Ugly.Armadillo

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Chumphon, Thailand ‐ Mar 20, 2020

It’s been about three months now since we cycled out of Bangkok, and what a difference those months have made. I’m writing this from at home in St. Louis MO, USA. Leaving Bangkok was just like arriving: cycling on busy roads through suburbs that all seemed to merge together. The highlight was seeing a monitor lizard swimming in a roadside ditch, which I must say I’m glad it wasn’t any closer - they are huge! We arrived at the hostel we booked in Samut Songkhram, the town of the famous [...]
Maeklong railway market, and the owner was actually pretty covid-conscious. She had wiped everything down with alcohol and had us use hand sanitizer as soon as we came in. We had booked a private room for 2 people, and I guess technically that’s what we got, even if it was weird. The room was essentially a closet with a bunk bed; the only floor space was a small passage to get to the foot of the bed. Like most Thai towns, Samut Songkhram had a lively night market, so we went out for dinner there. We each ordered a green curry, then I had some street sushi and some meat on a stick, and Pax had some desserts. We capped the night off with a scoop of fried ice cream. We love the night markets because everything is delicious and you know it won’t break the bank. We probably spent just $4-5. The morning railway market was neat, with all the shops and vendors splaying their goods on and around the tracks, pulling it back just seconds before the train rolled through. It was fun to see, but it was full of tourists coming from Bangkok just for the morning. After we left this town and had a final 20km on busy roads, we turned south and everything became peaceful. We were suddenly cycling on remote roads along the picturesque Gulf of Thailand, sometimes even with bike lanes! Every aspect was fantastic except the ever worsening news of Covid and the uncertainty it was bringing to our lives. We took a break from sleeping in our hammocks on beaches to stay with Dui, a very fun and energetic WarmShowers host, who happened to be hosting another cyclist at the same time - Thomas from Germany. After spending the night at Dui’s and dressing up in traditional Thai clothes, we continued south with our new friend Thomas to Phraya Nakhon cave. It was a hot and steep hike to the cave, but it was amazing to see the sun shining through the collapsed roof onto the pavilion built there in 1890. We continued south with Thomas, enjoying the secluded roads, beach camping beneath palm trees, and cheap Thai food. We stayed at another WarmShowers down the way, and met a couple of French cyclists packing up their bikes, preparing to fly home. They cut their trip short due to Covid, and were visibly stressed, trying to hitch or catch a taxi to the next town. Boy we were glad we weren’t in their shoes! We hadn’t even considered flying back to the US. Here we also met Chris - another cyclist from Germany who was going the same way as us, so he tagged along as well. As the days went on, we kept enjoying life on the bike, but at camp we would always check the ever-worsening news, and now the choice of the French couple really didn’t seem that extreme. It seemed like left and right we would hear about other cyclists we met along the way flying home to hunker down for the pandemic. One night, we made camp on the beach (as usual), and checked the news. The US state department had issued a statement urging all Americans to either come home ASAP or prepare to stay abroad “indefinitely”. We had a choice to make: either look for an apartment in Thailand, or to fly home. After a few phone calls home, and some discussion amongst ourselves, we decided we’d end our trip early and book a flight as soon as we could. The next day, we cycled to the next town, packed our bikes, went out to dinner one last time, got on a 12hr train to Bangkok, then got a taxi directly to the airport. 72hrs after making the decision to come home, we were on an airplane heading for the US. -Ross

+14

Last Days of Thailand
Sam Roi Yot ‐ Mar 15, 2020
Samut Songkhram ‐ Mar 12, 2020
Bangkok ‐ Mar 9, 2020

We crossed the border into Thailand with no questions and no problems. We couldn’t believe we weren’t given a health screening or even asked about previous travel, considering we had gone through these checks when entering Myanmar a month earlier. Our first decision was whether to head for Bangkok or skip it, and go south. We didn’t have a strong desire to visit Bangkok; we had a feeling we would be back one day and we were ready to get cycling south to the beautiful beaches that we’ve b [...]
een looking forward to our entire trip. In the end, it wasn’t a far detour and if we are being honest, we really wanted to visit Decathlon. Decathlon is a French chain of outdoor/sporting goods store that we unfortunately don’t have in the U.S yet. A combination between REI and Dicks Sporting Goods, but everything is affordable. We had a running list of gear we wanted to pick up at Decathlon we started back in NE India so a trip there really sealed the deal. The ride from the border to Bangkok wasn’t too exciting since we stuck to the main road. Towns seemed to sprawl into one another along the highway and we saw little nature. Still we were excited to be in Thailand where we knew everything would be easier. We could easily wild camp, stay at a temple, or be hosted without breaking the law. There were shops and restaurants everywhere, accommodation was cheaper, and finally, we could visit real supermarkets and even 7-Eleven. The roads were all perfect, and honestly, we were a bit overwhelmed with the difference in development and infrastructure between Myanmar and Thailand. Although Thailand looked a bit more like home and we felt on less of an “adventure”, we were still excited for easy cycling and lots of beach camping. Our only struggle was adjusting to being back on the left side of the road, if you can even call that a struggle. When we cycled into Bangkok, we headed straight for the Decathlon, didn’t even go to the hostel to drop our bags. We spent a good while between there and the ginormous Tesco Lotus (supermarket) in the same mall before heading to our hostel downtown. (We ended up going back the following two nights). The closer we got to the center of the city, the more tourists we saw until suddenly Thai people were few and far between. We were overwhelmed when we walked our bikes down the touristy street to our hostel, seeing all the bars and restaurants packed with westerners, and having to avoid the many solicitations for massages and tailor-made suits. Here, we were just another foreigner, adding to the 22.8 million visitors Bangkok gets each year to make it the most visited city in the world, and suddenly, I wasn’t too interested in staying here the next three days. Thankfully we had our bikes and could easily get out of the tourist district and explore the other parts of the city. Again, for whatever reason we weren’t too interested in seeing much of the tourist sights, or paying for them, so we mostly ran errands and cycled around the city, checking out the sights from the road and stopping for street food whenever we wanted. We were in Bangkok March 9-11th and although it seemed that things were beginning to become more serious in the States, we had no idea the COVID-19 pandemic would alter our trip in just over one week. We were even finalizing plans for my mom to visit us in Malaysia in a couple months. We left Bangkok after a few days and headed towards the long-awaited beaches in the south, finally! -Pax

