The wheels have been spinning a bit here in Berkeley (both literally and figuratively). Sorry to leave all of you dedicated readers hanging for the last week or so. I arrived in San Francisco and promptly made my way across the Bay to visit my friend Daniel. The next week was spent exploring various neighborhoods,parks, restaurants (i.e. Taco Bell), and bars both in the city and around Berkeley. Pretty pleasant weather and lots of good company made for enjoyable days filled with the bliss of not having to go anywhere or accomplish anything.
But alas, all good things must come to an end and thus I've been dropping resumes at every restaurant, bar and retail store that I deem worthy of having me. With any luck I can find some work and make money for about 2 or 3 weeks until my next riding partner is supposed to join me. From there I believe we are planning on heading north towards Seattle and then cutting diagonally down to SLC. But who really knows. I'd like to see Yosemite and Redwoods but I also want to see the Grand Canyon. Yikes.
Anyways, this is just a short blurb to let you all know I'm alive and well. As plans come together better and I have some interesting news to report I'll drop you another update. Also I'll try to put some thoughts together about what the return to the US feels like after 8 months because either the US is stranger than before or I am. Or both.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
One night in Bangkok...
and the world's your oyster! Okay. Three nights in Bangkok. Pretty cool city and Songkhran is absolutely insane. Songkhran is the Thai New Year and is celebrated by a week long waterfight throughout the city. You pretty much can't go anywhere or do anything without getting soaked by waterguns, hoses or just buckets of ice water. When you are trying to accomplish things it is extremely frustrating but you can't stay angry very long when the people are all smiles. When you AREN'T trying to accomplish things it is probably just about the most fun holiday ever. You just run around splashing strangers and smearing flour/talcum all over them. I fully intend to ring in all of my future birthdays with a Songkhran party the week before.
Bangkok is a much nicer city than I had imagined or the travel books had led me to believe. It is not as filthy, smoggy or congested as I thought it would be. Sure, it is nowhere near the level of Singapore when it comes to glossy finish and greenery, but its not so bad in its own right. Certainly beats Athens!
Yesterday I arrived early in the morning and spent the good part of the day searching out a bicycle box. Finally got a nice one from Cannanasia, an absolutely awesome Cannondale exclusive dealer with a stunning amount of bikes on the floor (the Factory Scalpel was looking pretty nice to me...). I made use of a fancy enclosed taxi to safely deposit the box back at Peak's house (my gracious couchsurfing host) and then I headed down towards the notorious Patpong area for the largest waterfight I had ever seen. A wet, floury mass of thousands of Thais (and a few farangs) writhed and squirmed their ways through the streets and alleys to the thumping beat of Thai pop and electronic. An absolutely amazing experience. I wish I had photos to share with you but alas I have no waterproof camera!
Today I may repeat the experience or I may just take it easy, not quite sure. Tomorrow I have to get everything packed up and find a big enough taxi to take me to the airport because I'm doubtful my stuff will fit in a normal sedan type. I'm also far to lazy to deal with dragging the bike box and near-50 pound bag of gear onto and off of various trains and buses required to reach the airport.
After all this goes down (and a nice 9 hour layover in Beijing) I will arrive in San Francisco. I will travel for 23 hours or something, but arrive only 11 hours after I leave. The jet lag is going to be monstrous. Thank goodness San Francisco is a hobo's haven and I have no less than 3 couches offered to me already! Brace yourself States, the hobo cometh!
Bangkok is a much nicer city than I had imagined or the travel books had led me to believe. It is not as filthy, smoggy or congested as I thought it would be. Sure, it is nowhere near the level of Singapore when it comes to glossy finish and greenery, but its not so bad in its own right. Certainly beats Athens!
Yesterday I arrived early in the morning and spent the good part of the day searching out a bicycle box. Finally got a nice one from Cannanasia, an absolutely awesome Cannondale exclusive dealer with a stunning amount of bikes on the floor (the Factory Scalpel was looking pretty nice to me...). I made use of a fancy enclosed taxi to safely deposit the box back at Peak's house (my gracious couchsurfing host) and then I headed down towards the notorious Patpong area for the largest waterfight I had ever seen. A wet, floury mass of thousands of Thais (and a few farangs) writhed and squirmed their ways through the streets and alleys to the thumping beat of Thai pop and electronic. An absolutely amazing experience. I wish I had photos to share with you but alas I have no waterproof camera!
