Cycling Around the World by Tim & Steve

3 Continents (Europe🌍, Africa🌍, Asia🌏)
19 Countries (Portugal🇵🇹, Spain🇪🇸, Morocco🇲🇦, France🇫🇷, Monaco🇲🇨, Italy🇮🇹, Slovenia🇸🇮, Croatia🇭🇷, Serbia🇷🇸, Bosnia🇧🇦, Montenegro🇲🇪, Albania🇦🇱, Macedonia🇲🇰, Bulgaria🇧🇬,
Turkey🇹🇷, Greece🇬🇷, India🇮🇳, Thailand🇹🇭, Myanmar🇲🇲)
8 Flights ✈️ (San Diego-Boston-Lisbon) (Marseille-Paris-Marseille) (Athens-Istanbul-Mumbia)
(Chennai-Bangkok-Phuket)
14 Islands 🌴 (Croatia: Hvar, Solta, Korcula) (Greece: Chios, Paros, Santorini, Naxos, Mykonos, Crete) (Turkey: Bozcaada) (Thailand: Phuket, Phi Phi, Samui, Ko Tao)
12 different currencies💲(Euro, Dirham, Kuna, Dinar, Convertible Mark, Lek, Denar, Lev, Lira, Rupee, Baht, Kyat)
15,948.6 Kilometers or 9,910.1 miles for you Americans…LOL
387,450 Feet of Elevation (the equivalent of just 15 AIDS/LifeCycle in one year)

This past Tuesday, March 6th, marked our one year anniversary of traveling mainly on two wheels when we landed in Lisbon, Portugal. I’m filled with many emotions from this incredible journey I’m on with Tim and feeling ever so blessed and thankful on many levels. As you might’ve read from Tim’s post, it’s not how either one of us imagined to celebrate this milestone with him stuck in the hotel room near the toilet with food poisoning and me lounging at the infinity pool gazing out at the mountains of Myanmar. But alas, a higher power and the concern for our safety and health has put us in this moment taking rest days now in the formal capital of Yangon. We just picked up our passports at the Thai embassy, booked a driver to take us back to the border of Thailand on Saturday, and making decisions for the rest of our touring in Southeast Asia with a possibility of slowing down in Thailand until after my 50th birthday in July.

First of all, I want to thank Tim for his planning, sense of adventure, and most importantly, his patience with me on this incredible journey he’s put us both on. Our compassion and love of traveling combined is unstoppable, and I can’t imagine being on this adventure with anyone else but him. I always dreamed of seeing the world, but never imagined it would be on two wheels….and I honestly can’t imagine any other way now. It’s in our opinion the best way to see a country and especially the quiet non-touristy areas where we are sometimes the only Westerners around. That took a little bit of getting used to at first but now we just roll with it smiling and waving and striking up conversations with the locals.

Secondary, I want to thank all our families and friends for their continued prayers, love, support, text messages, comments on the blog, Facebook, or Instagram. We feed off of this energy and LOVE it so much, and wouldn’t be where we are today without all of YOU. Since I took a step back from “The Book of Face” and deleted the app from my phone (best decision I ever made) at the beginning of this year, I’ve enjoyed keeping in touch with people more through a more personal form with FB or Instagram Messenger, or a WhatsApp/Google Hangouts text message. We’ve also enjoyed sending postcards for birthdays and anniversaries through an app I found called MyPostcard. The best part of it is including one of our original photos and also knowing it will be delivered within one week, hence buying the postcard, finding a post office, and relying on the delivery process of each country.

Some people will ask us, “What are your favorite countries so far”, and while that is often a hard one to answer because we have gained and learned so much from each country. If I had to answer the question though, here are my top 5 picks with a couple of honorable mentions.

Top 5 Countries

1. Portugal: This was my first experience with Europe and will always hold a special place in my heart for that reason. From the cobblestone streets and sidewalks to the amazing food it captured every essence I ever imagined that Europe would be. We enjoyed two free walking tours in Lisbon, and met some other wanderlust travelers (Megan Graham & Jessica Franzetti) that we still keep in contact with and hope to meet up with again someday around the world. We also met another cycle touring couple (Dana & Anne Douglass) from Maine on the ferry out of Lisbon to start our tours, and still keep in contact with them as well. The camping was amazing and we stayed with our first Warm Showers hosts, Nuno & Joana, just outside of Evora. Portugal has a rich, unique culture, lively cities and beautiful countryside. Although it was once one of the poorest countries in Western Europe, the end of dictatorship and introduction of Democracy in 1974 as well as its incorporation into the EU in 1986, has meant significantly increased prosperity. We pedaled along the beautiful Algarve just before the tourist season started and had many of the campgrounds to ourselves. We can highly recommend a visit to this country that gets overlooked with it’s other more popular Western European countries.

2. Croatia: I knew from the beginning of our trip that I would love this country with it’s long coastline along the Adriatic Sea, and it’s thousand encompassing islands. Unexpectedly, I fell in love even more with the capital Zagreb and the inland beauty this country has to offer. In Zagreb, we met up with our first friend from back in the states, Roko Cinovcic & met his lovely Mom Katarina Dragicevic enjoying many fun dinners and just happened to be there during there 15th annual LGBT Pride celebration that we walked in the parade with both of them. We enjoyed the comic relief of the Museum of Broken Relationships (they also have one in LA), and a “Secret Zagreb” walking tour with a guide that took us to remote places in the city including some amazing street art. While we were in Zagreb, Roko and his Mom suggested we cycle through Serbia and Bosnia while we were waiting to get back in the Schengen Visa zone of Greece that we had to wait 90 days for so we said “sure, why not”. It was never in our plans to see those countries and we are so thankful we took their advice. After Serbia & Bosnia, we went back to the coast of Croatia to Split & Hvar Island to meet up with some AIDS/LifeCycle friends (Cailin Corbett, Brian Bostwick, Megan Reilly, Madison Dempsey), and met their friend Celia Mueller too. We were so excited to meet up with these friends from So Cal, and not just for the caramel M & M’s they brought us but for the “love bubble” connection that initially brought Tim and I together in 2016 when we joined Team Mo’s and trained together for the 545 mile ride from SF to LA. When you’re around these people you can’t help but have a smile on your face as they’re the friends that become your FAMILY who lifts you up and encourages you to be a better human being everyday changing and saving lives. We celebrated my last birthday in my 40’s with them on the island of Hvar and enjoyed a fun bike ride, and dip in the crystal clear blue aqua water in a little cove we found. We then met up with another ALC friend Matteo Di Giovinazzo & Denis Emme from Italy that brought us a care package that arrived too late in Italy which gave them an excuse to come to Croatia and meet us again after we had spent a day cyclying into Venice with Matteo back in May. Now it was time to make our way to Dubrovnik where I learned my cousins Mark, Michelle, and Nicole Greiwe were going to be on a stop for a cruise they were on. It was great to see family and introduce them to Tim. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset hike and dinner with them inside the city walls one evening. We also met another couple we struck up a conversation with at a cafe in Dubrovnik that were visiting from Los Angeles (Pete Alexander & Ray Cochran), and enjoyed several dinners. We also enjoyed my first time at a ballet where we saw Swan Lake at an outdoor theatre that was magical beyond belief and loved the pianist who played within the city walls of Dubrovnik at there annual Summer Concert Series. The thought of being in Dubrovnik (Disneyland) for a week was not in our original plans but Tim broke his prescription glasses and needed new cyclying shoes so we had to stop to wait for both of those….and had it not been for seeing family and meeting new friends we might have gone crazy being there that long.