+16
Htee Kee – Phunaron border crossing ‐ Mar 6, 2020

We didn’t get an early start out of Dawei and we said our goodbyes to the French around noon. Our visa expired that day, so wanted to get to the border ASAP, which was still over 120km away. We quickly flagged down a passing truck who happily took us 15km up the road, but they were going no further. So we continued by bike, hoping to catch the next passing truck to the border. The nicely paved road turned to dirt, then to rocks covered in 3 inches of fine dust. We were following a river, but t [...]
he road was not flat, instead there were super steep hills, and in combination with the road quality we were only cycling maybe 7km per hour. Many small motorbikes passed by, and after a couple hours of biking on this road we accepted that we would not get a ride that day. Sweaty, dirty and tired, we found a campsite off a small trail, bathed naked in the river, and cooked up some noodles for dinner. During this time, I started to think about and question something I had seen on the trail coming into camp: huge piles of dung. What were they from? What kinds of animals are in this forest? Should we be worried? For poo this big, there was no other explanation besides elephants, but were they wild or domestic? I discussed it with Pax, and we decided that they didn’t look too fresh, but we would definitely be aware of any tromping or trumpet sounds in the night - not that that would do us any good. The night was uneventful except for a food bag full of ants in the morning, so we made our way back to the road, and within 5 minutes had a ride! We were jammed in the back seat of a truck with two others, but we were in the cab and it had AC, so we were thankful. The road up to the border was terrible, even being in a truck. The bumps, the dust, and the hills made it very uncomfortable; the woman in the front seat even wretched two or three times, always untying the same plastic bag and attempting to quietly deposit the contents of her stomach. After over three hours we covered the 80km to the border and we were dropped off. We still had 3 km to the actual border, so we spent out final $2 on a meal and some groceries before getting to Htee Khee, the town actually on the border. The town had some shops and buildings, but we didn’t have any Myanmar Kyat left, so we didn’t pay too much attention to the buildings and instead focused on getting into Thailand. We came to a checkpoint, the guys checked our passports and waved us through. It is common for our passports to be checked before we get our exit stamp, so we thought nothing of it, but before we knew it, we were greeted with a “Welcome to Thailand” sign and a checkpoint manned by the royal Thai police. This time the guard didn’t wave us through - he was confused and alarmed that we didn’t have a Myanmar exit stamp, and sent us back to Myanmar to acquire this stamp. I think the first Myanmar checkpoint guys were embarrassed when we came rolling back through and addressed that we didn’t have an exit stamp. They had one job, and they definitely did not do it. As it turns out, the immigration office is a tiny building back in town, nestled 20m back from the road amongst other buildings with almost no signs to help travelers find it. It’s definitely one of the less popular border crossings, and we think mostly locals use it. Our visa had expired the previous day, but it wasn’t an issue in immigration. We just paid a small fee of $3/per day per person (this is legit, not a bribe), and were sent away with an exit stamp and in one last act of generous giving from Myanmar - full water bottles. We went back, just bypassing the first checkpoint since they don’t do anything anyways, and this time were welcomed into Thailand with super smooth roads! At the checkpoint there was a medical station and a sign about Covid-19, but surprisingly we didn’t have a temperature reading nor any questions about previous travel. It was easy and quick and finally we found ourselves in Thailand! -Ross
Myitta, Myanmar (Burma)
Dawei

+27

Dawei Peninsula
Pa Nyit ‐ Mar 5, 2020
Maungmagan ‐ Mar 3, 2020

After Ross cooled down over lunch in Hpa-An we had a relatively short ride to Mawlamyine where we decided to stay since he was still feeling unwell. Even after finding another guy to hose him down, he still struggled to make it to town, feeling weak, and every kilometer feeling to him like ten. Once we got there and found a place to stay he took a cold shower and got some rest. Luckily later he felt well enough to walk around to check out the night market for dinner. Besides that walk and our ri [...]
des in and out, we didn’t see much of town since we woke up the following morning and everything was covered in a dense fog. Our sights were then set on reaching Dawei where we had booked a room and would finally be able to relax on the beach for a couple days! We haven’t had much swimming on this trip. We cycled along the Mediterranean in late winter/early spring and when we visited the beaches of Goa, the surf was too rough and swimming was prohibited. Now the climate was getting hotter and hotter and we dreamed more and more of the beaches of SE Asia. We only had a few more hot days of cycling before our dreams would come true and we could finally get in the water! We booked a place in the beach town of Maungmagan, 30km west of Dawei with high hopes of some luxury, and our stay there did not disappoint. Since Maungmagan is the closest beach town to Dawei it is the most popular and most “touristy” town in the area, but we were still surprised by the lack of development. I guess in our minds we had pictured ourselves on a mini vacation, sitting on a touristy beach with lots of other travellers. In reality there were no western food restaurants and just two hotels; ours had only had 6 rooms, and most people visiting the beach were local Burmese people. We checked into our own little bungalow and began a two day task of laundry. We had a large bathroom, a drying rack outside, and plenty of sunshine so we got to washing everything; from our clothes, sleeping mats, liners, hats, and even bags. It felt great to have clean clothes and gear again. Maungmagan beach has a strip of seaside restaurants with lots of beach goers not straying too far down away in either direction. We wanted to have a private beach, so we cycled north along the water until we had a beautiful beach to ourselves. We set up our hammocks and enjoyed the sun, the shade, and the water! We did this two days in a row, staying until sunset and riding back along the water, enjoying watching the other beach goers enjoy the last bit of the day. Our last evening we finally met up with Angelique and Xavier, a French cycling couple who we know through Instagram. We have been talking with them since we were in Turkey, when they were only a couple days ahead of us, but unfortunately we were never able to catch up with them. Thankfully they reached out to us in Hpa-An and we realized we were so close! We had a great evening getting to know each other, exchanging stories and bonding over shared experiences of the trip. After two nights we left our little paradise. The Dawei peninsula has many beaches off the beaten path so we wanted to do some easy wild camping on a beautiful beach before leaving. We set off with Angelique and Xavier for a short ride to Pa Nyit Beach. It was a short ride but we had a steep climb and the sun was INTENSE! After only 10 minutes or so my exposed skin had a bad sunburn. I lost my long sleeve layer somewhere a couple days ago so I had to wear Ross’s big, hot flanel. We ran out of sunscreen in Yangon, and replacing it has proven very difficult here. Sadly anything we find with SPF is a skin whitening product. Thankfully it was a short ride and soon we were sitting in our hammocks under trees on the beach. We had a really fun evening with Xavier and Angelique and traded routes and made plans to cycle together in the future. After our couple days on the Andaman sea we had to go. Xavier and Angelique were continuing south but were already overstaying our visas and had to head for the border. We knew we would be back along the water soon, enjoying the Gulf of Thailand! -Pax
Ye ‐ Mar 2, 2020