Today I may repeat the experience or I may just take it easy, not quite sure. Tomorrow I have to get everything packed up and find a big enough taxi to take me to the airport because I'm doubtful my stuff will fit in a normal sedan type. I'm also far to lazy to deal with dragging the bike box and near-50 pound bag of gear onto and off of various trains and buses required to reach the airport.
After all this goes down (and a nice 9 hour layover in Beijing) I will arrive in San Francisco. I will travel for 23 hours or something, but arrive only 11 hours after I leave. The jet lag is going to be monstrous. Thank goodness San Francisco is a hobo's haven and I have no less than 3 couches offered to me already! Brace yourself States, the hobo cometh!
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Feelin' Kinda Laos-y
HAHAHAHAH. Another solid pun. I wasn't actually feeling lousy at all until a few days ago I was the victim of some debit card fraud. The series of events is probably the most frustrating and discouraging thing to happen on this trip (which I guess shows how fortunate I've been). Hopefully I can pull things together this weekend and make it to Bangkok in time to box the bicycle and get my flight to San Francisco.
But sour topics aside, I do have some entertaining tidbits for you.
Let's start with Luang Namtha, over a week ago, high in the mountains. There I had the pleasure of meeting and riding with one of the craziest guys I have ever ridden with (and I've ridden with some pretty crazy dudes!). His name is Pablo and he comes from Argentina, although he's been riding the bike on and off (mostly on) for about 8 years. You can read about his adventures from the link on my front page.
Anyways, Pablo and I decide to ride the next leg together and set out upon the 107km ride from Luang Namtha to Oudamxai (which included something like 1200meters of climbing). I had originally planned to break it into two rides but upon arriving at the base of the big climb around 4pm, Pablo convinced me we should just go ahead and knock it out. Bad choice. The climb ended up taking us until just about dusk. At this point, the prudent thing to do would be to stop in a village and ask if we could camp nearby. Of course, Pablo, being insane, said we should continue down. After all, its all downhill so how long could it take? Poor choice. The worst 25 km of my life. Dark, sketchy deteriorating road the whole way. Probably the worst road conditions I have seen. Anyways, we did survive and it made a good story, so my thanks go to Pablo for pushing the envelope.
So Pablo decided to go towards Vietnam while my path lay southwards towards Louang Prabhang. Another series of challenging climbs. At one point I finished one ascent and was greeted by a guy selling ice cream out of a cooler on the back of his motorcycle. This was probably up around 1200meters. On the way down to 600 meters we must have passed each other 15 times as he would stop, sell some ice cream, then come past me. It was pretty funny and we were both having a good laugh by the bottom. Another fun aspect of riding that day was my discovery of a little game I like to call "Tag-a-Falang" whereby all the village kids run out screaming, giggling and shouting "FALLAAANNNNGG!!!" (which attracts more kids). Whichever children can wrest the prize of a high-five from me as I fly past is ensured the envy of his or her mates. It is rather entertaining, for me probably even more so than them!
On that uplifting note, I must head out into the city. I've crafted up another hobo sign looking for some money, so hopefully I can get something going for lunch. I'll drop you an update as soon as possible letting you know how the outlook for making my flight next week looks. Wish me luck, I'll need boatloads of it!
But sour topics aside, I do have some entertaining tidbits for you.
Let's start with Luang Namtha, over a week ago, high in the mountains. There I had the pleasure of meeting and riding with one of the craziest guys I have ever ridden with (and I've ridden with some pretty crazy dudes!). His name is Pablo and he comes from Argentina, although he's been riding the bike on and off (mostly on) for about 8 years. You can read about his adventures from the link on my front page.