3. Bosnia: As I mentioned, this was not in our original plan in pedaling across Europe, but we will be forever grateful for the recommendation and expierience in this country that all we grew up hearing about is a war every 20 some years. Tim wrote an amazing blog post back in June titled “Top 10 Reasons to visit Bosnia”, and he explains it so well for both of us. If anything this adventure has taught us is more about history than I ever learned in a textbook in HS or College….and let’s be honest, History was never my favorite subject but now I’m fascinated by it more and more with each border crossing. While in the capital of Sarajevo, we arrived at the end of Ramadan, and the city became alive that evening with locals dressed in their best and celebrating the end of the holiday eating, drinking, and just enjoying life. We enjoyed two free walking tours (tip based and highly recommend these all throughout Europe). We covered the 500 year old history from Ottoman, Austro hungarian times, Yugoslavia, 92-95 war to present times, and sights related to siege time, like Sarajevo roses, Children’s Memorial,, canned beef memorial, and snipper alley. The tours were given by two guides in their late 20’s that grew up as children of war when they were 6 or 7 years old and taken to the basement of their apartment building to live and attend school for several years with their families. We also went to the museum Gallery 11/07/95, where they aim to preserve the memory of the Srebrenica genocide where over 8000 people tragically lost their lives. It wasn’t the easiest museum we’d ever been as it overwhelmed us both the moment we walked in, but they’ve done a beautiful job honoring these people through many forms of multimedia content including images, maps, and audio. It’s sad what’s happened over the years in this country and all they are remembered for sometimes is just wars and the one Winter Olympics they hosted in 1984 our tour guides told us. We hope they get to host another Olympics soon, and that you’ll consider visiting this beautiful landscaped country one day. Another thing we learned on the tour is that they have 3 Presidents in Bosnia, one being a Bosniak, one Croatian, and one Serbian that serve a four year term, and they all have to agree for anything to pass through legislation….can you imagine that in the US? 😆🤔😜. We also fell in love with the daily ritual we would hear of the call to prayer from the countless beautiful mosques we gazed upon throughout the country. PS….Don’t forget to read that Top 10 blog that Tim wrote.

4. Turkey: This was a country we were both very much looking forward to from so many recommendations of friends, family, and two of our last cycle tourist we hosted in San Diego with the Warm Showers Community. It would also mark our milestone of cyclying the length of Europe during our first six months on tour. We instantly fell in love with the food and it continued along from there with the warm and friendly welcoming people. We could eat Burek everyday which are baked filled pastries of a thin flakey dough known as phyllo and is usually filled with cheese, meat, or spinach and found all throughout the Balkans. Thanks to my cousin’s Brian & Katie Greiwe that used to live in Turkey for the quick responses they would give to a question we would ask in our Whatsapp group chat on what to order from a menu….although they both were quite envious when we sent pictures. We also fell in love with the Baklava and Turkish Delight sweets too. We met and stayed with two different couch surfing guests in Kirklareli and Biga that both went above and beyond to make us extra comfortable and show us around their respective cities. We enjoyed our time in Istanbul during their holiday called Sacrifice Feast which made the city half as full as locals traveled to their families outside of the city. It caused the famous market the Grand Bazaar to be closed but we loved our tour of the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque and just wondered and ate our way around the beautiful city staying on the Asia side of Istanbul.

5. Thailand: The Land of Smiles and 🍤🍤🍤 -Shrimp Cakes
-Shrimp Som Tam (Papaya Salad)
-Shrimp Pad Thai
-Shrimp Pad Khi Mao (Drunken Noodles)
-Shrimp Tam Kha (Coconut Soup)
-Gaeng Som Phrik Sod (Hot & Sour Prawns with Green Mango
I mean seriously what’s not to love about anything made with shrimp, and in Thailand it’s usually peeled for you already just like the states and unlike Spain where I had to work to get to the meat of the shrimp and could still see there eyes. We decided to start in Phuket where Tim has two friends that I was excited to finally meet the Selfie King Colin and Tims longtime friend Mitch from the US Virgin Islands when they both used to live there. Once again we fell in love with the food just as we knew we would from it being one of our favorite cuisines when we both lived in San Francisco and San Diego where surprisingly you find good authentic Thai food, but what better place to get it now in the mother land. I love the tropical and greenery all over Thailand and could find myself staying in this cycle friendly country. The street food is amazing and we love trying new things at the numerous night and floating markets in every city. We have both said you would never go hungry here with the numerous motorcycle food carts that we pedal by all day long and it’s so reasonable. I think the cheapest we’ve found Pad Thai is 30 Bhat ($1.00 USD). The islands are amazing and we met up with another ALC friend of Tim’s (Jennifer Spinner and her wife Kat Broadway) that were celebrating their honeymoon and happened to see our post on Facebook on Koh Samui. The rural areas outside of the major cities are a cyclist paradise with wide shoulders and curtious drivers that are aware of you constantly. It was then onto Bangkok which we don’t recommend trying to cycle into but I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to see my friend Angela Conlon who was starting her Thailand vacation there and we hadn’t seen each other in over 20 years back in our hometown of Muncie, Indiana.

