Rolling Tales:Small adventures by bicycle » numbers

Laos by numbers

Emma — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 06:59:00 +0000

We purposely slowed down in Laos, giving ourselves almost two months to cycle less than 2000km through the country. From steep climbs in the north to heat waves in the south, our cycling wasn’t without challenges, but extended breaks in Luang Prabang, Vientiane, Pakse and Don Det ensured that days off the bike outnumbered days cycling for the first time in our trip. Among our most treasured memories are the children of Laos who enthusiastically waved and shouted sabaidee whenever they spotted us cycling by, some almost falling over in the process. While we saw little wildlife in what was once the land of a million elephants we were still won over by Laos’ lazy charms.

Here are some facts and figures from our time cycle touring in Laos:

1992 km cycled (longest day 125km, several short 8km days on Don Det)
48 nights in hotel beds, 5 nights in a apartment, 1 night free-camping
30 “rest days” from 54 total days in Laos (that’s a lot of resting!)
27 international cycle tourists met (four of them cycled with)
10 words of Laos learnt
10 Western style meals enjoyed among many days of sticky rice
8 domestic elephants spotted and 1 ridden
5 caves explored (including a 7km boat ride through Kong Lor cave)
4 waterfalls visited
4 cups of single estate espresso drunk during our Paksong coffee tour
3 vomiting instances (Emma’s last night in Laos wasn’t so fun)
2 days wearing socks and sandals (to prevent sunburn, not as fashion)
1 cheap Chinese tablet computer purchased (then 3 days to get it working)
1 troop of monkeys spotted by Justin
1 motorbike ridden (by Justin with no previous experience)
1 communal breakfast shared with a rice farmer and friends
1 punctured inner tube (a failed patch in Emma’s £4 Chinese tyre)

Justin’s most exciting cave: The 7km boat ride in the pitch black through Kong Lor cave rates as one of the most exciting experiences of my trip. Exiting the cave on the far side to find a German tourist playing a set of Scottish bagpipes to the bemusement of the Laos villagers made it extra memorable.

Emma’s best ice coffee: On a warm day heading south from Xeno I followed the local trend of getting my drink to go, carefully carrying a carrier bag of ice, condensed milk and coffee on my handlebars until the ice had diluted the super sweet concoction. Possibly the best cyclist fuel I’ve come across.

Vietnam by numbers

Justin — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 05:08:00 +0000

Only having five cycling days in Vietnam we had just a brief glimpse of what the country has to offer. Finding ourselves in Kunming, China with time to spare we found we could cycle a tiny corner of Vietnam to the Tay Trang border crossing to Laos, also increasing our country count to 15. Spending as much time in the tourist friendly town of Sa Pa as tiny rural villages meant we had little chance to learn much Vietnamese but we did take every opportunity to sample the new types of food on offer. Friendly children shouting hello and cute free roaming animals helped with the steep hill climbs as did the occasional thunder storm that drenched us in minutes.

Here are some facts and figures from our time cycle touring in Vietnam:

371km cycled (longest day 88km, shortest day 32km)
10 nights in hotel beds
11 bowls of Pho (noodles) enjoyed
5 other international cycle tourists met (two of them cycled with)
4 words of Vietnamese learnt (mostly related to food)
3 Vietnamese style coffees drunk (before Emma brought her own coffee maker)
3 leech bites (all on Emma’s ankles, Justin must taste bad)
2 breakfast buffets eaten for all they were worth
1 meal of pure carbs mistakenly ordered (Noodle soup + steamed rice)
1 house burnt to ground in front of our eyes
0 punctured inner tubes thanks to new Maxxis tyres
0 problems with bikes aside from coating of road dust

Justin’s most interesting taste-bud tingle: Drinking fresh squeezed sugar cane juice and thinking it tasted a bit like squashed butterflies. Maybe I had been in the fierce tropical sun a bit long that day.

Emma’s best food discovery: Popping head into the doorway of a dark and dingy cafe and finding a old lady sat behind a round hot plate creating goopy rice pancakes which were filled with a meat and mushroom mixture and served with a side of fish sauce. Much nicer than the standard fare of noodle soup!

China by numbers

Justin — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:58:00 +0000

We had only a basic idea of what we would find in China, with a change in diet after our cycling in Mongolia one of our highest priorities. After spending almost three months cycle touring in China we barely scraped the surface of the incredibly diverse and complicated country. We experienced some of the worst roads and most challenging terrain of our journey so far, but we also experienced and learnt about a number of distinct cultures. We experienced firsthand the environmental challenges China faces while cycling on traffic and smog choked roads but also bathed in the unspoilt beauty of national forest parks and the mountain landscapes of the Tibetan plateau.