Anyways, Pablo and I decide to ride the next leg together and set out upon the 107km ride from Luang Namtha to Oudamxai (which included something like 1200meters of climbing). I had originally planned to break it into two rides but upon arriving at the base of the big climb around 4pm, Pablo convinced me we should just go ahead and knock it out. Bad choice. The climb ended up taking us until just about dusk. At this point, the prudent thing to do would be to stop in a village and ask if we could camp nearby. Of course, Pablo, being insane, said we should continue down. After all, its all downhill so how long could it take? Poor choice. The worst 25 km of my life. Dark, sketchy deteriorating road the whole way. Probably the worst road conditions I have seen. Anyways, we did survive and it made a good story, so my thanks go to Pablo for pushing the envelope.
So Pablo decided to go towards Vietnam while my path lay southwards towards Louang Prabhang. Another series of challenging climbs. At one point I finished one ascent and was greeted by a guy selling ice cream out of a cooler on the back of his motorcycle. This was probably up around 1200meters. On the way down to 600 meters we must have passed each other 15 times as he would stop, sell some ice cream, then come past me. It was pretty funny and we were both having a good laugh by the bottom. Another fun aspect of riding that day was my discovery of a little game I like to call "Tag-a-Falang" whereby all the village kids run out screaming, giggling and shouting "FALLAAANNNNGG!!!" (which attracts more kids). Whichever children can wrest the prize of a high-five from me as I fly past is ensured the envy of his or her mates. It is rather entertaining, for me probably even more so than them!
On that uplifting note, I must head out into the city. I've crafted up another hobo sign looking for some money, so hopefully I can get something going for lunch. I'll drop you an update as soon as possible letting you know how the outlook for making my flight next week looks. Wish me luck, I'll need boatloads of it!
Friday, March 26, 2010
Introduction to Laos: Mountains and Mishaps
Well, I came to this internet place with full intentions of unloading some glorious pictures on you but apparently their connection craps out everytime I go to upload. So instead I present to you a verbal assemblage of the last 3 days.
Wednesday, March 25 (? okay, Ill be honest, I dont even know for sure what today is)- I awoke in Houxyai and despite my best efforts to have an early start, my comfortable hotel bed and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button distracted me until the late hour of 10am. Feeling that I was getting such a pathetically late beginning to a long day of riding I opted to get food down the road. Incredibly stupid decision. I was assuming that Laos was like Thailand (some kind of restaurant, food stand or at the least convenience store every 50m). Laos is NOT like Thailand. I didnt find food until about 30km of the hardest riding Ive done in SE Asia yet. And even then all I could find was some peanuts and some sort of chocolate-powder covered corn snack. Imagine a cheeto but more disgusting. At this point (probably about 2 or 3 pm) I was completely drained of all energy, not to mention every bit of salt in my body. I finally found a town where somebody could prepare me some real food and sat down to some fried rice. I could barely hold the fork properly because my body had been pushed so hard. I've never had hand cramps until now! This being the situation and my destination being over 50km through more unknown terrain (should have bought a map...mistake #2) I asked if I could stay there. Luckily there was a rudimentary (I mean RUDIMENTARY folks) guesthouse there because an ecopreserve was nearby. Spent a wonderful sleepless night in Don Chai due to the generator fumes drifting through the slats of my wall and roosters deciding they crow whenever they want, not at dawn.
Thursday (Okay, okay...we'll just call it Day 2)- I wake up, actually manage to get an early start this time and enjoy some cool mountain riding. That is, until I hit THE CLIMB. Probably the most brutal climb I've had since Montenegro's climb to Lovcen. One of these long, steep, neverending, demoralizing climbs. Through a construction zone. Man, I must have heard 20,000 excited cries of "Farang!" (foreigner) from construction workers that day. Finally drop into the town of Vieng Phokot and sit down for lunch around 1pm. This is where I had intended to be the night before. Oh well....find a restaurant packed to the gills with Laos businessmen from the nearby coal company (always a good sign). Had some fabulous chicken pho (noodles, broth, veggies) and a lovely lap (buffalo mixed with mint, cilantro, lime juice, chilies and toasted rice). As I was sitting there another "FARANG!!" came up and sat at a nearby table. We eventually fall into conversation and somehow end up deciding to go about 10 or 15km down the road and campout for the night. He had been hoping to camp in a bamboo farmer's crashpad he had found, but didn't quite have the nerve alone. Bolstered by strength in numbers we went down a crazy dirt footpath, he on motorscooter, me on bicycle. Beautiful riverside campsite for me while he hiked just a bit further and spent the night in the hut he had found.