+33

S. Myanmar
Mawlamyine ‐ Mar 1, 2020
Hpa-An Township ‐ Feb 24, 2020

We arrived to our hostel in Hpa-an (pronounced pa-an), in the early morning with a full day of sightseeing planned. We were still in a race against our visa, so we wanted to see the sights and move on the next morning. This area is known for its tall and steep mountains and caves scattered formed by its karst topography, and we planned to see some of each. Unfortunately there was fog on this day and we could only see the silhouettes of some formations we we worried the views from the top of a [...]
popular hike would be sub-par. We decided to go for it anyways, and cycled to the trailhead at Lumbini Gardens, where there were hundreds of Buddha statues in rows upon rows. The trail to the top of Mount Zwegabin turned out to be just thousands of stairs, for which we were not prepared. It was probably the hottest day of the trip since Uzbekistan, and we unwisely chose to start the hike at noon. We were dripping with so much sweat that I’m pretty sure I could have wrung out a sizable amount of liquid from my shirt more than a few times. However, since we are in Myanmar, there was never a shortage of drinking water, and we stayed hydrated and made it to the top for the promised view of the surroundings. Admittedly, it was actually a little underwhelming because all of the fog, but we are still glad we took the time to climb the mountain. We sort of misjudged the time it would take us to hike up and down, so when we got back to our bikes, we only had time to grab a bite to eat (at a Thai restaurant, our first Thai food!) then go straight to our next activity: the bat cave. We wanted to cycle the 10 km and arrive to the cave by dusk, when over 100,000 bats fly out of the cave, creating quite a spectacle! Now this was cool! At first, only a couple hundred bats emerged and were picked off by circling hawks, but when the masses started emerging from their cave, they made a flowing river of bats that stretched its way across the sky and over the river. There were men beating drums to make the bats fly in strange formations, and it just went on for ages! It is by no means the only bat cave or the biggest one in SE Asia or even in Myanmar, but it was impressive. If we stayed another night, I would have gone again. On our way back to the hostel we saw a night market, so of course we stopped! Many cities in SE Asia have night markets, and this was the first we had seen. Most of the shops were selling food for dinner or snacks, and everything looked and smelled so good! We only had 1500 kyat with us (about $1) so sadly we had to limit ourselves and get only what we could afford: one ear of corn, one grilled squid tentacle and two ice creams. We didn’t quite see everything we wanted to in Hpa-An, so the next day on our way out we stopped at another cave - this time with Buddhist shrines built inside. It was 16km out of town, and on the way down there I started to feel somewhat ill and very tired. I knew that I was probably experiencing minor heat exhaustion, but I pushed through to get to the cave where I knew it would be cool and I could take a break. The cave was neat, with huge caverns and side caves, along with the brisk air I was counting on. The break didn’t help though, I still felt extremely tired, and it was difficult to drag myself up and down the stairs to look at the statues and shrines. The shrines were interesting, but it didn’t seem like they belonged in this big natural cave. They were all lit up with strings of flashing LEDs and the new looking Buddha statues easily could have been made out of plastic. We slowly walked through the cave, and out the other end, where they had boats waiting to bring you back to the entrance, past rice paddies and other beautiful landscapes. Back on the bikes, I still felt terribly weak. A little ways down the road we stopped for lunch. I couldn’t eat, so I just had a cold pop and sat by the fan. Just before we were to leave, I saw the restaurant owner watering his garden and I had an idea. I jumped up, stood in front of him and motioned for him to spray me down. It took a minute for him to confirm that yes, I actually wanted him to drench me with a hose while I was fully clothed, but then he went to town! You could tell he was having fun just soaking me with the cold cold water, and I was having fun because it felt so dang good. After that I felt much better, still not 100% but ready to bike until the next opportunity for a spray-down. -Ross

+30

Hpa-an
Bago ‐ Feb 22, 2020

COVID - 19 Update

Our Instagram and blog is about a month behind and we had been cycling along the beautiful Gulf of Thailand this past week. While at present, everything was calm, we had a difficult week struggling to...
Yangon ‐ Feb 19, 2020

+26
Pantanaw
Ah Thoke ‐ Feb 18, 2020

In Bagan we had some big decisions to make, both for our route through South East Asia,and through Myanmar. We learned that March is burning season in Northern Thailand and Laos, and many cyclists advised us to avoid that region or be prepared for haze and bad air quality. That just didn’t seem pleasant, plus we had gotten a lifetime supply of air pollution in Delhi, so we changed our SE Asia tour and decided to head down to Singapore instead. With our new plan, we had to decide how to tackl [...]
e the rest of Myanmar with what time was remaining on our visa. We toyed with the idea of taking a train to Yangon but in the end we decided to push ourselves the 600+km to the former capital city. Although we added another 100 kilometers in order to take a more western route that looked greener on GoogleEarth, we wanted to go as fast as possible to save those precious visa days for relaxing on the beach in southern Myanmar. There wasn’t anything particularly noteworthy to write about in this stretch, so I thought I’d note some of the aspects and cultural quirks that make cycling in Myanmar different. 1. Under a tourist visa, foreigners must stay at registered hotels and guest houses - so wild camping and being hosted by locals is strictly prohibited. People are incredibly friendly but we don’t want to put anyone in a position where they (or we) may get in trouble so we solely wild camp. Between 5:30 and 6:00pm as the sun is going down, we try to find a side road or trail and sneak off into the woods or a thicket. Of course sometimes we have to find a hotel, but unfortunately they are quite expensive. Once we were even initially turned away at a guesthouse by a policeman. The day before we reached Yangon we were off of our green, nature-filled route and in the middle of agriculture and villages. We were feeling more and more nervous about wild camping and when we passed a guesthouse (it even said ‘Guesthouse’ in English so we figured we could stay) we asked if they had rooms. While they were getting the manager, a policeman showed up out of nowhere and just kept repeating “no, no, no”, and maybe he did, maybe he didn’t, but in my memory wagged his finger at us. We laughed that we hadn’t yet seen a police officer in our time in Myanmar and here our first one was appearing just in time to drive us away from a guesthouse. So we went to find dinner and figure out what to do. The woman must have talked to the police because 10 minutes later she had tracked us down at the restaurant welcoming us to come back and assuring us we were allowed to stay. 2. Myanmar is the first country where we see both men and women wearing traditional dress (excluding men wearing traditional hats in some places like Nepal and Kyrgyzstan). Both men and women wear a longyi: a cloth wrapped around the waist like a skirt, though they are wrapped differently and the patterns seem differ between men and women. Even the uniform for school children is a green longyi and white button down shirt, no matter the gender. 3. My favorite cultural quirk about Myanmar is the clay water pots that can be seen on the side of the road all over the country. They are usually in a little shelter or tiny house built to hold the pots and keep them from the sun and weather. Good samaritans, the elderly, and monks keep the pots full of water for travelers or anyone who needs refreshment. We never ever worry about finding water because we know we can count on seeing these pots on the road, even at intersections in the middle of nowhere! Out of the countries we’ve cycled Myanmar has been the most liberal about giving. Not only do they have the pots on the road, but people give us water bottles all the time. A trucker stopped to give us two water bottles, at restaurants they will bring us a cold water bottle (but you’re not charged for it) and hotel rooms always have two water bottles waiting for you. 4. People, especially women and children, wear thanaka, a tan-ish yellow-ish paste made from ground tree bark. They mostly wear it on the face, painted sometimes all over but often times it’s two circles on both cheeks and a line or dot on the nose. It is supposed to cool the skin and provide sun protection, but it’s also acts like a makeup. 5. Particularly, maybe exclusively, in the south around Yangon, to grab a waiter’s attention you making a kissing noise. We were confused the first time we heard this going on! The cycling was nice, but after 730 kilometers in 6 days we needed a rest. The heat was grueling and we didn’t feel like we were getting proper off-the-bike rest. Not necessarily physical rest but mental rest. We would wake up at 5:30 and get going as soon as possible to cycle in the cooler temperatures. We would take breaks in restaurants, then cycle until dusk where we would quickly set up camp and fall asleep early. Even though it was tiring to cycle for so long each day, we enjoyed getting to see life in the heart of Myanmar and experience these cultural quirks. -Pax Pictures to come when we be WiFi

