Bike Till My Backside Tears

ruth is home!

2006-08-23T17:59:00.000-07:00

ms ruth fuchs is home finally after spending 3 yrs, 7 mths, 3 weeks away from her home germany.

ruth is quite an important part of the puzzle as to why i took on the cycling expedition. when i first met ruth, it was nov 2005 and i was taking a bunch of st teresa's girls to OB Lumut. she was there to visit kiwi instructor julie, a friend of hers who had worked in a ski resort together.

i saw her cycling on the malaysian highway while accompanying the girls from their trek back to base. she was cranking it up and i was wondering to myself if i would get to know her... just to know what it was like to bike tour around.

ruth is a truly amazing lady. she left home to bike tour and work at the same time thru nz and aus, both of which she biked thru consequently. to get herself home (in the most inexpensive fashion), she flew to singapore and biked her way into china. hopped onto the trans-siberia train into russia and biked her way to germany from there.

respect!

2006-08-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

while i'm still trying to come up with that consolidation of what i've picked up so far, i shall just blog about what's been happening since i've returned home.

well, for one, its certainly good to be home, where i can finally have that plate of elusive roast duck noodles which haunted me at most meals when i was on expedition. the back is not getting significantly better with the amount of rest i've been giving it lying on my thermarest...

but its not been great.

my room had been converted into a storeroom by the family, when i was away. i found funny things like unwanted encyclopedias, storybooks and even the vacuum cleaner inside. i was mildly annoyed to see what has become of my little refuge from the world. next to that, my father unceremoniously announced that my grandma was coming to visit and as usual, would take my room. i bit my tongue and decided not to argue, since my mother would come up with the usual line of how my grandma doted on me the most when i was a kid... (which she conveniently forgot about how she was ALSO disappointed that i wasn't a boy)

so for the last 2 nights, i've had to be camping in my own living room.

along with grandma came the maid, who is a nice sweet lass that does a great job at cleaning up the otherwise unworldly home. my mom's a working mom, who does a good job at cleaning the house, but we are a pretty much messy bunch tho. so as the maid clears up the messy place, i found shorts that belonged to 3 people - the father, the brudder and the sister all in my cupboard. no wonder it looked more stuffed than before i left.

the sister took the cable modem and router to her room. and now i'm subject to her conditions - the toilet door must be left mostly closed, the windows cannot be fully opened, the fan cannot be turned on to the max... blah blah and blah...

i guess i do sound rather contemptious at this moment of everything that's happening at home. and i would strive to improve things a little once grandma's off finally tmr, i finish off with that bit of work on my mountaineering team's comm service attempt and the writing of the other stuffs that happened along the expedition.

i find it strange to be home somewhat. or even that it was actually easier to live with a complete stranger over the last month. and find that the nomad in me wants to be away still...

the mother's having a hard time, because the father is considering trying to hide my passport, so that i won't take off as soon as the back is fine again. i can only say that i'm struggling with my own daily life at this point...

"Its when you are home that you wish you are on an adventure. And its when you are away, when you wish you are home."

2006-08-13T17:31:00.000-07:00

i arrived back into Singapore late on sunday morning, about 3am instead of the initial 2am, due to flight delay. as i arrived into singapore, my younger brudder was waiting to help put the bicycle and luggage into the cab, which was great because i get to go home straight. home sweet home.

but as i woke up the next morning, i guess there was that nomadic part of me which didn't really want to be home at all. like i told my mom before i left, i had to go off to be a wanderer because i just had to see the world. and now that i'm home earlier than i expected, the surrounding comforts were kind of discomforting.

i took time to read steve smith's book - pedalling to hawaii, just to try consolidate my thoughts about the expedition, which will come along later this week. and there was this explaination he liked best about why he was doing the expedition then. the funny thing was that it came from someone who collected social graces "it keeps yer shit hard." i guess i do actually like it too. much as my shit is as hard as it can get, thanks to most of the crazy things that i do compared to my friends.

update on the back:
managed to book an appt with dr jason chia of sports medicine centre, at the changi general hospital for wednesday morning. doc chia treated me a year ago, when i tore my meniscus along with doc chang haw cheong, my surgeon. so its a kind of errr... odd reunion with the gang at CGH, sports med centre.

while the back is holding up fine, it gets extremely sore when i either stand for too long or sit for too long, so the solution now is to lie down for a long time. my thermarest is inflated for the first time in about 2 months, as i am typing this out.

2006-08-11T18:36:00.000-07:00

i just saw jason off onto a bus towards Guanping, where I had developed the fever and he has had to dump his gear to send me back to Jinghong.

Well, its been an unexpected ending to the whole adventure - the whole lumbar problem. the fever's gone down significantly and mild enough for me to travel with. yes, i know everyone is nagging at me to take the cab home too... sigh. i guess its a weird way to stinge on money when i'm spending so much money to get my arse home as fast as i can. sometimes, i can't figure out why i have such thought processes either. but i reckon i would go home first....... well, really see how first.

i'm gonna try ask for an upgrade to business class. with the back like this, i don't think i can sit in an economy without back breaking in that short 4 hours flight home.

i'd try update on the flight no later, once the tickets arrive.

