FOOD

And it's time again for an edition of " what is that weird stuff you are putting in your mouth, Emrys?"

China definatly raised the weirdness quota a few notches. I think perhaps the duck tounge or the sheeps udder and mint soup take the cake, so to speak. The yak butter, yak cheese yak tea weren't to bad. Though the yak cheese did give me a dose of the runs.

Laos threw up every possible combination on the cooked bannana. Roasted, fried, curried and with coconut.

Almost every petrol station in Thailand has a 7/11 shop. In each of these is an ice coffee dispenser. Its amazing how well a litre and a half of cafine and sugar can make you cycle. It becomes slightly addivtive though as the only way to avoid "coming down" is to keep drinking the stuff!

Malaysia with its mix of Malay, Indian and Chinese certainly had choice. Though the choice was great it was all somewhat santised, rather like the rest of Malaysia. Good, flat roads but kind of boring too.

And now i am about to have another dose of Indonesian fried goodness. Last night my hosts ( a young man and his family) gave me Redang- kind of like beef jerky in Tamrind juice. The was also the ubiqutus chilli fried fish. Its slightly disconcerting when the catchfish looks at you!


Bon Appetite

Update:

I have just crossed the Equator which runs thorugh the middle of Sumatra. I am headed for Bukatingii, some volcanic lakes and a day off. From there i will head to the west coast and down towards Bandar ampung on the very southern tip of the Isaland. I will catch a ferry from there to Java and some more manic traffic. There is cycling in Indonesia and there is death....so far i am staying on the right side of the line!

A year on the road

The 16th of July 2009 was a fairly uneventful day according to the font of all wisdom ( wikipedia), nothing happened. It was however a rather monumentus day for master bike builder Georg's landlord as he nearly brained himself trying to help me and my horrendously overloaded bike down the stairs. He did, however, compose himself enough to wish the crazy Australian farewell as i lurched down the hill towards the Danube.

On the 5th of July western China erupted in violence. Shops were burned by Uygurs venting their frustation at Han Chinese. China responded by cutting the internet and sending in the troops. Meanwhile i arrived in Vienna to find locals sunbaking naked on the banks of the Danube while over weight mean rollerbladed in G Strings. Welcome to Austria!

On October the 2nd the international Olypmpic commitee decided to award the Olypmics to Rio de Janiro. I, meanwhile, was waiting to see if i would be awarded the right to enter Uzbekistan. As i turned out the ferry came first so i never did the chance to test the power of instanteus detnention on the Tahskent Subway.

My 27th birthday on the 12th of November was a somewhat lonely affair. Stuck in freezing cold Almaty waiting for a Kyrgz visa. The 19hour train trip to Bishkek did little to lift my spirits but the copius vodka that followed when i met Tim, my soon to be housemate did!

And on the 16th of July 2010... Our 1stm ranga prime minister and 1st shelia in the job sends us to the ballott box. And i celebrate a year on the road with a famous Penang Indian Curry!

After a year bobbie is starting to rust so its time for a paint job

To any English Teachers....

A lesson in the un-logic of the Englese language.

I have the oportunity to muse upon many things as i cycle along. The last day i have been wondering the following. What is the rule for changing country to a nationaility i.e I am from Australia therefore i am Australian. The logic for this one seems to be there- if the word ends in an A you just add an N. This works fine America- AmericaN, Bolivia- BoliviaN. Until you get to China that is.....

If i am from a country that ends in D the logic starts to get hazy. Iceland-Iclandic, Poland-Polish New Zealand- New Zealndish?????

If i am from France i am French but if i am from Greece and i am Greek and if i am from Venice then i am Venitian.

The stans start to get intersting too. Someone from Kygrzstan is Kyrgz likewise for Kazakstan and Uzbekistan. Try calling someone from Pakistan a Paki though and you will cause great offence as George Bush found out.

If it ends is L- Senagal- Senagalese but Isreal- Isreali

And as for Denmark and Holland.......

