Big Asia Trip

A 6-month trip around Asia. Backpacking across China, Indonesia and Myanmar and cycling through Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand.

Feb '08
15

Up the Hill

P1030536After the South Coast it was time to head into the Central Highlands of Vietnam.
Everybody we heard was very excited about it so we left with very high expectations for our first stop, Dalat. (Continue…)

Feb '08
12

The Lonely Planet Effect

Backpack travelling has never been so popular as it is right now. Everybody is throwing out their Samsonite trolley and heading into the A.S. Adventure shop for an 80 liter piece of stitched North Face nylon and preparing for an adventure into the unknown and the undiscovered regions of the world. They are ready to spend hours on busses to get to that fabulous secluded village, that lush jungle, that amazing vista… only to find that they are sharing it with a thousand other backpackers and tourists alike. They all come for an individual journey, a unique experience but end up at the same place all tour groups go to. This is a story about what we call The Lonely Planet effect. (Continue…)

Feb '08
7

Happy Tet

2008 year of the ratTime goes fast while travelling…. it’s again time for a New year.  A huge celebration throughout the country, the annual Tet Festival celebrates the Chinese New Year and is the biggest event of the year.

For the last 2 days (and probably for the next 2 as well :-) ) all Vietnamese are celebrating Tet. The beginning of a new lunar year, a year of the Rat.

Happy Tet everybody!

Feb '08
2

South Vietnam Coast

P1030436After the fertile lands of the Mekong Delta, we took the bus to Vietnam’s capital Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon), where we cycled together with 3 million motorbikes. That was fun, for about 2 hours, so we jumped on the hydrofoil (one of those flying boats) due for Vung Tau. (Continue…)

Jan '08
25

Vietnam Mekong Delta

P1030354 After we left Cambodia from Phnom Penh to the border town of Neak Loeung, we crossed into Vietnam last sunday.

Strange how different 2 countries can be… This is Cambodia, 5km before the border.

(Continue…)

Jan '08
25

Game Fun

P1030325 We finished our first country by bicycle. So far we already drove more than 800km taking roads bumpier than the worst road you can imagine at home. We took a bicycle wash every 2 days to get rid off the red dust. Transported the bicycles on top of a minivan.

(Continue…)

Jan '08
21

Cambodia Warp-up

After leaving Thailand 2 weeks ago we started discovering Cambodia by bicycle… We wanted something different at least we got something different. (Continue…)

Jan '08
17

Trivia

   We’ve uploaded a new batch of pictures, so it’s time for photo fun!

(Continue…)

Jan '08
17

Siem Reap to Phnom Penh

Siem Reap is home to the famous Angkor temples, the biggest one being Angkor Wat. It is a huge building, much alike to the Forbidden City in Beijing, but honestly, we found the latter one to be a lot more beautiful. (Continue…)

Jan '08
7

Lyra, we found dust!

We did it, we reached our first real destination by bike: Siem Raep, home to the temples of Angkor, famous all over the world.

We started in Bangkok and decided not to risk our lives in the heavy traffic. So we hopped on the train to Aranyaprathet, near the Cambodian border. The next day, we got up early, drove to the Cambodian border, crossed together with some half of Cambodia and set off to Sosiphon some 50 kms further east. (Continue…)