2006-08-11T02:56:00.000-07:00

ok peeps. i can't fly home on sunday because the Silkair's run out of tickets. I'd be taking Yunnan Airlines home from Kunming on Saturday night... Arriving Singapore 2am. Will be staying at OBS SparkC campus till daylight and making a move home to save on transportation.

if anyone is kind and generous to sponsor a ride home... well, msg me at 98461743. cos my mobile cannot be called at all. :( dunno why leh.

2006-08-10T20:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry that most of you haven't had an update in a couple of days. i had been down with a high fever suddenly and had to backtrack 60km back to Jinghong - the capital of Xishuangbanna Prefecture.

Well, as usual, its kind of like I've made a whole grand tour of every other darn healthcare place along the journey.

so i booked myself into this Xishuangbanna Hospital (supposedly the largest in town, don't think its the best tho), where the doctors aren't the least bit compassionate and don't give a crap whether you live or die around here, no washing basins in the toilets, people don't flush after shitting in the toilet, bedsheets get laid upon by every other ill person and changed only once a day, everything is cured with drips and injections, they make you drag your diseased body 400m just to make payment for your medications and to collect it and drag your body another 400m back to get shots...

they diagnosed that i have some kind of bacteria infection or its equivalent viral? along with some swelling in one of my lumbar discs... it is extremely worrying since i can't really sit well right now. my fever's gone down a fair bit tho.

so much as i had the grand hopes of going down to chengdu, shanghai and tibet... in lieu of medical conditions right now, i would be returning home very shortly to get proper healthcare and a decent look at my lumbar...

the plan is to fly out of jinghong tomorrow morning and get a connecting flight onto Silkair's MI913. I should arrive in Singapore at about 5.05pm. Well, stay tuned here for details...

2006-08-08T05:11:00.000-07:00

BAD NEWS.

apparently my chinese visa cannot be renewed, cos its a "tourist visa". not even my china auntie's family lot of CCP officials can save this situation. the sg embassy has flatly refused to help "since the matters lie in the hands of the Chinese." i have 8 days of visa left starting on National Day. so while i am in limbo over this matter, the following options are:

1) fly to shanghai. go see xr and ben and recuperate there.
2) bike onto wherever possible and take a bus 2 days before the flight (current possiblity is 15 August on silkair). hide at sparkc till my face recovers before showing up at home.
3) kick up a big fuss at whichever red-tapey zone... just to make myself feel better.

yeah.

2006-08-05T23:57:00.000-07:00

Again, I bought lots of my favourite fruit – zee mango. Wunderous mango. Very sweet and cheap. I realised that I still look remotely Chinese and never get ripped as often as poor Jason is. There was a fruit-seller that tried to rip him a little this morning. Oh well... I guess such things will constantly happen.

Well, of all strange things to out-eat Yenkai with... I've ATE it! I beat his last record of strawberry jam and tuna sandwich with my... pork floss-kaya bun! YIKES! It wasn't too bad. Guess that jam that looked remotely kaya-ish was the Chinese equivalent to mayonnaise. Of all strange and weird things... Gee. This adds to the record of eating bugs and drinking at unknown water sources.

5 August - The fever is on!

2006-08-05T23:55:00.001-07:00

Jason's fever is still going on. There's a lighter alternative – sandfly fever. He's been resting while I'm watching oodles of Chinese period dramas. Haha... Well, it is one of my past times.

I went out to get some food and fruits for the 2 of us and saw some people playing mahjong. Its been a while since I last played and man... I miss it! Can't wait to lay my hands on some tiles. But I can't play with these people, because we play by different rules. Chinese and Singapore mahjong is just different. :( Oh well.

So the television in our room got zapped unfortunately from the lightning earlier, as in the antenna of the satellite dish up there got zapped. No more television programmes for now. I've been watching so many of Jinyong's wuxia flicks... in all the possible versions even! There's Duke of Mt Deer in both the new Jordan Chan version AND the old Tony Leung version! Then there's the Yi Tian Tu Long Ji, with both the antique version and the new even. The Chinese must be mad about the antique Journey to the West version! Its playing everyday! I watched that show when I was probably 6 years old... So imagine wadda classic it is!

