Bicycle touring in Myanmar is something we had looked forward to. When we were planning our journey it was not yet possible to cross overland into Myanmar from Thailand and out again to India. This change has made it possible for us to reach Nepal overland! It is still a country that is mysterious for many [...]
Bagan, the old kingdom, had given us a special place to discover. We trailed the tracks off the beaten track to far away temples and now and then bumping into groups of tourists. Unluckily a bug that had been popping up since Yangon decided it was time to strike and Martin got a bronchitis which meant it [...]
After being fed, rested and educated on Yangon and its colonial heritage it was time to hit the road. We had enjoyed a wide variety of Burmese and Indian food, street snacks, custard puddings, samosa’s and tea. Yangon had made a good impression on us with its eclectic mix of ethnicities, buildings, traffic and people. We were [...]
Crossing new borders is exactly what we did. We had rested in Mae Sot where we enjoyed social times with other cyclists and especially Mo and Marie which was really nice. Time had come and new adventures waited for us in Myanmar, a country that has been fairly closed for the last 30 years due to the [...]
It was never the plan to cycle in Thailand. Because of borders, visa and because travel plans change we made it here anyway. We are in Mae Sot now contemplating our time in Thailand from the expected ease to the little more unexpected possibilities to get off the beaten track in this well developed country. Lately we [...]
In this Cyclist's Guide to Chiang Mai we will describe all the places that we have found useful in Chiang Mai. On and off we spent a total of four weeks in Thailand's second largest city, we had bicycle maintenance done, we searched for a place to stay and we have been enjoying nice thai food from [...]
Bicycle touring in Laos brought us back to familiar places because both of us had visited Laos before on separate occasions. This time we would see more of the places in between and some off the beaten path villages. We were reunited with the Mekong and enjoyed the tropical scenery. We entered Laos on the 9th of October and left the country on the 16th of November. We have cycled 1021 km and ascended 8776 meters.
‘Left, we need to stay on the left!’ we were shouting at each other every time we re-entered the road. We had crossed over from Laos to Thailand and had not realised we also had to change the side of the road we drive on until we had passed the border and saw the signs. We had [...]
Contemplating on routes and distances is a favourite task of ours: 130km main road or 230km mountains unpaved? We were still in Nong Khiaw, where we had been resting and eating for six days. Now it was time to leave our bungalow by the Nam Ou river and hit the road. We knew that the route to [...]
After more than 11 years (Martin) and 8 years (Susanne) since we separately visited Laos as backpackers, we are now back again only this time together and by bicycle. Returning to Laos by bicycle has already given us new insights to this little country where communism is the base of the country. Crossing the Mohan - Boten [...]