Update
However enough of my musings. I am now about 5 days from the Malaysian ( or should that ish. ese or ie) border. I enjoyed a swim at 6 in the morning yesterday when the water was slightly below the usual pee temperature. I am about to head back down to the coast and have another one having been inland for most of yesterday. My wrist is still a little sore from coming off the other day but is slowly getting better

Iggy nad bobbie get a facelift

Today has been a rather expensive day- a visit to a bike shop can sometimes do that. Iggy ( Igor) and Bobbie are now look so much hotter for it though. Iggy has a new rear tire and tube. I have had more flat tires in Thailand than the rest of the trip so i though it might be time for a new one. The previous one has just clocked over 7000km. He does still have the original front tire though.

He also got some very flashy new handle bar tape- aqua and black. After crashing into a parked motor bike the other day my wrist has been quite sore. Hopefully the extra padding on the new tape will stop the jarring a bit. The new front brakes may also help me to stop in time. I did notice the serious grove forming in my rim when i changed them though. I went for the " it'll get me home" option on that one though.

Bobbie now has a spunky new tire and tube as well. The tire is monstrusly fat kids mountain bike tire, way more heavy duty than i will ever need but will hopefully save me a few flats. I have had far more punctures in the trailer tire than in the main wheels.

I also have new gloves as the old ones, like most of my clothes have more or less rotted away.

now all i am looking for are some rear derailer pulleys but, as i have a 9 speed gear set, these are a little harder to come by.

Saunas and Massage

Sauna

Most people that visit Vanvieng are unlikely to remember it. This is not because it is a particulalry forgettable town. It is just that the majority of time that tourists spend here is done so under a haze of opium, Marajhuana or Lao Lao ( homemade Lao paint thinner come drink). Or a combination of all three. Vanvieng is famous for tubing which invloves the occsionally fatal mix of booze, drugs, rubber tire tubes and a fast flowing river. ....

It was with some trepidation then that i had arrived on a hot afternoon and looked for somewhere to stay. I finsih up sharing a room with a new zealnd guy. He arrives in at three in the morning blotted. He turns on the light and starts searching the top of the cubboard in the room. "What are you looking for" i ask. He tells me his mates left half a joint there the previous night. He goes out to smoke then comes back in and procedes to sleep naked, sheetless in the bed next to mine. I move hostels the next day...

My gear is in rather desperate need of a clean ( the bag smells like a dead animal) so i need somwhere to spread everything out. Finally I pick another hostel that looks like it has some space that i can clean my bike ( always important). I dump my gear and meet of few of the other travelers. The three Aussies in the group have a decidedly bogan edge. I cringe at there notions of "box ticking" travel- must always travel in a group, only eat food i would have at home and only socialise with other travelers and most importantly get the picture to show to your friends.

I spend the day washing anything and everthing. The bag is almost yellow again! The day ends on awesome note with a lemmon grass sauna with all the staff from the hostel.

Sauna Time!

It is without much sadness then that i leave Vanvieng early the next morning. The locals are hard at work, cleaning up from the previous night shenaigans. Being a bit over the hostel scene but needing to stay in Vientiene for a few days to sort my visa i have teed up a couch surf.

Massage

The Lao capitial Vientiene has the same laid back, easy going feel as most of Laos. Guy, my host for my stay, is a bit like the city he lives in, laid back, easy going with an off beat charm. He was born in Laos but spent most of his life in LA. He does an awesome job of showing me around the sights and sounds ( and eats) of Vientiene while i wait for my Thai visa. He also introduces me to Glee, a very trashy but very funny show about kids in a choir in the US.

The day after i arrive we head off for a massage. I have been a bit cautiuos to try this as i haven't been sure i won't get something "else" with the massage. Guy, however, assures me that this place is very professional and stays strictly above the belt.

2 hours later i feel like i have been beaten with the phonebook and then run over by a car. The dude took my poor hips joints to places even i havent taken them yet! And he seemed to get some kind of grim satisfaction from each wince that i gave. I spend the next hour or so wondering if the pain was worth. When i can actaully bend squat using my thigh muscles, however, i decide that maybe it was.

