Desert and sky

Still cycling.. I dont know where iam, but around 40 km south of Nha Trang, on road AH1 in Vietnam.. I started of cycling down to Phnom penh, that feels like some time ago now.. Stayed a few days in this city. Then headed for the vietnamese border. Teamed up with a cyclist from Catalunya for two days across to Vietnam and to Ho chi minh city. Cycling into this city was crazy and crowded. Never seen that amount of motorbikes before. Food made me sick, took me a week to fully recover. The 200 km to Phan Thiet was the hardest cause i weren't feeling all that great. A few days of relaxing in Phan Thiet. Cycled the small coastal road which in some places looked more like the top of a sand dune than a road. Desert. The bumpy road made a puncture in back tire, luckily i was close to a village and got it fixed, then it broke again cause of bad fix at the same place on the road, i walked back once more.

I stayed a couple of days with a family in Phan Ri an quite amazing small city. Planned stay no more than one night but ended up staying four. Heading north the wind headed south and made my progress slow, constant in my face. There were times when even i had to fight going downhills.. This morning i decided to give my bike away, had another puncture in the back tire and there were no inner tube in the village. A reason for me to give up cycling with this terrible wind going against me all the time. Just when i started unpack the bike someone showed up with a inner tube and i decided to continue a bit further. Less wind today and i have new energy. I'll go on for few more days. 1000 km so far from Battambang..

Note to self, never again go long distance cycling without tools to repair bike.Bike and the south china sea

Camouflaged sleeping next to AH1

Now on 2 wheels for a while!

Arriving with few hours left on my visa for Thailand to the border of Cambodia where they tried to scam me on both sides and failed. Spent a terribly sketchy night in Poipet, this dodgy border town, in a alley using my tent as a mosquito net, which failed pretty badly.. The 100 km hitch to Battambang was long due to all the private taxi's i had to say no to. Started thinking of a new way to travel for a change. Cycling.

Got a second hand bike in Battambang for 40 dollars. Spent almost a week there, its a great place with lots of things happening! Then i left for Phnom penh, took me 3.5 days to do the 290 km, I was hosted here and there, slept in tent some nights, one night in a temple, another in a garden. Enjoying this for me new way of traveling, full speed down the road, making many breaks for fresh coconuts and noodles. Now in Phnom penh i might do a small mural project. Leaving in a few days to Vietnam.

I'll go on the bike until it breaks.. 150 km to the border of Vietnam, another 60 to Ho chi minh city then over 1700 km to the chinese border.. :)

Mural made for Toom before leaving Bangkok..

Im just about to leave Bangkok for Cambodia.. The last couple of months since i last wrote has been great, arriving in Malaysia after that long nonstop hitch from Jakarta. I spent few days in Melaka with couchsurfers, hitched down for few days to Singapore, more couchsurfing and busking, a few sessions of juggling and acrobatics on the street paid well. North again up to Kuala lumpur, organized a CS-juggling event which gathered not many but a few people. Some busking over there aswell which gladly paid for some birthday supplies for my host. Left for Thailand, some rides with trucks some with cars, managed to get out of KL easy, waited few minutes on the motorway paystation until a truck brought me to Ipoh. Restarea hitching just like in europe. A couple stopped and brought the 300+ km to their house and then next morning the remaining 40 km to the border to Thailand.

Ailee spinning the poi in KL

Thailand, suddently a new language, after thoose months spent in Malaysia and Indonesia, my bahasa melayu and bahasa indonesia were quite allrite for easy conversations with driver. In thai i couldnt even introduce myself or say thanks. Hitchhiking went ok though, got some rides with cars, some with motorbikes. Next day ive made it to the island of Koh samui where i met my father after not seeing him for over 2 years. We spent one week walking around the island on the beaches.. After a bit over 2 weeks on theese island i hitched towards Bangkok, had a ride with a driver going..fast.. and overtaking in the most breathtaking ways. Arrived in the evening to Bangkok where i met up with Tiphaine in the CS house of Toom. We spent few days before heading north. Hitchhiking was easy, we spent a few days, Ayuthaya, Sukothai looking at ancient temples, museums. Mostly staying in tent but sometimes were hosted in families. After Sukothai, west to Mae sod, next to Burmese border, scruffy border town i think Lonely planet would describe it as but we had interesting time there meeting people helping refugees from Burma in different ways.. North of Mae sod is the biggest refugee camp of South-east-asia, we pass an checkpoint driving a while along the camp, some barbed wire fences, lots of people walking along the road, little kid trying to hitch a ride with our driver then checkpoint again and forest, villages. Beautiful road along the river dividing Burma and Thailand.

