Thomas Turnbull

21st march, creel

2010-03-21T23:39:00.000-05:00

Had an amazing day. I rented bikes with the German girl and the two Hungarian guys, and spent the day exploring the area. We covered some of the same ground as yesterdays tour, but it was much more interesting from the bike. I got a much better sense of how everything fits together, and saw so many more beautiful houses nestled among the cliffs. I'm not sure why I find it so strange, but there are so many people walking all over the countryside.

We rode through the valley of the frogs and mushrooms, and past the mission tht we saw yesterday, but then continued on a few more kilometers to the valley of the monks/phaluses. It was magnificent: huge rock spires at the top of a beautiful valley. Limestone I think.

From there we rode through the forest to a large lake, where we rented a boat for 60 pesos ($5) for an hour. The German girl headed back to town to catch a bus to Chihuahua, and the three of us headed down theist beautiful valley I've seen so far, along a dirt track on the faded flat grassy velley floor between high limestone cliffs with Tarahumara houses nestled at the bottom. We criss-crossed the river for 5km until we couldn't ride any further, then left the bikes and walked further, hoping to reach the same waterfalls I'd visited yesterday, someone had told us that this was an alternative way there. We passé a couple of small falls, but never reached the large falls, and turned back because we didn't want to run out of daylight. I realized later that it was a totally different valley and set if waterfalls. I'm still gla we ventured that way, it was so beautiful and fun riding.

I spent the evening at the hotel feeling exhausted and sun-baked. A Swede ha taken the German girls bed, and there's a bunch if older French people who I spoke to for a while, using French tht I've not spoken for years. Somehow the whole drug gang violence doesn't seem so bad when you're trying to explain it to someone else in a language that's a struggle to remember.

I found an article about what happened. Pretty heavy. But reading it makes me feel safer. It doesn't seem like te kind of thing that would spill over to tourists. It makes me feel better about being so conspicuously touristy! No one could mistake the gangly hiker with the bright red backpack for a member if the military or a rival gang member.

Tomorrow I'm planing to take the bus an hour west to Divisadero on the edge of the canyon. It's a very popular stop on the train with a $100 a night hotel. I'll get there early enough to hike down into the canyon to camp for the night. I hope it's a bit warmer there. It's pretty much freezing here at night, but very hot in the day.

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/666193.html

Apologies for the bad spelling/capitalisation/etc. This is all being typed on my phone.

20th march. Creel

2010-03-20T22:52:00.000-05:00

It's a really strange atmosphere. As I arrived in Creel on the train I came upon three crowds.

The first was the smallest: the people greeting the train trying to get the tourist business. This was much less intense than I expected, certainly not as pushy as I've experienced in Thailand. (on a tangent I've been thinking a lot about Thailand, which led to thinking about the constant comparisons with Thailand and this trip. It's a bit like dating someone new after a big breakup. As much as you want to enjoy the new girl/experience purely on it's own merits, it's impossible not to make the comparisons. Tangent over.) I already knew which hotel I wanted to stay at (casa margarita) and immediately found the guy for there, got in their minibus, and was driven less than 20 meters! I guess the minibus is just a cattle pen, to stop the stupid tourists from going astray.

After sorting out my room (100 pesos, or $8) and a tour for the afternoon (250 pesos) I came across the other two crowds in creel.

I'd heard about the brightly colored clothing of the Tamuhara women (the indigenous people of this area) but had not expected to see so many in the town. There were girls and ladies everywhere, but about 40 clustered around the bank. I learned later that the government was giving out some kind of money that day, so people had come from all over the area to get it. On the tour that afternoon I saw many of them walking miles back out of town.

The third crowd was a funeral. There was a procession leaving the church next to the hotel, accompanied by a military vehicle with 5 soldiers standing on the back. Later that evening a German girl staying at the hotel told me that seven people had been killed in Creel the previous evening as part of a drug war that's happening. I'm not sure if this is true, or if the funeral was related to that, but I'm a bit freaked out.

However, before learning all this, I spent a great afternoon on a tour, being driven with three Mexican tourists around some beautiful parts of the region. The horseshoe lake (with Tamuhara women selling beautiful crafts), a rock shaped like an elephant (with Tamuhara women selling beautiful crafts), rocks shaped like frogs (with Tamuhara women selling beautiful crafts), rocks shaped like mushrooms (with Tamuhara women selling beautiful crafts), rocks shaped like phaluses (with Tamuhara women selling beautiful crafts), and then the real highlight was a really beautiful high waterfall (with Tamuhara women selling beautiful crafts). It was a mile or so up a rutted track, past women washing their clothes in the stream and lines of brightly colored clothes drying on fences, skinny donkeys, beautiful cliffs, pine trees. And the falls were magnificent. And although it was a bit odd having people selling stuff everywhere we went, it is such amazing craftwork. They make baskets woven from dry grass, beautiful jewelry, snakes from bent sticks, wooden spoons. I'll definitely take some home.

I spoke to the guide at 3 Amigos. He cautioned me against going into remote canyons alone because people involved in growing drugs wouldn't welcome a stranger. But he thought that going to divisadero and hiing down into thecanyon there would be fine. Going to bopitalas and asking about the situation before hiking should also be fine.

Barrancas del Cobre/Copper Canyon, Mexico

2010-03-18T18:00:00.000-05:00

I'm heading off to hike around the Copper Canyon area of Mexico from the 19th to 29th of March 2010. I've no idea what the internet situation will be like there, but if I can, I'll write some updates while there.

Some background info:

Map: This is the area in Google
General info: Wikipedia article

I'm going armed with a little more information than that, but there's not too many details available. I have a guidebook from 1994, a compass, a GPS, and a schedule for the beautiful train that runs through the area from Chihuaha. I'm hoping to pick up some proper maps when I get to Creel on Saturday.

The Childlife Website

2006-03-08T17:38:00.000-05:00

If you're interested in finding out more about the children's centre that I visited near the end of my time in Thailand, they have an English-language website at http://www.childlife-maesai.org/index.html

And there's some photos of our visit at http://www.vigoclub.com/BoardTalk2.asp?id=Q000002935;talk - if you look carefully you might spot me hovering in the background...

I'm back in Edinburgh now. It feels pretty strange to be back!

Things are pretty crazy - catching up with friends and work, but I'm slowly working through the 1500 photos I took, so I'll put a select few online when I can, and I'll try to write up a bit about the fantastic time I had in Tokyo.

Cheers,

T

Photos of Sydney

2006-02-22T09:29:00.000-05:00

Sydney Opera House
Originally uploaded by Thomas Turnbull.

I've uploaded a few photos of Sydney. I had a fantastic time there eating delicious food and being a tourist. I've now arrived in Tokyo and am staying with my sister. It's an amazing place - very different to what I expected. There's all the tall buildings and fluorescent lights and crowds as made famous by Lost in Translation, but walk a few metres away and you're on quiet tangled streets with houses only one or two storeys high.

I'm planning a visit to a place where you can eat as much pudding and cake as you want in 90 minutes for £7... It's been nice knowing you all.

Thursday 16th Feb, Sydney

2006-02-16T06:34:00.000-05:00

After a wonderful last few days in Thailand travelling around with Tone and his friends, I'm now in Sydney staying with my friend from uni, Nicky (the same person I was visiting in Hong Kong).

Tone and his friends had travelled up from Bangkok to take a load of donations of food, clothing, toys and money to a school that a young guy set up for kids from hill tribe families that had become homeless for various reasons. I found it really shocking that the Thai government doesn't support them in any way. People from the hill tribes aren't considered Thai - they don't have Thai ID cards and get no welfare at all. So these kids are living in a tiny group of buildings among the paddy fields, and the school is totally reliant on donations. I'm finding it really difficult to explain what it was like to be there. On one hand it was really uplifting to see how happy and well balanced these young kids were. But at the same time there was something quite draining about visiting and making friends with them and seeing how happy they were with everything that the group had brought, and then driving away again after spending a few hours there.

The other amazing thing I did with the group was on Monday - a big Buddhist religious holiday. We got up at 5.30 and drove for an hour or so to a really remote village, which is unique in Thailand because the monks there ride on horseback to collect their morning offerings. So along with a couple of hundred Thai people that had come to make their offerings for the festival, I stood in this hillside settlement and watched in the crisp morning sunshine as the seven monks came riding over the hill through the forest in their beautiful saffron robes chanting. The head monk was the most striking person I have ever seen. He sat on his horse, smiling happily and calmly among the crowds of worshipers making their offerings. He was quite chunky and his body was covered in intricate tatoos. He was followed by another older monk, an dthen by five young novice monks, each with tatoos. They'd be far too young to get tatoos in the UK!

I'd brought some food, soya milk and cartons of orange juice, so I stood in line with everyone else and made my offerings. The main monk was quite amused to see a farang there.

Tone had to go back to Chiang Mai to work, but the others gave me and my bike a lift all the way back to Bangkok! I was lucky that they were so kind, because I would really have struggled to get a space on a bus or train with the holiday - I'd not realised it was happening.

And after a journey that was pleasant thanks to a co-passenger who spoke good English, and scary thanks to a driver who drove adrenaline-drainingly fast, I arrived at Bangkok at 1.30 in the morning. I left my bike and all my stuff except my wallet and passport in left luggage and got a taxi to Khao San Road (backpacker central) and after a few attempts, found myself a room at 3.30 am. I felt I ought to make the most of my last night in Thailand, but despite it's party reputation, absolutely nothing was open at that time, and they stop selling beer in the shops at midnight. I got chatting to a group who were drinking on the pavement - a Canadian called Ty, an Australian called Jimmy, and six crazy japanese guys. They informed me that you can still buy beer illegally in the shops - just smile, and give them 100B, and they might keep the change as a bonus (though in my case they just charged me the normal price of 50B).

After some in-depth and drunken conversations about the state of Thailand, the two of the crazy Japanese guys started pushing each other around and shouting, and a Thai taxi driver threatened to call the cops, so bearing in mind the strong need not to get on the wrong side of Thai police, me, Ty and Jimmy made a hasty exit to our respective guesthouses. It was time to sleep anyway - it was past 5, and we were the last people on the street apart from the hookers.

After very little sleep I got up to make the most of my last day to do some shopping. I have discovered the best way to get around Bangkok: the motorbike taxi. It is so fast because they can dodge up the side of the traffic jams like a bike, but it's faster than a bicycle thanks to the motor. And it is so much fun! And because I'm a passenger I can take in all the scenery that I can't when I'm cycling (because I'm having to watch the traffic) or when in a bus or taxi (because the roof gets in the way). I went to the bike shop and sorted out a box for my bike, then hit the MBK mall and spent lots of money on software, DVDs and a shiny new digital camera (Pentax Optio WPI 6 mpx for anyone that's interested), then headed out to the airport, dismantled my bike and checked in with no problems at all - they didn't even charge me extra for the bike!

The flight to Sydney was pleasant - I was sitting between a well travelled middle aged Australian from the same suburb as my Dad's cousin who I'm off to see tomorrow, and a young Spanish guy who's birthday it was that day and was off to live with his girlfriend for three months. I got the train into the city centre and discovered that rather than being scorching hot and in the 30s, it was raining.

I found Nicky's flat on the edge of Chinatown without any problems and was welcomed by her boyfriend Rowney. I knew he was big into cycling, but it turns out he's REALLY into cycling. He's an ex-pro racer, mostly mountian biking, and competed in the olympics! He was pretty famous in the late 90s when mountain biking was at it's biggest. I'm sure I must have come across him when I used to read the biking magazines religiously as a teenager. He's got three absolutely amazing bikes in the flat. He now sells Yeti bikes - his road bike frame was custom made for him. He took me out for a ride around Sydney and at one beauty spot up on the cliffs an old American guy came up to us and was suitably awed by it. I don't really know much about high-end bikes, but even I am impressed. What impressed me was how seriously fit he is. We rode about 30 miles and he was clearly taking it extremely easy as I struggled to keep up. It was a great way to see the city. We rode past the parliament buildings, and then suddenly arrived at the Sydney Opera House and harbour bridge. Then we went past the botanic gardens and east through Kings Cross, Double Bay, through the posh suburbs with the occasional stunning modern house and lots of dull pillbox houses, watched the bmx-ers at the skate park at Bondi Beach, then stopped to see his friends at a bike shop. Rowney very kindly fixed up my bike a bit - including changing my drop-bar handlebars to be at the correct angle. i've spent the last six weeks with them set up wrongly! Doh! It's totally changed the handling, and feels much more comfortable. We had a delicious veggie burger, then headed back through a huge park (centennial park) and back to Nicky's flat.

In the evening when Nicky got back we drank some delicious Australian beer and wine, and Rowney made tasty babaganoush, followed by fantastic gnocchi. Nicky's got herself a good man here! I'm really enjoying good western food again. I love Thai food, but I got kinda sick of having rice and veg so often as the only vegetarian option in the many villages I was passing through. But I know that in a couple of weeks I'll be aching for it again.

Today's been an interesting rambling exploration of Sydney. I wandered around downtown looking at the shops and bizarre mix of architecture - bland skyscrapers, elaborate neo-classical collonial, and the occasional unexpected art-nouvau facade or gothic revival church. I did the touristy thing of going up a tall tower to see the view, and wandered around the beautiful botanic gardens and learned all about orchids - a plant that was amazingly prevelant in Thailand, but which I struggle not to kill in Edinburgh.

I ended the day by wandering around the Opera House. Yesterday I'd been seriously underwhelmed by it. It's one of those buildings that has occupied a place in my imagination for a long time thanks to it's very striking architecture, and having seen so many beautiful photos. So when I actually saw it there was no way that it could possibly live up to that. The same thing happened when I first saw the Pantheon. But this evening as I walked around it in the bright, pre-thunderstorm light, I fell in love with it. The shapes are so beautiful, the views change so much as you get closer, or move to another angle.

As the thunderstorm hit I felt very glad that I wasn't one of the people doing the walk over the arches of the bridge, and ran for a bus back to the town hall, where Nicky had booked us tickets for an evening lecture about sustainable building. It was an interesting lecture, even though it barely scratched the surface of the issues. The atmosphere of the lecture was very different to similar events I've attended in the UK. Much more chilled out and informal, with people swearing occasionally and cracking jokes that were actually funny.

We wandered home past Darling Harbour admiring the night time views of the unsustainably-illuminated skyscrapers. I feel like it's a pretty nice city from my first impressions. Flicking through the free live music paper is breathtaking - there's so much happening. People seem pretty friendly for such a big city. It's quite an under-stated place - it's not breathtakingly beautiful like Edinburgh or Florence. But it does still have a certain beauty about it with the opera house, nice public spaces and sculptures. But it is ridiculously large. Cycling 30 miles yesterday I hardly saw any of it. I'll see a lot more of the suburbs tomorrow evening as I head out to meet my relatives. And because of it's size and it's rather poor public transport the car really is prevelant here.

Thursday 9th Feb, Chiang Rai

2006-02-10T00:50:00.000-05:00

Didn't sleep too well for some reason. So I got up at 5.30 and went to see the market. Lots of the local hilltribe women there in the beautiful traditional dress. Again I was wrong about it being just for the tourists. Had a breakfast of coffee and deep fried dough, then wealked up the hill to watch the sunrise.

Set off at 8ish - a few very steep hills, some pushing, then a wonderful ridge and long descent back down to the plains and rice fields - the mountains dissapearing into the haze and memores.
My plan had been to cycle north to Mae Sai - the northernmost point of Thaialand, then cycle to Chiang Rai the following day. But while cycling today I saw a signpost and realised it was the same distance to Mae Sai and Chiang Rai - both along the main highway 1. ANd a few folk had said that Mae Sai was nothing special, so I decided to make today my last day of riding and chill out in Chiang Rai for a couple of days before meeting Tone.

The ride along the highway was fine. It was funny to pass all the stalls selling the same thing agian. At first it was oranges for five miles. Then it was pineapples for 10 or so miles. It was funny because I'd just been thinking an hour before that the one thing I'd miss by not spending time in Bangkok before I go would be pineapple because I'd notseen it for sale in the north. So I was glad to eat some.

But the road passed quickly - dead flat, gentle tail wind, averaging 15 mph. I made an 8km detour to see the heavily advertised Karen Long Neck Village. It was a total fake, as is all the Karen Long Neck stuff. The whole 'village' had been built entirely for teh tourists, with different sections inhabited by different hill tribes shipped in specially. And as you approached they hurriedly put on their traditional costumes. But at least I didn't feel guity about taking photos.
So now I'm in Chiang Rai - a much smaller and quieter place than I'd expected. Spent the afternoon at the hilltribe education centre learning a bit more about the people I've seen over the last few weeks. It was a good exhibition, though some of their stuff about the slash & burn agriculture was rather academically out-dated. They had an interesting exhibition on opium, which included a short article on the early use of herion as a way to get people off opium addiction!

Had a good green curry in the adjoining restaurant - cabbages and condoms - a charity that aims to make condoms as widely available as cabbages.

Spent the evening shopping at the night market - bought some beautiful handwoven bags and watched some dancing, then experimented with wierd food - the best of which was the spicy papaya salad - very tasty, but left me struggling to breath.

Wed 8th Feb, Mae Salong

2006-02-10T00:48:00.000-05:00

This morning I fell in love with the town of Thaton. I went to a wee roadside stall for a breakfast of coffee and American-style pancake, with which I sampled loads of the lady's home-made jams. I got chatting to a German who lives there for 3 months a year, who recommended a walk up to the temple, so I did.

It was exhausting, but absolutely amazing. Because it is in such a beautiful, popular location it gets lots of donations from rich Thais from Chiang Mai and Bangkok. And also, according to the German, one of the top monks in Thailand lives here - apparently he's rather irreverently called the Hi Fi monk due to his un-Buddhist love for the best hifi equipment. So all this money has led to a big complex of buddhas, temples, stupas and accommodation for themany monks, spreading up the hill.

The view, even from the first wat, was amazing - the low morning sun over the paddy fields and river, the low cloud. After half an hour of walking through all this up the steep hill I came to a massive new stupa they were building - the beautiful colourful patterns and gold bands shining in the sun. They were playing Buddhist music (tibetan). Below me the cloud was blowing up the steep forested valley past the tiny huts of the hill tribe villages in Burma, over the ridge, and down to Thaton. It was so, so, beautiful. It really moved me. I'm sure I have seen more beautiful places in my life, but something about the context, the timing, the music, my emotional state, my conscioussness, made that a very special moment.

From there I descended to the misty ridge to see the final site - a standing gold Buddha. I returned to the stupa, where I got chatting to teh guy who was doing the aluminium sculpting on it. As I went back down the mountain I stopped at the main Wat area for one last look at the view, and got chatting to a young monk, who asked if I would help him withi his English studies. So for half an hour or so we went through his textbook, me correcting his pronunciation (and the occasional mistake in the textbook!) He was really interesting to chat to.

Then I headed back to Thaton for a second breakfast of scrambled eggs, and hit the road at 10.30.

The ride ambled pleasantly along the valley for 15 miles or so through the orange groves (stopped for some freshly squeezed), then I hit thi hills. I tired myself out a bit on the first one in my stubborness, so stopped at a village that was being run as some sort of ethical community tourist project. I got a guided tour, but it all felt a bit staged - the "village blacksmith" who'd clearly just lit the fire moments before, the three pristinely dressed women playing music and dancing around a log, etc. But it was interesting, even if only to see an attempt at ethical tourism. But the craft shop was brilliant. I ended up buying two beautiful handwoven cushion covers with embroidered geometcial designs. I found it funny that I bought them - I had cushions as decorations.

I struggled to find a veggie lunch anywhere along the road, so ended up with junkfood.
The last 10 miles or so were really tough - v. steep - lots of 1st gear, lots of pushing. Took almost 2 hours. But very pretty to be in the mountains again.

Eventually reached Mae Salong - a very long straggling village. It's Yuannanese (Chineese). I'm staying at a friendly, beautiful, and ridiculously cheap guesthouse (Shinsane) for 50 B! Had a hot shower, then chatted to a friendly Israeli guy who'd passed me pushing my bike earlier. He's been travelling in Burma and loved it. I took a walk to one of the many tea shops and drank tea with a group of old ladies. The ritual was interesting. They put the leaves in a small pot, add boiling water, and drain straight away into a glass jug, which is used to fill teh tall thin china cups and the small round cups to preheat them. The second fill of the pot is then poured into the jug, and into the tall thin cups, which we then pour into the round ones, and sniff at the empty tall ones, and then drink from the round ones. The pot is repeatedly filled and poured into the jug, which is used for constant top ups. Very delicious. It was the family's freshest tea - just ready that day.

I asked if I could buy some, but a customer had already tried it and bought the entire batch. I got chatting to the owner, and was asking him about his plantation and business, so he took me out the back and talked me through the process. They pick the leaves and put them in the hhot sun forfive minutes to ferment, then bake them, tuble them, compress them, tumble, compress, etc, then dry them in hot blown air. All this taking a day or so. And then it'sready to be drunk! He took me onto the roof of his house to show me his fields on the mountainside above and below. They also make soy sauce the traditional way, and were drying the beans on the roof.

I went back to the guesthouse for a delicious meal of fried mushrooms and veg done in northern Thai style, then chatted to the Israeli guy again and we went for some food at a place claiming to be vegetarian, but wasn't particularly. He got me very enthused about cycling in Mongolia... So the list is now New Zealand, Nepal, Laos, Iran, Indonesia, and now Mongolia.

Tuesday 7th Feb, Fang. On the road, footloose and Malarone free

2006-02-07T00:45:00.000-05:00

Well I'm feeling much better today, so it looks like it may well have been the Malarone. I got up with my appetite fully restored, and had a rather unpleasant breakfast of instant coffee and steamed white buns (a typical Northern Thai breakfast, apart from the coffee being instant).

Set off immediatly onto a 2km steep push, then an absolutely glorious but impossibly steep and twisty 10km descent, ears popping, struggling to a halt every few minutes to let my rims cool down from all the braking.