Honorable Mentions

Italy: What’s not to AM♥️RE about Italy. Isn’t it on everyone’s bucket list of places they’d like to travel to? Well it was mine and we only had 3 weeks to pedal across it as our Schengen Visa (Google It…LOL) was about to expire where you only get 90 days in certain parts of Europe. We wanted to see Rome and Sicily, but will save that for another adventure. I loved all the pizzas, pastas, and pastries that you hear, see, and read about. Cinque Terre was a huge highlight, and seeing the Giro d Italia bike race while we were in Florence too. Venice was nice but way to many tourist for both of us. I’d rather of been there last week when they received snow….I think.

Greece: This country again has always been on the top of my travel list of places I wanted to see during my lifetime, and it was Tim’s first time to this part of Europe as well. We arrived at the end of the season so we didn’t get to see as many of the islands as we wanted to because of limited operating ferry schedule’s. We both agree that Santorini is a must see but you can skip Mykonos unless you want to party, party, party. We loved the less know islands and amount of cyclying we could explore on the bigger island of Crete. The Greek salads, moussaka, and dolmades we’re some of our favorite cuisines as we cycled less and gained more weight. Butt…we both agree that this trip is all about the food in every country we’ve pedaled through and not about losing weight no matter how much we’ve cycled. We also met up with two more ALC peeps Erik Zamora and Andrea Casalboni, and it was great meeting them for a stunning sunset dinner high above the cliffs of Santorini. Jean Loutzenheiser Scherbert and Jill Micheli were also in Greece celebrating their year of turning 40 with some other friends. We only saw them for a quick visit wishing we’d had more time with these two crazy girls.

When we were in India, we we’re interviewed about our adventure around the world and asked what our Mission & Message was. This is the simple response we both came up with for that question…

We see a lot of division in the world recently with governments (including the USA) telling stories of how other countries, cultures, religions or people are somehow different and less worthy than us. We hope to show (and have found so far) that there are kind, generous, and loving people everywhere, and in fact we are all the same people.

Stay tuned for my next blog post where I will discuss the happiness of the Specialized bikes we chose for this tour and answer these two questions…..What do we miss? How do we spend 24/7 together? I felt this one was long enough and will do a photo blog soon of my favorite pictures from the 19 countries we visited in the past year. Are you following us on Instagram where I prefer to Photo Blog with hashtags.
Steve…scubastevecyclist
Tim……timo4242

Awestruck at the number of stupas everywhere. It’s like icing on an already-beautiful cake.

Mae Sot

We spent a few rest days in Mae Sot before crossing the border to Myanmar, partly because we needed to make some minor repairs (new chains, sew up some holes in my shorts, find an electronics repair shop to fix my horn who’s cable had snapped, etc.). But also, we ended up meeting up with a really interesting guy who’s settled in Mae Sot for almost 20 years working with Burmese refuges and teaching.

Ton had some great recommendations for cycling in Myanmar, and while we were hanging out with him, we also ran into three other cycle tourists in town, all going the opposite direction, leaving Myanmar. So we had several meals together and traded stories and advice. One of the most fun random gatherings of cycle tourists we’ve had since Belgrade.

Here we all are at the excellent night market in Mae Sot.

Tea leaf salad, a famous Burmese dish, served at the co-op Ton works with, Borderline cafe, which also sells handicrafts made by Burmese refugees.

Wall art at Borderline cafe.

The road between Tak and Mae Sot was brutal in spots with the shoulder missing due to construction and 12% grades (over 1500 meters total climbing) so we walked a lot of it to keep out of the heavy truck traffic. We will find another way to go on the way back into Thailand.

He needs some work on his upper body, what do you think?

Myanmar Day 1

The cycle to the border and border crossing was really easy, just some paperwork to fill out. 10 minutes and done. On the way in, we met a Chinese cycle tourist who spoke almost no English, and we used Google Translate to say “let’s ride to Kawkareik together.”

We picked up some money at the ATM and bought some SIM cards. Our new Chinese friend had trouble translating what he wanted for a SIM card, so I helped him out and we got it working. As a thank you, he took us to breakfast at a Chinese restaurant, where he was able to order in Mandarin.

The chicken feet weren’t quite to our Western tastes, but we enjoyed the rice, cabbage soup, and stir fry (either liver or coagulated blood sauteed in veggies, not sure what it was but it was tasty).

These women saw us at the Chinese restaurant and asked us to go swimming with them. We had a long way to go so had to turn them down, so we did selfies instead. It’s like being in India again, where we get a lot of waves, thumbs up, hellos, and “mingalabar” (hello in Burmese). Being so new to foreigners and tourism, people are very genuinely interested in us, and it’s really refreshing and fun.

The “tourist police” checkpoints are a bit annoying. They stop us randomly and ask for our passports. I was suspicious at this one because his uniform looked cheaply made and when I asked for ID, he laughed and said “no ID”. Also, cars were driving by handing them 1000 kyat ($0.75US) notes, which seemed fishy. But it turns out it’s legit and we didn’t need to bribe them to get our passports back.

Our new Chinese friend wanted to continue further than Kawkareik, so we said good bye and friended each other on Facebook! We hope he has a great ride and some amazing experiences! Safe travels, 宇文之! Keep in touch.

In Kawkareik we met Su Su, an aspiring tour guide who speaks excellent English, and she was an absolute angel to us, helping us find a guesthouse, showing us a noodle factory, taking us cycling to a monk cremation ceremony where we were served free curry and rice, and even making us breakfast the next morning. We can’t thank her enough for easing our worries and making our introduction to Myanmar a more positive one.

The best hotels in town were full because of many Thais coming for the monk cremation festival, so Su Su found us this budget room.

It seems $10 doesn’t get you as much in Myanmar as in Thailand. We have been a bit spoiled I will admit, so this was a little challenging for us, but we were lucky to get one of the last rooms with its own bathroom, albeit with a squat toilet. The power was out so the fan didn’t work, and it was 100 degrees, so we decided to take a walk around town to be cooler.