Here are some facts and figures from our time cycle touring in China:

4305km cycled (longest day 128km, shortest day 20km)
27 nights free-camping, 52 nights in real beds, and 1 night on a train
280 kilometres cycled on unsealed roads including a very muddy 200km stretch from Kangding to Litang
192 portions of noodles slurped (this is estimated as 1.2 portions per person per day)
21 pandas spotted (all in Panda breeding centres)
15 words of Chinese learnt (aided by two phrasebooks)
9 passes over 4000 metres climbed
8 other cyclists met and cycled on with
8 pieces of fruit gifted to us (including 1 watermelon)
5 western style meals enjoyed among many memorable Chinese meals
5 Chinese provinces visited (from a total of 34)
4 of four major plateaus visited (this is according to chinaculture.org)
3 tyres that developed internal rips (Schwalbe Marathon XRs replaced with Maxxis)
3 punctured inner tubes (Emma 2:1 Justin)
3 ancient cities visited (Pingyao, Shangri-la, Dali)
2 evening camp fires enjoyed
1 day of cycling through a snow storm
0 meals of dim sum style Chinese food eaten

Justin’s hardest cycling: The road between Kangding and Litang saw us cycle and push our bikes more than 200km through a muddy quagmire of half finished roadwork’s and a series of 4000m plus passes while rain and fog chilled us to the bone. For me this was the hardest cycling of our trip so far.

Emma’s two most memorable encounters: Being invited to lunch at Grandma’s house by a ten year old girl in Yuanping and watching the preparation of our dinner in a traditional Tibetan house on our way to Litang.

Mongolia by numbers

Justin — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:25:00 +0000

Mongolia challenged us with deserts, mountains, hail and wind like no other country we have visited so far. It also rewarded us with bewitching landscapes and the warmth of the Mongolian people. We had a rare insight into what it means to live a nomadic life in the 21st century while maintaining strong ties with a rich cultural past. We have already commented on Mongolian food at length and although initially it seemed disappointing we came to love the heaped plates of carbs served up with gusto from roadside cafes. We leave the country dreaming of nights in gers, regular sightings of traditionally deel-clad horse-men and feeling like movie stars when passing cars waved us down for photo shoots.

Here are some facts and figures from our time cycle touring in Mongolia:

1588km cycled (longest day 120km, shortest day 30km)
26 nights free-camping, 29 nights in real beds (including 10 nights in gers), 1 nights on train
100+ Mormon crickets avoided on the roads (weirdly often eating their own dead)
18.75 litres of water carried at full capacity
15 feeds of tsuivan eaten (hand-made noodles fried over meat, yum!)
13 international cycle tourists met between Jargalant and Ulaanbaatar
12 days without washing ourselves or clothes (not sure we should be proud of this personal best?)
10 chain cleaning and oiling sessions (mostly completed by Justin)
10 hours lost to Mongolian-time (impatiently waiting for food in roadside cafes)
10 words of Mongolian learnt (and one phrasebook lost)
9 Mongolians who test rode our bicycles (not all fully loaded)
7 groups of camels spotted
6 rivers successfully crossed
6 meals of non-Mongolian food consumed (best being first Thai meal since London)
6 tumbles resulting in broken skin (4:2 to Emma)
4 towns where a variety of fruit and vegetables could be brought including Ulaanbaatar and Bayan-Olgii
4 times offered fermented mares milk products
4 days cycling in the desert completed
3 passes over 2000 metres climbed
2 punctured innertubes (both caused by a piece of metal filing from rim drilling in Bayan-Olgii)
1 dishwashing kit left in a ger camp by mistake
1 horse race watched
1 horse ride (not in horse race)
1 spare wheel carried until Ulaanbaatar

Justin’s most action hero moment: Witnessing a 4WD do a somersault and land on its roof and cycling at full speed uphill towards it, ditching the bike to sprint the last few metres only to be greeted by the very drunk driver asking if I could help him roll the car right way up. A few minutes later the car was rolled by me and the driver…oh yeah and about 10 other guys.

Emma’s childhood moment relived: Being placed in full control of a wild, free-spirited Mongolian horse after nodding when asked if she had ridden before. Secretly she wondered if a one week long pony camp counted?

Russia by numbers

Emma — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:10:00 +0000

A month of forests, cities and trains was followed by a month of mountains and rivers as we travelled from Sochi to Moscow, Moscow to Perm and Novosibirsk to the Mongolian border. While we’ve pedalled more kilometres through Russia than any other country so far, we’ve barely scraped the surface and this has given us a real sense of the vastness of the world’s largest country. The roads were harsh on our bicycles with more time spent in repair shops than ever before but our newfound love of Russian food, excitement of being in bear country and ease of finding places to free camp made these difficulties just minor blips in an amazing two month journey. We’d like to think we’d come back one day, albeit with a better grasp of Russian.

