Cycling Further (2025)

17/02/2025

Tropical twist! 🌴

Sun ☀️, sea, palm trees, Ska gig 😎 and monkeys 🐒.

Heya, what a change! It's warm and humid here down in Danang. A feeling we had forgotten! We had two good cycling days since we left Hué. In fact, it was raining 🌧 despite what the forecast said, and, when we finally made it to the big blue 🌊, it was grey - this is the first time we got to the coast on the entire trip! It felt nice though. 😁

Before making it to Danang, we stopped by a place called Lang Cò - very scenic. It has a big lagoon with sand stripes and misty mountains in the backdrop. I was looking forward to see that place with people fishing 🦑. After a few snaps 📸, we continued cycling, faced a climb and we were on the other side. Seeing Danang brighten up by sunshines from the top of the hill was marvellous 🤩! Even more so knowing it's downhill time 🥳.

Danang may not sound familiar to you but it's a big city, dense traffic, skyscrapers 🏢, palm trees and infinite golden sand beaches...
We didn't expect that and apparently, its nightlife delivers on high standards 🪇. We heard there was a ska gig that evening we arrived and wouldn't miss it. So, after a quick but refreshing swim in the sea, we checked in our hotel and made our way to the "Mad Den" venue, an Irish pub ☘️ to check on the "Looney Tunes". 🧨

It turned out they would need an extra musician, so the trumpet 🎺 player wouldn't have to switch instruments between songs. Well, since I could fit in, I put on my ska suit 🕴 and next thing, I was part of the band 🤘. What a great night! The crowd was on fire and so we were. 🔥

The next day was spent to go to the train station to grab some information - yes, we need another train ride 🚆 in order to make it on time to Saigon. Wash the bikes and do some sightseeing at the Dragon 🐲 bridge early evening when it gets lit on (beautiful).

Since the train was fully booked for the next day (today), I took this opportunity to discover more of the surroundings of Danang. The weather is great 👌 so why not take advantage of it, right? On the menu: another vaccination centre 💉, some lovely temple, monkeys 🐵 encounters and remote beaches before heading back to the train station to deliver the bikes - they'll travel again in a cargo train.

Our plan is to make sure we can continue cycling to Saigon from our next destination - Ninh Hoa. From there, we'll have about 10 days to cover the remaining distance, roughly 500km, taking into account that we'd like to go explore in the mountains (tougher) 🤨 rather than just following the coast. We're looking forward to it, though. 🥰

Oh, forgot to mention, wheel spins made it to 3000km just today - quite an achievement! 🤯

That's it folks and thank you for following our adventure!

17/02/2025

Best shot so far? 📸

13/02/2025

Imperial! 🎎

Train ride 🚆, craft beer 🍻, back in time... Spooky 👻.

We took a train from Vinh to Hué - about 400km. The trip is slowly coming to an end (2 more cycling weeks) and, in order to reach Saigon on time we knew some bits would need to be skipped ⏩. The legs are not complaining though. It's nice to get some rest from cycling 😁 and Hué, the imperial city, seems the perfect place to chill 👌. The weather has been rainy which convinced us to extend our stay here. Well, there could be other reasons... We've got the Imperial Craft Beer Pub just across the street and we must admit they know their s**t 🤩! What a great feeling after being away from civilisation to get some tasty IPAs, listening to good music 🎯 and meeting likeminded people.

Another highlight of our stay in Hué is definitely the old forbidden city 🏯. The perfect playground for photographers. Many of the locals who visit it dress up like some centuries ago 👘, so the whole scene turned into a shooting session 📸. Every corner of this massive complex revealed something unexpected and the traditional musician ladies were outstanding 🪕. (video in the comments)

After that ride into the past, we picked up our bicycles from the train station - the bikes came on a cargo train. The rest of the evening looked like a beer tasting journey back at the Imperial. 😇

Today wasn't the most productive one, but hey! That's also good. We still managed to take the bikes to some abandoned waterpark 🤿 outside of town which has been recommended to us. The place was worth the 7km we did. Very eerie with that massive dragon 🐲 that sits over the lake. We also had some fun with the slides.