+19

Mid Myanmar
Oakshitpin
PaDan Village ‐ Feb 16, 2020
Kazoonnma ‐ Feb 14, 2020
Bagan ‐ Feb 10, 2020

We knew we couldn’t visit Myanmar without visiting Bagan. Once the capital of the Pagan Kingdom, which would unite what would later become Myanmar, Bagan is now a 40 square mile archaeological zone with over 3,800 temples and pagodas surviving today. For Myanmar it’s pretty touristy, and they have checkpoints on the main road that charge 25,000 kyat, or about $20 to enter the archeological zone, which includes town. Us, being cheapskates and having the freedom of a bicycle could easily take [...]
back roads around the toll booth, avoiding the fee. We read that only 2% of this entrance fee actually goes to the preservation of Bagan, and the other 98% gets shipped off to the state government, so we didn’t feel too bad shirking that expense. Thomas, Pax and I arrived in the late afternoon, had dinner, and talked about what to do. On the backroads coming in, we noticed some brush and possible camping spots, and once again since we are cheapskates, we bought some snacks, cycled back out and found camp instead of checking in to a hotel. That night, we watched the sun set over the burning garbage dump, and we shared a beer, chips and an avocado. Since it was dark, we didn’t realize the avocado was moldy until a few hours later when Thomas’ bowels exploded in bouts of diarrhea. Luckily, either I got the good half or my stomach is used to moldy food, and I escaped the stomach issues. To maximize the bang for our buck, we like to check into hotels as soon as they allow, and check out as late as possible, sucking up valuable WiFi and electricity as long as we can. We arrived at our hotel at 8AM the next morning, hoping to just drop our bags and hit the town, but to our delight they had our room ready, and allowed us to eat breakfast with the other guests. Ok, now for Bagan. We had a checklist going into Bagan, probably the same as everyone else. We wanted to see a sunset, get up for sunrise, and cycle aimlessly around temples soaking in the scenery. The first evening there, we went to a popular sunset spot where you could climb on a temple for a better view. We cycled about 10km there, and when we arrived, one of our worries was realized. There were some guys checking tickets.... we didn’t want to miss the sunset, so when asked for the ticket, we insisted we left them in the hotel. He was skeptical, but let us in, advising that we carry our ticket wherever we go. The sunset was underwhelming for Myanmar standards (where we have been having fantastic sunsets every day!), but still nice to have a new vantage point over the pagodas. The next morning, we got up at 5:30 am and cycled back out to the temples to watch the sunrise. Once again, we went to the popular sunrise hill and people were checking tickets, but we weren’t so lucky this time. They said we couldn’t enter, which was ok, it’s just the price we pay for not paying. We found our own private spot amongst the temples and had a lovely time watching both the sun and hot air balloons rise. Since it was Pax’s birthday, I had packed a surprise chocolate doughnut and some cookies for her to have while enjoying the sunrise. We filled the next days by cycling around the temple complex, eating plenty of food, and hanging out in our air conditioned hotel room. It was a nice time except for that every time I came back from a ride I had at least two more thorns in my tire. It felt like I was always fixing my tires, and nobody else ever had any problems. Bagan was the most touristy place we have been in months, but it was touristy for a reason. Super interesting and almost magical, bagan is certainly worth the visit. -Ross

+17
Pakokku ‐ Feb 9, 2020
Monywa ‐ Feb 8, 2020

In Kalewa we had to do a bit of asking and searching until we found the beach where our boat would pick us up for the ride to Monywa. We were trying to avoid a big climb on a horrible road as well as save days on our 28 day visas. Plus we love boats so win win! We arrived and found out we would have 45 minutes, giving us a perfect amount of time to get some food and snacks for the 16 hour trip. When the boat pulled up pretty much on time we quickly loaded up the bikes and bags and they shoved [...]
off, wasting no time. The ride was pleasant and the passing scenery made for a really nice trip. Sometimes the river was banked by small cliffs and sometimes it was a sandy beach, but it seemed at any given moment we could bet on seeing a golden pagoda somewhere on shore. Any time we docked to pick up more passengers, small boats pulled up alongside us selling food and vendors came on board trying to peddle their snacks and full meals up and down the aisles. Finally sometime in the night the boat docked somewhere on the river, the engine was cut, and we spent the night sleeping in our uncomfortable seats. After 16 hours we finally landed in Monywa the next morning. Instead of docking on the beach we pulled up to another boat, which we had to climb through to reach shore. As soon as we began pulling up there was maybe 15 men pointing at our boat waiting to jump on. When we were close enough they all swarmed the boat, running through the isles, shouting and pointing. We can only assume they were there hoping to help people take their luggage off the boat and receive a tip. In the chaos of rushing off the boat Ross was on the roof trying to get our four bikes down. A group of guys signaled to pass the bikes down and without thinking he did. It did make our disembarkment a ton easier and soon we had all our stuff piled on the beach. We nervously wondered how much they were going to expect for helping us with the bikes but when Ross gave them a 1,000 kyat note, 66 cents to split among four people, they seemed pretty happy with that. We were all a bit hungry and tired and Rita was really not feeling well. She decided to rest for a night in Monywa and we would all planned to meet again shortly in Bagan. -Pax