Here are some facts and figures from our time cycle touring in Russia:

2835 km cycled (longest day 133 km and our new personal best, shortest day 6 km)
2000 + kilometres travelled by train
26 nights free-camping, 29 nights in real beds (including 10 nights staying with friends), 2 nights on trains, 1 night in a campsite
100+ Birds of Prey spotted but 0 successfully photographed or identified
20 small mammals we think are marmots spotted
10 washes and swims in freezing cold rivers (All in the Altay region)
9 feeds of Russian dumplings. 8 boiled and 1 fried.
7 Russian cycle tourists spotted
5 Mongol Challenge cars examined
4 days where the mosquitoes won and we retreated to our tent without dinner
3 vodka drinking sessions with good company and food – not that we drank with no food and bad company ever though
3 time zones crossed
2 times our bikes were dismantled and boxed for train journeys
2 wheel hubs re-greased (Emma’s front and Justin’s rear)
2 banya sessions enjoyed (Thanks Dmitriy and Sputnik Hotel)
2 camp fires responsibly lit
1 wheel hub replaced (Emma’s front a week after the re-grease)
1 wheel rim cracked (Emma’s rear – she is not having much good luck)
1 lunch bought for us by slightly drunk but very friendly Russian guy
1 time our bikes were transported on top of a van to cross the border to Mongolia
0 punctured tyres (but one blowout after checking rims for cracks – Justin’s)

Justin’s best childhood dream fulfilled: seeing replicas of all things Russian space programme related at Moscow’s Cosmonaut museum.

Emma’s best riverside swim: cooling down after cooking on our private beach just South of Gorno Altaysk – the river was so cold it made us get ice-cream headaches!

Turkey by numbers

Emma — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 19:33:00 +0000

The observant may note that we’re still in Turkey. As winter approaches and our bicycles are getting accustomed to an indoor life, we thought it was timely to summarise our cycling adventures from Edirne to Cappadocia and back to Istanbul. Over a month on the road we tapped into a tiny part of this huge land, were amazed by the scale of the landscapes we cycled through and the never ending generosity and curiosity of the people we met along the way.

Here are some facts and figures from our time cycle touring in Turkey:

1328 km cycled (longest day 91 km, shortest day 3 km to Goreme bus station)
10 nights in campsites (9 in a row in Goreme), 14 nights free camping, 6 nights in real beds
120 cups of Turkish çay drunk – at least two cups each a day
24 words in Turkish learnt
12 cycle tourists met en-route
12 punctured tyres
7 swims (including one in the Black Sea)
6 cycle tourists in 1 car for 1 day (including 1 mega supermarket visit)
5 big scary wild dogs with spiky collars encountered
4 new holes in tent (from ants this time!)
4 bunches of grapes given to us by strangers
2 drink bottle holders fixed with super glue (both Emma’s)
2 broken chains on bikes – both on Justin’s bike as we rode from Sultanahmet to our hostel
2 new tyres put on bicycles
2 tortoises observed up close in the wild
2 bus journeys taking bikes from Goreme to Istanbul
1 pair of sunglasses broken (and 1 new pair of yellow ‘Nu-Rave’ sunglasses brought)
1 rainy day of cycling
1 police escort in Vize (we were trying to find the centre of town)
1 unplanned but spectacular detour (we were a bit lost)
1 amazing balloon ride

Justin’s scariest moment: Huddling in our tent listening to the panting of wild dogs around our tent then seeing them in daylight and realising they were huge – as high as our tent and super strong.

Emma’s most memorable meal: Six of us cycle tourists sat down to a huge dinner of Mexican chilli we prepared together at Kaya Camping in Goreme. Special thanks to Roger for grating an entire block of cheese with our tiny pocket grater.

Greece by numbers

Emma — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:10:00 +0000

An empty highway with extra wide shoulder, a border town filled with cafes and restaurants and a road through a river with people camping on either side. This visit to Greece was a quick hop through to avoid a busier road from Bulgaria to Edirne, Turkey. We learnt no Greek and saw no sights, but our time here was as sweet as the coffees we tasted before exiting the country.

Here are some facts and figures from our short time in Greece:

42 km cycled (39 km from the Bulgaria border and 3 km to the Turkish border)
1 night free camping by the river in a old festival camping space
2 pork giros consumed (Greek kebabs mmmm)
2 early morning Greek coffees drunk
1 sandy river swim (plus Emma walked across the river road)
0 mechanical failures or breakages of any description (alright!)
0 words of Greek learnt

Justin will remember: Returning to a petrol station for a map of Turkey within 24 hours of having left Greece – 38km round trip.

