photo with me and put it on my FB Timeline and I was surprised how many likes he got - 73 in one day! There must be a lot of Chinese in Asia :)

 

A crafty street vendor :) at the night market

Indonesia to Malaysia and beyond

The food in Indonesia is overall ok, but at some of the places where I have been, the menus are not in English, so I order what I think is fish or chicken and wait for the surprise that comes out of the kitchen. During a full day of biking I can easily eat 5 times a day to keep my energy levels up. So my meals are important, and it can get tricky sometimes when you don't know what you are ordering...

Looks a bit like a flying fish

I thought I ordered chicken, but had to leave the heads, couldn't eat those

Surabaya was my first big city since Brisbane. I started out early in the morning so I had enough time to find a place to sleep, and make sure I did not lose the way. There was lots of traffic once again, and I found myself at the Art Hotel - it was such a nice experience. A beautiful place with nice people and amazing art. They let me keep my bike with me in the room on the second floor. If you come to Surabaya, stop over at the Art Hotel - definitely worth having a look.

My room at Art Hotel

The Art Hotel

I had to keep pressing on and biking harder than ever to get to Jakarta in time before my visa expired, so there was not much time for visits or socials. It was great however to always have smiling, friendly faces wherever I went. I cycled through many towns which don't see a lot of tourists, so I felt a bit famous as everyone smiled and waved, or offered me a place to sleep, or wanted photos of me and the bike. When I passed a school early one morning, all the children came running to the gate to wave to me. On another occasion I was invited to a wedding, first for photos, then drinks and then a tasty meal of Satay Ayam, and of course plenty of smiles.

Friendly faces and smiles wherever I go

A school in Kudus early one morning as I cycled past, they all came to wave to me

Me and the wedding couple

Satay Ayam

The next leg of the journey was over the ocean to Batam and from there a ferry to Singapore. Whilst waiting for the ship I managed to catch up on some sleep (12 hours a night for 3 nights in a row - amazing). And of course the inevitable happened - I got sick from something I ate. Unbelievable that it didn't happen sooner! Thank goodness there was a couple of days before the ship arrived, and there were great people there to help get me to a doctor and get medicine before I had to board. It also gave my knees a chance to rest as they were taking strain after all the long days of cycling.

Waiting for the ship

Early morning boarding

I got to the ship at 5am in the morning. It is only a passenger ship, which is divided into 4 classes. They first put me into the 4th class, one big space with foam mattresses and 600 people in one space! We are really spoiled with the Cook Strait ferry. The people are really nice, but speak very little English and me only a little bahasa Indonesia, I am the only foreigner. Still very warm, around 28 degrees, and it is 8pm at night. So after the 27 hour journey, and then the ferry ride to Singapore, I get back on the bike again for the next adventure! Selamat Tinggal :)

Selamat Tinggal