Tomorrow the sun ☀️ will be back and we're looking forward to it. We gonna head south and likely meet the sea 🏝 for the very first time of the trip. Looking forward to some beach time and a new chapter of this big adventure. 😘

Cheers lads!

09/02/2025

Deeper into Vietnam! 🇻🇳

Cool kids, rain ☔️, rice fields, scenic ride! 🚴

So we're back on mountainous terrain and it's pretty fun but also more demanding 🥵. What we had in mind was to go for a loop in the Nghe An province. We heard this region was far from the tourist hubs, and, would likely display some authentic Vietnamese lifestyle! The least I could say is that it really delivered above expectations 🤩. I also took this opportunity to using my new camera 📸.

The plan was to go for a 280km loop, or a detour if you prefer, rather than going straight down to Vinh city. The first day was about to get closer to the foothills where the real adventure would start 😎. We stopped by the only hotel in a little town. This is where I met some really nice kids and we even had a badminton 🏸 game together, next to the street - badminton is popular in Vietnam. A very uplifting time as I am myself a big fan of that sport. After that, we exchanged using Google Translate 🎯 for about an hour (it's amazing to be able to communicate in such a fast and efficient way). We agreed and made a promise that we'd go to their school the next day to say goodbye before continuing. 😇

When we arrived at the school - just before lunch time, We got greeted by the ones who were already out of their class rooms and had an autograph signing session 🖊. 5 minutes later, the gong resonated, giving the signal... All the doors opened at the same time letting a tsunami 🧨 of very excited children running down towards us! Something that we weren't prepared for. So much joy and happiness coming all at once ❤️. It was surely a moment I'll never forget. After a few hugs to our favourites that we met the evening before, we left with a massive boost of love 🥰. This experience alone was worth the whole trip!! 👌

About 20 km further down the road, we could hear some sort of tribal music and, getting closer, it was obvious that something special was happening 🤔. We stopped to witness the ceremonial to the rhythm of the drums 🪘. People were gathering and insisted that we would join them. They sat us around a big jar in which giant straws were sunk. In short we had to drink (check the pictures). Even the old ladies were taking part in it and most people seemed pretty happy (drunk). Eventually, we managed to escape but we enjoyed that little pit stop with good hearted people. 🙏

Ok, I know it's already a lot of reading but that's not it, yet! 😅

Road became gradually steeper, it also got colder and wet. Drizzle, fog... 🌫 We could barely see further than 30 metres. Once we reached the other side of that big climb, we entered a new world 🪐. Terraces of rice paddies 🍚 started to reveal as we came down. Even though the weather was quite miserable it didn't put a damper on the cycling experience in this fairytale like environment 🧚‍♀️. It was getting late already and, luckily, we found a guesthouse with very limited comfort but it didn't matter - glad to have a bed and a warm shower after such a day. 🙃

The next morning started like the previous day ended weather wise - drizzle, fog, some climbing and then... No more rain and no more climbing - Yay 😁! The scenery was equally stunning though. We felt we were slowly coming out of that remote area we explored and reached a bigger town, which meant more options for food and more comfort. After checking in a fancy hotel, we went for fancy food 🥳!

That brings us today. Having to be at the Vinh vaccination centre tomorrow -120km away - to get my third rabies vaccine dose 🧪 (check the previous post in case this is new to you), I planned on hitting the road earlier ⏰. Yves would start later, so we'd cycle separately and, depending on the distance covered, he would join me later or the next day.

