After 5676 km, 7 countries and 106 days I made it to Singapore!!
Tanah Melayu, Malaysia
Malaysia, very open land with a lot of influence from Chinese and Indian imigration. Where you can guess the history of the country by eating at the market stalls and getting delighted by hibrid cousines from different countries.
Smiley Thailand
Just asfter crosssing the Mekong river in Vientiene I realized how social and frendly the Thai people are. Always ready to welcome you with a wide smile.
Patani, capital of the old sultanate.
“A strong army, a stable country” is what I read in the first check point I found in Nakhon Si Thamarat: militars armed with big assault weapons and bullet-proof vests made me noticed that I was entering to another Thailand. I was getting into the south east thailand muslim provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, what back in the days used to be the Sultanate of Patani.
Lao experiences
Just after crossing the border check point near Dien Biên Phu it started raining. Descending the wet mountain road I encountered a big monitor lizard which could not notice my presence until the very last moment. Luckily for both of us, it finally jumped into the forest. Then the storm increased and I decided to get sheltered in a bamboo hut that was next to the road. When I was jumping off my bike two women came and invited me in. It was the goats hut. We socialized a bit meanwhile they were feeding the animals and waiting for the rain to stop.
I was getting hungry and I stopped in a very small village to check the map. Suddenly a man came with happiness on his face and a cup of rice wine in his hand. He offered me to drink meanwhile I was recovering my breath. After trying the local liquor a man came with a funny smile and a recently grilled fish. I laughed and I accepted the fish meanwhile I was getting off my bike. They were teachers at the local school that was getting inagurated. They invited me to join the party with the kids, teachers and parents.
Grilled squirrel, forest rat, dried fish, unknown meat on stick and sticky rice… dinner’s menu at the night market of the small village of Pak Nam Noi.
First Buddhist temple experience. After taking out my cycling shoes to enter the Buddha’s room, a monk welcomed me. After noticing my cyclist outfit he asked about my trip and offered me water, mango juice and apples.
Luang prabang, old capital of Laos. Considered nowadays the spiritual capital of the county with an active spiritual live. French colonial buildings melt with Buddhist temples between Bougainvillea plants and coconut trees. Amazing food that tells about the history of this charming city where monks and tourists are proportional balanced.
6:00 am, alms giving to the Buddhist monks at Luang Prabang. Daily procession of the novices and monks of the different temples to get food for the day. Poor people, generally poor kids, lay in the floor to get some food from the monks when their baskets are full.
Kuan Si Waterfalls
Vientiane.
Landscapes
FC Barcelona in Lao: Perhaps because Lao flag has the same colors as the FCB flag or maybe because is one of the best teams of the world…anyways I felt proud of my hometown football team..
Vietnam’s people
Vietnam’s landscapes
Meo Vac, Bac Ha and Sin Ho: colorful markets
Meo Vac, Bac Ha and Sin Ho Sunday markets gather people from all ethic minorities leaving in the moutains. Black Hmong, Flower Hmong, Dzai, Thai, Dzao among many others goes down the valley for trading or getting supplies. Markets full of diversity and colors.
MEO VAC
Ha Gian, exploring the unknown
It was after lunch and we had two options to get to Ha Gian: to follow the initial plan or to follow the unknown. For the first option we had the route track, a description of the way, the total ascend and the certantainty that the road was paved. For the second option we had some information from Google, showing a secondary road and with less ascend than option one, that’s it.
We finally decided to follow the unknown once we saw in the intersection that the road was in pretty good conditions. We had 28 km ahead and we were aware of the risks. I guess that to follow the unknown is the ultimate expression of the explorer, perhaps this is what we felt after a reinvigorating bath in the river and a reinforcing lunch.