Burmese text on a tablet near the town temple.

Entrance to the temple. Coca Cola really is world wide, isn’t it?

The cremation festival was really interesting and upbeat! The monk was in his 90s so it felt more like a celebration of life than a funeral. This structure houses the monk’s remains, which they will later burn that evening. People were buying small pieces of bamboo, walking up to the center, and making a pile there. Maybe it burns with the monk later. Around this structure was a huge market with many things for sale from mattresses to food. We were the only Westerners at the festival, so we got lots of greetings from other guests and vendors. We felt very welcomed. Su Su brought us to an area where free food is served to any who ask for it. The very low tables had us sitting nearly on the ground along with many others on the same bench joining in the feast. We had a lot of rice, some pork curry that was very greasy and fatty but flavorful, some fish broth that I didn’t care for, and some delicious sweets. The people were very generous to us, even finding a cloth napkin for us to wipe our hands. One man sat down next to us and had a conversation towards us, but none of us knew what he was saying; Su Su explained later he was speaking a local Kayin language that she doesn’t know.

We rode our bicycles to the festival, and Su Su asked her friends here if they would keep an eye on them while we walked around. They said sure, as long as they could have a photo with us. Our pleasure!!

Ride to Mawlamyine

The next day was one of the most challenging days of our trip so far and made us seriously reconsider our trip, not only in Myanmar, but overall.

The first 20+km were along a busy, narrow, poorly-paved road. With the aggressive and undisciplined drivers honking their way past us, forcing us off the road several times, and driving quite recklessly, we did not feel safe. The steering wheels are on the wrong side of the car for driving on the right hand side, so they overtake without being able to see if anyone is coming towards them. I was very thankful to have gotten my horn fixed in Mae Sot, as I used it dozens of times to warn oncoming traffic not to overtake. At times I had to hold out my hand to warn cars behind me not to pass me because they couldn’t see that it wasn’t safe! It was very stressful and dangerous, and I vowed not to continue in Myanmar if the roads continue like this.

Halfway into this mess, we ran into this brother/sister duo from Germany. They grew up cycle touring with their parents and are now out on their own. They originally were headed to Hpa-An, but when I told them about the possibility to get off this busy road and go instead to Mawlamyine, they quickly decided to join us. Ton and Su Su had given me instructions to take a ferry across the river in Kyonde and then cycle through rice paddies on the much less busy roads.

The ferry was more like a raft, and Su Su had written us a note in Burmese asking for directions, so I showed it to a gentleman on the raft and he smiled and pointed down confirming it was the right one!

It’s amazing what they take across on these things! Good thing for the life ring.

The road after the ferry was amazing for 5-10km, an elevated paved concrete road through the rice paddies and small villages. But it soon gave way to a long section of very rough dirt roads. It was better than being on the highway with traffic, but we were quickly all covered in a thick layer of red dust and dirt.

Once we made it to Kawt Bein, a small river side village, the road was again paved the rest of the way. We found a small restaurant that made us a delicious bowl of noodles. There’s a noodle soup I’ve fallen in love with here called oh nu khao swè, similar to Thailand’s khao soi soup. It’s a rich soup with chicken stock and coconut milk served on yellow noodles with lots of toppings. So good! These noodles were quite similar but more dry, less broth.

Some stunning and curious temples everywhere around.

Thank you Ton for warning us about the slats in this bridge where he crashed a few years ago. We safely walked across. If you zoom in here, you can see my bike and me are now covered in a thick layer of red dirt lol!

After such a tough day, we opted to hole up in a hotel that was well above our budget, but we needed to decompress and reconsider what to do next. If the roads continue to be this bad, we can’t continue; we don’t feel it’s safe. We are also feeling like our tolerance for adventure has decreased, after nearly a year on the road and a challenging time through India. Maybe it’s time to stop for a while to recharge our batteries and try to make sense of the huge jumble of experiences we’ve had and renew our thirst for adventure.

After speaking with some other cyclists who have been or are in Myanmar, we learned that the section between Kawkareik and Mawlamyine is one of the worst we will have to deal with, and we got a lot of encouragement to not give up. So, we decided to recharge a bit in Mawlamyine before continuing. We also decided to lessen our ambitions in Myanmar and skip Inle Lake and target Yangon by bike and then Bagan by train. After Myanmar, though, we are starting to consider taking a pause for a few months in Thailand to learn Thai and settle down for a bit.

So, we took a very lazy day at the hotel, only leaving once to meet up with some other cyclists whom we’ve been chatting with online. They are on their way from Vietnam to destinations unknown, about to continue a meditation course for another two weeks before heading back to Thailand and Malaysia. Talking to them reminded us that the best experiences happen when we don’t have a plan and we take everything day by day, and we hope to keep our options more open as we meander through Myanmar.

I’ve got a bit of Montezuma’s revenge going on (maybe that free pork curry is to blame??), so we are taking even a few more days in Mawlamyine and hiring a guide to show us around tomorrow when hopefully I can leave the toilet behind for a while. After that we will continue towards Yangon but we are doing our best to avoid having a strict schedule and instead just wander in that direction to see what we see.

Myanmar is slowly figuring out this tourism thing. It’s really interesting and fun to see their approach to tourists, which is often informed only loosely by how tourism works elsewhere. Servers hover awkwardly immediately after delivering a menu, rather than give you time to decide. Staff in hotels and tourist-friendly restaurants struggle to follow obtuse scripts designed for snooty British millionaires. But they relish any opportunity to practice their English and light up with smiles whenever we speak a word of Burmese.

It’s extremely refreshing to meet people who are so eager and genuine to welcome foreigners to their home, even when their ingenious and novel approaches to tourism sometimes feel a bit strange or naive. We can already see the big hearts of the Myanmar people shining through, proud of their country and eager to share it with those who are interested. We are really looking forward to seeing more and making friends and sharing our experiences here.

So we learned that the biggest Chinese New Year celebration in Thailand was happening in Nakhon Sawan, a town that we were planning to ride to 2 days before the big parade. We adjusted our schedule a bit to arrive in time to see the parade and had an amazing time.

There were very few farang, but everyone was happy and having fun and we mixed in with the crowd as best we could, enjoying the food, parade, and finale. It was an amazing night! I made a little video showing the highlights.