So this has been a solo cycling day 🚴. A long but fun day (111km). To be honest, it's been very enjoyable. Beautiful country roads, witnessing people working in their fields. Having fun with my camera and also checking some temple 🛕. The part I liked the most is that by riding on my own, I could stop whenever I was seeing something scenic that I could capture 📸. Getting off my bike and going closer to the action without thinking that someone is waiting for me and vice versa. I am not saying that this is better, it's just a different experience. We would, of course check on each other's progress via internet. 🙌

So as we speak, Yves found a nice place to spend the night about 25 km behind me, and I am just 10 km away from the vaccination centre which is great ✌️. We'll get the team back together tomorrow once this bit is sorted out and likely have a day off in town before planning our next move. 📍

That's it folks! Enjoy the pics, they are worth it!

07/02/2025

Tribal ceremony in some remote corner of the Nghe An province 🥁

05/02/2025

Xin Chao! 👋

Karst formation, grey sky ☁️, needle 💉 and camera! 📷

We left Hanoi heading towards Ninh Binh - a place known for its pagodas and limestone cliffs nicely carved by some millions of years. On the way, we had some funky Google Maps turns 💫, which made the road slightly more like an adventure. Riding next to that massive rock breaking factory 🪨 also added to the feeling of being in another world.

Closer to Ninh Binh (Trang An), we stumbled on this lovely guesthouse 🤩 away from the touristic hubs but right in the middle of this unreal landscape. Travelling by bicycle offers a lot of freedom, we often miss out on the main attractions 🎡 though, since (depending of the road we choose) things that most people want to see are far from each other. But we're really happy this way, instead, it allows us to blend more into the local culture and see things that are not mentioned anywhere, which is far more immersive. 🌊

As we're staying for 2 nights, I took the opportunity to go to town (10km away) to search for a second hand camera to replace mine that broke 3 weeks ago back in Laos. This time, I was successful 😎. The shop owner was super helpful so I left the shop with my new toy - a Canon EOS M6. 🙏

But the most important mission of the day was to go the vaccination centre 👨‍🔬. 10 days ago I got my leg scratched by a dog that was a bit too excited - I'll spare you the details. Therefore and despite being at very low risk on paper, I went to seek advice to a doctor if I should get the rabies vaccine. It didn't take long for him to convince me and I got a dose 🧪. The thing is I'd need to get another 2 to be safe. So we planned the route accordingly.

The next day, after saying goodbye to Erika - a solo traveller from Transylvania whom we enjoyed spending time together while we stayed in Trang An, we made our way south, alternating main roads and more bucolic hilly trails 🌳. Today was similar except that instead of cycling 40 km, we did 103km 🔋🪫.

That's pretty much it! The locals we meet are all equally nice and we're looking forward to more discoveries, starting with some cycling loop 🔄 we'd like to do in some more remote parts of the Nghe An province... But this is for the next episode.

We’ll keep you in the loop! 🙃

Cheers!

04/02/2025

New travel companion 📸🤗

31/01/2025

The year of the Snake 🐍

Temples 🛕, fireworks, calligraphy🀄️... 1st beer after a month! 🍻

Hanoi smells like incense 😍, everywhere! People are dressed up for the occasion. It's Chinese new year time 🎊! We took our quarters next to Westlake, it's a beautiful setting and we really liked staying here. The first mission was to find a camera store 📸 but unfortunately, they're all closed for a week due to the Tet Holiday. I'll have to continue shooting with the iPhone which, somehow, has been surprisingly ok! Though, I'll keep trying to get my hands on a real camera as we progress. 🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️

On Tet night, we went out to the old town and, as expected it was very vibrant 🥳. We found that really nice rooftop bar away from the crowd which had its own brew. The owner is such a nice guy and happily poured 2 pints of his "Super Bad" IPA. What a great feeling to sip our first beer after a month 😎. FYI, every year I give myself a break in January and Yves was happy to join me this time. Despite being in a complete different environment it's been pretty easy not to drink.🥛

We then went to a club called Unmute, there was also a rooftop at the venue, so we could watch the fireworks show 🎆 from the distance. It's been a fun night - good music and good people! 🔈

The next days were spent by going to some temples, observing people getting their blessings 🙏, cycling around town with no set goal and watching sunsets 🌅 over the lake. Before I forget, being in a city allows for more choices regarding food - Burgers 🍔! And, it also has big supermarkets filled with things we haven't seen in months... French cheese, dry sausage, pasta... We couldn't be happier at the sight of it.

