The coast, highways, monsoon rains and friendly locals.

 After catching the train for 600km across Thailand we spent a relaxing 2 days in Bangkok, getting some TLC for both us (good food and massages!) and our bikes (professional cleaning and parts replacement!) The guy took my wheel apart and my axle was literally in 2 pieces. Might explain some of the rattling! I was a little concerned that my bike would fall apart without the mud....

We got the train a further 250km to ge tout of Bangkok and then did an epic 160km day along the highway. Awful riding! We resorted to putting our ipods on to drown out some of the noise of the traffic. Had lots of space on the side of the road but not pleasant with cars and trucks thundering past!

Was worth it when we arrived at this sweet spot by the beach feeling happy with ourselves and jumped in for a swim.

 Next day saw us do 80km to another spot by the beach - it rained all day! And still biking on the highway! Yuk. Arrived though and spent the afternoon reading, eating and sleeping! Back on the bikes this morning and instantly felt our bodies crying out saying NO MORE BIKING!!! Nah, not that bad but def feeling like we would have had a hard day. First 1km saw us at a dead end road (pretty spot though with these boats!), I got a puncture (only 2nd of the trip), and there was no coffee!! 25km later we rolled into a small town, still hungry and caffeine deprived and saw train tracks.......train tracks!! Boom! Discovered the train we wanted to be on left from the place we had just biked from today, so after some coffee, bananas, and a good think about things we were heading back the way we had come!

Have now adopted a cafe as home, have made friends with the owners (who speak english!) and have set ourselves up for the afternoon wait.

Feeling like instead of using our last week biking along the highway we should just bus there and then go some bike exploring, snorkelling, deep water solo-ing and general hanging out! Yay! So headed for Phuket or Krabi - we seem to never end up where we plan so we have stopped planning and are being super flexible which seems to be working well!

I am enjoying looking at boats and not rice fields. Rice fields are nice. But i like boats too.

Out of this world...!

 Since leaving Luang Prabang we have had some of the best days riding of the whole trip! Wow! The first day saw us ride 80km with 2 big uphills (20km each!) and 1 super long down (20km!). Great day to be riding, not too hot and passing through some stunning valleys and fields and along a very cool ridgeline. We think this guy was telling us we could climb the rock up there if we wanted.....or go around it....something involving lots of pointing and hand gestures and us nodding our understanding!

We spent that night in a village called Kiewkacham which was perched on top of the hill - had a breeze and we actually felt cold! Selling point of the guesthouse was the dining area with a magnificient view out over hills, where we sat for a few hours playing ukelele, journalling and eating!

 The next day was probably my favourite of the trip yet! Mostly downhill, we stayued high on the ridge for a while and then dropped down to a village called Phoun Khoun for lunch. Just stunning riding! Then met these kids who got excited by some hacky sac action while we recovered eating lunch....it lasted until one of the kids put the hacky in his pocket and walked off.....bad choice of hacky inheriter on my part perhaps!

 Feeling refreshed by a good noodle soup we set off and passed these boyus a few times as we stopped continuously for photos. Their best line was "I love you!", along with much laughter, high fiving and pushing each other all over the road. Lads.

 Then BOOM! This big rock appears in the distance! It was almost raining hence the washed out look but the cloud and mist made it so captivating and we stopped to stare at it for a long time! We then had a super smooth 15km of downhill right down the valley until we were beside the big rock where we spent the night! Epic! We stayed at a "Hot Spring Water Resort" which sounded amazing. Stunning wee waterfall into a pool....it wasn't really hot at all but it was nice to laze in the water for a while after another 80 kms of riding.

 Us, still smiling!! Our bodies must have eaten up all our reserves as today we downed 3 bowls of noodle soup before midday and arrived here at 2pm and got more food! Just sooooo hungry!!!

 We met these 2 guys from Korea - we have stopped to talk to all the other cycle tourers (haven't been many until today!) and exchange routes and plans and general experiences. These guys were 7 months into a SIX YEAR round world bike trip! And they seemed to be loving it! Theyu had clocked up 12000km so far and congratulated us on our 900kM! Their bikes were so loaded down with gear but they seemed pretty fit! We biked away feeling inspired and in awe of them!

Amber on the road - again, spent the 80km today cycling past stunning rocky mountains and cliffs. Just beaut.

Now in Vang Vieng, known for the tubing trip where you get horribly drunk and copious amounts of Opium! Rest day planned tomorrow to check out a few sights tomorrow and then it will be 2 long days into Vientiene, the capital city of Laos.

LOVING CYCLING IN LAOS!!!

Into Laos...