I descended through the orange groves stopping for a delicious bottle of freshly squeezed orange juice, then paused at a beautiful Wat, where I got chatting to the Singaporian English teacher, who introduced me to the head monk at the Temple. He spoke a bit of English and was keen to hear about Scotland and so he showed me around the temple and we chatted for an hour or so. He was astounded to hear how much money I earned. I still find it difficult talking about that, as the disparity between what I earn and what a rural Thai person earns is so vast.

I left a donation for the Wat, and he insisted on filling up my bag with delicious oranges and other fruit which I've been munching on throughout the morning.

I'm now taking a relaxing lunch break, before cycling another 20 or so miles this afternoon, where I'll decide whether to go for a super-strenous day to a beautiful Chineese village in the mountains with delicious tea, or whether to take the river boat to the City of Chiang Rai and chill out, or whether there's some other fascinating option to fill my last few days...

I am really appreciating being well again, and able to ride. I hope it lasts.

Mon 6th Feb, Doi Angkhan

2006-02-07T00:26:00.000-05:00

I do choose good places to be ill! In the summer I got sick in teh beautiful and relaxing villa in Italy. And in Thailand I don't think I culd have ended up at a better place. It's so beautiful here in the mountains. And it is relatively cool as it is so high and there are even some clouds. I think I am adjusting to Thai temperatures though. Yesterday evening I came out in the dark in trousers, 2 t-shirts, a long sleeved cycling top and a micro-fleece and saw on teh thermoometer that it was still 20 degrees C! And it is so quiet. It doesn't seem to be on the farang tourist train, and Thai tourists only really come at weekends. Now that I've been here a couple of days a few people recognise me and say hi as I pass.

This morning though really justified my decision to come here. After waking at 7ish feeling a little better, I descended back into bed watching a dull football match with a bag of crisps (needing to replace lost salts - at least that's how I justified it to myself), i finally dragged myself out and set off to explore teh Angkhan Royal Agricultural Research Centre next to the village. It is stunning. The first area I went to was an enclosed space nestled against the beautiful limestone cliff, filled with beautiful ferns and orchids; the visula beauty backed by the soothing sounds of teh water.

The next section was the bonsai trees. Very pretty, but my interest was more in watching the guys cleaning teh big glass dome. Then a group of Thai tourists arrived and suddenly I was surrrounded by pretty girls and a ladyboy getting their photo taken with me, to the sound of "neung, sawng, saam" (1 2 3). Amusing.

Thai tourists are shameless photographers. Where I'll be tying myself in knots about the ethics of photographing a villager in their beautiful outfit, they'll be happily snapping away. Damn geography degree. As I was cycling up the hills 2 days ago quite a few folk were hanging out of their windows taking photos of the crazy farang.

After visiting the beautiful colours of the vegetable arden and teh pretty rose arden I came to teh sensory garden. It was spectacular - the colours, the textures, and teh smells! The smells. I have discovered my favourite smell - osmanthus.

Feeling exhausted and tired by the short 1km walk I stopped for a delicious coffee and cake, and as I idly flicked through the menu my appetite came roaring back - all the delicious dishes prepared with their own fresh vegetables. In the end I opted for some simple but delicious spring rolls. While I was eating there were a few drops of rain - I thought that was very strange - the first I'd felt in Thailand.

I went back to sleep in my room for the afternoon, waking to watch yesterday's rugby game between Scotland and France. And amazingly Scotland played well and won! That cheered me up. While that was on an enormous rainstorm hit, with thunder and lightning echoing around teh mountains. After it stopped I went for another walk amid the amazing smells and beautiful crisp clear evening light. Had a delicious punnet of strawberries, then went for another crappy overpriced pizza, and while there a powercut hit. I was quite glad - it killed the dreadful country music they were playing as punishment for me being so pathetic as to eat Western food.

The evening amid the powercut was quite pleasant - I sat around a brazier outside my hotel with an old Thai guy, and chatted to another guy who was holidaying en-route to display some night vision stuff at the Chiang Mai motorshow.

This evening I finally figured out that my illness is due to the side effects of the malaria tablets I've been taking (Malarone). My symptoms match those on GSK's leaflet, and I've been ill for too long for it just to be some dodgy food. Malarone's a relatively safe malaria pill, but I guess by exerting myself so much with the cycling I've brought out the side effects. I've decided to stop taking them, as it's been over a week since I was anywhere that might potentially have been malarial, and I'm not going to be anywhere else that is.

Sunday 5th Feb, Still in Doi Ang Khan

2006-02-05T06:46:00.000-05:00

Today I learned the Thai for "it's beautiful here", "I feel ill" and "where is the toilet".

Interestingly the Thai for beautiful and toilet are very similar - soo-ay and soo-am. I'll have to be careful when I next reply to questions about the attractiveness of someones daughter...

I didn't sleep very well - rather uncomfortable without a mat, and felt ill. We got up at 5am to go and watch the sunrise on top of the mountain with 100 other campers. It was very bizarre - there was a whole row of bonfires and cafes there in the dark. It looked pretty cloudy and I was feeling awful, so I ended up sleeping in Ton's pickup. I'll look at their photos.

We then drove to a small mountainside village where they grow strawberries on teh steep terraces. we picked a tasty tubfull in the beautiful morning light. It was the first time Ton had picked strawberries. He was amazed that at home parents grow them in the garden.

We then passed through another mountain village with the townspeople walking to the fields in their beautiful outfits, then went to an army post at the Burmese border. I had not realised how close I was to teh border - the roads do very different things here to what is shown on any of the 4 maps I've seen. I stuck my arm over the border through the barbed wire fence. They had interesting sandbag bunkers, and had used the same sandbags to make raised flowerbeds.

We drove back to our tents. Ton and Tha Ton made a breakfast of noodles and veg, and two boiled eggs for me. I was feeling dreadful by this point, so I said goodbye and found myself a really nice room for 300B - big comfy bed, TV, and most importantly for someone in my condition - an en-suite toilet. Spent most of the day asleep and woke up to see England thrashing Wales rather unexitingly. The sports chanel is the only English language chanel. I hate sport on TV. I think I must have left it on as I slept for some kind of comfort-crutch.

I don't know what I'll do if I dont' get better soon. I'd like to do more riding round to the Laos border, but round here it's all really strenous. And I only have 5 days riding left. At worst I'll get a lift to the main road and the bus to Chiang Mai, and do a coach and elephant-back tour of Doin Inthanon (the highest mountain in Thailand) and then meet up with Ton.

It is so frustrating being ill and seeing the days and the wonderful opportunities slipping bye, I am more ill today than two days ago - I guess I overdid it yesterday.

I've managed to leave my room to the plush resort where they've let me use their computer in the back of the office, once they'd finished dealing with a really arsey old man from Vienna and his young Thai wife... Made me rather ashamed to be European.

Speaking of being European, I think tonight, for the first time on my trip, I am going to give in and eat western food for supper. I can't stomach Thai food right now.

Sat 4th Feb, Doi Ang Khan

2006-02-05T06:29:00.000-05:00

Today I felt a bit better, so I decided to press on. I still felt weak and slow, but didn't find it so frustrating because I knew I was a bit ill. I pretty quickly turned off the main road and spent the day on one of the quietest roads I've been on. The area feels very different to anywhere I've been before. The land was more open, and felt more like forest than jungle. I saw my first citrus trees of the trip.

Half way through the morning I met two nice Belgians who were riding teh same way as me, nd over teh day we rode together quite a bit and chatted.

At lunch I paid with a 500B note, something I try to avoid in rural areas. She gave me change as if I'd given 100, but I smiled and said five, and immediatly she put her hand in her apron and brough out the other 400 - she didn't even pretend or make a fuss.

and after lunch came a headwind (my first of the trip) and the steepest, toughest hills of thr trip! I would have struggled even at full fitness. I caught up with the Belgian couple and we pushed and rode together. They've ridden all over Europe (including the alps) and New Zealand and said that this was teh hardest they'd ever done! I'm not sure what altitude we reached, certainly over 1000m. It got so beautiful - lots of really steep mountains on all sides, one of the most beautiful places I've seen.

When I reached the junction to teh first place with accommodation I stopped to wait for the Belgians to see what their plans were. Two young Thai guys stopped to chat. One of them tours a lot on his bike - the first Thai I've met who does.

They ended up giving the Belgians a lift to the next village, and offered to let me camp with them, so I followed behind on the first downhill all day. They had a spare tent and sleeping bag, and we pitched up in the garden of a school among the cherry trees. Had a chilly Thai-style shower - baltic at first, but as always I slowly adjusted to the cold water. Then we went for supper in teh village.

It's an amazing place - nestled amongst the mountains. It seems predominantly muslim, and most of the residents are Yuannanese from China. The two Thai guys - Ton and Tha Ton (like Tom with an 'N'. Tha means 'tall') - chose some delicious veggie dishes which we shared. This area is much cooler than the rest of Thailand, and is famous for its vegetables. One dish had amazing mushrooms in a dark, sweet and sour style sauce. Another was delicious veggies in a similar sauce. One was a cripsly vegetable a bit like fried seaweed, with some kind of dark pickled eggs that looked rank, but tasted amazing.

We chatted lots. They both work for a company that provides business advice. They are up from Bangkok working in Chiang Mai, so drove to this area to camp for the weekend. It seems a very popular thing to do for Thais - there are loads of people camping at the official campsite. Apart from the Belgians and me there don't seem to be any other farang. Thais only get about 7 days holiday a year, so weekend trips are very popular.

Ton made me an amazing offer. On the 11th I can go with him and some friends to a remote village in the very north to take some donations. We'll camp for a night or two, then he'll drive me and my bike back all the way to Bankok, stopping to see a place where monks ride horses to get their morning donations, to see teh coffee fields, and to see a long neck Karen village if I want to. And we will be in Bangkok at midnight or so before my 5pm flight on the 14th! Such an exciting and great offer!

3rd Feb, Sick Day

2006-02-03T06:43:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm still ill, so had to take a day off riding in this rather dull town. I got up at 7.30 to see if I was better and spent half an hour watching a bizarre parade of schoolkids along the only street through town - their bands and chearleading and baton throwing snarling up the traffic for miles! Anarchy starts early in Thailand!

Spent most of the day sleeping, but have ventured out briefly for emails and to attempt to get some food. It feels very strange not having an appetite after weeks of eating ravenously.

I think getting sick is the only bad thing about travelling on your own, and even that's not too serious. Just frustrating and dull.

Thursday 2nd Feb, Chiang Dao

2006-02-02T08:54:00.000-05:00

I am absolutely wiped out and feel like crap, but I'll attempt to capture some of the feeling of the great morning I had before illness began festering in my tummy.

Last night was pretty quiet. I went to a very small busy bar and had a tall bamboo mug of delicious herbal tea, followed by an even more delicious mug of ginger tea, and chatted to a rather dull Canadian teaching English in Korea.

I got up at 6 and as I emerged into the darkness and the sound of the crickets and cockerels a figure stumbled out of the darkness - a very happy man who'd spent the night smoking opium and weed, who was looking for his friend's room. We had a pleasant chat and he staggered back into the happy darkness.

I was packed and in town before sunsires to get a seriously unhealthy breakfast of deep fried dough, coffee and an egg pancake.

I set off through the beautiful cool mist - droplets of dew forming on the bleached-blonde hairs of my arms. As I reahed the big 1250m pass these droplets gradually mingled with the perspiration.

I really, really enjoyed the ascent. My legs were strong and rested, the jungle and views beautiful, the traffic light, and the temperature relatively cool. Did lots of thinking - jobs (a bad idea when you're having such a great ride - all you want to do is carry on riding), plans, relationships, forming a theory on Generation Lonely Planet.

I got an email yesterday from someone called Ian with an email address not in my address book, but that I vaguelly recognised. It was a short but friendly email, and I really couldn't think who this Ian was. It seemed to be from someone I'd met in Thailand but I couldn't remember giving my email address to anyone called Ian. I sent a brief reply. Today I realised that it was Ian from work, on holiday in South Africa. Doh!

The ascent was quiet as it was still pretty early - just a few mopeds and pickups, and a coke lorry and a beer lorry, slowly crawling down the steep twisting road, gears and brakes roaring, on their way to refuel Pai.

At the top of the pass I stopped at the cafe and had a delicious coffee, and sat there in the glorious sun, feeling great, and wrote a couple of postcards with a purring cat on my lap licking at the dregs of my coffee.

The descent was long and good. I almost hit a huge snake! It was wriggling furiously across the road as I swooped around a corner, going too fast to stop. If it had been crossing in the other direction I would have hit it. I had visions of it getting caught in my wheel and thrown on top of me...

Stopped at a row of cafes in a wee village, where all the cooks and diners entered into a big shouted conversation about which one had something veggie. I ended up with rice and omlette.

I met three guys cycling in the opposite direction. Didn't speak to the first one as he was ahead of the others and I was being half-heartedly chased by a dog at the time. But the other two were really friendly - a German and a Spaniard who had been travelling for 7 and 12 months across Europe and India. They recommended Nepal very strongly, and also the area around Manila in the Phillipines. Hmm, more trips beckon... They also said that they sleep most nights for free in Wats. Sounds like something I should try. Though it does feel slightly unethical because I can afford a guesthouse and will not really be many places where there isn't one.

Just before I hit the main road north from Chiang Mai I came across the Wat that the two americans on the boat to Surat Thani had been so enthusiastic about. It was incredible. Stepping out of the lowland midday head into the cool dark vast space, the walls beautifully muralled with scenes of Buddha's life, intricate collumns decorated with mirrored coloured glass and carvings, a beautiful ornate red and gold panelled ceiling, and a large gold buddha presiding over it all.

And then I hit the main road north. It was the busiest traffic I'd seen since I left Bangkok one and a half weeks ago, and was really shocking and unpleasant. I retreated into the big market selling deep fried chicken feet and gorged myself on roasted bananas and some kind of baked eggy, creamy cakes in an attempt to put off the unpleasantness.

As I set off along that road I began to feel so tired and unhappy, my spirits lifting with teh occasional break in traffic or a friendly wave from a family in their quiet cafe, only for my spirits to be slowly erroded by every blast of exhaust fume or short ascent. The road got nicer after 10 miles or so - quieter, back into the forest. I had a long break for a cold Pepsi and water and felt a little better, but still very tired. Passed elephants grazing by the roadside.

Eventually pulled into town at 5 after 85 miles and spent about half an hour trying to find the cheap hotel listed in the Lonely Planet (I only found it when I had to stop for a broken-down moped and happened to glance up a side-street). It was deserted. For once I was glad of the barking dogs, hoping they would alert teh owner. But no. They stopped and carried on scratching in the dirt. The only other person around was a lovely wizened old man sitting there chatting away to me in Thai, his green tracksuit trousers pulled up over his round naked belly. Eventually a kind shopkeeper showed me teh hidden bell, which, after two rings, produced the owner. It's a beautiful old wooden hotel.

Despite a shower and clean clothes and bowl of noodle soup I still feel awful and my stomach is aching. Either I gave myself food poisoning yesterday on my cooking course, or I've been eating too much sugary fried crap.

The only other farang in town is a rathe bemused French woman. This is her first night outside the cities in the north, and I guess this isn't what you might expect of a 'rural' Thai town. It's a typically untouristy, unglamorous, un-beautiful, uninteresting, busy, lovely little town with simple cafes, a few shops and a main road running through buzzing with mopeds.

Wednesday 1st February, Pai

2006-02-01T08:36:00.000-05:00

I can't believe a full month of 2006 has passed already!

Today has revolved around food even more so than a normal day. I woke pretty early so wandered around Pai in the cold quiet streets. None of teh restaurants had opened, putting pay to my plan of a westernised breakfast of scrambled eggs. Instead I did a tour of the food vendors on the high street - dim sum from one, deep fried dough from another. Egg roti from one combined with a fantastic cup of Thai filtered coffee from another. Then a wander and some postcard writing, then back for a crazy cup of Thai tea - bright orange and very sweet. Lovely.

I cycled out of town a couple of km to a lovely riverside resort where they do veggie Thai cooking lessons. I was the only student. We started by driving to the wednesday market (lucky timing!) which was a crazy bustle of tents with people from teh mountain villages selling all sorts of fruit and veg. We then drove to a place that sells fresh coconuts. Then we spent an hour or so chopping all the garlic, chillis, ginger, shallots, lemongrass, and all the strange Thai ingredients. Then we spent about two hours grinding everything to an impossibly smooth collection of pastes in the pestle and mortar. It took so long! And despite my massive breakfast I was getting really hungry. And then finally we cooked three delicious curries and pad thai. And then finally, finally, I got to gorge myself on the most delicious food I've had in Thailand.

The red and green curreis tasted so amazing with the fresh coconut milk - way better than tinned. Of the two I think I preferred the red curry with pumpkin. But that's partly because I had green curry just before I was ill in Koh Tao, and partly because I'm not a fan of the mini-eggplant we put in the green curry. The third curry was a norther-Thailand style curry. No coconut this time. Instead - red curry paste, Tamarind, dark soy sauce, textured vegetabel protein (the first time I'd ever cooked with this - pretty nice), delicious straw and shiitake mushrooms, and pineapple. Really rich and dark and strong.

And my teacher was great - really interesting to chat to. He's Thai, from Bangkok, but had to leave the city for unspecified reasons. He told me about the dreadful rural hospitals where they prescribe paracetemol for everything, and about the huge 2m flood they had here last year.

I then spent the afternoon digesting with a big pot of green tea next to the river and chatting to a friendly American couple who live in Colorado. They'd come for 2 months of rock climbing, and here they are 3 months later. My enthusiastic description of my ride must have been infectious, because as teh afternoon wore on out came the map, and plans were formed to go to the nearby city of Chiang Mai to buy bikes and cycle around N. Thailand and into Laos down the Mekong. I hope they do it!

I cycled back to my guesthouse, where I did battle with the dribbling shower that randomly switched between boiling and freezing, and changed into my freshly laundered clothes. I can't describe how good that felt...

Back on the road today - a long day if I'm to make it to a guesthouse - a rather unlikely 105 miles with a 1400m pass inbetween. Think I may be having a night in a police box or under the stars.

Tuesday 31st Jan, 8pm, Pai

2006-01-31T09:05:00.000-05:00

Today was one of those days when i should have got up at 6am, and been riding with the sunrise.

Today was one of those days when i shouldn't have had a large bottle of beer the night before.

Today was neither of these.

Today was one of those days that started with a big four-egg scrambled egg and pot of green tea reading the paper, followed by a big mug of delicious coffee at another place, only hitting the road at 9.

Today was one of those days where I resorted to caffeine and sugary junk food to get me over the four high passes and 110 km/70 miles.

Today was wonderful.

The first four miles were along a beautiful valley with steep jungled cliffs rising up through the morning mist. There was an amazing view at one opint of the sun just peeping over the cliff - it's rays spreading through a palm tree out onto the mist. I was completely unable to photograph it.

From there I started up the first pass with a stunning view back to the mist-filled valley past a pretty Burmese-style Wat. That first pass wasn't too tough, and at the bottom I stopped for my 11 o'clock egg fried rice & veg.

The second pass was a bit tougher - quite like yesterday's. On the descent I actually braked despite the great road - the views over the mountains was breathtaking! Breathtaking views on the descent, after a breathtaking, lung-bursting ascent. It got me thinking that cycling is rather like Thai massage - painful, but you know that it's worth it. Slightly (only slightly!?) masochistic. I met a German couple there going in the opposite direction having cycled through Laos (and like everyone else they gave it a glowing recommendation for cycling). Very friendly folk. We exchanged route advice, then carried along on our separate ways.

The third pass was the killer - high, steep, hot. I made it, and stopped for a delicious local arabica coffee at the top to the sound of the beautiful bamboo pipes that they play here. Met another German couple on the descent and chatted. They'd cycled Cambodia & Laos. Their altimeter was showing 750m well below the summit.

Stopped for lunch in Soppong in a rather seedy, fly-infested cafe. It was market day, so the village was busy with rather poverty-stricken looking folk from the local mountain villages.

As I left the village looking at the mountains ahead I really wasn't sure whether I should carry on and try to reach Pai in one day. I knwe that there was one big pass ahead, and the 2nd Germans had told me that Pai was at the top of a 1400 m pass, and that i wouldn't make it. They were wrong on both counts.

But the pass was a struggle with my tiring legs. But once I got into the rhythm of it all I had a great time - the views, the steep switchbacks, and the regular waves and beeps and shouts of encouragement from passing mopeds and pickups. But from 2km before the top, and for the majority of the descent they were doing resurfacing work (levening the road according to the sign - apparently unleavened roads are not very practical), and the riding was horrible. At one point I was riding through mud - it flying up covering my bike and me. For the descent I couldn't even think of releasing my back brake as I crawled at 7mph down the steep loose sand and gravel, the dust from two aggregate lorries spewing up into my face and eyes, making me even more filthy than I already was. i was so sure that I was going to come off that I stopped and put my T-shirt back on so that the gravel rash wouldn't be quite so bad.

But I made it, and even managed to overtake the two horrible lorries. And when i reached the completed road, the riding was fabulous - fast 40mph roads, swooping bends, stunning views, and an excellent surface. And then I passed the 15 km marker - the point in the day when i know I can make it. And at sunset I arrived in Pai - the hippy capital of Thailand.

I've got a lovely room down next to the river. I'm dressed in my swimming shorts and spare cycling top as every single other item of clothing is being washed for the first time in rather too long. I've arranged to have a vegetarian thai cooking course tomorrow (a REST day!) and I have a beer full of belly (can't believe I just typed that). Sorry. I have a belly full of beer and pad see-ew (delicious flat noodles cooked in soy sauce with veg & tofu) and am feeling rather sleepy, but really want to make the most of being in a lively town with no cycling to do tomorrow.

And for once the internet cafe isn't full of testosterone-fuelled teenage boys shooting each other screaming with excitement thanks to the wonders of online gaming. Instead every internet cafe in town is full of farang checking emails and football results, and in the case of the chap sitting next to me, looking at porn.

This time tomorrow I shall be a culinary master...