4 August - Mengyuan

2006-08-05T23:55:00.000-07:00

Today's the day that Melissa the idiot left her mobile behind at the last hostel. Wadda fish! I slowed down the expedition unwittingly and now we'd have to peddle a lot of a longer distance into Jinghong. We might not be doing the tea-pressing place at all now as well, since Jason is extremely short of time. I'm such a klutz. :(

The ride into Mengyuan (every village in Xishuangbanna is literally named Meng – Fierce, something. Unbelievable) wasn't too poor. Just 2 minor mountains to climb. Yes, I pushed most of my way up... But at least I didn't “put on the wussy cap and take a bus” (quote Dee Dee)

Friskandar from work messaged today about him taking a sailing book from my pigeon hole from work. Sigh... Frisky, if you are reading this blog as well, I miss you too :(

There's been a good deal of time that I really wanted to cry along the road – when I push my bike up a very difficult slope, when my leg gets all cramped up, when I start thinking of friends and colleagues at work... I guess the traveling has taken a toll on me. Life is just no fun without people like Candy, Kenny, DeeDee, BW, Flo, Xiao-yan-zi, Connel, Terence, Ber, Mario, Bro Chaw, Frisky and so many more. I really miss them, so much that I can cry. But no, haven't shed a tear since I got into the accident.

Looking at the route map for the expedition, we are at least a week away from Kunming still. Its approximately 680km away from where we are located... I can almost hear strains of Corrinne May's Journey “cos its a long long journey, till I find my way home... to you. Oh, to you.”

Poor Jason has come down with a fever. We haven't figured out what could be the cause yet. Hopefully it will go away after a night's rest and lots of water. We haven't been pushing distance in these couple of days either.

We just ran a malarial test on his blood to see if it could be malaria. As it is, there is a likelihood that he is afflicted with plasmodium facipadum (or something along that likes). We have started him off on a course of artemisinin, which I bought from a Chinese medicine hall in Vientiane. Hopefully it will work for him, if it is indeed malaria. But I'm hoping that its nothing more than just a fever from the rains that we are in and out of so far.

3 August - Mengla

2006-08-05T23:51:00.000-07:00

We took a slightly longer ride into Mengla, the large border town for this part of China. The ride was extremely muddy, my sandals went buried into the mud and my bicycle was mudded along with it. Poor Winson, my bike mechanic, would be extremely heartbroken to see the nicely polished Scott Montana that he put in so much effort is in this current state. I am also quite heartbroken to see that the bicycle is scratched by all the sand/dust/grit and mudded. Haiz. Liddat how to sell it away? How to finance my road bike? AIYAH!

Anyways that aside, there's a teahouse next to our hostel today. And for the first time in my entire life I actually got to see the art of tea-drinking unfold in front of me (and my muddy feet). The ladies in the teahouse were extremely nice to entertain me. And after some PR-ing, we are invited to this nice lady's tea-pressing company in Jinghong, the regional capital. I am looking forward to taking photos of this ancient art of tea pressing, since it improved how tea is shipped all over the world. Turns out that Xishuangbanna (the region we are at) is actually one of the largest tea-producing areas in China.

Contacted Auntie Darren, who's located in Chengdu. Absolutely good news, since I'd have a host of some kind once I am there. Ah... Good ole Singaporean hospitality. :) Looking forward!!!

FRESH! 2 AUGUST 2006 - Mohan, Chinese border

2006-08-02T06:34:00.000-07:00

We entered China finally after 16 days in Laos. Laos, as I recalled is fairly rural, yet with nice folks who won't impose on you at all. Its people are hardworking, even the children are not spared from contributing to the farming work. The kids are either herding the family cows or farming the fields. They are a largely friendly country - the children chasing you down with their hellos (and irritating the hell out of someone who's already heaving her way thru the mountains).

Now, first impression of China. As a Singaporean Chinese, its like I'm walking on a cultural tightline. I'm not Chinese enough to be recognised as a Chinese, much as I have every bit of Chinese blood flowing thru my veins. Everyone is just plain surprised that I can even speak “Pu Tong Hua” (ordinary Chinese) and even speak it with such clarity. I've had to explain that I'm actually a “Hua Qiao” (overseas Chinese). Maybe I should teach English here in China. That way, I can get away from my half-baked Western and Chinese background.

Anyways, time to go find some food. Dinner time!!! Xiao long bao!!!

I've had my first lot of dumplings in China. Oh my God... You can't believe how much food I've wasted so far. :( Somehow the Chinese portions are HUGE! Don't believe those people who tell you that Western portions are large. The Chinese ones are WAY more scary. REALLY. After lunch and dinner in China, I've appropriately concluded so.

The television programmes are all in Chinese. Good for me... Bad for Jason who can't understand a thing that they are saying, since the Chinese subtitles aren't exactly the easiest to read and string together. I took at least 13 years of schooling to learn everything that I know today. And its not including that 4 torturous years of Higher Chinese... Lucky for me, I dropped out of Higher Chinese class before they started on Chinese classics – poetry and literature. Could have died reading “Hong Lou Mong” (can't remember its English name). Learning Tang Dynasty poetry as a child was already bad enough. (My mom made me attend Chinese speech and drama classes where they made kids learn how to recite poetry) And there were all that Chinese storytelling contests that Mom made me do, and I always embarrassed myself with that poor memory of mine.