+4

Chindwin River
Kalewa Township ‐ Feb 9, 2020

We had spent so long in India that when we entered Myanmar we had a minor case of culture shock. We went from hectic to relaxed in a matter of minutes. There was no more honking, no more selfies, much less garbage, people drive on the right side of the road, different food, and above all, the people were just so different. We very much feel like this is an Asian culture, with all their rules about politeness and saving face. Everyone we meet is over-accommodating, going out of their way to be po [...]
lite. When giving or receiving anything, even in shops when we buy a bag of chips, the shopkeeper only ever uses their right hand, and most of the time places their left on their right forearm as a sign of further politeness. They would never do anything that could make us feel uncomfortable, and it was just such a shock coming from, sometimes, the polar opposite in India. As a group of four - Rita, Thomas, and us, we cycled south further into Myanmar. We had some long days cycling mainly because it’s illegal to wild camp and it’s strictly enforced. The locals are so nice but legally they can’t host us, and when asked, they will call the police to ask permission which of course will not be granted. We have heard stories and even met cyclists who have been woken up in the night by police and forced to pack up and move to an approved hotel. This can sometimes be many kilometers away or in the wrong direction, not to mention very expensive. So, we would cycle until 6PM until it started to get dark, find a well hidden campsite for the night, make sure nobody saw us enter, then get up at 6AM with the sun and start cycling again. It was hot but pleasant. We stopped for food when we were hungry, cold drinks when we were thirsty, and snacks when we just wanted a break. We reached Kalewa where we were planning on taking a boat 16hrs downriver to avoid a terrible section of road and save some time on our limited 28 day visa. We had just entered Myanmar and we already wished we could stay longer. There’s just so much to see! -Ross

+11

N. Myanmar
Khampat ‐ Feb 8, 2020
Tamu Township ‐ Feb 7, 2020
Moreh, India ‐ Feb 5, 2020

Thankfully Imphal has a good old youth hostel, like actually old. It’s even a member of Hosteling International and there are promotional photos from the 80s decorating the inside. After staying two nights I was still feeling unwell but I was outnumbered by the feeling-better-and-ready-to-get-going folk so we left for the border. We decided to take a lunch break in the town of Palel just before our big climb out of the Imphal valley. When we reached a small restaurant we saw a touring bike o [...]
utside! Thomas was finishing up his lunch and happy to see us, he hadn’t seen another cyclist his entire ride through India. So we all set off together as four. Thankfully the climb was gradual and although I wasn’t feeling great I found it okay to chug along. We reached the top as the sun was beginning to sink and started trying to look for camp. The views of the endless hills were stunning but unfortunately, I didn’t appreciate them too much since it was getting cold and we were racing to find a place to sleep. The road plateaued for a couple of kilometers at the top and we found it was all military. We came to a checkpoint where they needed to enter in our information, they were very friendly and told us there was a cafe we can camp in a couple kilometers. About a kilometer after the checkpoint we came across yet another cyclist but this time pushing his bike towards us in the opposite direction. He asked about camping and we told him ahead was only military, and by this time it was nearly dark. He decided to turn around and descend the 3 kilometers back to Gabby’s Cafe. We showed up at dark and after hearing they charged 200 rupees a person just to set up our tents we were a bit unhappy but there really wasn’t much we could do. We all did take advantage of our first real hot shower in a long time. In the morning we said goodbye to Hoya, the Japanese cyclist, and started our long downhill. We had one final 400 meter hill between us and the border town of Moreh, which in any other circumstance would be little more than a road bump in our day. But because I hadn’t been able to eat anything the past three days I had no energy and had to will my legs to move with every pedal. When Ross, who had stayed back with me, saw that I needed to stop every 10 minutes and was balling my eyes out with every rest, he thankfully suggested we stay in Moreh that night. When I finally reached the top of the hill we let Thomas and Rita know and they said they would stay as well. We had planned to cross the border that day but if we were going to be resting we wanted to stay on the Indian side because we have months left on our Indian visa, while in Myanmar we only get 28 days. Moreh was a bit of a dump of a town but we found a nice place to stay that was clean and light for only $1.50 per person. I mostly rested and tried to eat as much as I had the stomach for but when I got up the next morning to begin packing I felt strange and had a shortness of breath so we decided again to stay one more day. Thomas and Rita also decided to stay. I felt terrible putting them in that situation because I know they wanted to cycle as a group and I was holding everyone up but Rita didn’t mind and Thomas himself was having a few stomach problems too. We joked India wouldn’t let us out that easy. Finally the next morning we all took off and rode a couple of kilometers careful not to say “Myanmar today!” as not to jinx it. -Pax
Imphal ‐ Feb 1, 2020
Noney
Jiribam ‐ Jan 30, 2020
Silchar ‐ Jan 29, 2020

Back in Assam, we braced ourselves for lots of people and few places to camp. It seems that whenever we enter Assam, the stare-ers return, as well as the tea terraces when we’re not in urban areas. Our first night, it looked like we wouldn’t find a place to wild camp, so we decided to ask a church if we could pitch our tent. We were met at the gate with 30+ young boys running around and excited to see foreigners at their doorstep. We found an adult (Mary, 22 years old) and after a few phon [...]
e calls, we were led to a room where we could stay, and she told us that they would even prepare dinner for us! As it turns out, this was a catholic boys school, and they had about 60 boys living on campus. After we settled into our room we were taken to to where the boys were having their evening study time. When we arrived they were all seated at desk but at the end of the 45 minutes or so they were all gathered around us taking turns dancing or singing us songs like “despacito”. Later we had a private dinner with Mary where she implored us to stay another day or two since the kids had the day off the following day. We had to push on, but we decided to spend the next morning there with the boys. In the morning the boys still had to have study time where we were essentially forced to each give an impromptu lesson. Pax went first with geography of the USA, then Rita with geography of Europe, then I was up. With no more geography lessons on hand, I fell back on what I know - chemistry. I gave a basic lesson on the elements and how some elements combine into basic molecules, like H2O and NaCl. It was my first teaching gig, and hopefully I’m more prepared next time. The rest of our morning was getting a tour of the grounds and neighboring girls school and playing soccer until we were too hot and tired to continue. We got on our way after lunch and continued southeast to Silchar. After one night here we were headed for our final Indian state of Manipur. Manipur has a heavy military presence because of its decades-long history with insurgencies so foreigners must register at a checkpoint before entering, as well as stop at many checkpoints along the road to show passports. It could be a bit annoying but the soldiers were always kind and friendly. Manipur proved to be just as friendly as other NE states. Our first night here, we found ourselves in the hills past dark with no flat spots for the tent in sight. We came upon a village and once again we went to ask for a church, but we were instead led to a family’s home where we could sleep in our tent on their porch. Rachel and Alex lived there, two twenty somethings who spoke very good English. They said that last year a cyclist also stayed here, so now if anyone turns up needing a place to stay they are brought their home! It rained hard that night, making us extra grateful for the family and for their covered balcony we were seeking shelter under. We have been very lucky on this trip in terms of our bikes and our health, but the following days we had problems with both. As we were slogging away climbing a hill, a pulley on my derailleur seized up, and all the bearings fell out. I could no longer cycle, and it was still 200km to Imphal, a city with a proper bike shop. The ladies were already thinking about hitching because Rita wasn’t feeling well and it was so hilly, so we stuck out our thumbs and caught a truck to Noney, a village only 70km from Imphal. In Noney we had an interesting night. When the restaurant we were eating at offered us a room, we decided to stay even though the bed was literally in the kitchen of the restaurant but it was also dirt cheap. The little kids were the ones that got us, they were doing all the transactions. It seemed like the kids were begging their parents “Can we keep the tourists? Can we? Can we?” and the parents hesitantly said yes. It was a pleasant evening of drinking tea, eating a delicious dinner with the family, and even going with the family for their evening prayers to Lord Shiva. In the night both Pax and I started to feel sick and didn’t get much sleep. We think it was something with the water we drank, but the next day we really didn’t feel well. Feeling pretty miserable, we loaded up the bikes on a shared taxi to Imphal, and thankfully we each got more space than expected in the van while some locals squished in the back. This was not a good car ride. I was feeling sick but doing OK, focusing on the road ahead and bracing for the bumps. Then we picked up a guy who planted himself right next to me, started talking to me, and video called his wife and daughter so they could see the foreigner. I said hi to them, but he kept shoving his phone in my face just wanting them to see me better. At some point I told him to leave me alone then proceeded to vomit out the window multiple times. Later, he called someone else and wanted me talk to them, to which request I not so politely refused. We arrived in Imphal and Pax used some bungees to tow me to our hostel. Pax and I promptly slept for the rest of the day and night, only getting up to go to the bathroom and trying to eat. Finally our lack of caution over drinking water had caught up with us. -Ross