Oh. A few folk have said that I should include a map of where I am. I would, but it's rather a hassle. OK I'll try. but in case it doesn't work - find a map of thailand. If you look at it there's a big lump at the top, and a tail going south. I spent the first three weeks cycling down the east side of that tail from Bangkok to an unmarked town, then got the boat to an unmarked island just next to Ko Pha-Ngan (diving), crossed it from Surat Thani to near Krabi (rock climbing), went to an island half way between Krabi and Phuket (partying) then got the bus to half way up the big lump from Phuket via Bangkok to Sukhothai. I then cycled west to the border with Burma (just north of Mae Sot), then cycled all the way up that border to the north, and I've now just reached the top and started cycling east (I'm just north west of Chiang Mai). My vague plan is to head north some more following the border to where Laos, Burma & Thailand meet (the golden triangle), then head down the Laos border until I run out of time - then popping back to Chiang Mai and cycling up Doi Inthanon (yes, rather high and steep) then bussing it back to Bangkok and then to Cambodia for a couple of days in Angkor Wat. But my plans are rather susceptible to change.

And here, hopefully, is a map of thailand...

Monday 30th Jan, Mae Hong Son

2006-01-30T08:12:00.000-05:00

What a wonderfully relaxing day!

Was awoken by the music from the town loudspeakers at 6.30, and dozed 'til 7, then went to a friendly little cafe in a beautiful teak building for a breakfast of egg fried rice & veg. After a bit of discussion I gota good pot of green tea - she called it Chaa Chiang Mai.

Said goodbye to the Israelis I met last night at the guesthouse, and set off at 8.30 in the cool morning sun. From looking at my dreadful 1:1,500,000 scale map I was expecting a tough hilly day, so I'd only planned to do 70km to the next big town. But actually it turned out to be a really easy day with one gentle pass and lots of pleasant up and down through quiet valleys and pretty jungle. I stopped after a couple of hours for a second breakfast of fried rice. Saw a group of organ donors touring on their motorbikes - one almost crashed into a police pickup on a corner passing me. Saw the Israelis three times as tehy diverted up to see villages in teh mountains. Stopped again at a very friendly place advertising fresh coffee, where they fed me bananas (and coffee of course) and the old man who spoke excellent English told me how corrupt Prime Minister Thaksin is. They have beautiful looking bungalows there is anyone is ever in the area.

(Songvitthaya Siang-Arom, Waleekarn Garden, 53 Moo 6, Huaynamoon-Ban Huay Pong Karn Nok, Tambol Pabong Amphur Muang, Mae Hong Sorn Province 58000, tel 0-9073-9337. The phone connection can be a bit dodgy at night due to Prime Minister Thaksin's corrupt plundering and privatisation of the telecom sector, so if you can't get through his daughter in Bangkok takes bookings on 0-2427-4827).

Soon after that I came to a stunning viewpoint that I almost missed as I zoomed down the beautiful hill. The view was down to a steep valley that was just widening out with a small teak house down in the distance, with bright paddy fields surrounded by dark jungle above. Some Thai tourists took my photo there.

After that wonderful descent I passed three Brits on bikes doing a day trip going in the opposite direction, who shouted that the noodle shop a few hundred metres along the road was good, so I pulled in for lunch at a beautiful quiet cafe among the paddy fields and watched the women rolling cigars. After I finished eating I spoke to the women, mostly in sign language, and worked out that the cigars are rolled in banana leaves, and mixed in with the shells of a nut that has a shell like a huge peanut and grows on the trees here. I bought a bag of 5 cigars for 5 B. Not sure quite what I'll do with them.

The women were really friendly and chatty. They gave me something that they were eating - hopefully the the most foul thing I will ever eat. They were a solid soggy ball of dark green leaves, that were extremely bitter and tasted like concentrated sweat. I managed to eat half by leaving it in my cheek for five minutes waiting for the taste to subside, and then slowly chewing it until I was able to swallow.

One of the women told me that there were hot springs nearby where I could get a massage, and I replied enthusiastically, so she got me to turn around on teh bench and gave me an amazing back massage - it made my whole body tingle.

I said goodbye and cycled a couple of km to the hot springs, where for 150B I got a rather unglamorous room with a huge tiled bath, where I soaked my tired body in the deep hot sulphurous water.

I went to chat to the women at the massage area and shared some food and spoke what little Thai I could, then had my first ever full body massage. It was amazing. At first I found the Thai massage extremely painful - lying there on my back with the muscles in my left leg being pressed and squeezed - my other limbs feeling grateful that they were being spared. But after a while I appreciated the pain led to a good feeling and grew to love it. Having her walk her palms up the back of my aching legs was wonderful, and the hand and foot massage was phenomenal. I'd really like to learn how to do that.

I felt amazing. And one whole hour of massage for 150B! Two pounds! Incredible! I'm going to struggle adjusting to UK prices again.

I sailed the last 10km to Mae Hong Son, pausing only to visit a heavily advertised village of one of the hill tribes. But it looked exactly the same as many of teh other villages I've passed through over the last few days, except that the villagers were less friendly and seemed a bit fed up of all the tourists passing through staring to consume their culture. It left me feeling quite bad about the way these people are packaged for tourism as hill tribes to be consumed and ticked off a list, like bird-spotting or stamp collecting.

Mae Hong Son is a very busy place - quite touristy, but probably more Thai tourists than farang. I'm in a lovely cheap (100B) guesthouse next to a pretty lake surrounded by a few temples, food stalls, and old women doing some sort of yoga or Thai Chi. I wandered around town aimlessly looking at the temples and food market. At one pretty, quiet old wooden temple some boys were playing a game I'd seen most evenings in the villages and towns, and they invited me to join in. It's a sort of group keepy-uppy, but played with a small wicker ball. I'm absolutely crap at football, but gave it a go. The ball was surprisingly heavy, and extremely painful on my unprotected flip-flopped foot. The boys laughed pleasantly when I missed or kicked it in a random direction, and cheered when I managed a good header or knee kick. A great laugh.

I then hit a pleasantly run down cafe to watch the latest episode of Chanel 7's Thai soap that I've been following since Bangkok (tonight bumfluff boy's lost his memory and has been stolen from his girlfriend by the evil straight-haired girl). There I had a lovely fruit shake and painfully hot red curry. I bought the Thai English language paper, which had lots of interesting stuff about all the current scandal with the prime minister selling off their media to foreign companies.

One thing I forgot to write yesterday - I saw my first live snake (previous ones were all squashed). It was about a foot away from my wheel as I cycled slowly up a hill - about 3 feet long, dark green. I got quite a fright as it slithered away through the rustling leaves.

Sunday 29th Jan, Khun Yuam

2006-01-29T08:20:00.000-05:00

Today's ride was only 65 miles, but my legs were really tired from yesterday. I got up at 7 and had breakfast at the guesthouse - omlette and toast. I then set off, but quickly stopped at a couple of roadside stalls - one selling the tasty small round chewy banana and coconut fried things, the other selling yams deep fried in batter (not v. tasty, but I'd never tried them before). A few miles later outside town I stopped at a really friendly woman's stall selling sliced banana deep fried in a batter with sesame seeds. Delicious. I saved most for snacking on the road.

The morning's ride was rolling along the valley, and not particularly interesting with my tired legs. I stopped after 20 miles for another breakfast of Kaa Pad Kai (egg fried rice with veg) then carried on, stopping an hour or so later at a beautiful cafe in amongst vast 300 year old trees. And from there the ride began to get really beautiful. It went up over the one pass of the day into a beautiful narrow winding quiet valley in the hills.

I noticed the Japanese guy from the guesthouse stopped at the side of the road, so pulled over to say hi. He really is touring on that trial bike! He's got a 30 litre rucksack balanced on his handlebars, with his beautiful panama hat balanced on top of that. We chatted a bit. He's been basically on the same route as me, but he took the main road through the mountains where I went via the more northern road with the police and the teachers and scouts. I stopped to get water and he carried on. He didn't seem to into riding together, which was a pity.

A few beautiful miles after that, feeling tired, three guys at the side of the road shouted something in Thai, I think they were asking where I was going. I decided to stop and chat, and they poured me a glass of ice cold Chang beer in the warm afternoon, and that was me for the next hour or so. They were three Karen farmers. One spoke pretty good English, so we chatted lots. He farms up in the hills towards the Burmese border. His main crop is peanuts and garlic, but he also has water buffalo, pigs, bananas, etc. He isn't religious, one friend was Christian, and the other Buddhist. Interesting to see such a mix. In the non-tribal area of Thailand pretty much everyone's Buddhist, except in the south (like where I was in Krabi/Ko Phi Phi) where there are a lot of Muslims. Another of his friends joined us for beer - he drives elephants for logging. They were a great bunch - so friendly and generous and fun. They were constantly joking and punching each other. They taught me that Karen word for fun - Law Ni, as well as a few other useful Thai and Karen phrases. And every time my glass was more than an inch from the top it was topped up again. Eventually I said 'no more' (po law) and wobbled my way down the absolutely amazing 10 mile descent into the town of Khun Yuam.

It's strange. Although the Lonely Planet talks quite a lot of rubbish (for example it says that Thai people don't use chopsticks) and some of it's maps are pretty horrendous, usually its descriptions of places are pretty accurate. But it's description of this town is completely off the mark. I'd expected a tiny place like I was in two nights ago in Mae Salit - one or two cafes that closed at sunset, a couple of small guesthouses. But actually it's a big town stretching about 3 km along the road with loads of shops, cafes, two or three fairly classy places to stay, and the internet cafe where I'm writing this.

I've had a very hearty supper - a plate of pad thai (fried noodles & egg) at one tiny wee place, and a plate of some very spicey veg and rice at another.

I seem to write about food a lot... Sorry. But I eat so much and it's such an important part of my day. And it's so tasty!

Sat 28th Jan, Mae Sariang

2006-01-29T07:57:00.000-05:00

Today has been exhausting.

I woke at 6.30 to the sound of firecrackers marking the last day of the Chineese year, to the sound of cockerels crowing, and the guesthouse owner singing and playing his guitar. I ignored these sounds and tried to sleep longer. It had been a rather cold night.

I enquired about breakfast and he pu tme on the back of his bike again and drove me down the river road to a wee cafe where we drank coffee sweetened with condensed milk and eat deep fried dough, then drank endless cups of delicious green tea, while he told me about the political situation in Burma (like most people in this area he is Karen). He's got a green card because he's been here a long time. He says there's been a ceasefire for two years, but did not seem particularly positive about the military democracy. He then drove me to a little shop where I bought a 5 baht packet of biscuits for the road - six very tasty custard-cream style biscuits. The cream was flavoured with the bizarre Thai fruit (I think it's called Rambutan) - I quite like it.

The first 15 miles was fairly flat along the river, and pleasantly cool in the morning's mysterious mist. With the big river and the jungle and mountains it felt like something from Apocalypse Now. And there's something about being on the border that reminds me of last year in the south of the USA.

I stopped after the first 15 miles for breakfast in a confusing Karen village. But for some stupid reason I forgot to buy water or replace the junk/emergency food I eat last night when all the cafes were closed... And over the following hours I realised how badly I'd underestimated the day's ride.

There was a really gruelling unrelenting climb to a high pass, I'm sure it must have been 1000m or so. It was 4 - 5 mph in 1st gear most of the way, with the occasional super-steep bits - sometimes I powered up them - feeling every muscle in my legs, arms and back. And sometimes I just gave in and pushed, especially in the patches where the road surface deteriorated. And all the while my small stash of food was running lower and lower. By the time I reached a shop at 1.30 I had one biscuit, a few sweets and a chocolate bar from the plane left, and I had started on my emergency half litre bottle of green tea from Hong Kong airport.

I had a junkfood lunch at the shop, of coke, biscuits and one of the foul tasteless white long-life rolls filled with fluorescent goo that seem to be so popular here.

The shop was pretty much at the top of the pass, but it didn't stop being demanding. If anything it was worse. From there it was 20 or 30 miles of steep up and down, with very little flat ground. And it wasn't even as if I could rest on the downhill - it was so steep and windy, and most of the time the road surface was dodgy. On the first descent soon after my lunchbreak I relaxed and went too fast and hit a pebble - immediate snakebite (double puncture). So I had to spend half an hour fixing that and putting on my one spare tube.

So after that, on every descent I was raised up out of the saddle so my legs could absorb the shock of any impact over pebbles or potholes, concentrating really hard trying to spot the loose stones and potholes amongst the dappled shadows of the jungle, and also trying to read the road ahead for bends, super-steep descents, oncoming traffic (rare) and animals, all the time feathering the brakes so I didn't go too fast, but trying not to overheat the brakes or rims and putting myself at risk of another puncture, or crashing and damaging my bike or my self.

While fixing my puncture I got pretty worried that I wasn't going to make it. It had taken six hours from 8am to do just 35 of the 75 miles! Although my legs were coping with the mountains it was very slow going.

I stopped briefly at a few small Karen villages for a bag of delicious tangerines, or water, smiling to the old ladies with red saliva running down their chin from chewing something (Khat?) and waving to the kids.

Despite the difficulty it was actually a great day - so beautiful up high in the mountains, so little traffic, so many friendly people smiling and waving at the roadside or on passing mopeds or sawngthaew. And although most of the descents were slow and tough, there were a few where the roa surface was good, and they were magical - finally I could let go and fly. Swooping down through the jungle around the soaring bends - I felt amazing.

And finally I reached the flat valley, and after 15 miles I pulled into town as the sun was setting and after some confusion with the Lonely Planet's dreadful map I found a nice guesthouse with a hot shower. I showered then had a rather unpleasant meal of soya meat substitute and 'holy' basil. I found a wee bike shop and bought a spare 700 Presta bike tube! That made me happy. I went to an internet cafe where I blogged 'til it closed. I got hungry again, but everything was closed, but I managed to get a big bag of crisps and a small bag of nuts.

I saw a few farang (foriegners) in the town - the first I'd seen for over 3 days - but none were at all chatty. There's a Japanese guy staying in the same hotel, but he didn't say much. I guess his English probably isn't that great. He's got a Trek trials bike with him. The owner of the guesthouse seems to think that he's touring, but it seems unlikely on a bike like that (small frame for doing stunts and huge fat chunky tyres, and no racks to put panniers on).

I've changed my plans for the next few days. I'd planned to go east from here to Doi Inthanon, the highest mountain in Thailand. And although the road sounds great, I can't be bothered coming back the same way, and the one alternative road looks too difficult. So I'm just going to carry on North along this beautiful road, and hopefully do Doi Inthanon from Chiang Mai.

Today's been the toughest day's cycling of my life, except perhaps the first long ride I ever did, which was with Mum aged 6 or 7 cycling the 12 mile round trip to Sanquahar (the village near where I grew up). For some reason I'd only had one weetabix that morning instead of my usual two. So on the way home, never having cycled beyond the end of my drive before, and completely out of energy I flaked out. I don't know how mum managed to get me home. Thankfully that didn't happen today...

Friday 27th Jan, Mae Salit

2006-01-28T08:50:00.000-05:00

What an incredible three days it's been! The task of attempting to capture the experiences in words is seriously indimidating...

The conversation with the drunk Slovakian on Tuesday night was fascinating, especially his time in Bangkok. It was as if someone had given him a list of every way to get ripped off. He'd asked at teh airport about a place to stay, and had been told he couldn't get anywhere for less than 1000B a night (250 - 300 is reasonable). He ended up in a hotel for 800B. The taxi there cost him 500B (he didn't make them use the meter - it should have been 250 - 300B). At teh hotel he drained the bar in his room (1000B) then went to teh first bar he came to outside his hotel. He was right in the red light district, so as soon as he sat down a beautiful girl came and sat with him telling him how beautiful he was, smiling at him, and putting his hand on her leg. He had to pay her 1000B for her company. When he came to leave he discovered that the bill for his coke and beer was 400B (100B would be reasonable)! As he walked past the next bar they persuaded him to go in - they said beer was only 100B. But it was an exact repeat - girl & ego 1000B, and beer 400B!

The next day, feeling skint, he took his last cigarette and decided just to sit and watch the world go bye. As he flicked away his cigarette but a policeman stopped and fined him 2000B! Feeling very unhappyp he decided to treat himself to a massage at teh hotel for 300B - teh only thing he didn't get ripped off for. But the pretty girl and the physical contact made him horny, and he persuaded the masseuse to sleep with him for 2000B. All in he spent 20,000B in 2 days! So he fled to Sukhothai where prices are good and scams are rare.

The following morning, Wednesday, I got up at 5am and rode the first hour or so in darkness. Mostly I was on the same road as to old Sukhothai, which was populated and well lit, but for 20 or 30 mins after leaving that road I was cycling in pitch darkness relying on my lights and the white line at teh edge of the road. It was fun to watch the colour of the sky change behind me - I've not watched a sunrise properly since I was in the States last year.

I couldn't find a cafe for breakfast, so stopped to buy a big bag of crisps. The kind shopkeeper gave me a bottle of water too, free. Soon after that I came to a town and stopped for a proper breakfast - rice & veg. By lunchtime I reached the large town of Tak. I stopped at the not particularly useful tourist info, then hunted for some veggie food, which involved following a friendly guy in his car half a kilometer across town to a lovely 100% veggie cafe where I had two plates of very tasty food and chatted to a Belgian guy - the last Farang I saw.

I set off through town a bit confused because the roads bore no resemblance to teh map - an extra bridge - wasted a few km in the hot sun. I was getting a bit stressed because I knew I wasn't going to make it over the mountains to the next place with a guesthouse. And I wasn't really sure about getting food or water - there was only 1 town marked on teh map for the next 100km. But for the 1st 20 km as I headed north up the quiet valley from Tak there were a few shops and cafes in among the beautiful stilted teak houses.

And then I turned west into the mountains.

I'd been watching the mountains slowly appear through the haze all morning - at first thinking they must just be a big line of clouds. And I went up, and up. Exhausting but beautiful. It was a really quiet road - the main road over the mountains was 25 km south. Near the top of the first 970m pass I was getting exhausted, so stopped to talk to a friendly guy, and we walked together for 20 minutes or so chatting. His name was Chokla, and he was a Karen refugee from Burma. 20 years ago the Burmese army had attacked his village burning many houses and killing many people, and afterwards there was nothing to eat. So he came here. Now he spends his days hauling 100 kg baskets on foot around the mountains. At first I couldn't understand what fruit or vegetable it was that he collected, but then we turned a corner in the road - and there were huge piles of cabbages! Very unexpected! And there were lots of Karen hill people there cutting them and taking off the outer leaves. They all dress so beautifully. The women in long blue silk skirts. Chokla was wearing dark loose trousers, a long blue top, tied with a pink cloth, and a beautiful cloth square bag with tassels. When we reached the village at the top of the hill we stopped for me to get some food. I tried to explain I was veggie, but ended up with rice and some kind of mince. Not nice, but I eat it. I bougth Chokla a beer. The owner of the cafe was teasing me mercilessly, trying to set me up with her beautiful daughter. They offered that I could share her mosquito net that night. I was tempted - it was turning into a very cold evening up there in the mountains - but remembering my friend George's experience with 'joke' offers of marriage I decided not to risk it.

Chokla pointed me in the direction of the police station where I would be able to sleep, and there we parted ways. He doesn't have a passport, so has to run and hide when he sees the police.

I saw a policeman at the village shop, and he threw my bike in the back of his pickup and drove me the last half a km to the police box at the top of the pass and showed me a concrete-floored pavilion where I could roll out my bivvy bag. As I started to put on my warmest clothes another policeman asked if I would like some Thai shisky, and there began a wonderful night.

I joined them at their table on the hillside and the Thai whisky was passed around in an old Jonny Walker bottle filled with herbs. Delicious. Drunk straight in small shots. They also gave me lots of rice and an omlette, and some of the delicious local cabbage - very fiery and peppery.

They were such a friendly bunch. One of the younger ones spoke pretty good English and we chatted lots. They work there for 3 weeks at a time, then get 3 days off. Tough. He lives with his very beautiful wife and son and daughter on teh other side of Sukhothai. Last year they had to work in the south in the 3 provinces where there has been a lot of trouble (the area is predominantly Muslim, and they want independence). And he very kindly let me share his room in the police station. I had a wooden platform bed with a thin mat and a very welcome warm blanket. I slept very well, waking occasionally with a dead arm.

I rose with them at 7 and they cooked breakfast for us all - rice, omlette, cabbage, and a vegetable that my phrasebook translates as jackfruit.

Chawang, the policeman I got friendly with, was a bit worried because a zip on his bumbag was open and he'd dropped a few bullets. They all have guns - pistols. Though when I went to get some water I noticed that one guy had a rifle next to his bed too.

I was sad to say goodbye. They were the friendliest, most chilled out group of police I'd ever met. One of them was on the whisky again already at 9!

I started the day with a wonderful 10 mile descent through the beautiful mist-topped mountains and jungle. I noticed that there was a shop at the bottom of the pass (I'm including a few tips for other cyclists who may be reading this). There was another at the top of the second pass after another steep 10 miles or so. While cycling along the ridge of the second pass I saw a sign to a national park and waterfall, so I decided to take a look. As I got to the park I saw that a scout camp was in residence. I got chatting to a friendly teacher, who invited me to walk to the waterfall with them all. So I watched their drill, then followed behind chatting to a teacher who spoke good English. He and most of the kids are Karen from Burma (though at first with his accent I though he said they were Korean).

The waterfall was a long tough steep walk, and I was exhausted by that day's 25 steep miles and the 95 miles I'd done the day before. The waterfall was pretty, in amongst the jungle in the mountains. Amid the amused stares of a hundred scouts I stripped down to my pants and waded in the waterfall - very refreshing after two sweaty days of mountains.

It is funny being around Thai people, or at least these ones. They are much more touchy-feely that I'm used to. The teacher I was speaking to on the walk was always taking my arm or hand to talk to me or show me something. And one guy was really stroking my arm and leg hair - it's bleached blonde by the sun.

Back at the camp they offered me lunch, and whisky, and there went my plans to cycle further that day, and there began another fantastic night!