Day 3- Woke up this morning, got a wonderful early start and enjoyed some of the most pleasurable riding weather in SE Asia. Cool, overcast, clearer than usually. The one drawback was the "pleasant breeze" from the morning had turned into a "soul-rending headwind". Regardless I pushed on and after one brutal 10% climb had a great downhill cruise all the way to Luang Namthon. Had a bargain lunch of fried noodles for 10000 kip(that's right, 10000 kip is a bargain) and then in a noodle, bike and beer induced buzz made the mistake of checking into the first guesthouse I saw. Mistake only in the sense that it cost me 6 dollars when I could have gone 2 streets back and found something slightly grungier for 3 dollars. That's right...at the point I am in my budget, a 3 dollar mistake is worth kicking yourself over for days.
Anyways, Im happy to be here in town...rounding up supplies and trying to figure out a few things wrong with the bicycle. I had a chain break on me the day I left Thailand (due to a hasty install way back in Ranong most likely) and due to some clunky shifting and some strange noises I'm suspecting something was a bit too hasty about the second installation. I've also got a mystery noise coming from the front wheel. It's one of those things where as soon as you pay attention to it and try to solve it, the noise disappears. Scoundrel! And then the last thing, the most important thing for the mountains to come, is that I cannot consistantly drop into my highest gear. This is THE most frustrating thing in the world as you lose all momentum attacking the hills. Many Laotian hills have suffered a string of expletives about my bicycle due to this. I hope I've at least got it temporarily working.
Okay, this has gone on long enough. If you've read this far, congratulations....your boss should probably be looking over your shoulder more! As for me, I'm off to hunt down some supplies for the mountains ahead, meet up with some newfound friends for dinner and perhaps treat myself (at the ghastly sum of 3 dollars per hour) to a massage. On second thought...I already wasted 3 dollars today....
Wednesday, March 25 (? okay, Ill be honest, I dont even know for sure what today is)- I awoke in Houxyai and despite my best efforts to have an early start, my comfortable hotel bed and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button distracted me until the late hour of 10am. Feeling that I was getting such a pathetically late beginning to a long day of riding I opted to get food down the road. Incredibly stupid decision. I was assuming that Laos was like Thailand (some kind of restaurant, food stand or at the least convenience store every 50m). Laos is NOT like Thailand. I didnt find food until about 30km of the hardest riding Ive done in SE Asia yet. And even then all I could find was some peanuts and some sort of chocolate-powder covered corn snack. Imagine a cheeto but more disgusting. At this point (probably about 2 or 3 pm) I was completely drained of all energy, not to mention every bit of salt in my body. I finally found a town where somebody could prepare me some real food and sat down to some fried rice. I could barely hold the fork properly because my body had been pushed so hard. I've never had hand cramps until now! This being the situation and my destination being over 50km through more unknown terrain (should have bought a map...mistake #2) I asked if I could stay there. Luckily there was a rudimentary (I mean RUDIMENTARY folks) guesthouse there because an ecopreserve was nearby. Spent a wonderful sleepless night in Don Chai due to the generator fumes drifting through the slats of my wall and roosters deciding they crow whenever they want, not at dawn.