There's a Sino-Singapore concert going on the telly right now. Its very interesting to see “home” from so faraway. There's Fullerton and Peninsula Plaza in the background, since its the Padang. All done at City Hall region, my favourite hangout in town. Oodles of Chinese nationals watching the concert live apparently. There's this singer who looks like a butch, but she has one heck of a very good voice!

I've made contact with Xinrui. In the best case scenario, I'd drop by in Shanghai in about a week's time. We've got 700km to Kunming. Worst case, another 2 to 3 weeks before we can arrive.

The Internet in China is pretty cheep with good uploading speeds and poor downloading. Whilst I can still upload onto Blogger, I can't actually see what I've published since the Communist Party government had pretty much blocked out Blogger and offensive Google stuff. People smoke in their Internet Cafes or otherwise known as "Wang-bar". The stench of smoke is unbearable much as I'd like to spend more time on trying to do more internet work... I'm going to try get out of this place ASAP. Almost becoming breathless from all that smoke.

1st August 2006 - Na Maw and its "rustic" touches

2006-08-02T06:32:00.000-07:00

We're located at Na Maw, a big village some 50km out of Udom Xai today. The ride here wasn't too bad, minus the rain and its a good ride. Only 1 upslope to peddle while lots of downhills. I was praying very hard that after the massive downslopes that I won't have to push the bicycle upwards. Can die from doing so...

Whilst I was charging thru the rain at 15km/h downslope, the chilly winds from the storm and mountains were howling. I put on my rainjacket and it was still quite cold! And imagine my shock after I took a turn, where I saw 4 children (probably around 9-12 years old) carrying sacks of bamboo shoots on their foreheads thru the rain. They were still far from the village and they were just wearing normal cotton shirts, passing the rain. It was depressing, seeing such sights.

I wondered to myself, if this country truly needed aid or would the aid feed the corrupt and never filter down to the commoners. There's talk about how the Laotians “are lazy and too slow to save their lives”, but as far as I see it, they are mainly good and honest folks who don't have a way out of things. While aid is probably needed to get sanitary systems up in this country, they are doing well for everything else. They are growing crops, having enough to eat and wear at least.

I found the fear of being robbed by a Laotian bandit, while Jason is miles away, unfound so far. The kids are exceptionally friendly (to the point where I can get irritated by them even.), always shouting “FALANG!” (foreigners) and “Sabaidy!” (hello). I think this place deserves a hand for what they are trying to get out of. Yups.

So, the room here in Na Maw is very basic. Kind of like rustic wood. Jason hopes there won't be a fire tonight, cos we'd probably go up in flames easily. Yikes! I actually prefered to take out my tent for the night already, since the bed looks quite grotty. I could be wrong that its bed-bugs free... But never really know.

The expectation is that we'd make the border crossing into China by tomorrow afternoon.

Next to that, I'm looking forward to getting to China. Besides the fact that I can actually understand what the heck I'm eating, drinking, sleeping at and talking to people (sans accents); its the land of XIAO-LONG-PAOS, LA-MIAN... and by God, its probably the best thing that can happen! Whilst I'd still cross my fingers about not being conned by the local Chinese. Some of the remarks from frequent travelers to China can be rather harsh. Needless to say, its a different situation when you meet Chinese nationals overseas. Stay tuned to more stories of such a category.

I guess studying Chinese paid off at this point, since its been great talking to the Chinese in Laos. It helped ease off a portion of that homesickness for Singlish, Mr Brown shows and the likes. Haha. PY and Chris, need a Chinese tutor? * wink wink * I think most Chinese nationals imagine that Singaporeans can't speak a word of Chinese to save their lives and got mostly compliments for my Mandarin. Finally, I can tell Ma that it was the right call to make me study in 2 kindergartens – one for my English and another for my Chinese. Zhou lao-shi (Miss Zhou) was soooooo wrong to kick me out of my higher Chinese class. Wahahah... So what if I can't write Chinese to save my essays and poor grades? Wo hui jiang hua yu ok! (I know how to speak Chinese!) Better than those people who aced their Os and As and can't even say a word after! (PY and Chris, not you girls...)

Jason's Mandarin is improving despite the fact that his pronunciation is still very anglocized. But its better than him not speaking most of it. So fingers crossed that by next week, he can speak enough to order food at least.

31st July - the comforts of udom xai

2006-08-02T06:27:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning with my body unwilling to leave the bed. Its that tired. Jason came by at 5.30am to my room and told me that he'd like to sleep in that morning and start off later as well. That's when we both concluded that its time for another rest day. He rode very long and hard into Udom Xai yesterday while I walked for 3 hours before my body gave out from the long ride the day before.

The next time I'm taking up such an expedition, I would definitely train up with the mountain riding part. Geez! I don't want to end up pushing the bicycle everyday...

I woke up officially only at 8am and went off with the nice Chinese guesthouse owner to the market, where I got to change some more USDs. Hopefully, the Lao kip$ I have is enough to last till we reach the borders. Really don't want to change anymore brickloads of money, since none of it can be exchanged out of Laos.

