Stage 2: Monsoon and Marvels

Another wet start, but then food, fun, and fascination in Southeast Asia

The Tour Reports section of the site now contains the posts that I sent to the Phred Touring List (now on Google Groups) during the Tour.  Those from the early days of the Tour were rather thin, while later on, for some of the more unique countries, they contain much more thorough accounts of the ride, and an occasional amusing anecdote.  Towards the end of the Tour, however, I frequently couldn't keep up with the chore of sending posts on time, so the last several were written after the Tour was complete.  Look for links to the posts at the end of the short descriptions beginning below.

Stage 2 Actual Route

On this, and all other route maps, the blue lines represent travel by ship, red by airplane (Booo!), and green by bicycle. The actual route for Stage 2 was considerably different from my original plan. Laos was added, and consequently, my routes through Cambodia and Thailand were adjusted, the former lengthened and the latter shortened. India was completely redone, and unfortunately shortened somewhat, in order to better accomodate the sea transfer to Stage 3.

Singapore: Gateway to Asia

My time in the small city/country of Singapore was somewhat surprising, sometimes restful, and sometimes not.  The city is famously urban, and famously tidy.  Walking in the shadows of glass-walled office towers along crowded sidewalks seemed so far the fly-infested deserts of Western Australia, where I had been just a week earlier, that it took me a while to get my bearings.  Unfortunately, I didn't have much leeway to do much bearing retrieval, as I had a number of chores that needed doing while in town.  With the budget-bending costs of such a modern city straining my wallet, I also did not want to stay in town for an especially long time, and so it always seemed as if I was rushing around somewhere.

The overhaul of the bike that I couldn't do while at sea, was on tap, as was one of my least favorite tasks, obtaining visas that I would need along the way during the Stage. I had hoped to get three, for India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar while in town.  Well, no go for India, as the embassy there required a week to process the application.  Bangladesh was a bit of a pain as well, but I eventually received that one.  Additionally, the crowd of dozens of men jam-packed into the small waiting room of the embassy's consular section gave me a preview of what traveling through that country would be like.  Surprisingly, the Myanmar visa was the easiest of all to recieve, which turned out to be just about the only thing easy about traveling there.

After all of that, there was not much time left for exploring the city.  I did my best, however, and managed to see a little of the city center, Chinatown, and the commercial area around Orchard Road, which was, a little surprisingly, decked out in Christmas lights and decorations.  Before long the day to depart finally arrived, and I was happy to get back on the bike again, but a little worried since the city seemed quite bike-unfriendly to me.  Fortunately, I left on a Sunday morning, as early as possible, and it was not a very big deal to ride the 35, or so, kilometers through the city to the Johor Causeway, the gateway to Malaysia, and the real start of Stage 2.

Singapore Harbor

A busy cafe street in Chinatown

A Singapore street scene

The Cavanagh Bridge at night

Malaysia: Back on the Bike Again

Malaysia marked the real start of the ride for Stage 2, and I knew before I even left home that conditions there might not be the best. The late autumn and winter months are the wet season on the Malay peninsula, and in some places it is truly wet indeed. There was no way to avoid that within the bounds of the rest of my schedule, and so I just had to deal with the rain. The east coast gets the most, so I stayed away from that area. The west coast is where most of the population lives, and I was completely surprised at how urban and motorized that part of the country was. The central part of the peninsula is quieter, and contains many palm oil and rubber plantations, but is also hilly, and has a rather indirect road network. To balance out weather, quiet roads, and interesting destinations, I spent some time on the west coast and some in the central region.

My favorite places included Melaka, an historic city on the west coast which was once the capital of a locally powerful sultanate and later the seat of Portuguese rule in the region. Also enjoyable was Taman Negara National Park, in the rainforest-covered highlands in the center of the peninsula, and its charming service village of Kuala Tahan. The northwestern coastal area had some nice riding, and I enjoyed the little fishing town of Kuala Kedah, where I had my first (and last) experience with the famously odiferous Durian fruit.

All in all, except for the wetness, Malaysia was one of the easiest locations of the tour with good food, frequent services, and consistently good roads. I would have liked to have seen more of the country, but drying out by moving on was very appealing as well.

Girls go shopping in Melaka

An impressive mosque

A butterfly in Taman Negara National Park

Rows of trees in a rubber plantation

Thailand: Land of Golden Temples

Thailand came next, though I visited that country on two separate occasions, separated by about a month. The first of those was mostly in the southern part of the country, riding up both the west and east coasts of the peninsular part of the country, then looping above and around the mega-city of Bangkok, and finally heading east towards Cambodia. I found Thailand to contain many friendly people, an interesting culture with an ornately decorated temple seemingly on every corner, and probably the tastiest cuisine of the tour so far. On the other hand, the country was only moderately less urban than Malaysia, and so there was heavy traffic in places, and the monsoon was still present for much of the time, essentially spoiling the visits to the beach I had hoped to make. Interesting places along the route were more cultural in scope than I expected and included the tsunami-hit resort of Phuket, which was largely back on its feet, and the nice town of Phetchaburri, which contained many fine temples and monasteries. Later on, when the blue skies had finally returned for good, a visit to the historic ruined capital city of Ayutthaya was a fascinating break, as was Khao Yai National Park, where I saw wild elephants for the first time.

The second section in Thailand was unfortunately much shorter than I originally planned. The reasons were the addition of Laos to the route, which took a lot longer than I'd expected, and an unpleasant deadline to transfer to the next country. I also had to deal with the lingering effects of some bad food I'd eaten some time before, which slowed me down a bit and made the section seem very rushed. I had planned to see much of the northeastern part of the country, but that had to be scrapped due to time constraints. Instead, I re-entered Thailand at Chiang Khong at the northern Thai-Lao frontier across the Mekong River, and then swung to the south for a while before ending at Chiang Mai. Despite the rush there were some nice riding conditions in the area, and also some interesting sights. The best was another ruined capital at Sukhothai, which was a great place to bike through. Overall, Thailand was a lot of fun, although it was the last place in the Asian stage where conditions were consistently good, however I didn’t realize that at the time.

A monkey looks out over Prachaup Khiri Khan

Stupas in the ancient city of Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya

A Temple at a rural Wat on the southeastern coast

Traditianal dancers at the King's birthday celebration in Phetchaburi

Cambodia: Tragic Past, Beautiful Present

Cambodia was where the stage really took off for me. I really enjoyed just about every aspect of touring there. With the exception of the few moderately-large cities I went through, most of the country had a much more rural feel, which is always more to my liking. Food was usually pretty good, and the weather was constantly nice, though there was a little too much wind on a few days. The amazing cultural and historical aspects of the country were more enjoyable than I had expected going in, with interesting sites scattered about the entire landscape, the vibrant capital of Phnom Phen, and, of course, the fantastic complex of Khmer ruins at Angkor, one of the world's great places. The only drawback, in my mind, was several sections of dusty gravel and dirt roads, the first of many I'd encounter in Asia. These included a short section between Sisophon and Siem Reap, and a longer, harder section to the northern border. That was not enough of a problem to keep Cambodia from being one of my favorite places of the tour so far. Best of all was the wonderfully pleasant Cambodian people. I was completely taken aback by how happy and friendly everyone seemed, despite the incredible suffering they had endured for decades before. Learning the story of their tragic past saddened me quite a bit, but the way their society had already rebounded quickly reversed that feeling.

The magnificent Angkor Wat

A stone figure on the Bayon Temple at Angkor

The Silver Pagoda in Phnom Phen

The Independence Monument in Phnom Phen

Kids at Oudong Mountain

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