+19

Assam and some of Manipur
Jowai ‐ Jan 23, 2020
Dawki
Pynursla ‐ Jan 22, 2020
Tyrna ‐ Jan 20, 2020

While Ross was spending a couple days kayaking, Rita and I were spending a couple days relaxing in the beautiful village of Tyrna. We pitched our tent and hammock on the roof of a homestay and enjoyed sunny days and peaceful village life. When Ross did arrive we finally got to visit the living root bridges - Meghalaya’s most famous tourist attraction. The roots of fig trees are manipulated and trained over time to form incredible bridges. They are reached by thousands of stairs starting up in [...]
Tyrna and ending down in a green, deep canyon. The rivers and streams running at the bottom were beautiful! Big rocks and boulders made up the riverbeds and where they formed pools the water was a deep blue. We’ve never seen a river so blue! Along with the bridges there is a small village down in the valley, only accesible by the stairs and two cable bridges (but one was out and you had to hop stones across) I imagined this to be a half day hike but despite rising early we ended up arriving back at our homestay exhausted just as darkness set in. Back in Shillong we were trying to debate our route after visiting the bridges. We could either back track almost all the way to Shillong to get back on the main route or do a “crazy route” along the Bangladesh border on a more remote road with lots and lots of climbing. For the first time on our trip we let a coin flip decided and it decided on the crazy route. We had a plan! So from Tyrna we had an amazing descent to our first stretch along the Bangladesh border. We were surprised to find how enforced the actual physical border was here. At times it was two high fences topped with barbed wire with coils of razor wire in the middle, and sometimes it was just a very tall fence with barbed wire along the top. For a time we saw it off in the distance, cutting through fields, and other times the road traveled right beside it. After crossing the Lyngngam river we had to climb back up 1,300 meters. The road was in bad shape, very rocky and gravely, but there was almost no traffic. We were able to camp right off the road and even make a camp fire. The climb was one of our more difficult but we at least knew at the top we would join a larger road and the surface quality would improve. The next day we again descended 1,300 meters to the border town of Dawki. It should have maybe taken a couple hours but instead it took all day. We decided to make a little detour to see the town of Mawlynnong which has the title of “the cleanest village in Asia” and it was very clean. Residents clearly took pride in keeping the village clean and yards were very nicely kept. There was even a sign with rules of the village and one was no throwing plastic in the trash cans. Essentially it said pack it out and back from where it came from. There just wasn’t anything to really see or do here. We had a nice lunch here and enjoyed the car-free atmosphere. We did feel quite guilty about our plastic wrapper we shamefully packed away after having biscuits with our tea. India has really forced us to reckon with how much single use plastic we use. In the U.S. our waste in pretty much becomes “out of sight, out of mind” but here trash doesn’t just get sent away in garbage trucks. It lingers. On the side of the road. In stream beds. The plastic is everywhere and a constant reminder that it doesn’t just go away. Road side shops are full of items sold in single use plastics. Shampoo, soap, and conditioner are all sold in small single use packages. Lays enticingly sells chips in a 5 rupee package, that’s ¢7, and you are pretty much buying plastic with a couple chips inside. We’ve made a personal rule that we won’t buy those. We cycled through town to complete the loop and hopefully find camp at a waterfall. Unfortunetly it’s dry season and the waterfalls didn’t have much water or provide any opportunities for camping. Once we did reach flat ground there was a lot of border security around so we cycled into Dawki and found a place to stay. We first tried to camp, a man tried to charge us 1,300 rupees for camping on a public beach. We openly laughed and rode into town where we found a hotel room for the same price. The next day we tackled our final climb of 1,300 meters to get back on our route towards Myanmar. In the beginning it was steep but thankfully it flattened out and it was nice gradual climb that lasted all day. We saw a campground on google maps and made our goal to stop there hoping for the possibility of a little warmth now that we were once again high in the hills. It turned out to be just what we were hoping and we set up camp. There was a group of police officers celebrating Union Day who were super friendly and already had a raging fire going. Several were also a bit drunk and in the 5 minutes Ross joined them at the fire we must have heard “we are all police officers!” at least twenty times. Even the sober officers were cracking up at the antics. They also assured us we were safe here (we didn’t feel unsafe) and to call them if we needed anything. They eventually left and we used the fire to cook dinner and enjoy until we climbed into the tent. There were little mini cabins on the property and we each took a comforter from them so we had a snug and warm night glamping at the higher altitude. The next day we reached the town of Jowei which meant we were back on the main road! We had one final descent to finish our time in Meghalaya and pass through the next corner of Assam. While Sikkim was Ross’s favorite Indian state, I think Meghalaya was mine. -Pax