The mangoes here are HUGE. And only SGD1.10 per kg. Quite cheap, but I just didn't want to spend unnecessarily. Well, lets see how long is it before I give into temptation to buy it.

We are on some altitude, approximately 785m above sea level right now. So it is a bit chilly and I need to wear my fleece jacket around at night.

Well, we are moving off from this very comfortable and homely Chinese-runned Xinxin Guesthouse tomorrow. And I would miss them greatly. Its clean and extremely pleasant with all that Chinese cable teevee. The beds are big and pillows fluffy. No smells! The lady boss of this place does a great job making sure its spanking clean.

I had a very good and restful day. Only leaving the room for food. I spent most of my time stretching away and watching television. I guess its just time to relax. Most of my body tensions went away after lots of sleep. I managed to repack my bags as well. Going to try out a new packing formula tomorrow. I only hope it makes the ride easier. Jason thinks that by lowering the centre of gravity, its a lot easier to bike.

2006-07-30T07:27:00.000-07:00

We're at Udom Xai today. Internet is expensive, but I decided that I should just blog about what happened in the last 2 days.

Today's a fairly rough ride. Yours truly gave up after walking 30kms... I biked at least the first 10kms tho! HAHAAHAH... But it was too much for me today. It rained the whole morning, we set off only at 11am when we couldn't wait very much longer.

I put myself onto a bus, since my objective for the trip is to see the world at a slower pace (not to accomplish it by human power). Minutes after, it poured! CATS, DOGS, PUPPIES AND KITTENS (that's what my cousin always says)

The locals were great, they put my bike up onto the top of their minivan! Amazing feat, I'd say. It would have been a good bus ride, but there was something that happened. The bus driver's boy happened to have Down's Syndrome. And the rest of the passengers were wrongly encouraging that boy with their laughter over the lewd actions he was doing. It made me realise that they might not actually have special schools here to help special children. And even if there are special schools, there's just no money to finance it. The boy went on to pretend smoke a cigarette butt he found on the bus and the locals continued to look entertained. It wasn't a good moment for me.

Found myself at Udom Xai soon enough, tired out sufficiently to just quickly book into the first hostel I found. It was actually the second. Well, it was just familiar grounds - A CHINESE RUN GUESTHOUSE! I tell you, being overseas chinese and able to speak the language is great! (PY, time to pick it up proper!) It got me a free dinner! How about that? HAHAHAH... Anyways, its the whole "Wo men dou shi zhong guo ren" thing at work (We are all Chinese). And somehows (even if it sounds wrong), I am glad my mother made me do all that Chinese in school! It worked out!

I'm trying hard to tutor Jason with Chinese, at least an hour a day over dinner, so that he can survive China, if I exit at Kunming. The expedition is good, but I don't want to hold him up longer than I should.

2006-07-28T08:08:00.000-07:00

We're out of Luang Prabang tomorrow morning! Earliest you would hear from me again would be 2 days time... *cross fingers*

2006-07-27T07:00:00.000-07:00

le wunderous sunsets of lao

boten - the lao-china border town... why is it still so far!!!

just look at how tired i am!

its so cold when it rains at the mountains that the kitty cats huddle near the little woodfires!

flying pox into the river at vang vieng! (no, that's not me)

2006-07-26T06:01:00.000-07:00

En route to Luang Prabang, I hailed a local bus and hopped on. It was impossible for me to bike/trek with bike, with my crazy cough. It rained early this morning for a couple of hours and after walking/biking in the rain for nearly two hours, I decided to just call it a day. No more of that crazy bravado. My lungs refused to work and I knew how tired my body is already. Its working hard enough. I'm losing weight without meaning to do so.

Upon boarding the little bus and finding Jason more than 10km down the road, I was glad I did what I did. He was resting so faraway from where I hailed the bus. And it would probably mean that I am slowing things down significantly. From where he was, it was approximately another 80km to Luang Prabang and it was already nearly 1pm.

Soon after, I dozed off on the bus, shivering from the cold wind blowing from the storm that soon started again. I felt feverish and realised that it was a good call that I made. I think I'd probably even take a bus down to Udom Xai, our next big stop... Just so my lungs can have a chance to recover.

The terrain's not going to get any better and if I'm going to press on with my lungs in this state, I'd probably die of bronchitis or pneumonia. Bronchitis, because I've been coughing and blowing my nose for nearly a week, while still on the expedition. To put my body thru such physical stress, its as good as telling it to drop dead soon. Pneumonia, because of the flu and the rain.

Food had been less than desirable. We ate whatever we can find in towns and if we are lucky, we find noodles with eggs in it. Its become some sort of a staple diet. I reckon I'd die of high cholestrol anytime soon. Hahhaha...

It had been very trying. But I'm crossing my fingers that I can recover to get to Kunming at least. It would be an ending on my own terms (as usual, I like to do so). Like what Jason said “You can't possibly walk all the way to Kunming.”, to which I totally agree. (Actually I think I can, but I just need at least 6 months to cross such terrain.)

