How one finds there's no food left in the fridge

There's many ways to tell your partner that you've run out of something.

This is Richard's favourite way of letting me know...

Meeting a Thai Hero

When we first started doing long distance cycling I honestly wondered if we'd be the first people to cycle from Alaska to Ushuaia - haha - just goes to show my naivety.

But long distance cyclists were rare in those days and you pretty much got to know of everybody on the road. Over the last 5 years though long distance touring has certainly taken off and we bump into cyclists or hear of someone's mate who cycled from Australia to England (or something along those lines) on practically a daily basis. In fact just last week a friend emailed me about another cycling friend of hers who had been hit 3 times, first by a motorbike, then a car and now a bus. Turned out to be Matt Blake, an English cyclist we'd bumped into several times

while we were in Laos. One of my memories of Matt was sitting in a restaurant in Oudom Xai / Muang Xai / Udom Xai (a mere 3 names that the town is known by) with another British cyclist we'd met there and he told us that he felt special because touring by bicycle was so rare & unique. At the time I was thinking "well 5 years ago maybe but now?".

When we were in Ayuthaya we had the pleasure of meeting one of those original RTW cyclists who really did do it when no practically no one else was.

Mr Preecha Pimpan is the first (and apparently only) Thai to have successfully cycled around the world. He did it in 2 trips, one in the 40's (if I recall correctly) and

the 2nd part in the 60's. I had heard of him before so when we mentioned that our next stop was Ayuthaya to a cycling friend in LopBuri and he informed us that was where Mr Preecha's school was we immediately were resolved to meet him.

Our friend wrote down the name of Mr Preecha's school (Jirasartwittaya) for us and on arriving in Ayuthaya we headed to the tourist office where the delightful and friendly (but to be honest rather useless) staff looked up the telephone number & indicated on our map where the school was.

Luckily for us the school was right bang in the middle of the historical district so within moments we were speeding through the gates of the school, past the security guard who clearly suspected we didn't have any right to be there but didn't fancy embarrassing himself by legging it after us.

Mr Preecha was a gem and treated us as if we were honoured guests and we truly regretted not being able to take him up on his offer of staying there for a week

(though we managed to squeeze 2 nights in). Here's a photo of us with him in front of the glass window exhibit that displays the 2 bikes he toured on the world with, along with his panniers & other stuff he took with him. You only need to glance through the window to know that touring back in those days was a completely different thing to what it is now.

Good on the Cow

http://newslite.tv/2009/05/07/cow-escapes-new-york-slaughter.html

Angkor Thom Magazine Article about Velomad

Well those nice people at the Angkor Thom Magazine published an article about us today.

We have no idea what they wrote - our Cambodian is still limited to about 5 words

hello

how are you, goodbye

no

yes

thank you

bicycle Grandfather bicycle repairer - Richard's Khmer name) and a few numbers.

Yeah - ok that's more han 5 words admittedly.

We figure they must have gone onto our blog as we certainly never gave them those photos - can't understand why they'd print photos of Vietnam and China.

We're hoping that they've mentioned our views on the environment, global warming, climate change, war & peace & being vegetarian as well as why we travel by bicycle.

Having looked at the type of magazine it is online we're not holding our breath but we are wondering if we'll be mobbed by girly Khmer teenagers.

Have a look at their website for yourself!

http://www.angkorthommagazine.com/index.php?page=home

So who usually pays for the bridges?

 We've cycled over quite a few bridges now in Cambodia which is a GORGEOUS change after Laos where we usually had to push our bikes through the river.

This sign on a bridge following the Mekong caught my eye as it made me think - is it so rare that the Cambodian government actually pays for it's own bridges that it has to advertise the fact?

Spiderman converts us to being Obana Fans

Today I have instantly become a fan of Obama.

 

What swung me after months of neutrality was the following email from Spiderman.

If you're interested in hearing about what Spiderman's up to you can subscribe to his newsletter at 

http://www.thesolutionissimple.org/

Now here's the email. 

global warming is genocide.

At the end of this year world leaders meet in Copenhagen and must agree to at least a 50% global emissions reduction target.

America, under the presidency of Barack Obama, is now set to lead the world. George Bush wouldn't agree to a 5% emmissions reductions goal. Barack Obama is personally committed to an 80% goal. That is real leadership.

Millions of people are already playing a part to reduce their personal emissions, but we cannot succeed without urgent and significant action by world leaders.

Let's remember, the solution is simple:

• Stop cutting down trees. Plant more trees.
• Make everything energy efficient.
• Only make clean energy.

Because I know you care and are prepared to act for our climate, I have asked www.onehundredmonths.org to send you their monthly email. It is brief, includes useful information, inspiration and effective actions. You can unsubscribe at any time.

My deepest thanks.

We climb on.

Alain Robert
Spiderman

Back in Hanoi

Yep - we're back in Hanoi. While we were in Ho Chi Minh we heard about the floods in Hanoi but luckily everything had dried out by the time we got back - well almost.

The train arrived an hour late on our return (yes we left Pepe and Hanoi back in Saigon - we'll miss them wobbling around on them) beacuse on the outskirts of Hanoi the train tracks were stil submerged in water so the train entered Hanoi at tortoise speed. A whole chunk of south Hanoi was still without electricity & people were rowing around in small boats.

But otherwise Hanoi was ok - well apart from our old house in Doi Can. We went there a couple of nights ago to catch up & have a few drinks - the deepest water was right outside our old house's gate. Of course this wasn't rainwater anymore - the sewers had backed up and the stink was - well you can imagine that for yourself. We were informed that the water hadn't yet subsided since the flooding. The general consensus was that the drains had been blocked by the rats who'd drowned in the floods.