I was drinking shots of Thai and Karen whisky all afternoon and evenig with the teachers, being poured from a big petrol can, while all around ran scouts, playing in the river, fighting with bamboo poles, cooking. Again - it's great to see how chilled out everyone and everything is. In the UK you'd never get teachers getting drunk infront of the kids, you'd never have openly gay teachers (including one very handsome young man with his eyelashes tinted violet!) We all had fun drinking - them teaching me little bits of Thai and Karen. And they let me share one of their tents. I was a bit chilly with just my bivvy bag on the ground in the mountains, but slept well with very vivid dreams, including one about being on a huge boat going through Amsterdam. And I keep dreaming that I'm home again.

In the morning I hung around feeling very hungover drinking sweet coffee and eating a breakfast of sticky rice dipped in something hot and spicey. It was so beautiful with the sunrise and the jungle, and the mysterious smoke from all the campires, and the scouts running around.

I set off at nine but was quickly overtaken by two of the teachers in their pickup, who offered me a lift. For some reason I accepted, despite the fact that it was downhill all the way. At Mae Ramat I bought some water and put on some suncream watching two beautiful Karen girls in their blue silk skirts with their babies hung infront of them in red slings.

Then I set off North up the valley along the Burmese border on a pleasantly hilly and quiet road amont the mountains, teak forest, banana tress, terraced fields, pigs, goats, chickens, cows with their big sharp curved horns. I passed a huge refugee camp - it stretched for 2 or 3 km - thousands and thousands of small bamboo shacks crammed into the beautiful valley nestled among the limestone cliffs. I found out afterwards that there's about 40,000 Karen refugees living there! At one gate I tried to go in, but wasn't allowed. Perhaps a good thing. Even just at the gate I felt like I was really invading - hundreds of people staring at me. But a little further along I stopped at a shop selling beautiful handwoven traditional Karen clothing. I was tempted to buy a bag like they all carry, but didn't.

I stopped at a town after 30 miles or so for 2 bowls of tasty noodles. I passed a guesthouse and resort there that weren't in the guidbook or tourist info. I did a diversion a couple of km over a super-steep hill to a cave where the river ran straight into the limestone mountain. Two young boys with torches guided me as we waded through the river and looked at the glittering dry waterfalls of stalagtites, and the bats. Not particularly outstanding, but it was worth it just for the amazingly beautiful valley that it is in. Absolutely superb - a small green valley among the steep jungle covered limestone mountains, with a quiet village of teak houses on stilts with Karen hilltribe folk sitting around, and water buffalo wandering in the fields plastered in damp mud to keep cool.

I finished the day at 60 miles (max speed 42.7 mph - fastest yet on this trip) in Mae Salit - a quiet village with a guesthouse listed in the Lonely Planet. It's very basic, but friendly and cheap - 80 B - cheapest yet! I got a plate of rice and veg across the road and showered. Well not a shower - I sluiced some cold water across myself and got fairly clean.

The owner of the guesthouse drove me down to the river on his moped (scary! I'm not a good passenger) and I walked back up. The border guard at the river had sandbags protecting his lookout - first time I'd seen that.

The owner of the guesthouse said that a Japanese couple on bikes were here last night, and 5 Australians the night before. The police in the mountains mentioned the Australians too. I'd hoped to get some more food, but the restaurant had closed, so I had to raid my emergency crappy junk food. Not sure what I'll do ain the morning if it's not open. Late start I guess. I'm very tired.

Tuesday 24th Jan, Ancient Sukhothai

2006-01-28T08:29:00.000-05:00

It's amazing. I sat writing this in my journal in the ruins of a thirteenth century Wat, the rough pockmarked laterite columns glowing red in teh evening sun, a 12m high Buddha standing behind me warding off fear, and a 1 and a half metre high gold-flecked buddha sitting cross legged beside me holding a tangerine on his lap. This was up on a hillside a few miles from the main area of ruins, which were visible pushing up through the distant trees.

I set off at 6am this morning to cycle to the old city. I'd intended to set off at 5 to catch the sunrise, but couldn't get out of bed. But there wasn't much of a sunrise. I stopped at a very surprising market in the grounds of a modern wat beside the road and got a grilled corn on the cob and some deep fried dough for breakfast.

Despite arriving before 7am there were two tour buses there already, but it was such a big place that it didn't matter. I spent a couple of hours exploring the main ruins, and to be honest I was a bit dissapointed. It was just a big flat area with lots of nice moats and ponds, and ruined brick buildings and columns and lots of brick stupas.

At 9 I stopped for a really delicious coffee - Thai Arabica beans - and watched the tour buses roll into town.

I then spent a few hours cycling around teh outlying ruins, and as the day progressed the place really grew on me. The ruins are so charming in their tumbled-down-ness and overgrown-ness. Mostly I was alone, except for a few cows and the occasional farmer. The tour groups don't seem to venture away from the main area of ruins. The highlights have to be the place that I wrote my diary (Wat Saphan Hin) and Wat Si Chum - which had a beautiful 15m Buddha squeezed into a tall square building.

I had to get the minibus back because I was cycling around all the rundown, over-grown Wats with a little too much disregard for the thorns, and I did not have my pump or puncture repair kit with me, and despite there being a million bikes for hire in the village next to the ruins, they'd never come across a Presta valve before. So I hired a beat up single speed tiny mountain bike for 20 Baht, and used it for the rest of the day. I spent a while in the moderately good museum too. But sunset on the wat on the hillside was very special.

Getting the Sawngthaew (pickup converted into a minibus) was fine - that was the first time I'd used one. They just put the bike in the back beside me and charged me 30 Baht.

As I pushed my crippled bike into the guesthouse a middle aged couple smiled and asked if I was cycle touring. They were too. They'd just spent four weeks or so cycling in Burma! It sounded pretty unenjoyable - bad roads, and regular hassle from police and immigration because there's strict limits on where you're allowed to stay. They are Peter and Sally Blommer - www.ridetheroad.com.

After a good chat about plans (basically we've got the same route, though they've got 60 days; I've got 20) we went to the guesthouse where they're staying and had a chat to the Belgian owner who is a local cycle tour guide. He was very friendly and basically confirmed that my planned route was a good one. He gave me a longer, quieter alternative route for tomorrow, and said that if I'm ever stuck for a place to stay, just to go to the police box in town and string up my mozzie net and lay out my bivvy bag.

I got a plate of something unrelated to what I ordered on the tatty English-language menu at a stall on the night market, then spent half an hour or so fixing the two thorn punctures in my front tyre with the enthusiastic help of two Thai guys from the guesthouse. One repair leaks a bit, but seems to be holding out. Had a big bowl of Masaman curry (a Muslim dish from S. Thailand), which they kindly put Tofu in, as did the woman who made me an amazingly delicious noodle soup at lunchtime - but actually I hate tofu. Am I the only vegetarian that feels this way?

Had a big chat with the lovely guy at the guesthouse. He used to be a pharmacist. I then got chatting to a friendly drunk Slovakian. One thing I've noticed is that there's loads of French people here - there's not been many in other places.

Transition to the North

2006-01-23T07:47:00.000-05:00

I've been in transit for the last 27 hours, and it's been surprisingly pleasant and painless.

I got a very relaxing ferry with hundreds of other farang to the rather grim party town of Phuket. Boat is such a civilised way to travel in Thailand - I just sat on the deck sunbathing, reading and dozing. From there I unloaded my bike and set off rather vaguelly following the minibuses and motorbike taxis to find the bus terminal in Phuket. This was the first time I'd tried to take my bike on the bus, but they were absolutely lovely about it. They tried to charge me double the fare to take the bike (an extra 12 pounds) but I smiled and lauged and said paeng in my best Thai (it means expensive) so they knocked half of that price off and there I was in a 'VIP' bus on a 13 hour ride to Bangkok, back up the road I'd cycled down a week or two earlier. The VIP bus is the size of a standard 52 seat coach, but only has three seats per row, and only about 10 rows. You have tonnes of leg room, even a lanky farang like me, and the seats recline almost to horizontal. And the air conditioning! Whooo. Too much for me - I was freezing in my hot-weather gear - even with the complimentary tartan blanket. It was only in the last hour of my journey that I figured out how to turn off the blast of icy air. But despite that I slept really well on the overnight journey.

I arrived at the south bus terminal in Bangkok mid rush hour, and had to cycle right across the city to the northern bus terminal. Quite an adventure. Partly because I didn't really know where I was going, and party just because I was back amid the pollution, the swarms of mopeds, and the roaring buses, trucks and tuk-tuks. It was great fun! I found my way there after 10 miles, with a pleasant finale through a calm park full of ponds and joggers.

Getting my bike on the next bus proved a little trickier. At two identical ticket windows they smiled and shook their head pointing at the bike. But for some reason I wasn't worried. I knew somehow it would work out. I tried a third window back next to the first one I'd tried, smiled a lot, and got my ticket! And after a quick plate of rice and noodles and glass of something strange and sweet and icy cold, I got on the bus to Sukhothai. Only 1st class this time, so normal seats. But that was fine - it was daytime now and I didn't particularly want to sleep.

The journey was easy and uneventful, other than a pleasant old lady infront of me talking to herself in Thai the entire way. And now after a final short bike ride from the bus terminal to the town centre, I've got a lovely little room in a teak-built guest house next to the river. I've had a very relaxing evening going to the night market for a plate of noodles, and will make an early start tomorrow to cycle to the ruins of Sukhothai, then the following day I'll set off for some serious cycling for a couple of weeks around the border between Thailand and Burma. There looks to be some pretty exciting mountains around there...

I've just uploaded a few photos - mostly of the family I stayed with between Bangkok and Chumphon - http://www.flickr.com/photos/80637765@N00/

Partying on Pi Pi

2006-01-22T01:09:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the radio silence - been a busy few days.

Climbing on Railey was amazing. It's such a beautiful location - a small bay nestled in amongst the vast limestone cliffs with the jungle spilling down into the bay. And it had a really great atmosphere - everyone climbing all day, then towards evening up on the cliffs you hear the reggae music starting up in the rasta bars and everyone heads down to eat and drink.

I tore myself away from there and got a boat to Ko Phi Phi. It was really badly devestated by the tsunami, but you wouldn't really know it now. I think they rebuilt the bars first, now the accommodation's almost back to normal (though still in pretty short supply and relatively expensive). The only thing I've noticed is that when you get off the main drag you see where a lot of the Thai folk are staying - basically sheds made of corrougated aluminium and a few beams. Pretty tough.

I've been staying in a dorm in the Rock Backpackers with a great bunch of folk. I didn't realise how much of a party town this is. I went out last night with a Croatian/South African, a Jewish Chilean, an Israeli, an Irish guy from Cork, an Australian and a Dutch guy. We watched a couple of Muay Thai boxing matches (completely staged) then they have a thing here where tourists fight - really bizarre and funny. No serious injuries last night. Though during the Muay Thai tagteam fight they had a staged ruckus where all four fighters came out of the ring and were brawling with a group of Thai guys. A metal tray was being used as a weapon, and at some point it flew across and smacked me on the head. Nothing too serious though.

Anyway, a hungover morning this morning - I didn't make it snorkelling - so climbed up a hill on the island over the cliffs to admire the view and sweat out the alcohol.

I'm now about to catch a ferry back to the mainland and try to get myself and my bike on a bus to Bangkok to start cycling north...

Wed 18th Jan, Ao Leuk

2006-01-18T23:59:00.000-05:00

I enjoyed the boat ride yesterday from Koh Tao to Surath Thani on the mainland. I wrote my diary and postcards, but every time I touched the paper with my sweaty, sun-cream-covered fingers my pen stopped working. I chatted to two nice Americans - one is a manager type in TV in Hollywood, the other works in a camera shop in Vegas and recommended me a good camera to buy in Tokyo (a Pentax Optio WPI).

I cycled the 4km from the pier past the sunken ferry to the town of Surath Thani. I'd been dreading it thanks to a negative report from the Norwegians I met a week or so ago, but actually I liked it. It's a nice untouristy town. Stayed in a rather grim concrete hotel, but had a big room. I eat at teh night market, but felt really out of it and tired, so went back to the hotel and realised that I was really sunburned after a day topless on the boat (idiot). So I drank lots and went to sleep at 8.

I got up at 6 today and had a crappy breakfast from the 24 hour shop, and set off at 6.45 through the cool morning mist. The mist only lasted until 8, when I stopped for a proper breakfast of rice and fried veg. And after that it turned into the hottest, hilliest and longest day yet. I'm heading to a beach near Krabi for some rock climbing, which is on the west coast and I needed to cross Thailand in one day as I wasn't sure of any accommodation half way. Some bits were very hard work, it was so hot and hilly. I mostly survived on bananas - some I bought, others were given to me for free at a lovely friendly roadside market.

It was a relatively quiet road through beautiful limestone hills, and at one point the road turned into gravel for a couple of miles, where they were resurfacing. That was horrible - really dusty. But generally the road was good - so many people waving and smiling and saying hello.

I stopped at one small slightly hidden market. I think I was probably the only farang ever to go there. Everyone smiled curiously. I had fried bananas. Just as I was leaving a girl on a moped invited me to come to her house to rest, so I did, and it was great. Her mother was sitting there on the porch at her sewing machine, and a crowd of neighbours and family arrived, then slowly disperesed as teh usual questions were asked and answered - age, family, travelling alone, where from/to, how long for, did I think the girl was beautiful (her older sister asked that), how much my bike cost (I always get a bit awkward with that as I'm aware that it is the equivalent of about 6 months wages for a typical Thai).

It was really pleasant to sit and chat and drink a coke among such friendly, happy, generous people. The only wierd thing was that they offered me something that looked like a lolly, and turned out to be a frankfurter on a stick. I made a quick decision to eat it and not be rude, and I still consider myself veggie!

I finally made the 90 mile journey and arrived at the town of Ao Leuk, a rather non-descript town nestled amongst beautiful jungle-clad limestone spikes. I checked into a rather swanky resort at the base of a limestone lump with a hole through the centre. Most expensive yet - 600 baht - aircon, pool, ensuite, comfy bed, breakfast.

I dumped my stuff and cycled to the nearby national park and walked about 1km around a beautiful series of gentle waterfalls emerging from teh limestone gorge, among beautiful soaring trees with stunning buttress roots. I'd read in teh Lonely Planet that it was possible to swim there, but in the shade of the trees and cliffs at 5.30pm I'd cooled off and didn't fancy it, but then I saw a father and his two boys in one pool and it looked so much fun that I put on my swimming trunks and swam in another beautiful pool. It was wonderful to clean off the day's grime and sweat in such a magical setting. I was worried about leeches, but didn't see any. Saw two big spiders though. Saw lots of dead snakes on the road today, two about 3 feet long!

After some food I went back to the hotel where I chatted to a rather confused Canadian who's the only other farang here - he was hoping to do a wildlife tour, but no one here speaks English.

Then I went for a swim in the dark in the pool, watching the stars come out with the bats skimming the water around me, then had my first hot shower in Thailand - two weeks! I almost don't smell! I got pretty sunburned again today, despite the factor 30.

Later on in the evening I heard some singing coming from the hotel restaurant, so decided to take a look. In the restaurant I got a rather large beer and sat watching girl after girl take to teh stage in various combinations of stripper shoes, fmb's and miniskirkts. But they weren't strippers or anything, they just stood there looking miserable singing melancholy cheesy Thai pop songs, tugging at their ill-fitting clothes and running off as soon as the last chorus finished.

The place was filled with Thai men, each one accompanied by one of the girls as soon as he'd sat down and ordered a drink. For some reason they didn't even try to sit with me. Maybe my shower hadn't been as effective as I thought...

It was a very bizarre event in this slightly seedy 80s resort.

Island Exploration

2006-01-16T07:54:00.000-05:00

I finished my diving course yesterday, and am now a PADI certified open water diver. It was a brilliant morning of diving. I began to get slightly more in control of my buoyancy, so could enjoy all the fish and views a lot more. I can't really say much more about it, other than to encourage anyone who's never done it before to try. It is fabulous. I am so seriously tempted to do the advanced course. But I know that although it seems like i have a really long holiday, time is slipping by and there is much more that I want to see.

April, one of the people on the course, is staying on to do advanced though. Sadly last night she and her Catalan boyfriend David broke up and today went their separate ways through Thailand. But despite that David brought out a delicious bottle of Catalan white wine that he'd brought all the way from Barcelona and shared it with the group to celebrate completing the course. The celebrations continued late last night as me and the two Germans on the course finally got to take full advantage of the wonderful bars lining the beach now that we didn't have to dive the following day.

There are some lovely bars here - they put rugs out on the sand with really comfy cushions and have candles in the sand and fire jugglers on the beach. After some relaxing cocktails and seriously strong jugs of Beer Chang we danced to some ultra-cheesy techno, then paddled home under the (almost) full moon.

This morning was a bit of a struggle - getting out of bed, making decisions about where to go. In the end I decided to spend an extra day on the island because I've seen nothing but one beach and the ocean floor. I unlocked my bike after four days on un-use, and set off along the one concrete single track road, which quickly turned up into the hills, and became a super-steep, gullied, windy track surfaced with an inch or so of sand and dust. It was lethal. When I could cycle I could barely go faster than 6mph incase I hit a puddle of sand and fell off, or came round a corner to a steep hill unable to stop, and fell off. And when I was cycling I was sweating like mad. And even pushing up and down the worst was a real struggle. But at the end of each section of tortorous track I would come to a beautiful quiet beach lined with palms rising up into the jungle, dotted with huge limestone boulders, the sea as calm as a lake. The miles of struggle would be forgotten as I took of my shoes and t-shirt and walked into the 28 degree water, then swam among the shoals of beautiful tropical fish above the coral. It really was a magical day.

At one cafe conveniently located at a hillside viewpoint I got chatting to a couple from Inverkeithing (just across the Forth Road Bridge). They were really friendly and interesting - she's a photographer and had come here to learn underwater photography, he does care work and has just moved up from London. It was good to talk to people who know about Buckfast. They were watching Trainspotting in the same restuarant as me the other night (all the restuarants show films in the evening - it's very relaxing after a hard day's diving). I bumped into them at a beach later in the day by chance, and we're meeting up soon for a few drinks.

I also bumped into a German couple that I spent an evening with about five or six days ago at the Youth Hostel - that was very strange. I passed them on their moped, and for some reason recognising them gave me a real shiver. I kindof assumed that in a place like this you see someone, and they're gone - a very ephemeral connection. But actually people seem to drift in the same sort of direction. A lot of people I've met start off heading south like me from Bangkok to these islands, then back north to Chiang Mai.

I'm leaving the island tomorrow for the mainland, then the following day I'll cycle coast to coast (rather easier than this time last year in the states!) to Krabi for some rock climbing.

The only other thing that's new is a rather dreadful haircut. But it was worth the three pounds just for the amazing head massage that I got at the same time. And it's better than getting a haircut when I get home and having a daft tanline across my forehead. My T-shirt and shorts tan looks ridiculous enough already!

Oh, and also, I've gone deaf in my left ear after the diving, but the folk at the dive shop say that's pretty normal and it should be back to normal in a couple of days. But it makes conversation really quite difficult, and doesn't help my balance cycling on the crazy tracks!

Bye for now,

T

Learning to dive on Friday the 13th...

2006-01-14T07:11:00.000-05:00

Learning to dive has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

It didn't start too promisingly, being friday the thirteenth. One of the first things that you have to do, standing up to your waist just off the beach, is breath from the tank of air with your mask on and stick your head under water. That was wierd, but good.

One of the next things you have to do is do the same but without your mask on. I completely freaked! It took me ages to force myself to breath like that.

And after that everything was amazing. The first day was mostly just practicing in shallow water things like what to do if the air runs out, or you loose your mask. But today we went out in the boat to a proper dive site and we were diving at 14 metres in fantastic conditions - the sea was flat and still, it was sunny, the visibility was fantastic. It is an amazing feeling to be swimming around underwater past the beautiful coral, surrounded by beautiful fish that just don't care that you're there - seeing some incredible things like moray eels and bizarre brightly coloured fish and things growing on the coral.

Time passes so quickly. We did two forty minute dives and they felt like 10 minutes.

The one slight fright we had was when one of the pipes on one person's equipment burst (apparently a very rare thing) but it was fine - she didn't panick, and followed the proper procedures to share air with the dive master, and surfaced without any problems.

The place I'm staying is great. At first I was a bit dubious about it. It was quite a shock to the system coming to a busy beach resort after cycling through really quiet un-touristy areas for a week. I spent the first afternoon before the course on the beach swimming and writing, and felt kindof out of place surrounded by all the beautiful tanned people. But actually now that I've been here three days I really like the atmosphere. It's not a big party place because everyone is on the island to dive. People are just really chilled out and happy.

And because it's full moon party tonight there are hardly any people on the diving course at the moment. On the open water PADI course that I'm doing there are two German girls, and a woman from San Fransisco and her boyfriend from Barcelona. We're all getting on really well, and it's great having one instructor for so few people.

But one bad thing did happen on friday the 13th. I got ill for the first time. I'll not go into detail, but it was not at all pleasant. But thankfully it only lasted from after diving yesterday until early this morning, so I was able to dive again today as normal. April (the San Fransiscan) was pretty ill too, and David (the Barcelonan) was feeling weak and tired, and I heard quite a few other people at this resort saying they were ill too, so I suspect one of the restaurants was serving something a bit iffy.

But because of that I decided not to go to the full moon party on the neighbouring island. I just don't have the energy or motivation to stay up all night dancing. Seems a pity to miss out on one of the world's biggest parties, but I don't actually care.

I'm going to take an underwater camera with me tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to make some attempt at capturing how it feels.

11th Jan. Chumphon

2006-01-11T07:15:00.000-05:00

I have had an exhausting days cycling, my longest yet. I had a rather small breakfast at the youth hostel, then set off back to the main highway and headed south. By 10am I was hungry again, so stopped for rice and fried veg at a roadside stall. I was really hungry today, I seem to struggle to eat enough despite eating about five meals a day. And I am drinking so much water and coke. I am wondering if coke and pepsi and suchlike are good things to drink when cycling. Is the caffeine in them bad for exercise? Perhaps one of my cycling friends can do some research and let me know.