+42

Khasi and Jaintia Hills
Kyrdem Kulai ‐ Jan 18, 2020

I had discovered Shillong Whitewater Village by chance, and decided I’d like to visit. Pax and Rita didn’t want to make the detour, so we split ways; Pax and Rita getting a head start down to Chirrapunji for a few days of “doing nothing” while I tried to remember how to kayak. I had a really nice time there. They were situated on the banks of the Umtrew River, just where some class 2-3 rapids were, so I spent two days going kayaking whenever I wanted. It felt so good to be back on the [...]
water, and to regain some of my lost muscle memory. One difficult thing about long term traveling is that you don’t get to do your other hobbies much, so this camp gave me a chance to do something I love other than biking. The second day some local boys came down and I did a few runs with them, before eating dinner with the family who runs the place. The next morning it was raining, so they gave me a ride up the 1400m hill back to Shillong where I would start biking to Tyrna to meet the girls. -Ross

+3

Shillong Whitewater Park
Shillong ‐ Jan 16, 2020
Nongstoin ‐ Jan 14, 2020

Like we’ve probably said many times before it can be very interesting to see what happens when we cross imaginary borders and whether it equates to any tangible differences or if it’s just a line drawn on a map, which is often the case. Meghalaya certainly was different from the moment we cycled in. As soon as we left Phulbari the jungle enveloped us. The biggest difference was the remoteness. The main road was was small, dusty and lightly traveled. We were surrounded by nature, and the vill [...]
ages were few and far between, offering few services, certainly no hotels. Meghalaya is also different because it’s a tribal state, the majority of the population belong to three groups - Garo, Khasi, and Jaintia. It’s also one of three Christian majority states in India. Where in Assam we were met anywhere we stopped with groups of stare-ers and selfie requests, here we were still met with curiosity but we felt more like human beings rather than animals in a zoo to be gawked at. We spent a long time on this road, making only 35-50km of progress per day. We camped every night in the jungle - sometimes asking a family if we can camp on their flat land or else just finding a place in the forest. In every village we passed through we were able to find a restaurant, ordering whatever they had, and being confident it would cost us only $0.14 per plate! It wasn’t a ton of food for those 10 rupees, generally roti sabji - a piece of fried bread and a vegetable curry, but it was delicious! We would end up getting two or three each, along with one or two of the ever-present chai teas. Occasionally when we went to pay we would be surprised when each item would cost only 5 rupees or $0.07, and everyone would kick themselves for not having that one more roti or chai they were thinking about ordering. After five nights of wild camping through the Garo Hills we were really looking forward to finally reaching a hotel in the town of Nongstoein, which we read some positive reviews about. After five nights, not only did we need showers, but all of our electronics were dead: both our phones, the iPad, and our two external battery packs. Rita was having stomach issues, so Pax and I went ahead, reaching first and going directly to the hotel. We were turned away, the owner citing the fact that he was fully booked, but we took it with a grain of salt because we are usually told they are “full” when really they just can’t keep foreigners or want more money from us. After some pressing he sounded genuine that he was actually just booked up. We were pretty knocked down by this because we didnt want to continue cycling and find a place to camp. Some people helped us and called a fellow, and soon we were shown to another place with a very nice owner. We hoped to charge our phones so that we could text Rita where we were, but it turned out the electricity in Nongstoein is only turned on after 4pm. We were debating what to do when a man sitting in a truck said something to us and pointing down the road. The hotel manager translated that a cyclist had just passed by! Only a quick jog down the road we caught Rita and showed her to our alternate hotel. From Nongstoein to Shillong we cycled through the Khasi Hills district and again we felt a change. Instead of forest, the hills were covered in grasses and coniferous forests. I think it’s here that the British thought to call Meghalaya the “Scotland of India”. Here of course the language changed to Khasi and our regular puri meals were gone and instead we found only rice and meat. During our traverse of Meghalaya, we crossed many different sub-states including West Garo Hills, East Garo Hills, Khasi Hills, and Jaintia Hills, each with their own language and traditions, along with distinct architecture. I could go on about all these differences, but I’ve already drawn on. It was cool to see all these cultures geographically so close, but still distinct and proud of who they are. -Ross

+15

Garo Hills
Phulbari ‐ Jan 9, 2020
Dhubri

We were going to lump West Bengal and Assam into one post, but there was so much to write about we split it into two - even though we were in Assam only two days! Our first night in Assam we knew we would have to rely on someone’s kindness because there were no hotels to be seen, and there were people everywhere. We pulled over at a Dhaba, a roadside restaurant, and asked if we could sleep once they closed up. He said no problem - he had actually hosted a cyclist just last week! We had cups [...]
upon cups of chai, Ross visited the market with Abu, and Rita and I got to play some Badminton! People LOVE badminton here. We are always passing both children and adults playing on the side of the road. We had a lovely night full of food, music, and even dancing before sleeping in a private dining area of the restaurant. After continuing on the main road, we were barraged all day with the familiar but uncomfortable culture we found back in Utter Pradesh. Our least favorite aspects of India. Guys on motorbikes were constantly pulling up to Ross, asking where we are going, where we are from, then asking for a selfie. And always Ross. Rita and I, for the most part, were largely ignored. When we are approached by anyone they go straight for Ross, shake his hand, ask him about what we’re doing, ask for a selfie and they’re off. In many regards, it’s infuriating, but in others, it’s a blessing. I’m not as patient as Ross and the selfie requests drive me crazy. The crowds of stare-ers are also back. Anywhere we stop, we attract a staring crowd of men. It’s not too uncomfortable if we ignore it, but as soon as one person asks for a picture then the flood gates are opened and everyone pulls out their phones, taking videos and photos whether we agreed to the photo or not. At that point, our comfort level is breached and we shove off. Surprisingly the gas stations had become a little refuge. The workers are always nice, they have drinking water, and usually even have a “ladies toilet” they give us the key for. For some reason we don’t get crowds here as we do in the restaurants. In UP we could relax while we ate, but here there is no stopping people from coming in and watching us eat or requesting (or demanding) a selfie as we eat. We think a big part of traveling in India is about having the right attitude. We try not to let things get under our skin and remind ourselves we are guests in another country with a different culture. If we look at everything with a bit of humor and consider it all part of the adventure we enjoy ourselves more than if we were to be frustrated all day. Still, it can be very hard. We won’t miss Assam. As a crescendo to our time in Assam, we took a “ferry” across the Brahmaputra River to reach the Indian state of Meghalaya. It’s interesting when we study something on a map and then arrive in person. For some reason we thought we’d cycle to the end of town where we would find a dock and a ferry service. But this is India and we cycled through town, getting lost once before the road ended in a huge sand bar on the river, littered with small shacks selling food and snacks, and behind them on the river were a dozen long boats. We pushed our bikes through the sand overwhelmed. We had no idea which boat would be ours, when it would leave, or where we bought a ticket. And the cherry on top was we had amassed quite a crowd. Ross tried addressing the crowd to get information about the boat, but only got stares in return. We made a game plan and pushed our bikes to a shack selling food. Rita and I held down the fort inside while Ross ran around on the beach trying to get information. He returned with a time and a boat! We waited out the hour and a half by ordering some more food, the two walls doing surprisingly well at keeping onlookers at bay. The vendor was kind enough to warn us when it was time to head to the boat and we walked down to the edge of the river and began taking the bags off our bikes. To get on the boat there was a single skinny plank running from the sand to the lip of the boat. I was kind of petrified just to walk up the ramp itself, let alone take my bike and bags up. As always Ross was a gentleman and made multiple runs taking the majority of our bags and the three bikes up on deck. We hunkered down by the bikes and waited for half an hour or so while being stared at by the occupants of our boat and the neighboring one docked beside us, occasionally hearing the word “cycle” uttered all around, it's the only word we could understand from our onlookers. It was a pretty surreal experience; we couldn’t help but think this is India. What we were expecting to be a stressful long ride was surprisingly pleasant. The scenery was beautiful and the ride peaceful. We thought the ride would be over two hours but it was an hour and a half and we arrived just before dark. Instead of docking in town like we were expecting we docked on a large island where there were jeeps parked waiting to whisk away passengers to town. It worked out perfectly; we were able to wait until everyone left on the jeeps then we could slip into the bushes and have a nice peaceful camp. -Pax