 We decided to take the bus over the border as we had heard dodgy things about the road and so were dismayed as we travelled on a brand new road for a LONG time down hill....anyway, back on the bikes the next day saw us clock up 100km on an amazingly good road. Beautifully undulating and felt like more downhill than up despite the fact we were following a river upstream...! I think we were just happy to be back on our own two wheels! People are super friendly here, but much quieter than Vietnam. The whole country is working on a slower pace, with less traffic, less background noise and less yelling. We have almost felt like we should honk our hooters sometimes and have reverted to just waving and giving the kids high fives and we pedal past. They know Hello! OK! and BYEBYE!

 We have had a few massive monsoon downpours which have seen us pedalling for shelter (this one in a locals house/shop/verandah where we enjoyed a Sprite and a biscuit and had to turn down numerous offers of Lao Beer.This was after 90km and had only 10 to go to our destination so eventually we just set off iin the rain. A good thing as it continued raining for about 48 hours....

 As you can imagine the motivation the next morning was a little think on the ground but we got moving only an hour or two later than usual and hit it. This was possibly the hardest day biking yet - 85km with about 50 of that uphill, mostly in the rain, with mostly contradictary information but we eventually made it to a small town, found a guesthouse and convinced them that US ddollars were real and that we should be able to pay with them (we had had trouble getting enough Lao KIP from the ATMS...)

 2 days of riding past very simple, poor villages but beautiful places to ride through. Life must be pretty hard living here though...

And a wee river in monsoon flood that was stunning. Pic a bit random but...oh well!

We are now chilling in Luang Prabang, on the banks of the Mekong, enjoying some variety in our diet! There is truckloads of good food here so we are making the most of that! Also enjoying the company from other travellors and just generally exploring a new place and taking a few dyas to fix our bikes, order parts and refresh for the next leg!

Map and Coffee obsessions!

We have had a stunning week biking from SaPa to Dien Bien Phu, at the border of Viertnam and Laos. After our punishing 38km uphill battle we were rewarded with 20km of downhill the next day through some stunning valleys. We were sidling along the edge of sheer cliff mountains and then alongside some great paddling rivers. Locals were constantly calling out Xien Chou!, I love You!, and Hello! Pretty classic shot of seeing the fields being worked by numerous people - and of course, their bull!

 On a flatter section of road, when the tar seal ran out and we were back on gravel. Some good techy bits and still great riding.

 Beautiful lush fields and valleys once we were down out of the mountains and into hill country. 

 Turns out I have a map addiction. We had a seemingly friendly man shadow us as we left town one morning and we couldn't figure out what his deal was....10km later the road disappeared into a river and we realised he was poaching us so we didnt get on anyone elses boat. We took a bit of convincing that we were in the right place, as there was no river or lake on the map (the map knows all....!) and with the language barrier and us asking road? River over there...where is the road?? The boat men were probably laughing at us as they kept trying to explain this was the road (but its a river..??!!). Eventually we gave in, handed over our money and as we were going started to notice half submerged trees and figured it out - monsoon season equals flooded roads. Ah ha!

While I fret about the map, Amber is on the look out for her morning coffee, which has sometimes been hard to find. But we have arrived in Laos and are happy that coffee here is almost as good as Vietnamese coffee!

 "Amber, do you want the good news or the bad news...?" What? Good news - Check out this place!!!!! Bad news - we may have to bike over those mountains over there.....

50km later, thats right where we were but the downhills made the slogging up worth it. Stunning place.

Have just crossed into Laos so are busy trying to learn some new words and figure out the way from here. Many more adventures you will just have to wait to hear about later!!!

My slashed finger has healed well, Amber now has 3 stitches in her foot which is adding to our sense of a grand adventure! I read that to be a hardened traveller you have to have spent time in a dodgy hospital where they stack bodies 5 high in the corrider (Amber ticked this one off for us) and get arrested (so far the police have only waved and smiled at us and on occassion told us they love us. Not quite what we're after).

Peace out.

In the absence of BoatMasters, Bridges and Boyfriends...

 We are underway! The last few days have been filled with culture, accilimatisation rituals and meeting new people. We have ventured into Hanoi traffic, and dominated!! This is our first scooter ride while attempting to find the local bus station so we could sort out getting our bikes to the coast. Biking down the same road the next morning fully loaded was jolly exciting!

 We bussed (eager to be on 2 wheels rather than ...10? Bus trip sucked.) to HaLong Bay so we could start our trip at the coast. Glorious! We signed up for a wee spot of pychocentric tourism with a tour heading around HaLong Bay (apparently the 8th wonder of the world!!) Our boat used to be in that small gap in the background by the wharf. This is a big gap to Vietnamese skippers who seem to be able to squeeze their way into any small gap in a bid to get their passengers on shore. This would definitely not meet rigirous maritime safety standards in NZ! The bumper boat experience was out of this world! Was worth doing the tour for this alone!