The culinary excitement of today was when one woman offered me a big round fruit, about eight inches in diameter. I have no idea what it was, but it had a green skin, with lots of white pith and large pale yellow segments a bit like a big grapefruit. It was a citrus, but was much less acidic than a grapefruit or tangerine.

It is really interesting how they sell things at the roadside here. Rather than having a mix of stall selling different stuff, they will have a row of stalls all selling exactly the same thing. Two days ago it was pineapples. Today I went along a stretch of half a mile with about 50 stalls on both sides of the road all selling small bananas. They were very delicious, but I have no idea how they make a living. I also went along a mile where they were all selling beautiful hand woven baskets. And it is the same with food. For five miles they will all sell whole roast chickens, then 20 miles later for five miles they will all sell dried fish, then 30 miles later it will all be something roast inside bamboo.

But getting food and drink is so easy. I rarely go 5 km without passing a roadside cafe where I can get rice and fried veg, and maybe a fried egg if I can explain well. Twice they have put chunks of meat in, but I have just picked them out. I am going to stick to being veggie.

The scenery today was much the same as the last few days, two lane highway lined with miles of palm forest. So I dedicated my ride to memorising how to say all the numbers up to 99 by putting my notepad from last night in the map section on top of my handlebar bag, and then practicing by trying to say the numbers on the milestones before I passed them. I have pretty much got all the numbers now.

I cycled about 130 km today, and actually felt much better with it than previous shorter days. Maybe I am finally getting a bit fitter. But the tail wind helps!

I am staying in a really nice guest house tonight, and the owner has arranged a ticket on the boat to the island of Koh Tao first thing tomorrow, and also booked me onto a four day diving course to get my Padi certificate (which means I can dive anywhere in the world) and arranged five days accommodation at the dive school. she has also checked that I can take a day off during the dive course to go to the full moon party on Ko Pha Ngan, the neighbouring island.

So it should be a fun few days!

Time to hit the night market now and hunt out some veggie food...

10th Jan - Bankrud Beach Youth Hostel

2006-01-11T07:02:00.000-05:00

Today's been relatively uneventful and fairly pleasant. Cycling's still rather hard work and i'm beginning to hurt in various places that I won't go into detail about. I cycled about 65 km and ended up at an amazing HI Youth Hostel - one of their flagship hostels. It's relatively expensive (300 B) but very luxurious. I strung up my mozzie net relatively successfully in my bamboo beach hut then went to the beautiful long empty beach, lined with palms and punctuated by a steep wat-topped hill. It was about 5pm by then and I swam for the first time in the dying sunshine. The sea wasn't cold, but it was very windy, so the waves were a bit big for a wussy swimmer like me. I messed around for a bit, then got out and swam in the pool.

While I was eating I was reading my phrase book, attempting to begin to make sense of the Thai language. One of the chefs saw this and seemed to appreciate me making the effor to learn Thai, so spent about an hour or so teaching me most of the letters (how to write, say and what they mean) and all the numbers up to 9,999,999. It was hard work, but I really appreciated it. He made me write out the pronunciation for every single number up to 100. I tried to skip and just do 50, 60, 70, etc, but he was very firm with me!

After that I chatted to two nice young German couples. Most people I have met so far have been Germans.

When I went to bed I saw two wierd white lizards in the bathroom. This morning I got a real fright when I was fiddling with my bags. A cockroach came out of the lid. Other than that the only scary stuff I have seen has been dead snakes on the road.

Monday 9th Jan, Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park

2006-01-09T21:47:00.000-05:00

I got pretty exhausted yesterday afternoon. A fresh pineapple helped revive me a bit, but I struggled. I left the main highway and headed towards teh national park. Route finding was a bit tricky, but I followed signs for a reort near teh beach.

I got to the town near the beach and national park campground, but it was dark by then and I couldn't find the campsite. I caused lots of interest and amusement cycling around the village at dusk among everyone out on the street. I asked about a place to sleep and one boy got me to follow him on his moped out of the village to the beach in the dark (me getting a bit nervous). We rode along the beach, then he stopped and pointed at a dark building and drove off.

I approached two guys who were drinking outside a hut nearby. They made a phonecall, then took me to the dark building and turned on the lights. It was a super-plush resort. They called the owner who spoke a little English. He wanted 3,000 Baht! 42 pounds!

I retraced my steps along the beach and went back to the edge of the village. There were a few teenagers sitting around in a very informal cafe, so I went in. I said I was veggie to the girl who seemed to work there. this caused much debate. Luckily I remembered the word for egg thta the German taught me the night before (kai), so I had that and rice.

I became a big object of curiosity. By the end there must have been 12 or so folk there. The really like to joke. They joked about one guy not being Thai. They joked about me being tall and they short. So I joked in sign language about me being tall but no muscles, and them being short but strong. The asked where I was staying, and I explained that the hotel was too expensive, and learned the word for expensive (paeng). One boy was the most chatty offered to have me sleep at his mother and uncle's next door. They were brought along and said OK. I gave the uncle one of the whisky miniatures that I'd brought with me.

I brought out my phrasebook and we spent the evening chatting slowly. The boy, Kabpon, and his uncle, Banlu, are fishermen. We sat around on the veranda of their house with their neighbours on the bamboo deck outside. They had a cute wee rabbit running around, and three fish tanks.

I had a wash - very interesting system. There's one small square cement basin about a foot deep and two feet square with dirty water that I stood in. That same water is then used with a tub to flush the toilet. There's a big tank of clean water next to it with a fish in (to keep it clean?) I used a tub to pour clean water over myself. It felt a little chilly at first, but it was actually much better than any of the showers I've used so far in the guest houses. I even washed my hair!

They put out a mattress for me and I hung my mozzie net over it. The mother and youngest female cousin slept on one bed near me. The oldest female cousin and another guy slept in the only room with walls, and the uncle slept on the porch in a chair. I guess I had his bed. The son slept on his boat. It's amazing that they live in houses without many walls like that. I've been thinking for a couple of days how interesting the blurring between public and private space is here. It would make a very interesting geography essay.

I slept well (the night before I had a dream that I was in a really smokey remote jungle village where everyone was riding around on elephants. A tiger came out and roared, but it was just a noisy moped going past my window). I got up at 6.30 and breakfasted on rice and eggs. The grandfather offered to take me out on his boat. But just as we were about to set off guy came along and the grandfather had to go to the bank. They told meto wait until two o'clock. I didn't really understand what was going on. Also, while I was having breakfast a guy who lives next door came and sat with his back to me and was angry with the people I'd been staying with. I didn't understand why. I hope I've not got them in trouble.

I walked over the headland to the beach and national park campsite, and up the hill to a big limestone cave complex. It is stunning. I was in one big cav with a collapsed roof, when I saw a gap through to another similar cave with light streaming through. And there, bathed in sunshine, was a beautiful gold pagoda. I saw quite a few other farang (foreigners) there - 6 Germans, two russians, 2 English and 4 Swedish. I racked my brains for the few words I know in German ("that is beautiful") and Swedish ("sorry, I don't speak Swedish" - the only other phrase I know is how to ask someone to dance thanks to going to a swing dancing festival in Lund with Annika. I didn't think that would be particularly useful in a cave in thailand).

I went out on the boat for half an hour with the grandfather. it was really beautiful to see all the fishing boats along the river. I saw a crocodile! Or perhaps an alligator, I can never remember which. I didn't even realise they had them here!

After that I said goodbye, despite their offer for me to stay another night.

And again I slightly over-estimated how quickly I could cover the ground, and only just made it to my destination for the night at dusk. I don't know if it's the heat, or because I'm not used to working in kilometres. Most likely it's because since I was really fit after my ride in the States last year I have done very little exercise and drank too much beer. I got chatting to a nice Norwegian couple who said that it's remarkably cool weather at the moment this year - so actually I'm very lucky.

There's another german on a bike staying in the guesthouse, but I didn't really get to speak to him. But it seems like cycle touring is more common here than I 'd expected. The Norwegians said that they'd seen four farang on bikes in the last week.

I'm now in a place called Prachuap Khiri Khan, but I don't think I'll hang around. I'll cycle about 60 km south tomorrow and hopefully get there in time to go to the beach. The next day I'll go another 80 or 90 km and get the ferry to Ko Pha Ngan or one of the other islands around there and hang around for the full moon party.

The Royal Palace, Bangkok

2006-01-08T02:28:00.000-05:00

The Royal Palace, Bangkok
Originally uploaded by Thomas Turnbull.

Vegetarian Voyages

2006-01-08T01:58:00.000-05:00

Being veggie here is interesting. This morning I left the guest house in search of something to eat for breakfast. I tried some delicious but unsubstantial rice pancakes stuffed with ground coconut and something spicey. At the next stall I attempted to explain that I was veggie in Thai. A friendly woman who spoke English said that there wasn't anything, but that she thought there was somewhere else, but she wasn't sure if it was open and it was far away, so she put me on the back of her moped and drove me about a kilometre east. Sure enough it was closed, so she proceeded to drive me a couple of kilometres south to the edge of the town. I was getting rather nervous about what she was up to at this point, but she was really friendly and unthreatening, so I went with it. She then drove me through a military base to a tourist attraction - a german-built palace. She then drove a bit further north and we tried another roadside food place which didn't have anything. She then said that she needed to go home and pick up her car to drive me back to the centre of town because I was too heavy for the moped. At this point I got quite seriously suspicious - the bike was fine. I'd managed to keep track of where we were using the sun and a few temples and knew that I was within walking distance of the centre of town, so I hopped off the moped at a junction and set off. But before I left the lady gave me a bag of something she'd bought earlier that was veggie - very sweet soy milk with strange black beans and transparent vegetables.

After the five minute walk back to the guesthouse I decided to give up on my hunt for a nice breakfast and settled for the 50 Baht American breakfast at the guest house - toast, marmalade, fried egg, pineapple, papaya and watermelon.

I set off south under the cloudless sky through much the same terrain as yesterday - nothing particularly beautiful or spectacular. The highlight of the morning's ride was noticing a sign in English at the side of the road saying vegetarian food. It was only about 10.30 but I was hungry and amazed to see this sign, so I went into the courtyard where some rather surprised and excited ladies produced an extremely delicious meal of white rice, delicious fresh crispy stir fried vegetables, amazing mushrooms, and a strange really delicious meat-like substance, tofu perhaps. I couldn't believe that it wasn't meat and left it at the side, but they noticed me doing that and assured me that it was vegetarian - they were all vegetarian. I think the place was some sort of buddhist temple. In the end they wouldn't even let me pay, and sent me off with four delicious papaya. They said that their son was coming to Scotland in may and gave me his email address, so I'll offer him a place to stay if he needs it.

The other culinary highlight of the morning was fried bananas from an old lady at a roadside stall. The bananas are tiny here - less than two inches long - but really tasty.

I'm now at a rather grim beach resort full of fat sunbathers and Burger Kings, so I think I'm going to attempt another 40km this afternoon to a national park further down the coast. I'm slightly concerned about finding it and getting accommodation, but I'm sure it will be fine.

Last night I met a German guy at the night market while we were both getting some food. He's cycling around the south of Thailand too. We got a couple of beers from the 7/11 and drank them on the street and watched the world go bye and chatted. He's been to Thailand eight times since 1999 and speaks and reads a lot of Thai. He tought me a bit about the language. There's over 40 letters, each of which has a meaning on its own, as well as a meaning when combined with other letters to make a word. I've started trying to recognise words in Thai script. After cycling past the millions of roadside signs for all the tourist condominiums and hotels I can now recognise the word for hotel pretty quickly.

Well I'd better get going if I'm going to make it to this beach at the national park before dark...

7th Jan - Petchburi and some nasty news

2006-01-07T07:03:00.000-05:00

This will be a brief entry as the internet cafe's about to close.

I had my first proper day's cycling after managing to catch the first train a little further West. The roads are basically dual carriageway, but the traffic's slow and the hard shoulder is wide. The heat hasn't been too bad, but i stopped cycling at midday because I got to my destination and wanted to see some sights.

I visited a beautiful set of limestone caves with gold buddhas, and climbed a hill with lots of monkeys.

Got an email from a guy I know from Edinburgh who's out here. He's had a horrible experience on Koh Samui - one of the resort islands a bit further south. He made friends with a couple of girls at new year, and one of them was raped and murdered. It's really difficult to understand how something that horrible can happen in such a wonderful place.

Callum's blog's at http://www.callum-macdonald.com/ if you're interested.

6th Jan - Mahachai - Random City

2006-01-07T06:40:00.000-05:00

I'm in a really crazy place tonight. I decided to leave Bangkok today despite not actually having enough time. I was really nervous about starting - especially cycling through Bangkok. I had to get to a rather random train station. I gritted my teeth and coated myself in luminous clothing adn set off. Actually it was fine! Mental, polluted, some scary moments, but fun! There's almost always one lane which i smostly just the tu-tuks (3 wheel motorbike taxi) and mopeds. People are actually much more aware and considerate than in Edinburgh, and the roads are definately more bike-friendly than a lot of US cities. I made it to the station without incident. The worst decision was probably right at the end when I needed to cross a road and I decided to carry my bike over a footbridge = exhausting in the heat. Otherwise the heat was OK.

The station was funny - it's just a single track that runs for an hour to where I am now. Very informal. It cost 20 Baht for me and 20 for the bike. The train was mostly being used by school kids in their matching white and yellow polo shirts. There was so much to see. Going through the outskirsts of Bangkok was interesting - so many clusters of food vendors with people eating. Thai folk seem to have such a great sociable attitude to eating. It was interesting to see teh houses in the countryside. Perhaps it's because they were next to the railway tracks, but there were lots of really ramshackle shacks.

I was the only westerner on the whole train. THere were times like that yesterday with Ashna, but it was even more intense today knowing that I wasn't going back to Khao San Road. It really hit me sitting on the train that this was it!

People were friendly enough, but didn't interact except one wee girl - she was doing funny frog impressions and silly dances.

At the end of the trainline was Mahachai. I walked through the market selling all sorts of fish and welly boots to the ferry across the river. I was pretty sure I'd missed the next train, but I thought I'd check it out. The ferry ride was cool - very beautiful wider river surrounded by ramshackle houses, old fishing boats, and a few big new fishing boats and factories. The river was quite choked with weeds, with lots of small white crane-like birds perched on them.

The boat was full of mopeds and people in white and pink outfits and wellies going to work in the fish factories. I followed the lonely planet's instructions along some very unlikely back alleys past a school and temple and navigated round a flood which seemed to merge with peoples houses with kids paddling, and found the station. It was another end-of-the-line single track place with a few families hanging around who seemed to live there. As far as I could tell by sign language the last train had left.

I cycled around that side of the river for a while. People were quite amused by me. Lots said hi.

I stopped at a lovely little food vendor place and had pat thai (noodles and veg and egg). I asked one of the other customers about a guest house and she said to cross back over the river. So I got back on the ferry (only 3 Baht - 4 pence). I asked lots of people and eventually found a rather smart hotel, which would have been 900 Baht (about 13 pounds). But the girls there were really nice and directed me to a rather hidden appartment complex on the other side of the road, and I've got a rather plush double room with ensuite, air con and cable TV for 450B.

I went straight back out and cycled back to the centre of town and wandered around looking at the stalls. Bought a really nice strange starchy kind of pancake covered with condensed milk and sugar. Continued to have lots of people laughing and commenting about me, but in a nice way. Didn't see a single westerner, but it is a very industrial fishing place.

It was lovely seeing so many people out eating on the streets. I cycled back towards my appartment, but stopped to get some more food at a quiet roadside cafe. Couldn't really communicate, so just took soup. They put a few chunks of meat in, but I just left them to the side. Despite this it was really delicious soup.

I was writing my diary a bit, but then I got chatting to the people who owned the cafe - two sisters and their husbands and kids. They gave me advice about getting the train. Then a girl about my age came along. She spoke really good English, so we chatted lots and she interpreted for the others. She'd been studying interior design in Chicago. One of the other sisters did purchasing for packaging for frozen shrimp for export to the EU & US. They were so friendly and smiley and chatty. I made on faux pas which was to 'sa wat dee' (put my hands together and bow slightly) to one of the children - but the mother advised me in a nice way that that wasn't the right thing to do.

The girl who spoke good English gave me a really nie book she'd just bought - a cartoon book about the Tsunami.

An elephant was brought bye to be fed by the kids, so I took a photo.

Back at the apartment there was a knock at the door and the attendant ame in to bring me another towel and clean the phone. He took ages cleaning the phone, then turned on the TV to show porn and proceeded to ask me by sign language if I wanted a girl. He then asked if I wanted a hand job or blow job, or massage, or to have my legs pinched (I think I may have misinterpreted that one). I showed him out. Very bizarre. And pretty grim. Obviously enough westerners come for that sort of stuff that it's worth them trying to offer it to guests.

Other than that I've really enjoyed being in this town - unlike Bangkok no one's tried to sell me anything or rip me off.

Leaving Bangkok

2006-01-06T00:58:00.000-05:00

Well I made it to Bangkok and found myself a place to stay. First thought on entering the room: prison cell. First thought on sitting on the bed: brick. First thought on seeing the price: fantastic! About four pounds (don't ask me to try and find the pound sterling key on this thai keyboard).

I'm staying in tourist central - Khao San Road. It's bearable, but I've spent as little time in this area as possible. I've managed to cram in a fair amount of tourism- the highlight being the gold reclining buddha at Wat Pho. I've been hanging about with a fantastic young woman I bumped into on the river boat on the first day, and after we were both exhausted with Wats (temples) we did loads of random wanderings and shopping. The shopping is amazing here. Chinatown has been my favourite - miles of alleyways crammed with crazy little stalls dedicated to selling the most random stuff - coat hangers, giant stuffed toys, pencils, stickers. And so many food stalls selling unrecognisable stuff.

Yesterday after some touristy stuff in the morning we went to the main shopping district, but not before finding a fantastic little alleyway full of delicious food vendors. the food here is incredible - so cheap (about 40 pence for a dish of curry with rice) and so tasty. I'm eating really well. The shopping mall we went to was vast - millions of small shops selling DVDs, belts, bags, jeans, mobiles, cameras, t shirts, shoes, suits, sunglasses, etc. etc. ad nauseum. It was great fun, but extremely frustrating because I couldn't buy anything - I have to carry all my stuff around the country for the next five weeks on the back of my bike.

After the mall we went to the night market at Patpong- which was more of the same, but with fake designer brands and even more ludicrous bartering. One belt that Ashna was looking at started off at 1200 Baht, and ended at 200.

So now I'm about to leave all this behind. I've got to brave the manic Bangkok traffic to get across town to the station, then I'll get the train about 70km to thewest to Samut Songkhram, and then start cycling southaround the gulf of Thailand. I'm pretty nervous again - the traffic, the heat, etc. And I hope I've not left it too late in the day with all this messing around on the internet. But it will be nice to get out of the city - it's so polluted here - I'm coughing far too much!

I've put a dozen of my photos of hong kong and bangkok online on my flickr account - http://www.flickr.com/photos/80637765@N00/sets/1769827/

Bye for now,

Thomas

Arrived in Hong Kong safe and, well, jetlagged

2005-12-30T21:30:00.000-05:00

I made it to Hong Kong, and for the first time on a trip like this, both my luggage and my bike arrived too! The journey was fine. I've pretty much recovered from my post-Christmas flu. All I'm left with is an impressive chesty cough - the kind that leaves a sharp pain just above the stomach - and the occasional nose bleed. One of those nose bleeds started just as I got through customs at hong kong airport. It says a lot for the skill of whoever designed hong kong airport that I was able to manouver a trolley containing my luggage and bike with one hand, while holding a tissue to my nose like a ten year old with the other hand - I made it all the way through the airport and onto the superfast train into the city like that.

At the city train station I met my wonderful friend Nicky, who took me to her friend's appartment where I'm staying - next to the racing track, which is overlooked by rows of towerblocks scattered around the steep shrub-covered hillsides.

i'm just about to head off and meet Nicky and walk the dragon's back. But I'll try and write again later.

t
x

Random googleness!

2005-02-13T11:35:00.000-05:00

I had a quick look at my stats for the blog today, and it looks like people are finding it through google now. And if you google "getting a fat belly" (using the inverted commas) my blog is the first thing to come up!!!

Safely and Sadly Back From My Stateside Saddle Soreness

2005-02-13T08:51:00.000-05:00

I'm back in Edinburgh now, back at work. But it's OK being home - I had an amazing trip. And it's nice to be sitting on a chair instead of a saddle, and having a real bed and cosy room instead of a tent!

The journey home was fine, though my bike got a bit damaged in transit, but at least it made it back!

Since then I've just been catching up on the insane amount of work that's been waiting for me. But I'm getting on top of that now, and have been catching up with all my mates in Edinburgh. The weather's not too bad for a Scottish winter - a bit damp, a bit cold, a bit windy. But when I'm not cycling I don't really care. It took a few days before I could bear to ride my bike properly - I had a meeting about 10 miles outside the city. And to be honest I didn't ride out of choice - the battery on my car's dead flat after 6 weeks of not being used, and despite Nicky's best efforts we've not been able to fix it. It was wierd riding my bike without any luggage - it felt so fast!

It's interesting comparing Edinburgh to the places I've been. I was out last night with a few friends at a Battle of the Bands (at the hellhole that is Subway Cowgate) and pretty much all the music was really heavy rock or heavy metal. One band from Livingstone had obviously bussed in all their long-haired mates for their show, so there was this crowd of about ten 18 year olds headbanging, crowd surfing and stage diving. We went to see some friends of Nicky's, who came third - www.mynextgirlfriend.com

Went to see Goldie on Friday night at the Venue, which was mad. I'd never been to a drum and bass night before, but it was interesting to see someone as famous and influential as Goldie, and to get into a totally new kind of music.

Anyway, I don't want this to turn into one of those blogs that just describes my rather mundane daily life, so I'm going to stop writing about it! Over the next few weeks I'm going to type up the journal that I wrote every evening on my trip - so if you want to read my very personal thoughts then keep checking the site. I'll insert the journal entries with the dates that they were originally written on, inbetween the blog entries that I did at the time. I'll also add some of my best photos. I've got about 670 photos and I'm really struggling to narrow them down to a number that won't bore people to death. Appologies to Franca and Kerry who made the mistake of offering to look at my photos before I'd sorted them properly!