Running into these local events are the highlights of our cycling trip. We’ve seen German festivals in Italy, Hindu temple festivals in India, Gay Pride in Zagreb, Croatia, a wine festival in Novi Sad, and a summer festival in Dubrovnik, all by chance.

The past few weeks have been filled with fun adventures, a few failures and mishaps, amazing food (duh), heartwarming hospitality, and eye opening experiences.

After our stop in the Amphawa floating market area, we cycled inland towards Kanchanaburi, home of the infamous bridge over the River Kwai (pronounced like it rhymes with “eye”). We met up with a fellow cycle tourist who has settled in Thailand for the time being while waiting to continue cycle touring through India. We exchanged tips for India for tips in Thailand and had a really fun time getting to know him and a friend of his.

Too many Sangsum (local rum) and Coke for us, and too many mocktails for Steve! This is a huge sugar cane producing area, so we saw huge fields of it and truckloads full carrying them off for processing, growing along the many canals that fill the area.

Monn introduced us to kuay tieow gai (chicken noodle soup) made fresh every morning right by his house by a little old woman, and it was amazing! Those chicken meat balls are to die for.

The bridge over the River Kwai.

A Chinese cemetery, where there are perfectly laid-out family burial mounds with beautiful patterns in front.

We are not in tourist areas anymore! This restaurant we stopped at was really busy but not a bit of English was spoken or written. I tried my best but finally just ordered chicken fried rice. I’m getting better at deciphering menus since this, but it’s still a challenge.

I think probably 90% of the cables in Thailand are dark but everyone is afraid to tear them down…

We ended up staying a few nights in the backpacker area of Kanchanaburi and working on our bikes, relaxing, and meeting other travelers. Our cheapest room in Thailand yet, at $11 with a river view. Great place to spend some time, cockroaches included! We met a couple who are living in Myanmar and came to Thailand to renew their visa… It used to be the other way around; you’d go to Myanmar to renew your Thai visa, but with tourism picking up in Myanmar, it seems that some foreigners are calling Burma home now.

I had a small accident a few days earlier slipping and falling in the rain, and it was nice to give my road rash a chance to breath and heal, so we did a whole lot of nothing, in addition to sewing up my torn clothes and bags from the fall.

The bridge.

There are still bullet holes from the war.

Bangkok, city of Angels

After leaving Kanchanaburi, we had big ambitions of making it to Bangkok in one day, ambitions that were quickly ruined by a tedious day cycling on highways through endless sugar cane plantations, followed by following quaint but slow-going canals with intersections every few hundred meters and lots of dogs to dodge just sleeping in the street, mostly just ignoring us, but a few who wanted a bite of our juicy legs. Finally we gave up the ghost and found a cheap guest house that turned out to be near a university of some kind so was full of foreign students. Good news for us, as Steve needed to get a haircut, and I needed some antibiotics for my road rash, which had started to grow a bit funky. Steve found a Thai hipster barber shop that did a reasonable men’s cut. Generic antibiotics are over the counter in Thailand, so with the help of my doctor back home, I found an appropriate one and started taking a course. All the funky stuff went away within a couple of days and it’s healing nicely now.

Across the street from our hotel was a food court full of international students, which can mean only one thing, cheap tasty food! We had an amazing curry and some noodles for a few dollars. The next morning breakfast was a simple but incredible chicken fried rice, but the owner specializes in duck, so he threw in some duck soup for free, which was dark, rich, and flavorful. Yum, have I said how much I love Thailand yet??

The ride into Bangkok was just horrible. I absolutely do not recommend cycling into Bangkok. You should take a train or bus or something. But we hate those things, so we grumpily managed carrying our (fortunately light, bike packing) bikes over three pedestrian bridges to cross highways, braved nonstop (but slow) traffic, and joined a crew of locals for a taxi boat ride across the Chao Phraya river. The fare for locals was written as 3.5฿ each. I’ve never seen anything smaller than a 1 Baht coin so was hoping to get a 0.5฿ coin, but it was not to be because apparently foreigners with bikes get charged 10฿ each. Altogether it was an experience I’m glad I can talk about, but I wouldn’t repeat it.

Life in Bangkok is vibrant, chaotic, and wonderful. Where else in the world are there (numerous!!) street vendors selling nothing but various kinds of brooms?? And half the taxi cabs are pink!

We didn’t make a reservation for a room because the quantity of hotels and guesthouses in Bangkok is totally overwhelming. We messaged one, and they said we had to keep the bikes outside during the day. In a city of 8 million? No thanks. So we showed up with a few places in mind and our first choice, At Smile Guesthouse had an indifferent guy working at the front desk who didn’t seem thrilled to let our bikes in (shoes aren’t allowed, according to a big sign), but also didn’t appear to show any other kinds of emotions as we carried them up the stairs. And for $25 for a double with a private bath, with an attached bar, 1 block from Khao San Road in the middle of season, it was a really good choice.

We walked to the Golden Mount one day to ring the various bells for good luck and admire the city views.

We really wanted to eat at the Michelin star street food stall of renowned Jay Fai, but the waiting list is over 2 weeks. Next time we come through, we will reserve in advance. If you haven’t heard of her, YouTube it! I caught a picture of her with her signature goggles and wood-fired stove.

Instead, next door is “the best pad Thai in Bangkok” at Thipsamai. It is definitely the best I’ve ever had, for 90 Baht ($3) and a 45 minute wait. Highly recommended!

More bells at Golden Mount (sorry these aren’t in order, the Android app for WordPress really sucks).

Temple close up.

On the road to Bangkok we stopped at an Amazon Coffee; it’s like Thailand’s version of Starbucks. Every Amazon Coffee we’ve been to that has parking also has bike racks. How cool is that?? Starbucks, take note!

After having a good khao tom (rice soup) for breakfast one morning, we passed this shop selling nothing but steamed buns. If you’ve had dim sum before, you’ll recognize the pork buns with the pink dot. They also had different flavors, but when I saw them, I said, “we have to come back here for breakfast tomorrow.” And we did, twice!