In Hanoi there is that famous train street 🚆, where tourists like to go take photos and videos of the train passing in this super narrow alley, sitting 50 centimetres away 😱. It becomes pedestrian again after the train is gone. It was also interesting to see those thousands of scooters 🛵 roaming the streets and understand how to navigate with the flow - not too scary to be honest!

All in all, Hanoi seems to be a great city, every part is different and it's nice to wander around those cute lantern 🏮 lit up streets. From the peaceful Westlake District to the French Quarter and the Old Town, it's been very enjoyable. A great 5 day break before hitting the road again. 🤘

Here are the photos... Hope you like them! 💋

26/01/2025

Hanoi is in sight! 🫡

War history 🧨, mountains, more mountains, honking traffic melody 📣.

Hi folks, gonna try to sum up the last week without writing a book 📖, cause yeah it's been busy up here. Since we left the dusty roads in Laos, we discovered the high lands of Vietnam and let me tell you this country is enchanting 🧙‍♂️ and terrifying 🧌 at the same time. it's a blend of noise and peaceful vibe.

These guys are fuelled on coffee ☕ (very good ones). That translates by being quite active 😅 especially when it comes to driving. Basically the biggest owns the road and you better be aware and get off the way, because they don't care. Honking 🎺 non stop is common practice and keeps you awake to say the least.

On the other hand, the landscapes we evolve in are just jaw dropping 🤯 and, whenever possible, we like to switch to smaller roads where, all of the sudden, everything is super quiet! Green fields, tea plantations, sheer rounded cap mountains... Wow effect guaranteed.

People are very nice too! In this region, it seems there are many different ethnical minorities. Women are dressed very colourful 👘! Kids are fun and like to approach us. On a refreshment break we even found ourselves signing autographs to at least 40 of them in front of the village school ✌️.

We also did our homework at the Dien Bien Phu battle museum 📯 and got a glimpse of that major turn in the history of the region.

Let's talk numbers. Well, the legs have been put to hard work since we entered Vietnam. To give you an idea, we climbed several long steep ascents 🆙 for a total of 4400 meters elevation 🥵 in 5 days. That's a lot but the reward, man! We can feel we've became very fit 🦿, that being said, our legs are looking forward to take a well deserved rest in Hanoi.

We will arrive tomorrow (only 40 km away and all flat). Oh, and we happen to be there for the Chinese New Year 🏮. We booked ourselves a 2 bedroom apartment for 5 days - a luxury when being on the road sharing the same room everyday (sometimes the same bed).

It's been 5️⃣3️⃣ days and 2️⃣1️⃣2️⃣0️⃣ km since we were in Bangkok! A beautiful ride so far... And today was the first time it actually rained 🌧.

Talk to you soon and Happy Tết Holiday 🥳

"Vietnam number ☝️"

23/01/2025

🇻🇳😁

19/01/2025

Last days in Laos 🇱🇦

Off road, packed like sardines 😳, high in the mountains!

Hi! Writing from across the border in Dien Bien Phu - Vietnam 🇻🇳. The last days have been pretty tough and to be honest, it feels good to find some kind of civilisation - better roads, better food, comfort!

Our time in Laos is over. In total, we spent 2 weeks in this scenery stunning country 🤩. We may not have cycled that much but we had the chance to experience various terrains. Since we last wrote, we took a turn into deeper Laos, following a 22 km dirt track (which ended up being 32km). Well, we got lost but somehow we liked that little detour ↩️ as it brought us to places where no one goes and allowed us to witness traditional Laos living style 🐷. Not withstanding the kilos of dust we swallowed and the steep gradients we faced. It was tough (I said it already) but rewarding at the same time. The mechanic suffered too, all coated in a brown colour.