Muang Phu Khun - The dumping of my toiletries begin

2006-07-26T05:59:00.000-07:00

Lucked out totally today. Didn't make it to Luang Prabang at all. For most of the 46km journey, I was pushing the bicycle. The mountains made it impossible for me to bike at all. Jason did a lot better tho, which is good for him.

I made an estimation that I've biked around 800km as of today! Its good to know that I've actually succeeded so much so far, despite the crazy urge to just put the bicycle onto the back of some bypassing truck. My mind had been through an entire war and I'm glad to know that at least I've given up the thoughts of packing up to go home early.

My backside is kind of sore right now and I can feel a bit of abrasion on my arse as well. As we biked from Kasi to Phou Khun, we ran low on water. Since Jason was a good distance ahead of me, I took water from the waterfall and dripped iodine to clean up the grubby water. Yes, I actually did so. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Especially since there was no little shops to buy anything from at all! We didn't even eat lunch. I had 2 Clif bars, with compliments from Jason and Clif Bars. I ate 1 initially since it was getting beyond lunch time and there was no hope of finding any food along the road. Towards 3pm, I was getting crazy hungry. I grabbed that extra bar of Clif Bar from my handle-bar bag... And there was this shimmering kind of look on that Clif Bar. And when I finally ate it, it felt oh-so-good! The sad news tho was that I am unfortunately running low on power-bars like these and looking at the rate that I'm eating and drinking at... Its not good news for me on expedition. Jason's like a camel of sorts – doesn't have to eat a lot, doesn't have to drink a lot. He's probably a camel in his last life! Hahaha...

The bad news out of things is that I'd have to start casting stuff away to lighten the bicycle. I'd be starting with the toiletries. Probably have to wash myself with more soap and chuck that bottle of powder :( Sadness. The nice roll of toilet paper would probably have to go soon. The anti-dandruff shampoo I brought from home especially will have to join the club. I might smell really bad soon if its going down that way. But to survive the rest of the trip without my backside tearing, there's just no 2 way around it.

Also, over dinner today, Jason and I had a discussion about how behind time the expedition is – 2 weeks at least. If we were cranking 100km a day, its all fine and dandy. But because that I'm a lot weaker on a bicycle than I realised, I would have to throw behind the bravado thoughts and put myself onto a truck soon just so the expedition gets to move on. Sometimes, it does take more to just give in.

So we are in this small town called Muang Phou Khun tonight. No internet or even mobile access. Its approximately 1500m above sea level, based on Google Earth and the calibration on my Suunto Vector. Going to be a chilly night. Even the locals have whipped out their fleece jackets. I took out my fleece pants and socks, just in case. Sleepy sleepy... Been so tired. Gonna hit the sacks now.

Kasi and the Shampoo Story

2006-07-26T05:55:00.000-07:00

We arrived at Kasi around 2.30pm today after biking for about 5 hours. So its really a little trucker town with minimal facilities, but thankfully with a guesthouse. The ride to Kasi was rough as usual, made worse with a bout of heavy storm.

Before the storm hit, there was a barrage of questions in my head like “What am I here for?”, “What is my objective of being here?” and “Have my objectives been met?”. I realised that there is just no easy answer or way out of all these and gave up thinking too hard. There's always this question about “What is in it for me?” I found myself irritated and even somewhat disgusted by why I can actually think of such things when my initial objective is to get to Kunming and not Luang Prabang.

Of course, I had shortened my personal expectations on how far can I go. The distances that we cut day to day is rather inconsistent, because of the terrain. The hills are unyielding, the heat is relentless and there is just that really strong temptation to say “I give up. Time to put the bike onto a bus and go home/next stop.”

But when the storm hit, it awoke me a little. I recall telling my kids at work all about “The Shampoo Story”. Belinda was the first to share that story with me. Its about 2 different perspectives by kids when a rainstorm hit them. The first group was demoralised and depressed. All they wanted was to go home and they threw down their backpacks to cry. The second group threw down their backpacks too. They whipped out their shampoo bottles and started shampooing their hair in the rain. The moral of the story was simple. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. When a storm hits, you wash your hair and enjoy it.
After thinking through this story, I guess I was a little less uptight about my diminishing abilities to spin. We might have spun only 64km today, but it was a good ride, considering the conditions surrounding us.

We are going to try spin our ways to Muang Phu Khun tomorrow. With some luck, we might even arrive at Luang Prabang.

Vang Vieng

2006-07-23T07:41:00.000-07:00

Been taking it easy today. Sleeping, shooting photos, went tubing and tried to go visit the caves. The most exciting thing that happened was this weird Laotian man's proposition.