Say what you will about Khao San Road, notorious backpacker party hotspot and center for counterfeit goods of all kinds. But it is a must-see place and definitely entertaining. It is not Thailand; it has grown into something totally unique. And that’s why we spent a few nights here with friends who happened to be in Bangkok when we were (we were going to miss each other by a few days but we made it happen!). So that’s how Angela came to taste a scorpion! Photo below (again, WordPress yadda yadda).

Cocktail bars are a huge thing in Thailand, it seems, and this bar had some amazing ones. This delicacy of passion fruit and chiles was delicious and quite provocative… What does it look like to you?

Dragon vs… flamingo?

The inside of that pork bun, with a little nugget of egg yolk. I could eat this every day!

These, on the other hand, are gross. It sounded horrible (sweet bean and salted egg, really?), but I was hoping for a “lost in translation” moment because they looked so good. But no, it tastes exactly like beans and (a bit spoiled, quite dry) egg. Blech.

She said it was pretty good! I dunno, I tried crickets last time I was in Thailand and did not care for the legs that got stuck in my teeth.

Here’s that “best pad Thai in Bangkok” served wrapped in an egg. You have to try it!

Ringing the bells!

So my SD card died and I bought a new one. I had some suspicion that it could be fake, but do people actually waste time counterfeiting a $20 product? Yup!! Yes they do. Ran a test on it… Actually capacity, 1GB. Actual speed, unusable. Don’t buy electronics in Thailand, lesson learned.

Our bikes nice and cozy in our Bangkok hotel.

Ancient Capitals

Leaving Bangkok, we’ve been making our way north though the ancient Thai capitals towards the border crossing with Myanmar. One we got out of Bangkok, the cycling has become amazing, lots of quiet country roads through fields of rice paddies, sugar cane, and other crops. Random aggressive dogs too, but so far only one or two have nipped at our heels; 95% ignore us, 4% bark, and the 1% bark and chase.

We decided to stop and let this herd cross since we weren’t in a hurry. The cattle herder yelled “thank you” to us for stopping. We had intended to climb up those mountains towards Khao Yai national park, but after 20km on an 8-lane busy highway, we called it quits.

We love the night markets where you can get the most amazing Thai food for the best prices. But I think we end up spending just as much as at a restaurant because our eyes are bigger than our stomachs. The little bags of curries are the best because they are premade for the Thai pallet, so you know you are getting a really authentic meal, something that’s impossible for a foreigner to order in a restaurant (unless you speak really good Thai!). Unfortunately it also means it’s made with the parts of the animals that foreigners don’t usually eat. My bag of pork stir fry had an amazing flavor and tremendous spice but the pork had bits of indigestible tough skin still attached to it. This stall in the picture was making all kinds of egg pancakes; the grumpy woman didn’t like farangs with cameras; I don’t blame her.

Super fresh seafood everywhere.

For Valentine’s Day, we found a resort in the foothills of the mountains with a Chinese style cottage. The little floor cushions are surprisingly comfortable!

Lopburi is one of the ancient Thai capitals, and we stayed at the backpacker favorite, Noom’s Guesthouse. It was a perfect choice, cheap and right in the middle of the old city, where there was a festival happening for King Narai.

Our Valentine’s Day cottage.

Ayutthaya temple ruins, one of the ancient Thai capitals.

King Narai festival in the ancient palace in Lopburi. Locals dress up in traditional outfits.

Narai palace, Lopburi.

Palace ruins with an event setup; they hold light shows and traditional performance art events here during the festival, I believe. All the info online and on posters is in Thai so it’s hard to find out what’s happening when. If you ask a local, they’re likely to say it’s something that farangs wouldn’t be interested in.

Lots of people in very traditional dress with photographers following them around.

So cool to see these ancient ruins superimposed on a busy modern Asian city in the midst of a festival.

More locals in traditional dress with guards.

They had music, speeches, and fireworks in this plaza all night long. (And big blow-up minions!!)

We learned that it’s Chinese New Year’s and the biggest celebration in Thailand is in Nakhon Sawan. By slowing down a couple of days, we will be there for the big parades! So we’ve been meandering around the area, finding small boutique hotels set amidst small banana farms, and cycling along the many canals. Sunday we will arrive in Nakhon Sawan and see the parade and enjoy the festivities (and food!).

And yes, the year here is 2561, not 2018! That’s talking some getting used to… Even Google search shows 2561 as the date, so weird!!

Thai food continues to astound me. Especially the street food. We have been enjoying the most amazing food we’ve ever eaten, and it’s everywhere! At each city we stop in, we head for the daily market or night market and find the most amazing things, each one for 50c-$1 or so. We can’t help but stuff ourselves every day! We need to start riding around in circles or else we will gain 20 lbs, damn!

Grilled lobster and seafood in Hua Hin.

Amphawa floating market – there are many boats like this with fresh seafood cooking up all sorts of Thai dishes with huge prawns, squid, crabs, and other seafood.

Another boat kitchen.

We had lunch here.

Amazingly fresh!

Some of the biggest and tastiest prawns I’ve ever had. (Though I still dream of the prawns of Denia, Spain, by far THE best prawns I’ve ever tasted, sorry Thailand…)

Amazing pork noodle soup for 20฿.

Grilled scallops.

Floating market in full swing.

Dried fish and other snacks for sale at the floating market.

Egg custard pies, very similar (but not quite as good) as the famous pastel de nada of Portugal.

Some of the engines on these long tail boats are all decked out… Love the Michelin man on this one!

For dessert, coconut ice cream in a coconut shell with fresh coconut pulp carved out, topped with sweetened mung beans, peanuts, and sticky rice. Yum!

Non-food pictures

Zoom in on that critter towards the bottom of the photo. That is a monitor lizzard! We see them popping up in the rivers here from time to time, swimming around, flicking their tongues, and then ducking back underwater. Creepy! I asked a Thai guy if they bite, and he laughed and said, “no eat”. So I’m still not sure… Either Thais don’t eat the lizzards, or the lizzards don’t eat people. It could be an important distinction.

Really interesting temple we cycled by.

Another cycle tourist we met near Hua Hin on an unexpected enjoyable separated cycle lane paralleling the highway, riding a folding Bromptom bike on a few week tour of Thailand. He’s been all over SE Asia and gave us some good advice for our upcoming route.