And thanks to everyone who kept in touch while I was travelling, and to all the amazing people I met on my journey who's emailed since.

Keep life interesting.

Tom

I made it!

2005-02-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

I made it to St Augustine, and with a day to spare after pushing myself hard doing two 100 mile days in a row (a certain part of my body is hurtin' real bad).

St Augustine was cool, very beautiful old town. Went on a bit of a pub crawl with one of the guys from the lovely Pirate Haus hostel there.

The next day I got the first Greyhound down to Miami, a rather dull 10 hour journey, releived by a fascinating conversation with a 27 year old guy who'd just got out of jail after 2 months. It was amazing hearing him talk about how it felt to be in jail, and how it felt to be out. I'll write more about that when I have time. But it had been a very spiritual time, and I felt that it had a lot of similarities with my trip - a lot of time to contemplate life, being thrown in with a really random mix of people, spending a lot of time thinking. But obviously there's the major difference of freedom.

Arrived in Miami after dark, and pretty much went straight out. South Beach is such a cool place. It really reminds me of a slightly chilled-out version of Florence - everyone is beautiful, well dressed. There's a real mediterranian feel - everyone dining out doors in glamorous restaurants. The one thing that I don't like so much about it is that it's a real club culture - that's where everyone goes, and they're really expensive. I was wandering around in my cycling clothes - a Helly Hansen Tshirt and lightweight hiking trousers - I felt really out of place amongst the glamour. But one great thing is that the shops are open 'til about 1am - and they're very like Italian shops - really gorgeous clothes, a bit overpriced. But I treated myself to a pair of jeans and a nice shirt, which I put on immediatly, and felt a lot more at home! Found a really nice Irish bar where I chatted to a few folk, then discovered a great Jazz bar with a live band playing a wierd and wonderful fusion of reggae and samba. It was open 'til about 3, so that was good for me. Stopped at a brilliant Mexican for a late night burrito, then hit the hostel for the night.

Started the day today with a walk along the beach at sunrise. There's not a lot of cities in the world where you can paddle in the sea in shorts and t shirt first thing in the morning in winter. I guess San Diego is another. Emigration is looking more and more tempting! (though not to Miami). After I'd worked up an appetite (not hard for me) I had a delicious breakfast of huevos rancheros (fried eggs on a tortilla with refried beans, potatoes, cheese & salsa) and a great coffee, sat in the sun doing some writing, then wandered around the shops.

I'm gonna miss this - the food, the people, the sunshine...

Hmm.

c ya

Tom

270 miles to go!

2005-02-01T05:00:00.000-05:00

Well I've only 270 miles to go, so I'll be in St Augustine either thursday night or friday morning. But sadly it's going to rain every day until then. Though I've stopped believing the weather chanel too much since I woke up with the heaviest frost yet on my tent on monday morning - they said the temperature was going to stay in the 40s.

After my last blog entry I got drenched. And on leaving that beautiful town someone in a passing car fired a starter pistol in my ear. At least I hope it was just a starter pistol...

Further down the road I saw someone at the side of the road, but I couldn't work out what they were doing. When I caught up with them I got chatting to this guy called Lee from Tennessee. He was doing a 200km training ride for some mad 750km ride in Paris that is done in 80 hours or something. I was pretty impressed at him riding 200k in this weather, but what raised him from impressive status to insane status was the fact that he was doing it on a SCOOTER! It was a type I'd never seen before - a 26 inch front wheel like a bike with a small back wheel. It was called a kick-along or something similar, maybe a kick-a-bike. And he was managing 12mph, though he was down to 10 by the time he turned off.

But I had a really cool time on saturday night. I got chatting to a friendly group of girls who were working at the supermarket where I stopped to buy supper in Bonifay. They gave me the name of the motel where Lee and the other cyclists were staying, so I decided to spend the night there, dry out and chat to the cyclists. They were friendly - I chatted a lot to the wife of the organiser and her son. He gave me one of the yellow 'livestrong' bracelets that I've been searching for since I arrived in the US. While we were chatting we noticed some people in a car waving at us - it was the girls from the supermarket. They invited me to ride with them and see the town on a saturday night. So of course I accepted.

I bought a few beers and we drove around. There wasn't a lot happening - just everyone else driving around too. I became their performing monkey for the night - they got me to say 'git-r-done' in an American accent, which they found hilarious. One of them recorded it on her phone and played it back, and I realised why it was so amusing. They drove me around introducing me to everyone, and the car gradually filled up until there was about 10 of us in the car. Anyone that knows much about life in small town america can perhaps guess how the evening ended, but for various reasons I can't say any more about it here. But it was certainly one of the most unforgettable moments of my trip! Email me if you want to find out. But despite what happened I had a really great evening, and met one of the girls for a coffee at the waffle house the next morning before I left.

The next day was dry, and I camped wild for the first time, at a beautiful abandoned old house in the middle of the forest. At first it was a bit spooky being on my own with all the strange rustling noises, but I got used to it and enjoyed the tranquility and stars.

Not a whole lot of excitement since then, and it's raining again today but I don't mind too much.

See y'all soon,

Tom
x

In the Sunshine State...

2005-01-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

...but there ain't no sun!

Managed to miss the Greyhound in New Orleans (do I detect a common theme emerging?) so had to ride the dog to Mobile, Alabama, thereby missing out the brief stretch of Mississippi that's on the route. Met a cool guy on the bus - Art - who's yet another really intelligent interesting person. He's done a few degrees, fluent in Japanese and several European languages, owns 5 guns, 3 cars and 3 motorbikes. And he drives a truck because it pays so much better than any other job out there. Had a cool time chatting to him. I ended up committing myself to doing a parachute jump in 2005 when I get back to the UK...

It was dark by the time I got to Mobile, so got a motel across the road. It was grim as usual, but what made it bad wasn't the drawings on the sheets or the grotty decor, but the overly 'friendly' owner. He got very excited when I said I was from the UK - he'd lived in Luton years ago. So he shook my hand and gave me a big hug. When he hugged me for the second time I was rather uncomfortably aware of how tight he was pressing himself against me and squeezing my ass. My skintight lycra shorts must be irresistable! I kept the door well locked that night.

Treated myself to a hot Greek supper in a really bizarre bar - I was the youngest person there by about 60 years. All the old single people in the area seemed to hang out there flirting with each other.

The next day was pretty nice - slept late because I was knackered then headed through the moderately attractive city of Mobile - some nice streets of Greek revival houses (like New Orleans) lined with beautiful live oaks. Had a nice tail wind too as I rode the 20 or 30 miles down the east side of Mobile bay through a pretty wealthy area.

It got dark earlier than I was expecting - I'm getting quite close to the east end of the current time zone here. I stopped at a gas station to buy some food and see if there was anywhere nearby to camp. A woman in the queue behind me overheard and came up and asked if I wanted to stay at her condo! It was funny - she was really nervous that I would think she was wierd for offering! Of course I accepted - the thought of a comfortable warm bed and someone to speak to for an evening (and avoiding cycling on the pretty busy roads in the dark) was very appealing. Her condo is right on the border of Alabama and Florida, at a place called Perdido. It's one of the areas that got hit worst by Hurricane Ivan. She was down there to start fixing her place up. (by the way a condo's like an appartment in a high rise block, hers is really nice with a pool and security at reception, right on the beautiful sandy beach! I didn't actually know what a condo was when she said that's where she was staying.)

I'd read about the hurricane in the news, but really didn't appreciate how bad the destruction was, or how bad it could still be now four or five months later. We met up with her friend and neighbour and drove to get some supper at a bar. All the other condos and houses were deserted, no lights on, piles of trash at the roadside, destroyed trees. It was awful. I took loads of photos the next day when I rode through it in the light.

We had a great time at the bar, and Mary Ethel's friend insisted on stopping at a supermarket to buy me some fruit & chocolate for the next day's ride.

Sat up chatting to Mary Ethel for ages. Yet again, like so many people I've met, she's really inteligent and interesting. She feels really depressed that Bush got in again, we discussed politics and America for a long time.

And my bed was so comfortable and warm! She offered to have me stay for a few days, but I resisted the temptation - I'd like to ride to St Augustine, and it's just possible (despite me getting really confused about how much time I've got left - think my brain got fried in New Orleans).

Yesterday I left after a wonderful breakfast of fried eggs and rode in a strong headwind under grey skies through the destruction. It started raining after lunch continued all afternoon. I got drenched. My waterproofs are good, but my gloves and feet got soaked, which cools me down. One highlight of the day was stopping at a roadside stall selling bags of boiled peanuts. I'd never heard of them before, but they seem to be a local speciality. They're dead tasty.

The other highlight was stopping at a bike shop to shelter and meeting a really friendly guy there. His grandpa was scottish, and he plays the bagpipes. He spend 2 years in Glasgow aged 13 learning the pipes - he hated it! But he was really friendly and he gave me a soda and let me dry out and heat up, and we chatted for ages about scotland and politics. I asked him what the Confederate flag represents here; it's being flown a lot more here than I've seen so far on my trip. He says that people who fly it claim that it represents 'heritage not hate' - but that argument wouldn't hold if a german person was to fly a Nazi flag.

Cycled on through the rain and stopped for a really bad pizza in a gas station when it got too dark, then rode a couple of rather hairy miles in the darkness to a campsite. Thankfully the rain pretty muched stopped at sunset, and I was able to pitch my tent under a big gazebo thing, so I stayed dry, though there was no way to get my gloves, socks or shoes dry.

I was so tired - I was trying to write my journal but kept falling asleep!

Today's been ok - less wind, only light drizzle, except for one heavy shower which made me decide to come into a beautiful old (1880) library in the town I'm in - DeFuniak Springs. I'll head onwards now and try to cover another 30 miles or so to the next town which has the option of a motel (if I get soaked) or another campsite.

Looking forward to getting home right now, but if the weather improves in the next week then I'll be sad to leave! My mood is tied very closely to the weather.

Bye for now,

Thomas
x

If music be the food of love

2005-01-25T18:56:00.000-05:00

...I'm getting a fat belly.

[sorry for the delay in posting this one - the computer in the hostel was playing up]

Just got back from another amazing night's music - anamazing band called Rebirth Brass Band(http://www.rebirthbrassband.com/rbb/index.shtml) wereplaying at a cool venue miles away out away from downtown (sorry I can't be more specific, I've notreally grasped New Orleans' geography yet). They wereamazing, loads of people had told us they were worthseeing. They were an amazing sort of funky jazz, with three trumpets, a sax, two trombones, a tuba and acouple of guys on percussion. I went there with Liddy,Frank and Larry from the hostel, but got dancing with a really nice Austrian girl, Katerina, who was herefor a few days on holiday from doing a law masters inBoston.

Had a really cool day today, though didn't manage to fit in half the stuff I'd intended. Cycled through the city with Liddy and got the ferry across theMississippi to look at the Mardi Gras floats that are being built. I'm missing the festival by a few days,which is a real pity. But it was cool seeing thefloats being built, especially the ones Liddy wasdoing - most people don't get to go in the warehouse.Took a ton of photos. Also sneaked into the main mardigras tourist thing where they have loads of random old huge mardi gras polysytrene figures and stuff. it's$15, but Larry gave me his pass from yesterday, dead handy. There was a cool Voodoo shop in that area too,and I got chatting to the woman who ran it for ages. She put a cross of potion for luck on my right wristand a cross of love potion on my left...

Rode around the garden district on my bike for a while- they have these amazing old Greek revival wooden houses, some really plush, some really beautifully rundown. And noticed a bunch of people being given a tourof the cemetary there, so I tagged along on that. In the cemetaries here the cockroaches eat the bodies and boxes, then the next time another body goes into the family tomb they sweep up the remains to make room forthe new body.Then at sunset I headed to the revolving bar on top ofthe World Trade Centre here. It was surprisinglyempty, it was magical up there. I got a real surprise seeing the city from up there - the mississippi river winding it's way through the vast sprawl, the bridge, the barges, then suddenly the skyskrapers of downtown,the lights of the cars going up Canal.

Then headed back to the hostel for supper, some beers,some chat, watched a really badly dubbed version of a kung fu film, then headed out.

I'm going to leave tomorrow, I think I'll be finallyable to extract myself. But my rear gears have stopped working - the shifter's jammed. But there's a bikeshop nearby if I can't get it fixed. I'll get a greyhound back north into Mississippi to rejoin my route, then attempt to cover the last 750 miles or soin the time I have left. If I'd left this morning I'd have made it... If... But I don't really care if I make it or not. I want to divert down to the forgotten coast of Florida anyway, and there's a few towns whereI can catch a greyhound if I need to, though getting abox for my bike could be a hassle. It was a nightmare getting to New Orleans - I ended up missing the bus hunting for a box. But I'll not bore you with thattale of stress.

See y'all!
Tx

The Siren Songs of N'Orleans

2005-01-25T13:43:00.000-05:00

Man! New Orleans really sucks you in! I've spoken to so many people who have intended to stay a couple of nights and have been here two weeks, or just stayed permenantly like Rudy, the German night watchman at the hostel. He wouldn't say how many years he's been here now.

There is a house in New Orleans, they call the rising sun/
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy/
and me/
oh lord/
I'm one

Had another amazing night out last night. Headed out with a German guy, Frank from New York, Larry (who's cycling the other way - I've become really good friends with him), and a few others, back to Frenchman street just outside the touristy French quarter. Went to the spotted cat where the Black Vipers were playing. they're basically the best jazz band in New Orleans, and new orleans is basically the birth place of jazz. they were absolutely brilliant, it was so energetic and free form. people just kept on joining in. At one point there was about 10 of them all feeding of each other and the music just kept on flowing, and the beer just kept on flowin', the people coming in and out, one girl and her friend celebrating her birthday started dancing, one of the guys I got friends with got very friendly with the girl who was dancing loads, I got chatting to the other girl for ages. She was a Sicilian-American who'd come to New Orleans to do English Lit at uni, and stayed. Anyway my time's running out on the computer and on my trip, so I'm gonna have to leave you in suspense about all my other cool times for now.

Off to see garden quarter and cemetaries where they do loads of voodoo stuff just now, see ya!
T
x

House of the Risin' Sun

2005-01-24T17:24:00.000-05:00

Well I'm in New Orleans, and it's absolutely amazing! I never thought I'd love another city as much as Austin, but this place rocks! Great people, amazing music, fantastic food, cool architecture, drinkable beer.

I'm staying at the India House hostel, which is much better than the International Hostels because you can drink and it's much more chilled and party atmosphere. I rolled in lastnight after an absolutely foul Greyhound journey, had a shower and a shave and began to feel human again. Three guys were heading out and I joined them. Had a fantastic night of music, beer, food, fun. Bought the CD of one group - a mad fusion of jazz, swing, Eastern European and Cajun. Went to one place where everyone was doing absolutely amazing swing dancing! Discovered today that they were really professional dancers who'd come from all over the country - it was beautiful watching them, so smooth, improvised, energetic and lively.

And going out is so cool - you can just buy a beer for $1 on the street and wander in and out of different bars watching different amazing bands! I love it!

And I'm just heading off for another the same after an amazing day visiting the swamp and wandering around the beatiful mad city. We're leaving as I type, so I'll try to write more tomorrow.

See y'all!

T x

More amazing days!

2005-01-20T17:14:00.000-05:00

Not got time to write a whole lot - I'm staying at an amazing RV park in Pumpkin, Texas, where I've made friends with the son of the owner, who I've been helping with some web design. The park's amazing - has a hot tub - I spent ages in there! So sweet on my sore muscles!

Had a really amazing time in Austin! That night I ended up at the Continental club, pretty randomly. In a city with over 80 bands playing every night this turned out to be one of only 3 where you can still do swing dancing. I got chatting to a cool guy called Andy while listening to the band, and a little later his friends turned up. And I spent the evening learning to swing dance with two beautiful friendly interesting girls. And we went to another pub after that, where they had about 80 beers on draught! Ended up staying up 'til about 4.30 that night in the hostel chatting to a great English girl who was travelling in her gap year.

The riding since then's been a little tough - tired & sad to leave such a cool city as Austin - I've really fallen in love with it. But things are getting back to normal now - doing lots of 90 mile days in order to spend some time in N'Orleans and make it to the Florida coast. Lots of dogs chasing me, but none have got me yet. The drivers have been fantastic since Austin - really good at overtaking. And for all those lovely concerned friends who emailed asking how my toe was - it's fully mended!

met another guy doing the route today - going the other way - he's Scottish! He's got a website, but I don't have the address on me right now, but I'll put a link on another time.

Sorry for the rushed update, not a lot of time with the long days riding. I'll try to update properly soon. Thanksfor all the lovely emails, sorry I've not had time to reply.

Cheers for now!

Thomas

Amazing Days in Austin

2005-01-17T07:33:00.000-05:00

Well today I am actually half way across - I'm at the
1500 mile mark after cycling 110 miles yesterday to
reach Austin.

And things get better and better; I'm having an
absolutely amazing time. I think I'll just type up a
few days worth of the journal I've been keeping again:

Sunday 16th January, Austin Texas

(today rode 112 miles! 12mph average, 33.4 max)

What a day. I'm very happy to have made it in one
piece. It froze again in the night, but was warm
enough in tent. Had breakfast in the club house for
warmth. Packing up th efrozen tent my fingers got so
cold it hurt. Set off at 7 but it was far too cold, so
I stopped for a coffee and a very filling egg and
potato taco. So it was 7.30 when I hit the road.

The first hour or so were magical! There was a lot of
frost on the ground and the rising sun acros the
rolling fields, lighting the trees along the rivers
was breathtaking. However the rest of the day's ride
was really unpleasant - headwind a lot of the way.
Really busy roads (Sunday traffic) and I didn't have a
shoulder all day. I'm going to develop very good
muscles on one side of my neck from looking over my
left shoulder every 10 seconds! Most people don't know
how to overtake a bike here - they don't really slow
down, and usually they'll only pull out an extra foot
or so - rarely will they go fully into the other lane.
Some people do, but it's the ones that don't who leave
the lasting impression. And the majority of people
drive these huge pickups, which are much worse than
cars when they go by your left elbow.

I stopped in Blanco at the supermarket. Outside an
elderly Jewish couple got chatting to me about my trip
- they were really interested. Just as they were
leaving the guy put his hand firmly on my arm and said
a prayer of safety for me. It was really moving. It
almost brings a tear to my eye now thinking about it.
I don't know what it is about this trip - the
exhaustion, the stress of the traffic, the time, the
place, the thinking - but my emotions are much closer
to the surface.

I'd intended to stay with some friends of April and
Charles' who have the Dancing Waters Inn at Wimberly
(http://www.dancingwatersinn.com) - but I'd not been
able to get through to them on the phone. I considered
camping in the town any way, but I'd only done 70
miles and I didn't fancy having that horrible road to
start out on again the next day, so I decided to keep
going. It was a cool town - very pretty and artsy.
Bought a Mexican pastry and carried along - intending
to find a place to pitch a tent or stay in Buda, from
where I could cycle the last 20 miles to Austin the
next day. And when I got to Buda, although tired, I
still had some energy left so I decided to put on my
lights and continue!

The roads were much quieter, it was almost pleasant.
The temperature was cool - 54 degrees F - it had been
sunny but cool all day (north wind). Half way there I
realised I'd mis-read the map and it was only 15
miles, not 20 - a pleasant surpriese. Just before
Austin I hit 100 miles for the 1st time! Riding in
Austin in the dark wasn't pleasant - there were some
bike lanes, but it was too dark to see potholes and
glass etc. But it was nicer than a lot of stuff I'd
ridden that day.

I'd marked on a free map of Austin where I thought the
hostel was (I'd looked it up on the internet a few
days a go) and I managed to navigate my way there
successfully. But when I got to Riverside I checked my
Adventure Cycling Association map to get the house
number, and discovered it was Lakeshore I was supposed
to be on, and it wasn't any where to be seen on my
map!

I got so down. I figured I must have just got confused
with the names of the streets - I've been searching
for Riversides, Lakeshores, Lakesides etc. in other
towns and cities. Luckily a friendly-looking guy came
out of the gas station next to me for a cigarette, and
I asked him, and he gave me directions - it was only a
few blocks away! I was SO unbelievably happy when I
got there. The temperature was down to about 40
degrees F and my fingers and toes were numb again.

Checked in ($20) with a friendly young American woman
called Blossom, or some similar hippy-offspring name.
There's quite a few Brits here - 1st I've met, apart
from Charles (who's an honorary American I guess).
Also an Aussie, a German, and quite a few Americans
from NY and Tennessee. Had a cup-a-soup and loads of
bread - they get leftovers free from a supermarket.
It's a really nice Youth Hostel - much more like the
European ones than the one in Phoenix, but more
chilled than the Europena ones - free coffee, TV room,
etc. Chatted to a nice playwright (playwrite?) from NY
- she's moving here. Her blog's at
http://www.gaspjournal.com if you're interested. Her
and an older guy (travelling from NY snow down to
Mexican sun) both said they were really inspired by
what I told them of my trip, and now want to get bikes
and do similar things!

Got chatting to a couple of English girls and American
guys - we got Kill Bill volumes one and two on video
and had some illicit glasses of wine. Watched the
films in reverse order - apparently Quentin Tarantino
said to do it that way. It was cool - all the American
bits are shot in areas where I've been - the church
bit is set just outside El Paso which is where I was
the day after I got hit by that car. And I think the
bit with Bill's brother in his trailer in the hills is
in the desert around there too - if you've seen the
film I've cycled through lots of that sort of
countryside.

I was really tired, and I'd already seen both films,
so half way through the 2nd video (after she kills
cottonmouth) I went to bed at about 3.

I've got a really painfull little left toe - maybe
it's because my feet have been numb for five hours
every day! 12 hours of cycling today, 110 miles!