"Who is emrys, where is he? "

And so after a wodnerful 4 days in Vientiene i have now hit the road again. I have blasted through some rather falt and boring country in central Thailand and am about to hit the coast. The swim that i will have ( in the ocean) means i will have crossed the eurasian land mass and am starting to get a little bit closer to home....

What a month or two of cycling in the heat will do to your hands...

The politics of Aid

Laos is by most standards a poor country. Ridding through many of the smaller villages as i have been doing for the last few days this has been more than apparent. Even in some of the more touristy towns the realities daily life for many Lao are never more than a block away.
It is also one of the most incredibly friendly countries i have been to thus far on my trip. Rather than an expensive SLR camera jammed in your face on a sometimes hourly basis ( as occurred all too often in China) i instead have a stream of children running after laughing and screaming and trying to push me up the hill. Their parents and grandparents while not as active never the less show there encouragement with a genuine smile and a wave. Money in seems bears only a token relationship to happiness....

And so here is my dilemma i have been having the last few days. Almost all of the villages have aid projects of one kind or another. AusAid and World vision Australia work hard on water and sanitation projects but other governments, Italy, Germany, Japan to name a few also run a range of projects that in the villages from Eco- tourism to food relief and sustainability initiatives.

AusAid Funded water fountain in village

Several of the other countries i have been through have similar levels of poverty ( albeit more localised) None (that was as clearly sign posted at least) however have the degree of foreign aid that poors into Laos.

Why is that?

Having only been here for two weeks i am not entirely sure but i suspect some of it has to do with the aforementioned hospitality of the Laos people. In short Laos is an easy country to apply aid money too. And smiling, happy children make great photo shots. This is not to deny the fact that there is a clear need in many areas. It does however make me wonder about countries who have a similar or greater need but socially ( and politically) get put in the too hard basket. The generally relaxed nature of Laos society means that foreigners coming to the country to implement aid projects, with some basic cultural understanding, can get by pretty well. In other countries the range of social conventions ( behavior, social structure etc) that must be understood can make this much more difficult.


The other reason may also have to do with Laos' strategic position. While "western" countries are pumping money into aid, China is busy building Laos' roads but that is really a story for another day...

A brief update

I am now in Vieng Vang. I feel slightly old among the pubesect 18-20 year mobs of Brits and Aussies getting smashed while floating on tubes down the river. There is even an Australian bar here ???? Come to another country to talk to people from home and drink beer that is more expensive than you would find at home? Funnily enough i went for beer Lao and noodles for dinner instead. I will have a day here tomorrow ( the town may be horrid but the surrounds are quite nice) and then head to Vientiane ( the capital). I will spend a day or so getting my Thai visa and then head across Thailand. Looking forward to my first swim on the beach in almost a year!

Swim Time!

Welcome to Loas

I roll Igor up the ramp into the presusired, vacum sealed, HUGE, chinese border depature building. There is no one there, except a chain smoking German waiting for his car. The young man behind the counter looks suitably unimpressed at A. flithy bike and B flithy me. I try to keep things light by smiling politly. He snarls and scans my soggy passport through the machine.

The previous night i had made sure to back up some of the photos i had taken incase the serached my bag and camera. I had hardly had the chance to take any photos in the nuclear missle base before i was deported from so there i wasnt really too worried but who knows.

I has expected a similar type bag search to when i had arrived in the country 2 1/2 months earlier. The security gaurd had given up half way through as my gear smelt so bad. I hadn't washed in this time either.....

Some tooing and froing with his boss. " Can't we just let this dude go, he smells" i can hear the younger one saying. ( I had in fact showered that morning but my clothes, unfortunatly, didn't get the same treatment.

Bang, stamp. Goodybye. " Sweet" i say and roll out the other side.

I cruise down the hill to the Shed that is the Loas border crossing. I mill around for a bit ( like everyone else including the gaurds) waiting for the dude to come back from lunch. 10 mins, a piece of paper in my passport and $32 bucks later i am in Loas. I like this place aready. "muana" means fun in Lao and it has to be in everything if its to get done, bring it o n!


Power cable installation- Xinajiang Style