With Pisal who kindly kept my bike safe while I was away!! Thank you!!
time: 4h24
total: 12390kmhere I am! After more than a month waiting for my new passeport to arrive then having to exit the country because I had to in order to get a new visa on my new passeport. I stayed in Chiang Mai where I’ve done my Chinese visa. it took me another 7 days… I’m happy to be back on the saddle. I thought I was going to make 100km but I was wrong. Even if in a month the weather is way cooler than it used to be, it is still very hot and my now fat body has struggled. I felt cold shivers and has been dizzy a few times but it will get back into shape very soon.After 20km. I met Hugo and Begonia! they are from Spain and they are cycling since three years! Really nice and interesting people. We stayed a good hour to discuss with each other. they will maybe be in a podcast in the near futur. We realised that we have a lot of commun bike tourers friends. It is a small world 🙂
With Bego and Hugo from Spain
At the end of the day I had to stop a lot of times due to my dizziness and as I didn’t want to get a hostel, which seems to be non existent anyway, I kept cycling until I found a good camping spot.
I’ll put the tent here and hopefully it doesn’t rain as it is on sandy/muddy ground.
After a few minutes in the tent it was so warm and couldn’t fall asleep and had a strong headache maybe due to the sun. I took two paracetamol and tried to fall asleep anyway.
At 2am, a few raindrops started to make the air fresher. I got up to close the fly of the tent and put all drying clothes in my panniers. Then went back in the tent. The rain stopped and 3 hours later I could hear a very loud noise far away, like a highway with lot of traffic but there isn’t any highway here. I was wondering if it could be the rain but it was too loud to be the rain. Well, a few minutes later, I was now 100% sure it was the rain. 5 minutes later it reached me. Really heavy rain! Hopefully I’ll be able to go out of this field later. The great point about this is that everything cooled down and I’ve been able to sleep until 7am.
It’s been raining but the phone is well protected
time:5h31
total:12481km
total time: 705.15h
I don’t know why but when I cycle I’m not feeling hungry and don’t really eat anything. after a month on the saddle I’ve been creating some fat and my body can use it as the main source of energy.I had a puncture and many people came around to watch me and giving me a hand to fix it. We don’t speak the same language and it’s funny to see how we can communicate together without words. After all words are just 7% of the messages when we communicate.
Cambodian locals who watched me fixing my flat tire
I had to stop a lot of times on the way in the shade of trees to let my body cool down. One time, three guys stopped and I didn’t feel them but I was still feeling comfortable as they weren’t too pushy. One of them tried to still something a motorbike who passed by and I understood that they were not the best people to hang out with. One of them started to go on my bicycle even though I told him not to. I was about to leave when a cop came over, he asked me where I was going and suggested me to go while he was here. He then left on the way he came so someone might have saw me with those guys and called the police. That was a weird situation especially because it was in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
On the way I said hello/goodbye at least 300 times to many kids who were so happy to see me. I love how the simple fact of seeing a stranger make them happy. Everyone is super nice in here and if everyone was so happy to see strangers it would be a better world for sure 🙂
Later, I found a hotel to get a shower and remove all the sand and sweat mixed together from my skin. When i headed to find some dinner, the owner of the hotel and its friends offered me to drink with them. I accepted. They offered me some dry meat which was impossible to identify. I think it was beef but not sure at all. Anyway it was delicious and very tasty! That would be the perfect treat for the road and they kept bringing more and more and more beers to the table. I had to say stop at some points.
time:8h20
total:12622kmThe plan today was to cycle 70km. With this heat I could not do a lot more anyway. I was feeling so weak and could not believe for a second that I would be able to continue. I stopped for eating my first meal of the day at around 4.30pm. This gave me some energy to keep going and to find a good place to camp. The sunset came and I found the perfect spot. A shelter up high so it gets fresh wind and and a roof just in case it rains. The perfect shelter at the perfect time. I’ve made 100km and it was already a good day but the air felt fresher and I decided to keep going. Town after town, no other good spot. Now it was dark and I could not find any camping spot anyway so I decided to just keep going until the next city to find a guesthouse. Cycling under that starry night was perfect. After 140 ish km I found a guesthouse. On the third day, making 140km is pretty good. My body came back into shape pretty fast!
I had to take a photo with the stars even if I was exhausted
time:4h31
total: 12689km
Flowers given by the 5 year old boy running beside me
time:1h32
total:12706km
Laos border totally empty… I had to wait for people to come to work to get my visa.
I then found a place to eat and a bungalow on the Mekong. I needed tome cash out and I found a little shop doing it. No other option and he took 6% commission… I met there few ozzies and french people. One of them is Luka. He is travelling by motorcycle and overtook me twice already on the road.
crossing to 4000 islands
Cycling on the french bridge where I’ve been arrested by the cops for flying the drone
This first day in Laos was hectic. At night we got electricity cut apparently due to a tree that felt down on the cable and it stayed like this for 24 hours. Great way to disconnect from internet.
Sunset over the Mekong and a fisherman
On the last day of the 4000 islands I met Marion and Francois. They are french and are travelling by bicycle from Chiang Mai to Phnom Penh.
Francois, Marion, Luka and me
time:5h11
total:12801km
I overtook him a few km later while he was at the mechanic fixing his bike. 15km later he joined me and we had lunch together.
Marion happy to take the boat!
François, Me and Luka on the boat
Here the water seems to be free, just need to ask a family as they get delivered apparently free tanks after Francois and Marion’s saying. The meals are are mainly soup noodles.
I took a shower at a petrol station with the little hose to clean your butt after toilet then i cycled at night for 2 hours and found a shed by a bridge to put the hammock.
Those little houses are at every bridge and there is heaps of rivers in Laos
time:3h03
total:12854km
time:4h59
total:13047km
Harvesting rice
Savannakhet
Leave a Reply