Thursday (Okay, okay...we'll just call it Day 2)- I wake up, actually manage to get an early start this time and enjoy some cool mountain riding. That is, until I hit THE CLIMB. Probably the most brutal climb I've had since Montenegro's climb to Lovcen. One of these long, steep, neverending, demoralizing climbs. Through a construction zone. Man, I must have heard 20,000 excited cries of "Farang!" (foreigner) from construction workers that day. Finally drop into the town of Vieng Phokot and sit down for lunch around 1pm. This is where I had intended to be the night before. Oh well....find a restaurant packed to the gills with Laos businessmen from the nearby coal company (always a good sign). Had some fabulous chicken pho (noodles, broth, veggies) and a lovely lap (buffalo mixed with mint, cilantro, lime juice, chilies and toasted rice). As I was sitting there another "FARANG!!" came up and sat at a nearby table. We eventually fall into conversation and somehow end up deciding to go about 10 or 15km down the road and campout for the night. He had been hoping to camp in a bamboo farmer's crashpad he had found, but didn't quite have the nerve alone. Bolstered by strength in numbers we went down a crazy dirt footpath, he on motorscooter, me on bicycle. Beautiful riverside campsite for me while he hiked just a bit further and spent the night in the hut he had found.
Day 3- Woke up this morning, got a wonderful early start and enjoyed some of the most pleasurable riding weather in SE Asia. Cool, overcast, clearer than usually. The one drawback was the "pleasant breeze" from the morning had turned into a "soul-rending headwind". Regardless I pushed on and after one brutal 10% climb had a great downhill cruise all the way to Luang Namthon. Had a bargain lunch of fried noodles for 10000 kip(that's right, 10000 kip is a bargain) and then in a noodle, bike and beer induced buzz made the mistake of checking into the first guesthouse I saw. Mistake only in the sense that it cost me 6 dollars when I could have gone 2 streets back and found something slightly grungier for 3 dollars. That's right...at the point I am in my budget, a 3 dollar mistake is worth kicking yourself over for days.
Anyways, Im happy to be here in town...rounding up supplies and trying to figure out a few things wrong with the bicycle. I had a chain break on me the day I left Thailand (due to a hasty install way back in Ranong most likely) and due to some clunky shifting and some strange noises I'm suspecting something was a bit too hasty about the second installation. I've also got a mystery noise coming from the front wheel. It's one of those things where as soon as you pay attention to it and try to solve it, the noise disappears. Scoundrel! And then the last thing, the most important thing for the mountains to come, is that I cannot consistantly drop into my highest gear. This is THE most frustrating thing in the world as you lose all momentum attacking the hills. Many Laotian hills have suffered a string of expletives about my bicycle due to this. I hope I've at least got it temporarily working.
Okay, this has gone on long enough. If you've read this far, congratulations....your boss should probably be looking over your shoulder more! As for me, I'm off to hunt down some supplies for the mountains ahead, meet up with some newfound friends for dinner and perhaps treat myself (at the ghastly sum of 3 dollars per hour) to a massage. On second thought...I already wasted 3 dollars today....
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Lovely Laos
Well, I finally managed to pull myself out of the wonderful Thai border town of Chiang Khong. Made it all the way across the river and into the equivalent border town in Laos before getting distracted again. Tomorrow I will ride north and hope to find myself in Luang Prabang in about 4 days time. I've got all the time in the world but the budget is pretty dismal at this point. Might have to swim back home. I would like to recount some stories or write you all a nice entry but the internet cafe Im at seems to be shutting down. Not sure how easily Ill find more web access as I head further into the countryside but Ill be sure to check in once I reach Luang Prabang.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Failure to takeoff
Ahhh, the glorious Chiang Mai. I didn't really like the city at first, on account of all the tourists, but it has grown on me. If you go a little outside of the old town there are some real neat cafes and bars. There is also a cool little bike shop and bicycle scene with a few regular fixie cruises and lots of street/BMX riding. I could see myself living here for a little while, getting to know the city better, doing some mountainbiking in the surrounding hills. Alas, I have more road to cover, countries to see and people to ride bikes with.
So its onwards to Laos. We were supposed to depart about 3 days ago, but our buddy Paul (whom we met in Ayuttahaya) convinced us to stay a bit longer. So tomorrow its up early and heading for Chiang Rai before moving on towards Laos and finding out about the boat situation.