Our guest house near the Amphawa floating market is immediately on the canal. Waters are very high right now. Riding in, several of the roads were flooded and we had to make some detours, running across highway medians carrying our bikes, and braving cycling through a few deep puddles in flooded streets due to the washed out roads.

Not really sure what this guy is up to in Hua Hin.

Intricate tiled elephant tusk statue in Phetchaburi.

Will try to post fewer food photos next time lol!

I’m going to bring this flavor back home, hot chili squid! It’s really good, who’s with me? I love the play on Thai/Latin letters in the Lays logo. It reads as “lay” in both Thai and English because of the way they write the letters, pretty cool. Lay vs. เลย์

After a short break in Surat Thani, we headed out at sunrise towards the Ko Samui ferry, aiming to catch the 11am one. It was a stunning quiet ride through palm groves and marshland. A few muddy dirt tracks after the recent rain, but all good. Some of the local dogs chased us a bit, but we’ve found that our super loud horns we picked up in India seem to give them pause, and so far none have gotten anywhere near enough to feel threatening.

Ko Samui

We waffled about whether we should even go to Ko Samui at all because it’s super touristy and more expensive, but we finally decided to give it a few days so we could chill on the beach some more and also we needed to get our visa extended, and Ko Samui has one of the better immigration office to get this done at.

We made great time on our ride and got to the ferry before 10am. We said Ko Samui at the ticket booth, and they rushed us onto a boat (“2 minutes!” they said). Only after we got onboard did we realize it was going to the wrong port on Samui, so we ended up having to cycle 25km more through another rain storm once we arrived. But, we made it and got a decent last-minute deal on a bungalow on the beach and enjoyed some more leisure time.

I probably had too much beer…

More fire shows on the beach.

Busy beach at sunset…

Ran into a friend and her wife on their honeymoon who I met on the AIDS/LifeCycle bicycle ride over 7 years ago! So random and awesome! The love bubble continues worldwide!

It’s that kind of place, I guess. Who washes their feet in the toilet??? Gross!

This kitty is living the island life.

We actually had an amazing hamburger on Samui. I almost always eat local food when I travel, but Samui is so touristy anyway, it’s hard to find the really local stuff, though we did find a food steamed pork bun for breakfast and a decent night food market.

Who wants a rainbow unicorn pool floaty?

Thailand’s visa system is so complicated and always changing. Here’s the latest on the allowed extensions. They walked us through the forms, photos, and passport copies needed.

We also applied for and received our Myanmar e-Visa! It’s much easier crossing from Thailand to Myanmar than from India.

Gulf Coast

After Samui, we cycled north up the Gulf of Thailand coast, roughly following the same route that I rode with an organized ride over two years ago, but stopping to smell the roses much more.

The view from our great homestay in Prachuap Khiri Khan, run by a really friendly and interesting French/Thai couple.

We cycle by temples all day long and decided to check out this reclining Buddha.

This bridge looked impassable until we watched a tuk tuk drive over it. We walked, thank you very much…

Stunningly beautiful teak temple with intricate woodworking.

Can you get tired of cycling by views like this all day?

One of our funky little guesthouses had weird themed table and chairs. Nice cheap bungalows right on the beach but with grumpy staff and stand-offish European guests, though we met four Germans staying there who are doing their own two-week cycle tour along the coast.

I was going to go swimming until I saw this bad boy… I think that skull pattern indicates that this is a box jellyfish, one of the most deadly creatures around, killing swimmers every year. Many of the local hotels have warnings up about jellyfish here. No swimming for me, thanks!

Friendly kitty watching our bikes for us.

I was crazy enough to let Steve rent a scooter so we could drive out to a national park to do some hiking. Scared me to death! I was a horrible back seat driver too… Steve loved it.

It’s quite a hike to this cave, is it worth it?

Sweating like crazy!

Yeah, totally worth it. Damn!! I can’t understand how they built this temple inside this cave. You have to hike over two huge rocky hills (1400ft tall) and then down into this cave, which has no way out except the hole above the temple. So everything was carried in. For scale, you can barely make out a few tourists in the bottom right.

We cheated on the way back and hired a long tail boat to save us the last small climb.

And next we continue north away from the coast and towards the Myanmar border crossing, which we should reach in a couple of weeks.

As we left India several weeks ago, I was filled with many different emotions as our driver was taking us to the Chennai airport. It was bittersweet after 11 weeks of immersing ourselves into an amazing culture that most and some people are hesitant to even consider. Before we left the states and told friends and family we were planning on cyclying in India, all we heard was “good luck”. I sat in the backseat of the SUV that was transporting us to the airport with our bikes packed away in boxes, and felt THANKFUL for what India had taught me in such a short amount of time.

I’m THANKFUL for seeing a culture that works so hard for food, shelter, and everyday life in the paddy fields, hauling hay or timber on a cart, carrying laundry on their heads, or selling snacks and/or drinks at a roadside or storefront in a town or bazaar.

I’m THANKFUL for the food that I tried and stepping outside my comfort zone of a pizza or meat not attached to a bone. I loved the chicken or veg briyana, paneer (cheese) butter masala, chicken tikka masala, prawns malvani, roti, chapati, parotta, and tandoor dishes with butter, cheese, or garlic naan. In Goa or Kerala it was easy to go back to our Western roots and have a pizza or a burger that was most likely water buffalo. In Marherassta, after we left Mumbai, I fell in love with all the veg thalis that were usually unlimited all you could eat and as cheap as 80 rupees ($1.25USD). If there is any place in the world that I’ve traveled thus far and had to be/or wanted to be a vegetarian, India is it.

Happy Cows come from India, unlike I was led to believe when I moved to California in 2000. They are everywhere from the beaches, walking down or across the highway, and also just chilling on a bridge or in the middle of a busy street in Mumbai. In Hinduism, the cow is regarded as a symbol of ahimsa (non-violence), mother goddess and bringer of good fortune and wealth. For this reason, cows are revered in Hindu culture and feeding a cow is seen as an act of worship. This is why beef remains a taboo food in mainstream Hindu and most states throughout India.

