Asia 2016

Day 209: Phuket Breakfast was the most beautiful display of Western and Asian dishes. I gorged myself on three plates from the buffet. My favorite part was the bacon. They had REAL American-style bacon. Not ham. Not Canadian bacon. AMERICAN bacon. This trip has allowed for some pretty great opportunities for delicious food throughout Europe […]

Day 204: Koh Phayam to Ban Khlong Phai (34 miles) After two blissful days on the beach, my legs didn’t want to go this morning. The hills from the beach to the pier were no fun. We caught breakfast near the launching point, put our bikes aboard the ship, and took the two-hour boat ride […]

Day 197: Prachuap Kiri Khan to Hat Wanakon National Park Beach (21 miles) It’s February 1! Which means we’re going home THIS month! Which means we have only twelve more days of riding.  Which means our two-week beach vacation with no riding is soon.  I’m ecstatic! In the show, The Office, Michael Scott and Dwight […]

Day 190: Nakhom Pathom to Samut Songkhram (43 miles) I love markets. I love food markets. I mostly love food, but it’s fascinating to see the unique cultural industry revolved around delicious provisions.  We visited the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market this morning.  This 100-year old market is situated in the man-made canals that were originally […]

Day 184: Sakhothai to Kamphaeng Phet (50 miles) For most of Asia, the roads have been crazy and chaotic.  There’s always something to watch out for: on-coming traffic, cattle in the road, piles of poop, people carrying too many things on the back of their scooters on the verge of crashing. While always on the […]

Day 177: Bak Mae Khachar to Chiang Mai (52 miles) The weather spared us from rainy misery. Climbing over mountain passes, though, left us as wet as the rain did. We did, however, find a fun rest stop around some hot springs. As with any Asian attraction, vendors were selling their wares and we bought […]

Day 172: Huay Xai to Chiang Rai (70 miles) It was a ten mile ride to the Laos-Thailand border this morning.  Exiting Laos was just as eventful as trying to get in to this country.  We still had to pay a weekend overtime stamping fee as well as pay for a bus ticket to cross […]

Day 166: Luang Prabang (rest day) I would have never predicted I’d wake up in a city in Laos on New Year’s Day in a million years.  I guess anything is possible with a dream of adventure and a bicycle.  The morning started on the front terrace overlooking the Mekong River.  It was raining pretty […]

Day 161: Dien Bien to Muang Khua The alarm rudely woke us up at 4:00 am. We needed to take another bus to get over the mountains that created the border between Vietnam and Laos.  We arrived early to make sure we could purchase a ticket and load the bikes.  The bus was supposed to […]

Day 156: Ta Van to Tram Duang (44 miles) This was the hardest day thus far, both physically and mentally.  We climbed uphill for 15 miles! 15! The sweet reward was 13 miles of downhill. 13! The views were spectacular.  We had lunch on a rock overlooking the terraced valley.  The downhill was scary, though, […]

Day 149: Hanoi (rest day) Breakfast at the hotel was like a Vegas buffet.  Totally recommend 3B Homestay to anyone visiting Hanoi.  Laundry is done—always so grateful for clean, dry clothes.  In major cities, we always have a list of chores to complete.  Today’s list included going to the Thai Embassy for our visas, exchanging […]

Day 152: Lao Cai to Ta Van At 5:30 am, we were woken by a saleswoman trying to sell us coffee on the train.  Go away!  Our cabin mates had already left at their stop.  I guess I was sleeping pretty well despite the bumpy, rocking ride; I didn’t even hear them leave.  We got […]

Day 144: Nanning to Dongmenzhen (55 miles) We’ve stayed healthy this past five months on the road, but I think unhealthy China is catching up with me.  I felt achy all day.  I zoned out and pushed through the miles just to get them done.  As soon as we checked into the hotel, I fell […]

Megan’s Food Cravings:                                                                               Sean’s Food Cravings: Reese’s peanut butter cups               […]

Day 136: Guilin to Baishouzhen (48 miles) The miles, we’re anticipating, in the next week are going to be long.  To avoid riding in the dark, we set an alarm for this morning, something we’ve rarely done on this trip.  The first day setting the alarm is always difficult.  Maybe that’s why I was the […]

Day 132: Yangshou to Xingping (18 miles) We had a short ride to the neighboring town.  The ride was pleasant; still surrounded by the karst, Avatar mountains and the weather was so nice.  We arrived at the hostel around lunchtime.  After edible fuel, we hiked the 1,150 steps to the top of Laozhai Hill, one […]

Day 126: Xinduzhen to Hezhou (37 miles) These miles were looooong and slow today.  There were a few miles of flatness with the best road conditions we’ve been on this trip (yes, better than Europe).  On the other hand, most of the miles were climbing over mountains.  The paved roads we’ve been on lately suddenly […]

Day 120: Sanshui – Zhaoqing (45 miles) The amount of litter is unreal.  There’s trash everywhere.  It’s in the city.  It’s in the countryside.  It piles up next to buildings like snow during a snowstorm. The fields are sprinkled with it.  People walk through it in the city.  It’s awful.  But it doesn’t seem to […]

Day 117: Shenzhen to Changping (36 miles) Staying true to our morning schedule, we didn’t wake up early.  Kevin made us a huge bowl of noodles with meat, an egg and tomato slices.  Each bowl was enough to feed a family of four.  He told us he served us a lot because he didn’t want […]

Day 114: Hong Kong to Shenzhen It’s Go-To-China Day! We packed up our room (floor space was so limited, we even had things under the beds). It was raining and we still weren’t comfortable riding on the busy city streets, so we walked to the visa agency.  Besides standing in line because there were tons […]

Day 108: Zagreb to Hong Kong I keep saying that public transportation with our bikes is a nightmare; however, it seems to be ok lately.  We hired a van taxi to get us to the airport with our two huge bike boxes.  I have a pet peeve about being late, but the taxi driver showed […]

After bottle of wine and 2 hours we said yes. Yes, to a world bike tour, yes to finding new adventures, yes to the start of Two by Two Adventures, and yes to living life to the fullest. Yes answers do not come easily these days. With more commitments, it gets harder and harder to say […]