Cycle Strongman » Food

Black markets and cold smiles

cyclestrongman — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 12:05:35 +0000

Crossing into Southern China was another milestone. China was a country that sounded so strange and foreign, like it was in its own remote corner of the world. With a few billion people, China was big and, for the last five years, we’ve constantly heard people talk of China, China, China. But, what [...]

The ugly side of tourism

cyclestrongman — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 11:44:12 +0000

Luang Prabang was an interesting place.Â The town is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and, cycling around town, it was easy to understand why.Â The city has a charm allÂ of Â its own.Â It was also easy to see why the UN was contemplating taking the title from them asÂ it was [...]

The hardy back roads of Laos – Part 2

cyclestrongman — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:01:12 +0000

… continued from a previous post.

In the valleys, I pushed my bike across the gravelly river beds and usually ended up giving Ruby (the bike) and myself a bath at the same time.Â Fortunately, with the airtight panniers, the bike could float across if need be but, being the [...]

The hardy back roads of Laos – Part 1

cyclestrongman — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 10:54:34 +0000

With an unusual rattling sound, followed by a ‘tink, tink, tink’ and a loud â€œSNAP!â€, I knew I was in trouble.Â It was coming from the rear wheel and I hoped that it wasn’t anything major.Â The roads were some of the most gruelling I’d experienced on the expedition to date, and [...]

A feast for the senses

cyclestrongman — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:57:55 +0000

Hannah and I left Langkawi Island headed for the small port city of Satun in Southern Thailand. It had been raining all day and we were both wet and tired. We rode around Langkawi during the day and fortunately managed to arrive in time to catch the last ferry. I stripped the bags [...]

At the bottom…

cyclestrongman — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:21:57 +0000

At the bottom of the Cameron Highlands I found another world. I kept riding on looking for a place to rest the night, past the dry rock formations and numerous cement and marble quarries. By 4pm I found a half finished double storey house off the main road with no security fence [...]

Enter Malaysia

cyclestrongman — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:30:18 +0000

The boat docked at a small local ferry terminal and a cheeky grin crept up on my face. I felt a rush of potential, for the new from the old, having had but a taste of the experiences that lie ahead. (As my sister once put it to me while travelling the [...]