Emma’s we’re in Greece moment: Finding a snack shop open which sells Giros. We had been thinking about this Greek speciality for the last 30 kilometres and my only authentically Greek sample didn’t disappoint!

Bulgaria by numbers

Justin — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 09:38:00 +0000

The north of Bulgaria was wide empty countryside and quiet back roads. As we followed the Danube east the fields became filled with endless rows of drooping sunflowers past their prime. The friendliness of the local people amazed us as every day someone gave us food and drink and we were even welcomed into homes. Bulgaria will always be special as we now have an always waiting home for us in the tiny village of Malak Izvor with Sabrina and Sabatine.

Here are some facts and figures from our time in Bulgaria:

638 km cycled (longest day 109 km on the day we entered Bulgaria, shortest day 20 km)
0 nights in campsites (there weren’t any enroute!), 6 nights free camping, 5 nights in real beds inc 1 night with tobacco farmers
2 broken chains on bikes – 1 for each of us
5 new holes in tent from trapped crickets
5 tomatoes given to us by strangers
3 days we battled swarms of flies on long slow up-hill climbs
3 frappes drunk (by Justin)
2 conversations held in languages other than English or Bulgarian (Spanish and Italian)
2 fresh pears given to us as gifts
2 swims in thermal water (thanks Emma’s old workmates for the leaving present)
2 ice cold cokes offered while we filled up with water
1 very memorable home cooked meal
1 cheek pinched by elderly villager (Emma’s)

Justin will remember: Meeting local people intent on giving us directions and finding yet more holes in Bessie our tent.

Emma’s best cycling moments: First uphill climb for ages to ski field stormy free camp then pure downhill the following morning.

Serbia by numbers

Justin — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:20:00 +0000

We cycled into Serbia through a national park, spending our first night as guests in a tiny farmhouse just outside Mokra Gora. The hospitality of our first night was repeated many times throughout Serbia whether by people buying us coffee, campsites offering free pitches and breakfast snacks, or an international canoeing group welcoming us to their campsite. In Belgrade we learnt a lot from our great hosts Aleksander and Milica. We left Serbia after a loop around the Danube which, despite bugs and breakages we’d started to grow quite attached to.

Here are some facts and figures from our time in Serbia:

884 km cycled (longest day 115 km, shortest day 46 km)
2 nights in campsites (1 for free), 6 nights free camping, 7 nights with roof over head (including 2 hotel nights)
100+ canoeists shared hospital grounds with us overnight
8 days cycling along the Danube river
3 thunderstorms, all while we were in shelter
3 navigation devices broken (Garmin Dakota GPS, Map case, laptop screen)
2 ferry rides (one with our bikes across the Danube for free – see photo)
2 restaurant meals (one thanks to Aleksander and Milica)
1 bicycle crash – Loss of concentration by Justin saw him swerve across road and almost stack a fully loaded touring bike into a ditch
1 broken chain link – Emma’s bike again
1 town we were escorted out of by a local on a scooter (we guess Knicanin wasn’t expecting any touring cyclists)
1 gypsy wedding almost drove us off the road then held traffic up for a horse drawn parade

Justin will remember: Spending our first night in Serbia in a tiny farmhouse eating home made cheese and talking late into the night with Aleksander.

Emma’s best cycling day: marvelling at the view over to Romania while cycling along the Dobra National Park and catching sight of a huge face carved into the cliffs opposite.

Bosnia by numbers

Justin — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:22:00 +0000

Bosnia and Herzegovina gave us a new appreciation of burek and the importance of bridges to Bosnian history. We became happily trapped in Sarajevo by Amin’s hospitality and traded cycling kilometres for watching movies at the film festival, meeting his friends, and hanging out in the Gir bike store “reading” German cycling magazines. Here are some facts and figures from our time in Bosnia:

397 km cycled (longest day 91 km, shortest day 12 km). Bike computers seem to have developed a few glitches so figures don’t quite add up anymore
3 nights in campsites, 1 night free camping, 7 nights with roof over head (in Amin’s spare room)
18 pieces of Bosnian pie (Burek) consumed
7 days off the bikes in Sarajevo (biggest city break to date!)
2 days we cycled in 30 degree plus temperatures
2 film festival movies watched
1 English word taught – “Hospitable”
1 major computer melt down (fixed in five hours)
1 punctured inner tube with slow leak not fixed before we left Bosnia (Justin’s bike)

Justin will remember: Watching the sunset from a balcony in Sarajevo with an Aussie BBQ smoking in the background and listening to Salmonella Dub.

Emma’s best moment: Realising we would be in Sarajevo for some of the film festival.