The track led us to a town on the river bank called Muang Ngoy. There, we took it easy the next day. Had a lazy one and went for another sunset hike 🌄 which had a fabulous view point. As we didn't feel continuing cycling in these rough conditions, the only option left was to hop on a boat 🚣 in order to get back to the asphalt, making our way to the Vietnamese border. We'll never know if this was a better idea as the boat ride turned out to be pretty rough too - overcrowded and packed like little sardines in a tiny wooden barge for about 6 hours. Yay!

In Muang Khua, we met many cyclists at the guesthouse. The ones who came from the other side told us about what to expect in therms of road quality and elevation. I took us 2 days and 2 mountain passes above 1200m to reach Vietnam (2200 dev+). Despite the physical exertion 🥵 it was very enjoyable. Nice quality, beautiful vistas and barely any traffic. At the top, we proceeded to passport control, and again it went smooth and easy. The rest of the day was about freewheeling all the way down to Dien Bien Phu - a major town which is known for being the first nail in the coffin ⚰️ of the French colonial empire in the entire region.

Tomorrow, we're planning on visiting some war 🪖 museums and monuments before continuing on our journey to Hanoi. We're really looking forward to discover this new country, which (with no doubt) is rich culturally and historically.

Stay tuned! 😎

14/01/2025

Sabaidee 👋, cyclos 🚴‍♀️🚴, french touch 🥐, jaw dropping landscapes 😮, sick 🤢!

Laos, the land of joy! Kids keep throwing "Sabaidee" "Hello" along the road. We took our time to rest 🙏 in Luang Prabang. The city has a strong connection with the French - colonial architecture, food... We certainly didn't expect to see so many tourists but the fact is Laos is a popular destination and, since it's not very developed, people tend to stick around the same places. We did explore outside of the cute little town too. Cycling free from the heavy weight we usually carry was great. Went to some waterfalls and met friendly locals. 👌

What we noticed is that China 🇨🇳 has some strong interest in the region, resulting in taking over the roads with their big trucks 🚛 creating massive dust clouds leaving the roads in a pretty bad state. Luang Prabang will loose its Unesco World Heritage status 👎 because of China building a dam on the Mekong, more, locals may as well need to find a new home as the dam will have their villages flooded - pretty sad 😢! (we've seen the result along another river where a dam is already built). The question is who benefits the most from it and it doesn't seem to be the local population. 💲

On a more positive note, we're now cycling with a nice young couple from Germany 🇩🇪 following the same route (Josi and Baran) and it is also not rare that we meet cyclists coming the other way. Always nice to share experiences and give tips to each other about what's coming next. 👍

After 2 days of "Sabaidee" and amazing landscapes, we arrived in Nong Khiaw - a middle size town in the northern part of Laos. It's pretty cold once the sun is gone 🥶. People make fire 🔥 along the road when they are not attending a wedding with loud music downing litres of beer. 🍺

With our new friends, we decided to stay for a couple of days in Nong Khiaw and do some hiking to a popular sunset 🌅 spot before continuing. Thing is I got sick with food poisoning 🤮 in the morning - first time since the journey started and couldn't join them. But I went on my own the next day (today). The view from the top of the hill was just gorgeous and made it worth the climb 🥵. I wish my camera didn't let me down but hope the iPhone conveys well enough what my eyes could see.

That's it for now! We're forecasting cycling for another four to five days in Laos while our Vietnamese E-visas 🇻🇳 are being processed and if all goes well, we'll be writing from there next time you hear from us. ✌️

12/01/2025

Ride on! 😎
Laos

09/01/2025

🚣 Slow boat on the Mekong River - Last shots from my camera 📷 which decided to retire after 10 years of faithful service 🫡💔

Hey Lads, writing from the Mekong banks, we arrived in Luang Prabang after spending 2 days on a boat. Our last day in Thailand went smooth and easy. Border crossing was fast 🛂 and, suddenly, we found ourselves back on cycling on the right side of the road 🔀... at night. Our first pedal strokes led to a small guest house which had a view over Thailand with the Mekong dividing the 2 countries. It's different, a lot different. But we can't really word it just now. 🤷‍♂️

Our main mission that evening was to find information about the slow boat, as people call it. We had heard it's a fun way to reach Luang Prabang and also less painful for the legs (Laos is very mountainous) ↗️. Once our ride was sorted for the next morning, we just had to set up an alarm 🆙 (first time on the trip) and show up at the pier. Our bikes would travel on the roof while we sat among a good mix of locals and other adventurous travellers.