So there I was on my own to try visit the caves in Vang Vieng, pushing bicycle with sunnies on and sweating it out (since it was so hot), and this Lao man came up from behind with a bicycle as well. He seemed friendly initially, wanting to practise his English. Then it became w-e-i-r-d. In a span of less than 5 minutes, he tried to get my mobile number, give me his mobile number and invite me to his home. Yes, yes... I might actually seem cynical at this point, but here's the deal... I met this guy in less than 5 minutes and he's getting a little too friendly for comfort. I gave up trying to reach the caves, citing that the roads was too muddy (which it was) and I don't want to go anymore. Then he tried to get the name of the hostel that I am putting up as well. I pretended that I can't remember the name and snuck out of the situation.

Eeeks.

I mean most of the Laotians we have met so far are pretty friendly people. But this OVER-friendly guy was just a bit over the edge for me. And as a lone female traveler this afternoon, it just didn't seem that safe to hang out that wee-bit longer.

So anyway, we are on the road again tomorrow to a little trucker town called Kasi. Its not supposed to be a long ride, but looking at how the terrain is from Vientiane, I think I'd prefer to err on the safe side and just take it easy. I could be wrong of course, but well... Better safe than sorry.

Don't think I'd be getting much Internet till we arrive at Luang Prabang. So it would be in 3 days before you hear from me again.

Some nice sights I see along the road :)

2006-07-22T07:41:00.000-07:00

2006-07-22T07:30:00.000-07:00

Today's one of those days where there is a lot of climbing. Long and steep hills where I just cannot crank anymore out of it. I had a good mind to drop dead and take out my USD20 bill to wave for a bus to just pull up. My mind started working against me, since I was running on my reserve energy supply – aka body fats already and the water supply was low as well. I didn't buy bottled water at the last stopover. I can literally feel myself going from high morale to low morale, as my body slowly burned itself while I was crawling up the hills. I lost count of how many there were. And all I did was just roll from one hill to the next, huffing and puffing my way up.

Most Laotian children are very friendly. They'd shout “Sabaidy!”, which means hello in their language to foreigners who are actually traveling at a slow enough speed for them to do so. It was nice for a change to meet friendly little children (quite unlike work at times). But as my mood changed while I was crawling up the hills, I wished and prayed secretly that I won't actually have to respond to any of their hellos. It was only polite for me to greet them back anyway.

Well, at least here we are at Vang Vieng. Its a touristy area where lot of foreigners come around for some adventure stuff. There's trekking, caving, kayaking and tubing. I'm going to tube tomorrow! Been looking forward to it, cos I won't have to crank or even row :) * Beam! * Just sit on one of those giant truck wheels and spin down the river! YAHOO!!!

We had been struggling with the Laotian language previously. But thanks to my discovery that the pronunciation is actually similar to Hokkien, we now have a means of communications with the locals – beginning with asking for directions to even ordering food. Not that I'd have to use this skill tonight... Now that we are in tourist wonderland.

I'm wondering how long can my legs take it on the road at this point. The mountains are getting pretty frightful. I am just praying that my physical strength would grow and I would begin to enjoy it. Fitness is VERY important for anyone to enjoy journeys like this. I thought I actually have a slightly above average fitness... Now I know I'm probably an average. Well, lets see how things go by the time we arrive at Luang Prabang – the next big town.

The good news of today came from Discovery Travel and Living. I'm in their Round 2 for the travel journalist selections! Whoopee Doo! Jason's kindly agreed to help me make up some kind of a video blog. Now if only I can brainwave something out... Especially before the damn accident. Now ugly already :( Haiz. Suggestions? Email me at themountainelf@yahoo.com ! Much appreciated people!

Vientiane Day 2

2006-07-19T21:28:00.000-07:00

Its a fairly quiet day, where the rain had been going close to non-stop for the whole day, since last night. Had a slow morning where we had breakfast till 11am at this really nice cafe that had the freshest garlic bread I ever ate. It was so just so fluffy! I tell you, if its the only thing that the French had done well, its probably with the cafe culture and all that breads, pastries and cakes. I had a nice bowl of tomato soup to start off as well.

Went back and took some time to plot out the next leg of the expedition thru Laos. The distance count right now is around 510km. But my guess is its really closer to 600km. Just imagine how much zig-zagging I would be on while trying to cycle thru the mountainousness regions of Laos. There is snow here one hoh. I had checked off on Google Earth and yes, it did freak me out a little.
Post-planning, I took time to go down to the Singapore Embassy to meet Kuan Yew. No, no... Not the Mr Lee that we know. Its one of the staff members there lah. Hahaha... He was nice and told me a good spot to get some decent Singapore food as well. Which is great cos I haven't actually realised this till today... That I've been away from home for 2 weeks already.

The home-sickness (or what I'd personally define as missing home to the kids who cry and whine all about it at work) hasn't quite set in. I don't really miss my parents at this point, just the friends and the company that I have around me constantly. Sometimes I think this whole “I-miss-home-and-family” thing doesn't quite apply since we stopped having the family dinners. Of course, it would be good to taste my aunts' home-made chinese dumplings and that ramen. I've not have had a lot of noodles since I left home. And I can't wait till I get to China – the land of la-mian noodles and dumplings.