 First stop: Conveyor belt mass tourism through a big old cave with lots of colourful lights. Nature at its best!

 Amber with our new wee friend Mai on the boat trip. She started very shy but soon got used to us!

 Me watching (admiring? dreading?) boat manoevring skills (i.e. bumping, scratching their way up the side of ours , expanding the gap as they go, getting into position. Yikes.)

 Our new friend Kev! He seemed to be stalking us for the last few days but was great fun to keep running into and to have some fun with.

 Out amongst Ha Long Bay! Stunning rock cliffs and small islands all over the show. Theres a wee fishing village here (floating) which we paddled round for a while. Invested in some local fruit (from the land) and watched life go by. There is a school and everything at this village.

 Classic HaLong Bay.

 Amber with appapently the most impressive rock in the whole place......we didn't think so.

 The christening of Ambers new underwater camera and us loving being in the water for the first time in a while.

 Our Ukes! So, we got home, took a coffee out onto the footpath and soon met 2 other cycle tourists who ended up staying for a while. Turns out Tina is a Music Therapist so she helped us tune our ukes which was amazing. We sounded better instantly! Mark has the job of carrying Tinas large African drum on a bike trailer (which they were trying to sell) so we got that out, and my Nepali drum and had a wee jam session on the footpath! Was great! After comparing distances and speed and other dorky cycle touring bits of info we wished each other well. I think they are headed to Indo to go surfing.

And day one actually cycling! Amazing day! Long story short, this was our lunchstop in a cafe which turned out to be more like a fmaily meal than anything. We were well looked after and got AMAZING food, despite a large language barrier!! Our 10 vietnamese words, miming, cartoon drawing and laughing seem to get most messages across!

Bridges - We inadvertantly ended up on a ferry crossing a river which was definitely not what we were expecting, but quite fun! Met a lovely Vietnamese lady who gave us tips like the police number, her number and clues for getting to our destination. Fun much!

Boyfriends - Most conversations are based around "How old are you?", "Do you have a boyfriend?". I had one chap on a scooter ask me as we were biking along and about a minute later declared his love for me. Why don't boys in NZ take the good opportunities when they see them??!!! Had to let this guy go though as that was all he seemed able to say. I love you.

Reached our destination just as it started to rain and are now feeling happy, exhausted and glad to be on the journey! 

Vietnam baby!

We're here! Watch out Vietnam!

After feeling very sad on the plane leaving Nepal, (cool place!) I quickly shifted my attention to the upcoming adventure - cycling with Amber! Yea baby. I was so excited I could hardly sleep and it was VERY EXCITING when I saw here strolling into our hotel with her bike box. We were trying to catch up on so much and share our respective adventures that no sentence was properly finished before it led to another memory that we just couldn't wait to share with each other. We're still working our way through the conversation topics! Thankfully both bikes lasted the extended plane travel although the cardboard box was in pretty bad shape!!

After a day in Hanoi city doing very important things like getting a massage (started the way we mean to continue...!),  finding maps, needed bike paraphinelia (sp??) and starting to get our head around this new country we have ended up in Ha Long Bay. A beaut tourist spot on the coast. I haven't seen the ocean for a good few months so we thought it'd be nice to start our trip proper from here and end up at the coast in Thailand. So we endured 4 hours on a bus all the while just wanting to be on our bikes!! But after being dumped on the side of the motorway with a general wave in the direction of the road we needed to go down (turned out to be a wrong way one way!) we were left to begin cycling for real!!Woop woop! Bikes had survived the journey and felt good! We are fully loaded with a Nepalese drum and two ukeleles which we intend on learning how to play as we go. We already have the beginnings of Ring of Fire and Wagon Wheel. Nice. Amber raised the question - "Do we have room for these..??" and then we looked up and saw a man carrying enough spouting for an entire house on his bike and we thought....Yea! We're in SE Asia, land of the impossible bike loads! Of course we have space.

It is fun biking on the roads - just keep biking at the same pace and if you need to cross just work your way across as if its the most normal way of crossing the road in the world. We also invested in squeaky horns which help in the traffic. And  help bring smiles to the faces of the many people who stop to look at us as we pass!

Haven't managed to find a comp here yet that can upload pics so sorry bout no photos. We are here and smiling though!!

Tomorrow we are exploring Ha Long Bay, getting out for a kayak and enjoying a day looking round. Then Sunday will see us starting the bike back towards Hanoi and then onwards to Sapa which is in the Northern foothills and meant to be stunning! Yay! We are both itching to get cranking!

I keep comparing things to Nepal, and Vietnam so far feels like the developed world!! Nice roads, traffic rules, general order....you don't see as many random things in day to day life here but it is still pretty fantastic. I'm super stoked to be out of the city too as you get to see more cool stuff.

Will try post some pics soon.
Arohanui xxo