We met really nice people during the 2 day journey. On the first day, the boat was very packed with limited leg room. Chatting, making new friends while meandering in this beautiful landscape made us forget about the lack of comfort 🥴. 6 hours later we arrived in Pakbeng, where the boat would stop for the night. Everyone would then spread out to different accommodations until the next morning, getting ready for day 2.

Our crew from the boat grew bigger at the local bar, sharing travel experiences 🧳 and it seemed we had a lot in common even though we were the only 2 cyclists on this trip.

This is when my camera switched off for good. The second day on the boat was similar, just that almost everybody knew each other and, instead of one boat, there were two. Therefore it was more comfortable. 🥳

In Luang Prabang, we're treating ourselves with good food 🍕, sleeping in comfortable beds 😊. We gonna stay a couple of more days to discover what else it can offer and also plan our route across Laos 🚴‍♂️. It certainly not gonna be an easy one - no pain, no gain! 🤘

05/01/2025

Looks like a goodbye Thailand 😘

Leaving Chiang Mai and the parties behind gave us a little wake up call…⏰ Oh right! In order to get to the Laos border, we’ve got to climb but also follow the road 118 for a good 170+ km. Let’s be honest, everyday can’t be glamorous 💃 and this is one of these days - actually 2 days. Long ascent (17km 900m dev+) on a very busy road 🚛 which also appears to have some construction work 🚧 in some sections was no fun. You get tired not only from going up but also from always focusing as there is no room to let your guard down because of the vehicles passing next to you go fast. 💨

On that first night, we found the perfect Motel to rest and get ready for the next day. The bathrooms were equipped with a thermal water tap that we happily opened filling up that massive bathtub 🛀 - best for tired legs!
The next day was our longest distance covered in a single run - 100km. No more steep climb but no less exhausting. And we were done with that road - big relief. 🥱

Getting closer to Chiang Rai, we slowed down a bit and that felt good. Starting with going along a canal on a dirt track with no traffic making our way to the White temple which is a must see 📸 . We parked the bikes and took our time wandering around, admiring the artistic work and were blown away! 😮 That day we only cycled 25km and that was enough. Having low energy from the previous days, we checked in a more fancy hotel 🏢 to get a proper rest in Chiang Rai. Had a stroll at the night market then crashed in our comfy beds 😴. Lovely city by the way!

Invigorated, we started the day (today) full of energy and had a very enjoyable ride, small roads going through rice fields with mountains in the background - very peaceful. We also noticed some change around us as we get closer the Laos border. It’s more quiet, less people, less noise and we can feel we’re slowly entering a new world 🪐. We’re now 50km away from Laos and tomorrow should be our first land border crossing - fingers crossed! 🤞

🇹🇭 Thailand has been very good to us, those 1300+km were for the most part very enjoyable and if you ever wonder to go cycling in Thailand, don’t hesitate! This country is much more than the clichés its name brings when you hear it! All in a good way!

Thank you Thailand - Krop kun Krap 🙏

Laos here we come!

01/01/2025

Chiang Mai 🔥

Sawatdee P*e Mai - Happy New Year!!

We’ve been in Chiang Mai for a week. The main reason for that extended stay was that we thought it’d be a great place to transition to 2025. It appeared to be right call 🤙 - We had so much fun! This city has some sort of magic and it didn’t take long to feel it! The vibe is super laid back! Narrow colourful streets, reggae garden with a DJ spinning vinyls for a starter - add some friends we havent seen in a while to the recipe… we’re sold!