Monday 17th January, Austin Texas

Had such a comfortable and warm night in the youth
hostel! Woke at 8.30 and had a huge breakfast of
muisli (my usual half packet, half pound portion) plus
a free peanut butter roll. Chatted to the German girl
again - she's just finished a 2 month internship doing
aerospace work here. Walked into downtown along the
lake (actually a river) - a couple of v. pleasant
miles. It's Martin Luther King Day today, so I headed
to the Capital building to see if the march was still
there, but they'd already moved on. So I had a quick
look around then headed down 7th to where the march
was headed. Noticed they had an Andy Goldsworthy
exhibition on at the art gallery here! Sadly it's
closed today, but I might hang around a bit later
tomorrow and see it. 7th st was interesting - away
from Downtown for a couple of miles. Passed the
Salvation Army place and soup kitchen - loads of
homeless people - bot not at all threatening. The MLK
celebration is amazing. It's in a park in the sunshine
with bands playing all day. I got a free massage, had
a coffee and great home-made cookie, and have spent
the last couple of hours sitting here surrounded by
happy, chilled out people - hippyish folk dancing,
cute kids running around, families sitting and
chatting. Been writing journal for today and
yesterday. The last woman that was performing was
amazing - Ruby something. She just got a standing
ovation. She did a whole mix of stuff - gospel,
reggaie, country, blues. But in one song she was
talking about bloody Sunday in the 60s and everyone
singing through their fear as they crossed the bridge
towards the State Troopers. It was really moving, so
so intense, that time tears did actually come to my
eyes.

Man. Music, equality, free speech.

Later that day:

Hung around listening to the music until it finished
at two. Started walking the couple of miles back to
downtown, and a woman getting into her car asked where
I was headed and gave me a lift! Absolutely amazing!
People are so kind and trusting! I'm now in a Jewish
Deli with a coffee updating this for a while, then
I'll take a wander around 6th, maybe go to a museum or
head up to Texas Uni, then later on grab some food and
hit the bars for the music. Austin is such a cool
place, really easy to walk around, very beautiful - a
strange mix of postmodern skyscrapers and pretty
beautiful historic low buildings. And it's sunny and
warm in the middle of winter! I think I'm in love!

well I could write more, but I'm going to head out and
enjoy Austin some more. But I'm having and absolutely
amazing time, meeting so many kind, interesting
wonderful people. The weather's continued to be great,
even if it is baltic getting ready in the morning,
with a little more wind than I'd like. But it's so
much better than back home!

Occassionally as I cycle in the headwinds on the
nastier roads I look forward to coming home, but other
times when the sun's out, the road's good, or I've
experienced yet another act of amazing kindness or
friendliness I feel I could do this forever.

I've calculated the times and distances and I can just
make it to the coast of Florida if I really ride hard
(90 mile days), and will just have time perhaps to
spend a day in New Orleans. I've heard very mixed
reports about it from different people, but I'm keen
to see it for myself, especially if April's
goddaughter gets in touch.

It's funny in America. People are very nervous of the
next place along - it's happened everywhere - "don't
drink the water in New Mexico" (it was fine) "watch
out for the dodgy areas of El Paso" (no problems at
all) "Careful in New Orleans, it's really rough"
(well, we'll see, I must admit to being a little
nervous of it).

So cheers y'all. Thanks very much to everyone that's
been emailing, it's great to hear from you, and glad
you've been enjoying my photos.

Lots of love & happiness,

Tom
x

(PS - sorry about the dodgy formatting - blogger logged me out when I tried to post, but luckily I'd saved a copy in my email account)

Half Way across America

2005-01-16T13:20:00.000-05:00

Half Way across America
Friday 14th Jan

Thomas stopped at a roadside phone box to tell us how he was getting on.
He's at Camp Wood, couldn't find it on our map, but it means that after a
week or so of Texas has moved from West Texas into Central Texas. Camp Wood
is described as a sort of holiday resort with no visible form of fun.
Yesterday lunch time was at Del Rio - couldn't find that on our map either.

More importantly, at 1200 miles he's reached the half way point. And with
both mountain ranges crossed early in the journey, it's all downhill from
here. To counter that, the chap in the bike shop has promised a head wind
all the way to Florida. The bike shop was to replace both tyres and both
innter tubes, worn out by all this energetic cycling, up at 6am, on the road
at 7.45, off the road and tent up again at 6pm.

He's in some sort of limestone country, with water in the rivers and grass
on the hills. It's stocked with sheep, goats, ostrich and brangus. On Monday
he'll be in Austin Texas and taking a day off. Austin Texas is on our map!
And a brangus is a sort of cow - what did you think, hmm?

Dad

Some photos for y'all

2005-01-13T12:05:00.000-05:00

Hi folks, I've got some photos for you to look at finally - I went to Walmart and downloaded them from my camera to a CD, and have managed to find a library with a computer that has a CD drive. So with the wonders of technology you can see a few of my pix.

Go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/80637765@N00/sets/53663/

Had a great ride today, passed through Del Rio, Texas, where I managed to find a great bike shop and treated myself to a new pair of tyres and inner tubes. They're Specialized Nimbus tyres, which they claim to be pretty much puncture resistant. But I'll believe that when I see it. I'd got 3 punctures in the last two days and was getting really sick of it - I guess my old ones had had it after the previous 1000 miles. Today was also good because I had a fantastic tail wind all day, covered 80 miles with no bother at all.

Yesterday was pretty horrible though - fog for the first two hours. When it cleared I realised I'd not missed much at all. It was really dull rolling ranch/desert with absolutely nothing to look at. And I had a head wind all day, so the going was really tough. One thing I'd been looking forward to a little was the Judge Roy Bean museum ( a mad old western judge) but it was really dull. The day improved slightly in the last 10 miles as the wind turned to a tailwind and I crossed a beautiful gorge, but then I got a puncture and had to limp the last couple of miles to the campsite where I spent the remaining half hour of daylight repairing the puncture instead of admiring the view.

But today's made up for that. I'm staying near the Alamo where loads of western films are made, including surprisingly enough 'The Alamo'. But I dont' think I can be bothered to do an extra 15 miles bike ride to go and look.

Anyway I'm off to pitch my tent for the night and have something to eat.

Cheers y'all,

Thomas
x

Is Tom overdoing it a bit?

2005-01-12T00:15:00.000-05:00

Is Tom overdoing it a bit?

He phoned today, Sunday 9th, and we were concerned to hear how he was
recovering from his superficial injuries. He seems to be keeping moving ok.
There were those 90 mile days he was going to do. Well, yesterday's helped
prevent any of the damaged limbs from stiffening up. The 90 miles was mostly
head wind and temperature of 82F and had 2500ft of climb near the end. Not
more than half a Ben Nevis, more like a Merrick. Just wait while I convert
that - add 40, multiply by 5, divide by 9, take away 40 again, and the
number is 28 degrees C. So no more snow difficulties, I guess.

The climb was the nice bit, he said, as he got to use 1st gear for once.
Tomorrow a rest day. What, a whole day off? Well no, but only 50 miles. At
that point the phone card ran out.

Dad

9th Jan 2005

Don't Mess With Texas!

2005-01-11T13:00:00.000-05:00

Things are going so well, I'm so happy, it's so sunny, and I've been fortunate to meet so many amazingly kind, wonderful people!

And for the first time in my life I've started to enjoy country/bluegrass music! West Texas is really agreeing with me!

To try to explain why I'm just going to type up my diary entry from the last few days:

Sunday 9th Jan. Marathon, Texas.

As I cycled into this small town in western Texas in the pleasant evening sun looking for somewhere to pitch my tent I heard someone shout 'Hey there Scottish boy!' It turned out to be a woman I'd chatted to at the observatory in the mountians the previous evening. She invited me to join her and her English husband for supper in their hotel that night, their treat. She also recommended a really nice motel to camp at, and I'm so glad I did - it has the best showers (or restrooms) that I've had the pleasure to use on this trip. (they've a website at http://www.marathonmotel.com - take a look and listen to the local pirate radio station which plays the most random selection of music I've ever heard - click on 'marathon today' and then 'basin radio'). So I joined her (April) and her husband Charles, who'd just got back from biking in the Big Bend national park for a couple of the best margharitas I've ever drank, then went for a meal. The starter was massive - Charles (who's also veggie, the first I've met here) and i shared a plate of fried onion rings and mushrooms. And for mains had an enchilada wiht portobello mushrooms, rice and black beans. SO good! Had a really nice red wine too. Then had really nice pudding - a bit like a bramble crumble, but with pastry instead of crumble. Turns out Charles is a conservationist - did an MSc in conservation in London, done lots of environmental jobs and is now studying environmental law in Houston. And April is in a band - sort of fusion of country/folk/cajun etc. (they've a website at http://www.sugarbayouband.com). They offered to take me to Big Bend National Park with them tomorrow! Everyone's been telling me I should go, and it sounds amazing, so I will. It'll be good to take a proper break from cycling for a day - give my muscles and butt a break.

As I write I'm sitting at the motel where I'm camping in a really cool adobe-walled area beautifully lit, next to a water feature in the relatively mild night (I'm below 4,500 feet tonight, which is still fairly high though I guess). I'm so happy. Charles & April have been so kind & interesting & lovely!

Monday 10th January

Got up at 7, partly to avoid sleeping in and missing breakfast, and also to watch the sunrise, which is what I'm doing now. It's quite wierd - started as a thin red glow, which died away in the middle and is now spreading to either side. After I wrote my diary last night I saw the other guy camping had a good fire going, so I went to chat and ended up staying 'til after midnight. He had a really nice dog, Q. He used to work and run a cattle ranch in Kentucky, but his mum sold it. He gave me a beer, and we listened to the local pirate radio station, which only broadcasts in a five mile radius from here. Apparently there's just one guy who does it, and every week he comes in and changes the CDs in the 5,000 CD changer! Really random stuff, including a rather freaky Christmas Disney song that was a medley of stuff including 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' and 'all I want for Chrismas is my 2 front teeth'.

I'm meeting Charles and April for breakfast here, then we're heading off to Big Bend!

Later

Just stopped for gas. the guys here look so cool. There's one old dude in tight blue jeans, a dark blue shirt with silver buttons, open at the neck. A beautiful leather belt with a huge silver buckle and a big cream cowboy hat. His face is really weather=beaten. We had a fantastic breakfast of huevos rancheros, and I checked my emails on Charles' laptop - they have wireless internet in the cafe at the Marathon Motel! We're now driving to Big Bend in their Jeep Cherokee listening to bluegrass with April playing the mandolin in the back. I bought the CD of her band, though I'll not be able to listen to it 'til I get home.

Later still

It took an hour to get to the park, then at least another 45 mins driving through the desert plain (though it was much more vegetated than all the plain I'd seen due to the lack of cattle) then got into the mountians in the middle. Amazing. Beautiful red cliffs, a bit like the Naranjo de Bulnes in the Picos de Europa. Really steep & craggy. Went for a walk down the Window Trail. It was fairly short, 3 and a half miles each way i think, but strenuous. It was quite an overcast morning, but got really hot later. The walk was beautiful. Saw lots of Cactii, including the Century Cactus (?) which they use to make the drink similar to tequila with the worm. Nice trees, including the grey oak and drooping juniper. Saw 3 deer, a few roadrunners (my first sighting) and a couple of squirrels. April & Charles had seen a mexican brown bear there a couple of years ago, but we didn't see one today. The climax of the walk was where the gorge ended over a cliff. Hung out there a while, took lots of photos. After that ew bought some food to eat in the car (on April's recommendation I opted for peanut butter instead of cheese for a change). We spent the afternoon and evening driving on the old rough tracks in one corner of the park. It was a cool way ot see the park, though I felt a strange sense of guilt! I'm used ot having to struggle a bit more to see such cool places! But in that heat and with no water around there's very little alternative. We saw 2 golden eagles! After about two hours we reahced an old abandoned mercury mine, discovered in 1900 and abandoned in the 20s, apart from a brief use in WWII. It was getting to dusk when we were there, and the industrial ruins were so beautiful@ I took loads of photos, must have taken about 100 all day! Drove back in the dark, stopping to admire the stars. They showed me the zodiacal cone - a cone of light just to the left (south) of where th eusn sets, which you see a short time after sunset. They also pointed out Orion, part of which is one group of stars I've been noticing every night (Orion's belt & 'sword'). There was no light out there, the stars were amazing.

The drive back was slow - had to watch out for deer, etc. Saw 2 herds of javelinas - the wild pigs. Thankfully no problems going through the border checkpoint (it was much more rigorous thatn the last one - the woman at the motel said 2 chineese people had been detained there for hours because they forgot to take their paperwork when they visited the park).

The restaurant at the hotel was closed, so we had a couple of margharitas, but the chef was in the bar and really kindly made us a huge plate of nachos with cheese & beans! And we eat well in the car - April's Italian friend had made them some amazing biscotti & and date things covered in coconut. Lovely. Also lots of nuts & stuff.

It was really interesting chatting to them both over the day. It's dificult to describe how they are - not exactly reserved, but they don't blow their own trumpet, despite some amazing achievemtns. Turns out Charles did a lot of web design before he went back to uni to do environmental law, and he's done a lot fo cycle touring in the Alps. He was really into rock climbing as ateenager - he grew up in the town where Chris Bonnington lived, just south of Manchester. And he's just such a friendly, chilled, intelligent, good person. And he composts! (1st person I've met in the US who does!) And April is amazing! It came up in conversation that my gran's from a Jewish family, which by the female line makes me Jewish, and so was she. She felt this was a connection. It's interesting - until Rick mentioned that a few weeks ago in Edinburgh I'd not really been aware of all that. She's also part Cherokee. But the tings she's done are amazing - her band were one of 35 considered for a Grammy awayrd, with only their first album. She's a qualified pilot, great horserider, very adventurous. Used to do marathons & serious triathlons. She mentioned she did photography and did very arty things with it. But it was only at the end of the day at the mine that I discovered she's actually a really successful internationally exhibited artist! She's got one work at the national portrait gallery in London and loads all over the US! Her name's April Rapier if anyone's interested.

They were such an amazingly kind, friendly, generous, interesting couple; I feel so lucky to have met them, spent time with them and seen Big Bend. Just lovely lovely people. I had such a great day. Charles gave me a lift back to the campsite, and as we said goodbye he said that I reminded him of himself in his younger days. That was the nicest thing he could have said, because he is exactly the kind of person I aspire to be. He reminded me of Mike - chilled, happy, great loving relationship.

Today - Tuesday - Sanderson, Texas

Today's been great - sunny, tailwind, downhill. But the library's about to shut so I'll not write much as it wasn't particularly exciting.

Had two punctures - caused by broken glass where someone had crashed into a deer. And two very kind old germans gave me loads of chocolate, nuts, some carrots and a couple of apples when I was stopped for lunch - so kind!

I'm happy, tanned and having an amazing time.

Get the picture?!

lots of love to everyone,

Thomas
x

Things can only get better...

2005-01-06T15:14:00.000-05:00

Things are getting a lot better now. I had two fantastic days riding through Arizona from Phoenix, especially new year's eve camped by a beautiful reservoir in the middle of the Apache reserve. I spent most of my evening chatting to the one sober Apache in the entire place. The rest seemed to be driving around drunk getting arrested. I got a drink of pink champagne the next morning from three Apache girls who were sitting in their car outside the store.

The weather got bad again as dad's described in the previous posts, so I'll not bore you with the details.

Things got rather too exciting yesterday morning - I GOT HIT BY A CAR! My first concern was with my bike - it had a smashed front wheel and bent forks and handlebars. The woman driving the car was more concerned about me, but I'm fine apart from a rather bloody knee and various scraped limbs and shredded clothes. Luckily it was really cold at the time so I was padded by my gloves and layers of clothes. The woman drove me to the nearest bike shop and paid for my bike to be fixed, so all is now pretty much fine. Though I'm feeling rather vulnerable and fragile! It was wierd being knocked down - I don't really remember it. It was a straight road without any shoulder, and the woman didn't see me because of the low morning sun - she just went straight into the back of me. All I remember is finding myself in a tangle of bike by the side of the road.

Yesterday evening I had a rather horrible ride through the busy highways of El Paso, Texas, and more of the same this morning. But once I got out of the urban areas today I had a lovely ride in the sun through cotton fields and pecan groves back into the desert of yuccas and creosote bushes and finally up an unexpected 1000ft climb into the mountains. It was another 90 mile day today and I got pretty tired out. I'll take it easy tomorrow because I've got another 90 mile day the next day with 2500 feet of climb. The riding's a bit like that through this part of Texas - the towns are few and far between so I need to make sure I've somewhere to camp and get food and water. Although tonight I'm just camped next to someone's house - they let me stay there for free because there's no campsite's in town (Sierra Blanco, 4500ft up in the mountains of Texas, just off the Interstate 10). I treated myself to my first hot evening meal in a week this evening in a quiet cafe, which has the first computer with internet I've seen.

It gets dark really early - about 5.30pm, so when there's not a cafe near by there's very little to do except lie with my head sticking out of my tent staring at the stars. It's a very relaxing and therapeutic way to spend some time. I'm feeling very chilled (at least until I got hit by that damn car!) And tonight I'll be feeling very chilly too, probably another frost ahead.

Cheers for all your emails, it's great to hear from everyone.

Hopefully I'll not get hit by any more cars...

Happy new year! Stay safe,

Thomas
x

Middle of Nowhere 4th Jan

2005-01-05T13:10:00.000-05:00

Thomas has arrived at the Middle of Nowhere. It's official. He stopped today
at the 'Middle of Nowhere' bar. To get there he was supposed to go up 8000ft
into the mountains, ie two Ben Nevises, although the plan allowed them to be
done on two separate days. However the Bens Nevis had snow on, so he went
round one of them by a route that just added 50 miles or so most of them
into a head wind. Seems like he should be going in the other direction
really.

Arizona was really beautiful, no details, think rocks sand sagebrush etc,
might be quite close. He met friendly apaches and was given an Apache
indentity card by someone who had a spare one. Now he just needs a horse, a
spear and a teepee, plus dying his hair black and 20 years of suntan. But
it'll save having to pay Â£40 in the UK when we get our ones.

Sunday, 2nd January, was 90 miles, not particularly much uphill but on the
other hand quite a lot of headwind. Yesterday was 80 miles but 4000ft of
ascent. He spent last night in a hotel in Demming, feeling a little tired
and seeking comfort, also it was raining. Otherwise it's been the little
tent all the way from Phoenix.

In 20 miles he'll reach the Rio Grande, with El Paso tonight. Texas tomorrow
night. After that, Texas. And some more Texas. And then a whole lot of
Texas... It's still raining and US phone booths don't have rooves so he's
jumped back into the saddle (do Apaches go yee-haw, no, I'm sure they swing
into the saddle in total silence and disappear with a whisper of wet tires).
And off again eastwards.

Dad Tuesday 4th Jan 05

end of year

2005-01-02T14:33:00.000-05:00

Tom phoned out of the old year (5pm 31/12/04 Arizona) into the new (12.30am
1/1/05 Scotland) which was clever but of course we were out drinking whisky.
According to the answering machine, the storms had blown out and away and
he'd had a couple of days of marvellous weather through red desert and
matching mountains all dotted with cactus like something out of Desperate
Dan in the Beano. He camped out the old year in the Apache reservation at a
place with a shower, quite a treat it seems. Just so long as he keeps on
escaping the cactus, and the Apache. Next place down the line looks to be
Geronimo!

Dad 2/1/05

first four days

2004-12-30T09:24:00.000-05:00

Wednesday 28th Dec 04

Thomas is now in his 4th day of travel, and has just phoned in what could be
a slightly demoralised state of mind from somewhere in Phoenix Arizona. A
damp Scotland-style wind has been blowing rain into his face and slowing him
to 7mph, which is not fast enough to escape the fierce dogs that pursue him
on the quieter country roads. On the less quiet country roads, he merely
gets passed at speed by trucks. A disturbing moment was re-passing one of
the same trucks that had gone out of control down the hill and overturned:
the rescuers were cutting out the unfortunate driver as Thomas freewheeled
past. Discouraged by the storm wind, he has taken the Greyhound Bus to
Phoenix. (Or is planning to take the bus from Phoenix? Not sure.)

That said, he has (to my mind, triumphantly) overcome the coastal range,
pedalling all the way up it on Day 1 - a climb that as far as I recall is
from sea level to 4000ft, almost as high as Ben Nevis. He was joined by a
gang of local cyclists going up the hill 'for fun' and camped along with
them at the top.

Day 2 was freewheeling 10 miles at a time down the eastern slopes. The only
campsite was actually a pull-in for monster Winnebagos (US style truck
homes), no little tents and bikes - but the kindly manager lent him an empty
Winnebago (did he put his tent up inside it, I wonder?).

Day 3 was the discouraging one, with storms that are apparently not really
expected in the desert even at Christmas time. Sand blowing in the eyes,
water blowing across the roads. He turned back, and was given a lift by what
must have been a very kindly woman as somehow the wet bike got lifted too.
Overnight in an expensive hotel, presumably in Phoenix?

At the moment he is hopefully gridironing downtown Phoenix. And is already
in his 2nd time zone. The hostel is (according to mapquest.com) near the
intersection of Interstate I-10 with 7th Street; it's 500m southwest of Good
Samaritain Hospital and 2ml northwest of the Sky Harbour International
Airport. Alas, there are no Internet cafes in Phoenix and there is no way to
get this info to T. Will he find the hostel, its welcoming Susan concealed
as she is behind bamboo and green trees?

Dad 30th Dec 04

Cycling through the desert in the rain

2004-12-29T07:24:00.000-05:00

Well on my third day I decided to risk the weather and tried to set off through my second stretch of desert. I got plenty of water, and had two options - either do 40 miles to a campsite half way with no water, or head right through to the next town 85 miles away. The first 14 miles were OK, but then I turned east and hit the wind. At first I was struggling along at 10 mph, then 9, then 8, and then 7mph. It was so seriously demoralizing. It's difficult to describe. And it was in a straight line, first through farmland, then through gravelly desert like yesterday, then into real sandy desert where loads of people take their dune buggies and bikes. In the sandy part the sand was blowing everywhere and into my face. At least there weren't any dogs! But the shoulder was getting really narrow, so I had to keep checking for trucks and RVs, and had to get off the road if there was something coming the other way at the same time.