With that being said, I'd like to take a moment to express some feelings. Lately I am beginning to feel a bit exhausted. I love life on the bike but at some point you just get tired of constantly moving, constantly being out of place. Change becomes the norm and you really desire to turn it all off for a second. Oh well, Im sure before long I will be sitting on a couch in the US complaining about how boring life is when nothing changes day to day. Just wanted to rant a little bit and let you all know that yes, i'm not a total lunatic and would like to sit still every once in awhile. Anyways, maybe Im just feeling this way because Im tired and a bit cranky about having to move on from this city when all Id like to do is rent an apartment for a month and do absolutely nothing. So I'm going to go to bed and then tomorrow get up early and ride my bicycle far away. Cheers to that!
So its onwards to Laos. We were supposed to depart about 3 days ago, but our buddy Paul (whom we met in Ayuttahaya) convinced us to stay a bit longer. So tomorrow its up early and heading for Chiang Rai before moving on towards Laos and finding out about the boat situation.
With that being said, I'd like to take a moment to express some feelings. Lately I am beginning to feel a bit exhausted. I love life on the bike but at some point you just get tired of constantly moving, constantly being out of place. Change becomes the norm and you really desire to turn it all off for a second. Oh well, Im sure before long I will be sitting on a couch in the US complaining about how boring life is when nothing changes day to day. Just wanted to rant a little bit and let you all know that yes, i'm not a total lunatic and would like to sit still every once in awhile. Anyways, maybe Im just feeling this way because Im tired and a bit cranky about having to move on from this city when all Id like to do is rent an apartment for a month and do absolutely nothing. So I'm going to go to bed and then tomorrow get up early and ride my bicycle far away. Cheers to that!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Just our luck
Well, the doc says that most likely I just had a bad virus that my body is purging out although the whole-body rash thing seemed a mystery to him. The funny thing is that while I was checking in and having my vitals taken I was describing the rash to the nurse. I speculated to her that it may be alcohol-triggered since the first time I had a few brews the night before and last night when I had one about an hour later I had some mild rash re-occurances. Anyways, I said this all to the nurse and the old lady being checked in beside me (how did she speak such good english by the way...) interjected "oh no, thats not alcohol, just singha" (a thai beer). "My husband has that problem...everytime he drinks Singha he gets a rash". What this lady said was actually coinciding with the facts but I have yet to test the theory. Not sure I want to!
Anyways, the doc saying that I don't have some crazy bug-borne illness was a relief. However, there is rarely any respite for me lately for as soon as I cleared that hurdle another one arose. Our plan was to ride from here (Chaing Mai) to Chaing Khong and cross into Laos. On the border crossing we were going to get a riverboat to take us down to Luang Prabang because there is no direct road there. Unfortunately, the largest drought in 20 years has caused the Mekong to dry up and apparently the cargo boats are not running. So now we've got to reformulate our plans. I really haven't the slightest clue what to do, so I'll just have to tell you all about it later.
On the upside, I got my bicycle cleaned to the highest level since I left for only 400 baht and I signed up for a cooking class. Tomorrow I'll be learning how to make 6 different Thai dishes! You can check it out at thaicookeryschool.com. I'm taking course #3.
Okay, I'm off to go lounge around the pool while its hot and check out some temples once the sun dips a bit. Be back soon with the updated route I hope!
Anyways, the doc saying that I don't have some crazy bug-borne illness was a relief. However, there is rarely any respite for me lately for as soon as I cleared that hurdle another one arose. Our plan was to ride from here (Chaing Mai) to Chaing Khong and cross into Laos. On the border crossing we were going to get a riverboat to take us down to Luang Prabang because there is no direct road there. Unfortunately, the largest drought in 20 years has caused the Mekong to dry up and apparently the cargo boats are not running. So now we've got to reformulate our plans. I really haven't the slightest clue what to do, so I'll just have to tell you all about it later.
On the upside, I got my bicycle cleaned to the highest level since I left for only 400 baht and I signed up for a cooking class. Tomorrow I'll be learning how to make 6 different Thai dishes! You can check it out at thaicookeryschool.com. I'm taking course #3.
Okay, I'm off to go lounge around the pool while its hot and check out some temples once the sun dips a bit. Be back soon with the updated route I hope!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