We took our time to really delve into Chiang Mai, day after day new surprises, meeting new people - among them, some nice Belgians living in Thailand. They took us to a Belgian restaurant which we loved 🤩! Even though we really enjoy Thai food, there is nothing like home food to please our taste buds.

Music is everywhere, either it’s a tiny little street bar where you get control on the playlist 🎹 or bigger venues with good musicians playing on stage. The big plus is that we never struggled finding parties which had the vibe we’re seeking.

We still managed to go explore outside of Chiang Mai and that was needed - nature is gorgeous all around! Jungle 🌴, mountains, plenty of waterfalls and hot springs make this region very special. It would have been a shame not to experience it. So after a few days, we decided to get back on the saddle and cycled to some thermal place about 40km away and then stayed overnight at a campsite nearby - lovely! This little excursion also saw our odometer turning to 4 digits since we started from Bangkok - 1000km!

On New Year’s Eve, we went for a Japanese BBQ 👹 with our friend Grega (we cycled together back in Croatia some years ago) and then to an improvised party in our street with our super friendly host Kai 🎯 (the owner of the little guesthouse we’re staying in) and the many locals! It was epic!

Tomorrow, we’re back on the road heading towards Chiang Rai and the Laos Border (288km). It’s going to be emotional to say goodbye to Cookie the dog and our little paradise but the adventure continues and we’re looking forward to it! ⏩

⚠️ Disclaimer: Some images may be seen as sensitive content.

26/12/2024

Ho ho ho!🎅

We're now in Chiang Mai where we plan on chilling for a couple of days. We hope you had a nice Xmas!

What happened the last days? A lot happened. The sugarcane fields made way to forests 🌳 and rivers which we enjoyed following. This meant more kilometres but the quality of the ride went up!

It's been already 2 weeks since we left Bangkok, 920km later, we can say that we are now getting more and more immersed in the trip, our bodies are also getting more fit, no injuries and our bikes are playing their part to perfection.

The last couple of days, we followed the Ping river and then went along the Wang river - we even had a dip. Smaller roads, villages, colourful markets full of things we’ve never seen before... 🐸 Great!

On Christmas eve, we got ourselves some nice BBQ 🐷 pork belly with french fries and ketchup right on the street, served by a lovely couple. The next day, we had to part ways with the Wang river (sad) as we both had a different path in mind. This brought us on the Highway 1 - sounds scary right? We switched to Focused cycling mode and had a go at it. We quickly had to stop for the night as it was late already (6pm dark). Found a hotel by the road - small houses lined up. There, we met 3 friendly guys; Chin from Thailand, Pan from Cambodia and Phyo from Burma. They are billboard workers. We had some great chat using Google Translate and shared some delicious food that they had prepared.

Today, we were back on Highway 1 🚛, going to Lampang, a city about 60 km away. Again, it was fast and we can say, we tamed it. The last kilometres were very chill, back on small roads, stopping by another market to get food and then making our way to the train station to catch the train to Chiang Mai.

So yes, we took the train 🚄 for that last stretch (90km). Main reason is some friends of ours are here and we didn't want to miss them. But we also had to leave our bikes 🚲 behind as they couldn't travel with us. They will board on a cargo train at night and we'll get them back in the morning at the train station. Overall a straight forward process.

Another thing that we really like are the fizzy fruit flavoured sodas with ice 🥝🧊 (Kiwi is a fav) that we get every 30 km or so! Nice and well deserved treat!

Well, did I forget anything? Most likely 😜

Cycling Further

17/02/2025

17/02/2025

13/02/2025

09/02/2025

07/02/2025

05/02/2025

04/02/2025

31/01/2025

26/01/2025

23/01/2025

19/01/2025

14/01/2025

12/01/2025

09/01/2025

05/01/2025

01/01/2025

26/12/2024

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