Temples and Hitching

One night we were hosted by a police in a kind of police station, he opened the room, moved a few things, put a rifle that was leaning against the wall under the bed instead and welcomed us to sleep in the room. We made it up to Mae hng son, cold night up in the mountains, down to Chiang mai, some couchsurfing over there, few days relaxing after many nights in tent. Easy hitching to Chiang Rai, further to the border of Laos, which we entered on the 24th january.

Vientiane

Laos was harder for hitchhiking, our first day we got a ride with a Thai truck driver heading for the border of China. Stopping half the way we slept in a tent and had our coldest night up in the mountains. In the morning we were freezing and were invited to heat ourselves around the fires the kids had started to get some morning heat. COntinued with another truckdriver we made it to the junction of the north-south "highway". Not many cars, most of them Chinese. Finally a Chinese did stop and we went for hours throught mountain passes. In Muang Xai we were hosted in a classroom in a temple, got a rideto Luang Prabang with a Lao-english couple. Luang Prabang was full of tourists but we enjoyed sleeping well on the sandy riverbanks of Mekong river.. We had to wait few hours to get out of Luang prabang, finally a Lao man with his children offered to take us to Vientiane. He was not the greatest driver in the world and the roads were small, curvy and full of motorbikes on the wrong side of the road. We made it thought. Skipped Vang Vieng and its river full of drunken westerners in tractor tubes. We had not found a couchsurfing host in Vientiane so set up a tent in a park. Three soldiers came just when the tent was up told us we could not sleep there. After some gentle arguing they said we could move 30 m out of their responsibility. Woke up with 30+ Lao people around us doing their morning workout. Next night we set up a tent in a temple garden instead which was better.

Went a bit further in Laos and crossed into Thailand in Thakaek. Just one week in Laos. But somehow it did feel enough for this time. Further some days in flat but amazing eastern Thailand. Mukdahan, Ubon Ratchatani, Nang Rong. Temples, great people and park-camping.. Finally we get a ride the last 400km to Bangkok on the back of a pickup truck(and had a storm so we sat under a tarp) Back to Bangkok, back to the amazing CS house of Toom! Tiphaine went back to Indonesia a few days ago. Now im off to Cambodia in about one hour. Hoping to make it to the border before 8:30 pm not to overstay my visa. I already got my Chinese Visa here in Bangkok. but first Cambodia, Vietnam. Not sure about what to do there but have a few ideas!

Wish me luck!!

Tiphaine and friends in Mukdahan

Allready Dumai, Riau, Sumatra, INDONESIA48 h ride Lampung - Pekanbaru

Spent just one night in Jakarta, this suffocating overcrowded city. Was luckily hosted by a couchsurfer i met on a CS meeting that happened to take place. Getting out of Jakarta was allright.. Made it to the highway towards the west, (Jln Tol Jakarta - Melaka) Standing close to the Toll pay station I got a ride fairly quick, once getting out a bit of the city easy to hitch from the highway. Finally I made it to Melaka, got with a truck onto the ferry to Sumatra. Took 2h or so.

The whole trip Jakarta - Dumai (by drivers estimation around 1500 km) was more or less non stop and i realized once more importance of getting a good nights sleep(last two days way to high frequency of sit-powernaps while in cars). Got a ride with a truck driver for 48 hours, from Lampung to Pekanbaru.. The road was slow.. During thoose two days we saw about 6 or 7 trucks that had either flipped over, went down the ditch or simply crashed into something. Makes you realize how important as a hitchhiker to keep the driver somewhat alert and awake. (which is hard if you didnt have enough sleep either).

In Dumai i now finally got great some great sleep, hosted in a 'neighborhood guard station'. Hah. Tomorrow i take a ferry to Melaka, Malaysia. Down to Singapore for few days and then North north north!!

Henry

Borneo, 12 october - 30 November 2011. Way to short time for such a big place and km's covered. A estimation of the kilometers hitchhiked in Borneo comes down to something around 4700 km.

Before leaving Kota kinabalu, Sabah..











A few pics of some of the stuff i did before leaving Kota kinabalu for the hitch towards Pontianak.. The one on the paper was meant for a cafe in KK but when I was on my way to give it (and on my way to leave KK)I got lost and suddenly was far from the city so I decided to start hitchhiking, the painting i gave to a young driver..