We rode about 10 km in a newly paved road with beatiful surroundings of high mountains with deep valleys guiding water streams. Then is when the road stopped existing to become a mountain path. At that point we could come back and take the inicial route, or carry on with the hope that the paved road would come back after few quilometers. We kept on going to the unknown. The road was in very bad condition, very eroded and with loose big stones, making our average speed as walking speed. After few quilometers more we noticed that the paved road was not existing and we would probably need to make several quilometers more on that road conditions. We had no turning back, it was too late. We had to speed up, it was getting dark and we were running out of water. We were in the middle of a primary forest, with impressive trees and very dense jungle. We had a tent, altough difficult to set, the mountain was so steep and full of vegetation, the road side was inexistent.
After few quilometers more it got dark. We stopped to set the bicycle lights and kept on going. After 200 m I realized that something was wrong with my bicycle. There was something stopping my rear wheel! I jump off the bicycle and I saw that my rear rack was totally twisted. With the vibration a screw jumped out and the weigh of the panniers did the rest of the work. It was something fixable but I would need some time. This was the end of our cicling day. Then we saw a motorcycle aproching in our direction. It was a couple of the ethnic minority Hmong who were going home. They stopped and we pointed at our bicycle showing my damaged rear rack. After doing the sleeping gesture they understood that we needed somewhere the spend the night, and without hesitation they pointed to the direction we came from. They were inviting us to spend the night at their home!
Their home was was a clay house with bamboo roof. They had two buffalo’s, pigs, chickens, and many small dogs and cats. We entered trough the small door and we met some other members of the family. The house was full of smoke, they boosted the fire on the floor of the next room in order to make the dinner. We were ehausted and dirty. We cleaned ourselves with a big bowl of water and we were invited for dinner. We ate together and they show us where to sleep. After, we socialized a bit and the man smoked with the traditional water pipe made of Bamboo. They let us sleep in their own bed, they would sleep in another room.
I woke up with the sound of the inhalation from smoking water pipe. It was around 6 am and every body was awake. We got started and we ate breakfast, the same as for dinner last night: rice with some vegetables, pork and soup. After breakfast I fixed the bicycle. The man gave me some of his tools in order to twist back the aluminium plate of my rack. Then, we were ready to go. We paid them some money as a gratitude for their hospitality and they gave us two huge cucumbers from their garden. We took some pictures and we started the new cicling day towards Hà gian after being hosted in the middle of a beatiful landscape by Hmong people. What a wonderful people!
Contrasting China
After two days in the polluted and overpopullated Guangzhou I felt the need to explore the rural side of Guangxi. After the no, no with the bicycle on the train, I took a bus to Hezhou, a small town in the northeast of Guangxi province. There I started cicling again towards Guilin. Finally I could enjoy the countryside after some days immerse in Hong Kong and Guangzhou! On the way to Guilin I passed trough ancient town of Huang Yao founded in 927 and Shazi built during the Tang dynasty (618-907), I mainly crossed rice and tabacco fields and I became amazed by the stunning karst formations that are present in yangshuo and Guilin. As the the chinese saying,” Guilin shanghai jia tian xia” that means ” Guilin ‘s mountains and river scenery are the best under heaven”.
After 700 km in China, I discovered stunning landscapes and very friendly and hospitalary people ( Several times I got invited for food, drinks, or even sleep at their houses). Always ready to shout you a loud “jelow” and wanting to take pictures with you. Sometimes though it can seem that they have some sort of throat problem, when they make extremely loud sounds before spitting near you.
After exploring Yangshuo with my friend Yitong from Xi’an, I met my friend Pol from Barcelona to cycle together the east side of Guangxi and head towards Vietnam, where we would spend 15 days cycling the north of the country.
If I would put a word to define my experienci in china this would be “Contrast”: from overpopullated mega cityes to small ancient towns, from grey polluted areas to fresh green landscapes, from rude or impolite to very hospitalary and friendly people, from Lamborghini’s to rusty cars… perhaps this is the duality symbolised with the taoist concept “Ying Yang”, which describes the two opposite and complementary forces in nature, the duality existing in everything in the universe in order to find the equilibrium.
Travel in context 