I’m THANKFUL for the children putting the big and beautiful smiles on our faces as we pedaled by their schoolyard or through their small village. They would yell “hello”, “where are you from”, laugh sometimes, and if they happened to be on a bike as well, they would pedal faster and try to stay pace with us and sometimes even pass us. We will treasure this experience forever, as the kids reminded us of the innocence and simplicity surrounding us with their LOVE.

I’m THANKFUL (I think) for the local men that would make me feel old when we would stop to refill our water bottles and get more cashew butter cookies at roadside stalls. Some would be so blatent to ask my age or if Tim and I were father and son. I would say instantly….NO I’m 49 and he’s 42. 🙄

I’m THANKFUL that it wasn’t malaria and only the flu bug that I caught as we went through different climates and being able to see two doctors and order a blood test to test for malaria all for under $10 USD. When we started cyclying in India, at the beginning of November, it was as warm as 42 Celcius (114 F approx.), and when we pedaled up to Madekeri and Mysore, the temperatures got as low as 20 Celcius (70 F approx). We never accumulated to the intense humidity either, as we are spoiled being California boys now with very low humidity.

I’m THANKFUL for seeing another beautiful religious culture in our travels and the stunning craftsmanship of the Hindu temples and statues.

I’m THANKFUL for the fellow cycle enthusiast’s that we met it the state of Tamil Nadu that were from Maduri, and landed us a newspaper interview with The Hindu, the second most circulated English-language newspaper in India. We now have new cycle friends following us on Strava and Instagram and hope to see them again one day and maybe even host them in the states when we return.

We spent our Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s holidays all in India, which were interesting to say the least. It was my first vegetarian Thanksgiving and Fall Season without pumpkin everything from Trader Joe’s. We missed being with our family and friends for Turkey and Casserole day back in the USA. Christmas was uneventful but we enjoyed great buffet dinners at the hotel we splurged for in Maduri, and I loved being out of the madness and commercialism of the holiday in the states once again. New Year’s was fun in the French Colony city of Pondicherry where we definitely stood out as Westerners and loved every minute of it. I remember people watching and the locals coming up to us and other Westerners and shaking our hands or giving us a hug……which reminded me once again of “What the World needs now is Love Sweet Love” 💛💙♥️ (a song I like to sing as we’ve pedaled along our journey the last 10 months).

If you ever travel to India, DO NOT try to have a package shipped to you. If you want to send items out of the country, the receiver will most definitely receive them within 2-3 weeks, but if you have a care package of cycling clothes and other goodies, they will still be in customs 3 months later. A lesson we learned the hard way as it tested the paitience of our dear friend Shannon who didnt want me go without pumpkin and tried to send us a FedEx package at the beginning of November.

2017 Touring Stats
3 Continents (Europe, Africa, Asia)
17 Countries (Portugal, Spain, Morroco, France, Monaco, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, India)
10 different curriences
13,761 kilometers
8,551 miles
366,142 feet elevation gain

PS….follow me on Instagram at scubastevecyclist. I like to photo blog more than I write.

It has been such a huge contrast riding in Thailand after nearly three months in India. Suddenly there are cycle lanes on many of the roads, well-paved shoulders, quiet country lanes with no traffic, no honking, and only a few motor bikes riding the wrong way against traffic. Life on the road seems amazingly civilized here, and yet I remember how chaotic I thought it was last time I cycled here over two years ago. Perspective is a funny thing.

Phuket Town

Before getting back on our bicycles, we had one more day in Phuket Town, where a friend from California joined us.

We hiked up “Monkey Hill” to get up and close with the nearly-domesticated monkeys that locals and tourists have been feeding for years. Steve loves them, but I keep reminding him that the wild monkeys we see elsewhere can be mean and bite and steal water bottles and other food. A monkey bite means two weeks in the hospital getting rabies shots. But these guys were super sweet and tame, spoiled by endless bananas and peanuts.

Our wonderful hosts at In Phuket House, a budget hotel in Phuket Town, this sister and brother couple went out of their way to make sure we had everything we needed.

Phuket Town is full of Sino-Portuguese architecture.

Also some beautiful temples with crazy intricate carvings.

Chinese red lanterns are a sign of prosperous business; here is one of the more fancy ones in the Chinatown of Phuket Town.

The sun glints off the golden outcroppings on the temples. Buddhist temples feel very approachable and welcoming, very peaceful, clean, and open. We’ve been told that many temples will allow cyclists to camp on the grounds if you ask nicely. We are regretting a bit sending our tents home, as it’s becoming clear that Thailand has some fantastic camping opportunities in temples, parks, and beaches.

On the road to Khao Sok National Park

In Khao Lak is this police boat, a monument to the tsunami of 2004 that killed hundreds of thousands in Thailand, India, and throughout Asia. The movie about the tsunami, The Impossible, was based and filmed in Khao Lak.

Randomly on the side of the road are piles of discarded spirit houses, known as spirit house graveyards. Doing some reading and asking around, what we can figure out is this… When Thais build a house on some land, they also build an elaborate miniature house called a spirit house, to appease the spirits whom they are displacing from the property. The spirits take up residence in this house and don’t bother the people living in the main house. When you need to discard a spirit house, there’s a very complicated and elaborate ritual that has to take place to keep the spirits happy (usually involving building the spirits an even nicer spirit house to inhabit). But some people ignore that ritual and discard of the old house in these spirit house graveyards. These graveyards are seen by many as haunted because the very unhappy spirits living in the houses have been forcibly relocated. Spooky!

We didn’t see any elephants…

Our adorable bungalow in the middle of Khao Sok national park.

We did a little hiking on the trails.

Lots of bamboo. There’s lots to see in the park, waterfalls and streams, but it was too late in the afternoon to start a serious trek.

The landscapes through the park are stunning.

Rubber is a big product of this area, and we rode through endless rubber tree farms.

A huge dam in the park and the hydro-electric generator. A lot of people hire a long tail boat to tour the lake, but it was too late and too hazy/rainy to make it worthwhile.

Dam selfies!

This year will mark Steve’s 50th in July!

Finally we are starting to meet other cycle tourists. This is Tim from Florida, also on a long-term tour.

And a woman from Germany who started at home 9 months ago.

We spent a rest day in Surat Thani, where we relaxed and enjoyed the night market and waited out the rain before catching the ferry to Ko Samui. More about that in the next blog!