Went to the 4th hospital of this trip in 2 weeks. Its just to get my rabies vaccination, 3rd dosage. The Australians run this ambassadorial service for their citizens and most of their white Commonwealth counterparts. I was a little disgruntled initially that they did not serve other Commonwealth countries, since I did take close to an hour to locate them. But the usual issue, about how they are funded after all by these countries and not mine (that I pay taxes for), emerged victory. I guess there's no 2 way around it and gave up my protest. Bought the vaccine from them nonetheless, because the other hospitals around these parts do not actually carry the exact vaccine I need.

Healthcare (here we go again) in Laos is a very simplified affair. There are people who do not actually get those saline bag stands. They get their family members to stand there with the saline bags. People take turns over things like this. Their family members probably surround them every moment because right outside the hospital, there is actually a whole market on its own just to make things easier for those who need food and stuff.

I must say tho, the nurse who injected me has got good technique. Even better than that doctor at te Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok.

An Aussie lady at the Aussie Clinic advised me the same things that Lonely Planet did. If you need proper healthcare, the nearest place is actually in Udon Thani, Thailand. The nearest SOS evacuation centre is all the way in Hanoi. It did scare me for a moment since I am crossing both my fingers and toes that I won't actually crash again. You know how you'd never know when such things happen what you need to do.

By the time I finished all these little tasks, I was chuffed out from the amount of walking I did. I took time off to the nearest massage parlour. Its pretty cheap, only USD3 for a full hour of massage with oil. I dunno if its cooking oil or proper massage oil. But hey, its cheap! Can't beat that now, can I?

Ello Laos!

2006-07-18T06:59:00.000-07:00

We crossed the Thai-Lao border pretty early on, at about 11am after 4 hours of peddling. We really arrived in our hostel in Laos only at 1pm, because it was hot and we weren't sure where we were going to try put up the night at. Anyhows, trust Jason to take a good pick. We are located at this hostel called Thawee Hostel. Clean and nice little rooms. Doesn't smell funky, has some character and most importantly has got sitting toilets. HAHA.

First impressions of Laos – DUSTY. Its kind of a regional feeling actually. Having been to Vietnam and Thailand prior to this, I just felt like these whole part of the world is really dusty. As I cycled from the border into Vientiane, my whole face was caked with dust and the white bandanna I had turned brown the moment I swotted my face with it.

Most of the roads here are undergoing works. And imagine my surprise when I found this relatively clean street, dust-free and all... Then I realised why it is so. Its along the stretch of Asian Development Bank and the other she-bang NGO organisations. No wonder it looked more orderly than usual and even dust free! Which goes to make me wonder all about where aid money goes to at times.

Still, the country seems very much intact despite its communist rule. Its English is surprisingly good and better than what I've seen at most places and the streets are somewhat more orderly. There is a good amount of Chinese influence over things here, no doubt thanks to their common political background and of course the trading around these parts.

In a rather short span of a couple of hours, I think I'm beginning to like Laos actually. There's a healthy amount of “old world charm”, kind of like Thailand in the 1990s when it was about to take off; and there is also a good amount of Westernisation for now – good cafe, wine and food culture going around. Its quite a hotspot with backpackers, ala Khao San Road of Bangkok in the 90s. Well, you should really come see it before it turns all modern like Bangkok!

Anyways, there is apparently a good amount of eco-tourism around. They've got lots of unspoilt sceneries and outdoor sports would do well here. There's rockclimbing, kayaking, river rafting and trekking. Prices aren't too bad if you've got friends with you as well. I did think about going kayaking tomorrow since its only USD 22 (around SGD35) for a day paddle around some rivers up north. The only thing is that there's not been a lot of rain, so the level of challenge just isn't there. I've done some level 1 and 2 whitewater rafting in Brunei, and it wasn't that fun. (This is despite the fact that my row is only 70% successful). I'm still trying to decide if its worth the price. Works out to be around $8.75 per hour (excluding transportation time). Well, at least it would be something different from cycling, despite the fact that I really don't like kayaking.

So the food around here... Checked it out. I've stopped being too fussy an eater and just eat whatever that comes served onto my plate. Just as long as its nothing exotic and its not made up of some animal's innards. Like I have mentioned earlier, its got a good cafe culture, thanks to all that foreign investments made into this place. A good sandwich would set you back around 16,000kip (SGD 2.66). Well, its not too costly for something decent to eat. A NORMAL sandwich costs around 7,000kip (SGD1.16), but you probably won't know what the heck you are eating (the bagette is pretty hard somehow).

Picked up a new skill from Jason today – how to wash a bicycle chain with petrol. It works wonders, I'd say. Goodbye to chain degreasers that are way too costly. I'm going to siphon petrol from my friends' cars! HAHA.

We're gonna stay put here for a couple of days to wait for packages to be dropped. So you'd be hearing from me for a bit :)