Cycling The Road Less Travelled

It’s been about 5 days since we left Europe and got to South East Asia. We’re definitely in another part of the world. Gone are the boulangeries, gelaterias, churches and cobblestone streets. Now its noodle stands, Wats, Buddha statues and the constant stream of motor scooters. Motor scooters carrying 3, 4 people, occasionally with the family pooch riding shotgun in the front. (Sorry, no picture yet but we’ll try).

We’ve been to Bangkok before and since we’ve already seen most of the tourist sights, all of our time has been divided up equally between finding the best banana pancakes and getting logistical stuff done. We needed to:

1. Figure out where the hell we are going. – Done. We’re going north.
2. Update journal – Done.
3. Buy bike locks to replace the ones confiscated at the airport. – Done
4. Unpack and set up the bikes. – Done
5. Stuff our faces at the street stalls while endlessly comparing how much cheaper things are here then they are in Europe. – Done and Done.
6. Buy fancy new outfits for all of 10 dollars. - Done. To those of you who have only ever seen me in various shades of black, brown or blue, you’ll be surprised to know that I now own a pair of red pants. Yes, it’s true… red pants. While that may send shock waves through our community of friends and family, all I can say is that you can’t drop everything and spend a year cycling through far away foreign places without making soul-searching, earth-shattering changes now can you? No, you can’t.

With everything on our to-do list checked off, we’re ready to set off once again. From Bangkok, we’ll take a train to Chiang Mai and then start cycling north toward Laos. YAY!