After about 35 miles of this a woman stopped and offered me a lift. She took me to where the half-way campsite was supposed to be, but it was in the middle of sand dunes with really strong winds and tonnes of sand flying everywhere - there was no way I could camp there. So she very kindly drove me back to where I started that morning at (which was pretty depressing) and dropped me at the Greyhound station. She was a great woman. She owned a chain of icecream vans in the area, and really hated all the tourists who came to drive in the sand. She chatted like crazy. She said the only reason she gave me a lift was because she was bigger than me! Being a skinny kid has its bonuses sometimes!

I hung around in the greyhound terminal for a while chatting to the guys at the desk who were really friendly, then got a bus to Indio, and then another to Phoenix. The bus was busy, but fine, and the terminals were nicer than in LA. We stopped for half an hour in some random town full of fast food places, and I attempted to get something to eat at Jack in the Box. There was hardly anything veggie there. I ended up with an egg roll (I think it was basically a spring roll) and a portion of fries. Not particularly appetising. I got chatting to the guy next to me on the bus. He was a journalist who'd spent the last few years in Thailand and had two adopted sons out there. He'd worked in London for a while for the evening standard, and had worked for lots of the gossip and scandal magazines in the US. Interesting guy.

In Phoenix I got a free bus to a rather dull motel, which ended up costing me $44 - they never advertise the tax here, I always forget.

And the weather is still foul here - heavy rain showers, windy etc. They're getting it much worse on the coast though. The locals are really glad about the rain, but I'm hating it. Because it's desert here the rain doesn't soak into the hard ground, and there's flooding and warnings of flash-floods, and i really dont' want to be in the desert in that. Especially with the wind.

This morning I managed to find the Youth Hostel here (the only hostel in the whole of this 40 mile wide city!), which is a really cool little house on a suburban street - I almost missed it. I've left my stuff there and will stay for a night or two until the weather improves. I was hoping to meet up with a friend of a friend of Jimmy's, but I've not been able to reach him on his mobile (or cell phone as I'll have to start calling them here). So I'm killing some time in the library doing this, and will maybe go explore downtown soon too. I'd hoped to see Frank Lloyd Wright's stuff because I saw it on the city map, but I asked someone and it turned out to be 30 miles away! I really struggle to grasp the size of these cities!

Well bye for now, I'm really hoping the weather improves soon. I might hang around here until new year, or I might head off back into the desert...

T
x

My first desert

2004-12-29T07:01:00.000-05:00

My second day wasn't quite so strenuous. Still a bit of up and down to begin, but then I had 4000 feet of descent down to below sea level, over about 10 miles. It was amazing. The road wound through really beautiful scrubby boulder-covered mountains. But on the way down I came across a load of emergency vehicles. At first I thought it was just the border patrol busting someone (I was a few miles from the US-Mexico border here) but as I got closer I realised a truck had lost control on the highway going down hill and had pulled off at an exit thinking it was the emergency truck exit (which was the next exit). It hadn't been able to stop and had gone off the edge and got really smashed up. It was carrying paper for recycling, and the paper was spread everywhere. The driver was being cut out as I pulled up - he was in a really bad way, but was still conscious. It was horrible.

I carried on and came out of the mountains and crossed my first desert - the Yuha desert. It was strange cycling through this area of the Imperial valley with nothing but flatness all around. It wasn't very sandy desert - more gravelly. And it was a dead straight road for 14 miles, then a corner, then straight for 10 miles! Then I reached the farmland of the Imperial valley, and got chased by a horrible dog that got within about 6 inches of my ankles. And I was really tired by this point and struggled to out-pace it for ages. Bloody scary.

Eventually I reached the town near where there was a campsite marked on the map, El Centro. I passed an RV (recreational vehicle, basically massive american camper vans) park, so I went to see if they had space for pitching tents. The guy said they did, but it would be $20. That seemed a bit steep, but another guy there persuaded him to charge me less, so I offered $15. I figured it was worth it as I was really tired and couldn't be bothered hunting around the town for somewhere else that would probably be the same price. And then the guy, Gary, offered to let me stay in his RV as he wasn't using it! That was so kind! And it had a gas stove and a really comfy mattress! And a TV. I had a great hot shower and cooked some cous-cous with an avocado that a guy had given me earlier that day at a stall at the side of the road (another really kind gesture) and had a very chilled-out evening infront of the TV watching a Bond film. Also saw the news about the awful tsunami out by Indonesia. It's shocking what's happened there, it really upset me. I'd considered cycling out there instead of the states. I'm really glad I didn't.

The weather forecast was really bad - storms coming in with heavy rain. Gary offered to let me stay another night for nothing, but I decided to press on.

But my time on the computer's running out again, so I'll publish this bit and come back and write some more in a few minutes.

T x

Santa was good to me

2004-12-29T06:47:00.000-05:00

At midnight on Christmas eve a big merry man dropped off my bike at Jimmy's parents' house. I was a very happy guy. And it wasn't wrecked or anything!

Christmas day was fantastic - it was gloriously sunny & hot. After a delicious breakfast of French toast baked with eggs Jimmy's family opened all their presents, and Jim & Connie gave me a really great T-shirt - a surfey one from the local beach here. Then me, Jimmy & his dad Jim went to the beach to look at the surf, and Jimmy & I met up with Josh & Nathan, and we went for a walk along the beach and watched the surfers. Very surreal - it was snowing in Scotland!

We had a massive delicous meal. I'd brought some veggie haggis, which everyone liked. Also had great stuffing and these pretty wierd savoury dishes made from Jello. And for pudding I had my first ever pumpkin pie, which was fantastic - so creamy and light.

Anyway, I'd better get on with what's been happening. I'm writing this in Phoenix library and I'm limited to 15 minutes. The first day's riding was really tough - climbing to 4000 ft from sea level. I made it, but got really knackered. As I was looking for somewhere to camp I bumped into a group of 50 people from an American Hosteling Association Annual christmas bike ride. They let me pitch my tent at the school where they were staying, and let me share their supper and breakfast! It was so kind, and great to be able to be sociable. It was a pretty chilly night camping at that altitude, even with my down sleeping bag and thermarest carry mat.

I'll continue this in another post if I can get back onto the computer as I've run out of time.

T x

PS - George sent me this article to inspire me (I think) -

http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=903785

Sunday 26th December, Pine Valley, CA

2004-12-26T15:25:00.000-05:00

52 miles, at least 4000 ft of climb!

I’m having a great time! Christmas was amazing, but I’ll write about that later. Woke up at 6.30 this morning and put everything together and had a bowl of Lucky Charms, then Jimmy drove me to Ocean Beach. I got pretty nervous! V. sad to say goodbye to Jimmy – him and his family have been so so kind. But I think he’ll come to Scotland.

Set off through early morning San Diego. It wasn’t too bad – big roads and freeway entrances – but it was early so traffic was light, and the map gave me a good route. But it was pretty dull – just going through ugly built up areas for hours. Was one nice section through a park on a pedestrianised path. But it was a really tough day and I didn’t enjoy it much – really tough climb from sea level to 4000+ feet over 50 miles. And it was the first time in four and a half years I’d cycled with full panniers, and the only other time recently I’ve done that distance was a few weeks ago with Lyndsay on the flat.

The route got out into the countryside eventually, but it was mostly following (and at one point on) Highway 8, which was busy and noisy. The other hassle is that I forgot to buy gas in San Diego, and I can’t find the right can anywhere. But the bonus of that is that I got to go into lots of random stores, and saw a guy with the most amazing facial hair in the world – including a big white tuft down his neck.

Saw loads of road cyclists about all day, and towards the end of the day one caught up with me so we chatted. I mentioned I was looking for somewhere to camp, and a few minutes later she came back to me at the store I’d stopped at and said I could camp with her group of 50 cyclists at a school in the village! It’s really cool – they are a really friendly interesting mix of people from all over the USA, and they’re giving me supper and breakfast and let me use the shower! So sociable and fun – just what I needed after a really tough day.

Spent the evening chatting to lots of nice interesting people. Loads of v. superfit people – loads have done marathons and ‘ultramarathons’ – 100 miles in 24 hours. There’s a nice Wall Street Banker for Goldman Sachs who’s an iron man person. Nice girl from Phoenix who offered to let me do my washing at hers when I got there. Had a huge and tasty meal – salad, spaghetti and veggie sauce. Lots of nice hot ‘cider’ (non-alcoholic), good cookies too. The only problem now is that everyone has to take turns to talk about themselves and it’s taking ages and getting a bit dull and I’m tired and would rather visit the pub across the road.

Christmas was amazing! We drove over to Jimmy’s parents at 8.45 – it was a great morning. Had a delicious breakfast of French Toast roasted with egg (nice), also scrambled egg, donut things. Then all opened presents. Jim & Connie gave me some American sweets and a really nice T shirt – surfing T shirt for local beach near the spiritual retreat Jimi Hendrix used to use.

I gave his gran and parents two sets of mum’s Burns postcards – they really liked them. Also gave them some chocolates. Gave Jimmy a CD with a mix of British recent band MP3s.

Me, Jimmy and his dad Jim drove to the beach to look at the surf. When we got back we bumped into Josh and went back to the beach with him and Nathan. Had a coffee and paddled and walked a mile or so along beach. Loads of people surfing. Beautiful hot sunny day. Bizarre.

Went back for huge Christmas meal. I bought a MacSween’s veggie haggis, which everyone liked, also had great stuffing, peas, fresh home-made rolls, and two types of this weird Jello stuff that Americans are into [I discovered later on my journey that it’s actually a Californian thing]. It’s jelly as a savoury. One was green with fake whipped cream stuff. The other one was made by their guest and was red and really tart and weird.

I helped Joy and Jessica wash up, while Jimmy played guitar and his dad played banjo. They did the duelling banjos, which I really like. Then we had pudding – my first ever pumpkin pie! Tasty, surprisingly light and subtle. It’s got a pastry crust and a very fluffy sweet pumpkin filling. I had it with a glass of what they call cider – non alcoholic hot spicey apple drink. Lovely. I was so full!

I sadly said my goodbyes to the family. I’m so glad I’ve been able to see them again. And they’ve been so kind! Me and Jimmy went back to his to feed the dogs and I unpacked my bike. It had been a bit battered on it’s journey – had to fix brakes. Nothing too serious thankfully. Nathan came over and we went to cinema to see Life Aquatic – pretty funny and well made film about a guy going to discover the shark that killed his friend, and making a documentary of it. I even managed to stay awake!

Sat 25th December, 8am, Oceanside, CA

2004-12-25T03:04:00.000-05:00

It’s Christmas! And Santa’s been very good to me! Last night just after midnight a big fat guy with a white beard pulled up at Jimmy’s Parents’ house laughing merrily and dropped off a big box containing my bike and tent!

Well actually Jimmy got a call at 11pm and they dropped it off about 12. But I’m so relieved. I’ve not seen it yet, so I don’t know if it’s been damaged. So happy!

And now it’s Christmas! I got up at 7 because I was excited. And I’ve just phoned the family – it’s snowed there, and they’re just peeling the sprouts for supper. Jessie said all my old school friends were asking after me in the Buccleugh last night. And we’re just about to head over to Jimmy’s parents for Christmas breakfast.

Yesterday afternoon we took the dogs for a walk, then drove over to Jimmy’s parents to put together a cool mountain scooter that was a present for Jana’s husband Michael. Two of Jimmy’s sisters were there baking cookies (Joy and Jessica). They are so beautiful! Connie and Jim were there, and his gran. Sadly his grandpa died last year. They were all so welcoming and pleased to see me. We drove around to Michael’s parents for a meal. It was a beautiful drive – so many houses decked out with lights, inflatable santas, glowing candy canes, etc. On one street they’d lined it with white church candles – so gorgeous! The house we went to was huge and very expensively decorated. They are Mormons too, so no alcohol.

I've made it. Sadly my bike hasn't...

2004-12-24T13:04:00.000-05:00

Hi folks. I've made it to Jimmy's house in San Diego. Sadly my bike is somewhere between here and LA, Chicago or London. American Airlines left it at Heathrow, and promised me it would be flown to Chicago, then down to LA yesterday evening and delivered to Jimmy's parents' house near San Diego. It's not arrived. The most likely reason is that Chicago has got loads of snow, so planes aren't flying there. I really hope it turns up...

Otherwise things are great. The 10 hour flight was fine, I had a pleasant guy called Troy sitting next to me who gave me loads of advice about places to see. The queues in the airport were pretty bad, especially when I was trying to sort out my luggage. Flying over LA was amazing - a beautiful view of downtown and the Hollywood sign up in the hills. I found it really powerful seeing the huge extent of all the houses and freeways. Driving on the bus through LA was wierd - it felt so different to cycling through it last time I was here - much less friendly. The Greyhound bus terminal was really busy - loads of people travelling home for Christmas. The bus journey was a bit nerve-wracking because I was so tired I kept falling asleep, and I was sure I was going to miss my stop. But thankfully I managed to be awake at the necessary point and got off, and Jimmy picked me up.

Some of his friends were having a party at their house, so we went along. I got a great second wind and had a great laugh. There were quite a few guys there that I met last time, it was cool to see them again. I had some of the tasty Californian beer, and a white russian made with local Californian milk (there was a very patriotic guy there!)

Today we drove around a lot. It was great seeing the places I'd cycled through before. Had a fantastic veggie burrito for lunch - I've really missed them! The weather is fantastic - it was well into the 20s. It is surreal going shopping in the malls with the Christmas music playing, in the glorious hot sunshine. The poor santa clause must have been sweating! It's mad - people are mowing their lawns and surfing on Christmas eve! Right now I'm at Jimmy's parents' house - we came over to help put together a scooter for someone's christmas present. His sisters are baking cookies, and there's christmas music playing. We're going round to his brother in law's parents for a meal and stuff later.

So things are fantastic! I just hope my bike arrives, otherwise I might become the first person to cross the USA on a scooter...

T x

Friday 24th December, Oceanside, California

2004-12-24T09:19:00.000-05:00

Well I made it to Jimmy’s but sadly my bike hasn’t

Flying into LA was cool – saw downtown, the Hollywood sign, and miles and miles of boxy houses and roads. Really powerful sight.

And after landing came that dreaded thing – the tannoy announcement, “would Mr Turnbull please report to…” So after queuing for about 30 mins to get through immigration and have my fingerprints taken I picked up my bag and discovered that the box with my bike and tent in had been left in London, and would be flown here via Chicago this evening. But I had to queue for about 45 mins to fill in a form and give them Jimmy’s parents’ address for them to deliver it to. And because they’re nearer San Diego they’ll have to put it on another plane from LA to SD, more chance of problems. I was really tired and in a foul mood.

One thing that worked quite well was the shared shuttle bus downtown. After about a 20 minute wait this minibus took me and five others downtown – a very loud black woman who chatted on her cell phone the whole way, gossiping about her friend’s crack habit; a girl going to the Amtrack station to San Diego. It was weird being driven through LA – it felt very different to my experience of the city last time. I got dropped off at Greyhound terminal, which was in a pretty rough part of city. The bus station was mobbed! People on all the seats and floor, all carrying loads of stuff for Christmas. I was still pissed off about my bike, although was kindof glad because it saved me the hassle of lugging it around on all the buses, which would have been a nightmare! But I was also pissed off because with all the queuing I’d missed the 6pm bus to Oceanside. I queued for about an hour and got my ticket, and the guy recommended just checking to see if the bus was still there, and despite it now being after 7pm the bus was just calling for any last passengers!

So I jumped on, got 2 seats to myself and away we went! It’s interesting – most of the people on the bus and in the terminal were Mexican. On the bus I was really paranoid about falling asleep because I’d miss my stop. In the end I was so exhausted that I couldn’t avoid sleeping. I managed to wake up pretty regularly and try to work out where we were. It was difficult though because there were so few signs. But the driver called out when we got to Oceanside so I got off OK. I gave Jimmy a phone and he picked me up! Really great to see him. He’s so friendly and welcoming, and it’s fantastic of him to have me stay.

One of his friends was having a party, so we drove there. It was a bunch of people that I’d met last time – including Brad and Ronny. It was cool to see them. Had a great beer that I’d tried last tiem (Rock?), had champagne, and a white Russian. Tried some American whisky – v. different to Scottish – much smoother, less subtle. Great laugh. Chatted to a guy called Nathan lots – he got v. defensive when Jimmy mentioned that America was the fattest nation. There was a daft little dog there too. And a really good studio. We left at about midnight. Drove past a couple of accidents.

Quite a long drive back to where we’re staying – Jimmy’s house/dog-sitting. Lovely house. Mad dog – v. nervy. Jimmy’s got a mad dog too – Banjo – really big and full of energy. Cool kitten too – cowboy – v. lively. Chases the nervy dog! By the time I got to bed I’d been awake for 30 hours!

Today we drove around a lot in Jimmy’s girlfriend’s car (Alison). It’s a VW Jetta, which Jimmy said is very much a girl’s car. He feels self-conscious driving in it with me! We drove to Ocean Beach in San Diego where his house is. That is where my route starts. His house is pretty small, but nice. Him and Alison are moving soon to be in Encinitas. Had a drive past the beach – v. beautiful. The weather’s so good – it must be in the mid 20s! We went round a few malls to buy some presents for Jimmy’s sisters. It was surreal doing Christmas shopping with Christmas music playing, all in the blazing sun! Phoned home, but parents were out at watchnight service. Got delicious burrito in Encinitas for lunch. My bike’s not arrived yet. I’m a bit nervous because there was a lot of snow in other parts of the US, so many planes got hold up and stuff. I don’t mind a bit of delay, but I hope they don’t lose it…

my last few hours in Scotland...

2004-12-22T19:27:00.000-05:00

Well that's me almost off. I've said my goodbyes, opened my Christmas presents and got lots of lovely emails and texts wishing me well.

And I'm slightly less nervous about it all now, though I'll be much happier when I've arrived in San Diego and got all the travelling over with. Except for the 3000 mile ride obviously.

But people keep saying things to make me more nervous: Duncan "Have you written your will yet?"; Nicky "My dad's friend, one of those Iron Men guys, did that route in the same time that you're planning to do it in". Cheers guys.

Packing's been a struggle. I bought a holdall to put my panniers, tent and presents in for the flight, but unfortunately it did not 'hold all' as I'd intended. But I've abandoned a few things - my one vaguelly fashionable item of clothing (a t-shirt) and my wash bag (I'm sure a plastic bag will work just as well) , so it now all fits... I'm just going to have to wear nothing but cycling gear for the next 42 days. The other difficulty was that I couldn't get my pedals off my bike, so the box that it's packed in bulges in a rather nasty way, I hope nothing gets damaged.

If you're interested here's my route:

California:

San Diego, Alpine, Jacumba, Seeley, Brawley,

Arizona:

Blythe, Phoenix, Tempe, Globe, Geronimo, Safford

New Mexico:

Buckhorn, Silver City, Hatch, Las Cruces

Texas:

El Paso, Fort Hancock, Van Horn, Kent, Fort Davis, Apine, Marathon, Del Rio, Hunt, Austin, LaGrange, Navasota, New Waverly, Kountze, Kirbyville

Louisisana:

Merryville, De Ridder, Simmesport, St Francisville, Baton Rouge, Bogalusa (though might skip most of this and divert to New Orleans)

Mississippi:

Poplarville, Vancleave

Alabama:

Mobile

Florida:

Pensacola, DeFuniak Springs, Marianna, Chattahoochee, Tallahassee, Madison, High Springs, Archer, Palatka, St. Augustine, then bus to Miami

So In 3 and a half hours I've got to get up and get the bus to the airport, fly to Heathrow, then on to LA, get a bus down to San Diego, where I'll be met by Jimmy - a great friend who I met last time I was cycling in the States down the West Coast. He's really kindly invited me to spend Christmas with him and his family, so at least I won't be spending Christmas in a tent, or having to find a soup kitchen as one friend suggested.

But I'm really looking forward to this, the food will be brilliant, I'm going through some areas with amazing music, cycling through the desert will be incredible and best of all the weather will be better than Edinburgh. California's looking like at least 17 degrees C during the day at the moment.

Bye for now....

T x

My Route

2004-12-13T15:19:00.000-05:00

route
Originally uploaded by Thomas Turnbull.

This is the route I'm taking - 3100 miles from San Diego in California to St. Augustine in Florida. In between I will pass through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Texas, Texas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

So if you know any interesting people in any of these states please get in touch - it would be great to have some people to meet up with when I'm out there.

Edinburgh - Another Flaw

2004-12-13T14:04:00.000-05:00

Where am I now?

Well not only am I not fit enough, I can't count either.

Between yesterday and today it's gone from being 12 days 'til I leave to being 10 days. This doesn't bode well.

Hmm...

Edinburgh - Planning My Trip

2004-12-12T15:10:00.000-05:00

training
Originally uploaded by Thomas Turnbull.

Well it's 12 days until I go, and I'm alternating between sheer panic and complete denial.

Most things are ready - I've bought all the kit I need, I've got the maps, my bike's working well (thanks Ewan), the flights are all booked and seem to work well.

However I'm not sure I'm going to make it the whole way across. Last Sunday I did a training ride from Edinburgh to Glasgow via Falkirk along the Union Canal and the Forth-Clyde Canal with Lindsay. We didn't make it. My excuse is that the headwind made a big difference. And the landscape was pretty bleak after the Falkirk Wheel, so when we reached Corby we gave up and got the train. So it's made me pretty nervous about my target of doing 75 miles every day - no rest days - for 42 days. I don't think I'll manage to be honest. But in a vain attempt to get myself fitter I've started doing three laps of Holyrood Park every morning before breakfast (though I didn't manage yesterday due to a lack of sleep & too much beer the night before, and various other things). Today I went out cycling with Goerge, who is much faster than me, but a bit of competitiveness managed to get me going a bit faster.

I'm sure everything will be fine though... I'll keep you posted as much as I can when I'm out there to let you know how I get on.