+23

Assam
Cooch Behar ‐ Jan 8, 2020
Falakata ‐ Jan 7, 2020

After some hitchhiking and Jeep-hailing, Rita and I reached Darjeeling to pick up our bicycles and ride up to Ghoom where we would meet Ross and spend the night. Although we had a small apartment it was no warmer than outside and it was a cold, wet night. We got through our bucket showers by telling ourselves this was our last night of cold! The next day we were looking forward to our huge downhill to reach the flat and warm stretch of West Bengal. Maybe that would have happened had I navigate [...]
d. It’s a lot to explain, but we first ended up going a very, very steep road for just under 3km. Although there was some pushing, it brought us through one of the most beautiful pine forests we had seen in India. Then our map showed three roads snaking and zigzagging down the mountain and we took a stab at which was the main route. We guessed wrong. So wrong that we ended up on a rocky footpath that looked like it had been built to put the electricity poles up. We didn’t feel like hiking back up so we committed to the trail and had great fun sometimes riding and sometimes walking down through a green fern-filled forest. When we finally did pop out onto a road we got some of the incredible downhill that we had been expecting. The road descended by switchbacking around two sides of a mountain. One side was clear and we had beautiful views over the hills and clouds, and the other side was foggy and enveloped in a cloud. As we cycled down we went in and out, between the two, for many switchbacks until we descended into a complete fog. The visibility got worse and worse, as the fog got thicker and thicker until we decided it was too dangerous keep cycling. It was also raining so we pulled off under the awning of a house to wait it out. The family was so nice they brought us out tea and a pan of hot coals to sit around while we waited. When we did get going we decided to find a homestay and give up on attempting to get down out of the mountains. At the end of the day we joked next time we wanted an adventure Rita would navigate. The next time ended up being the next day. We decided instead of taking the main road we would take back roads and only hop on the main one when necessary. We ended up having a great day of beautiful peaceful cycling through tea plantations, small villages, and farm land. Everything was picturesque and the roads were nearly traffic free, sometimes we felt like we were on a cycle path. In the evening we arrived at Latagurri, sitting on the edge of Gorumara National Park. We tried to get away with camping in the yards of the hotels but we were turned down with the excuse that it was dangerous due to wild animals - mostly elephants. We found a room and later that night we were all tucked into bed when we heard a loud trumpet. Loud! And for a fraction of a second that’s what I thought it was, but then we knew - an elephant! Seconds later there was pounding on our door telling us to come quickly. Some guys took us into a room facing the forest and we all quietly piled out onto the balcony, and there it was! The elephant was in the backyard of our hotel, no further than 15 meters away. For a couple minutes it stayed hidden behind a bush but then it walked across the clearing headed south, parallel to the row of hotels. We could no longer see it but we could hear the trouble he was causing. Men were shouting and we heard gun shots - the elephant had gotten into the yard of a hotel and they were trying to drive it back into the forest. We were happy our requests to camp had been turned down. Again like Utter Pradesh we weren’t interested in trying to wild camp, it’s just not possible, but we found other ways to free camp. Our last night in West Bengal we had seen a church on GoogleMaps and we hedged our bets that we would be allowed to stay. We arrived just before dark and found a church set back in a huge yard with what looked like an old school building next to it. We tried communicating with a young girl there that we hoped to pitch our tent, but at first she didn’t understand and then I think when she did but she didn’t have the authority to allow us to stay. We eventually understand her father was away, not connecting the dots that it was the Father that was out. Another man showed up and nodded that we could pitch our tents and then motioned that we could sleep in one of the old school rooms, which they cleaned up for us. We left our stuff and cycled into the dark to the nearest restaurant to have a quick dinner. Upon returning, we set up our sleeping space and got all settled in when we had a knock on the door. Father Albinus had been in town for a funeral and came back to hear some foreigners were sleeping in the school. He was extremely kind and insisted we move to a real room with beds behind the church. He invited us to mass in the morning and afterwards he served us breakfast and coffee before sending us off. -Pax

+28

West Bengal
Mainaguri ‐ Jan 6, 2020
Ghoom ‐ Jan 5, 2020
Namchi ‐ Jan 3, 2020
Ravangla ‐ Jan 4, 2020

+21

Sikkim
Tarku ‐ Jan 2, 2020
Gangtok ‐ Dec 31, 2019

The morning we planned to leave Darjeeling to continue east, literally as we were packing our bags, we changed our minds and decided to join Rita on her trip to the neighboring state of Sikkim. I didn’t want to take the shared Jeep, and Pax didn’t want to cycle the long and steep hills Sikkim is known for, so for the first time on this trip Pax and I parted ways. It was 100km between Darjeeling and Gangtok, but also 2000m of downhill and 1700m uphill. I wanted to bike it all in one day for t [...]
he physical challenge, but by the time we finally left, it was already noon, so I packed a small bag with what I needed for the night and set off alone. That night, I learned that all the signs reading "hotel restaurant" on every building lining the road actually meant only restaurant, and none had anywhere for me to sleep. My hypothesis it either that they think that "hotel" means "restaurant" or that they are advertising that their shop is like a hotel's restaurant. I think the former because when I rolled up and asked "Hotel?" they said yes until I made it clear I wanted to sleep. I finally ended up at a restaurant who gave me the only bed in a room where five other men slept on the floor. It was definitely an interesting night. Sikkim was a kingdom which was absorbed by the British Raj, but still maintained it’s monarchy until 1975 and that same year it became India’s 22nd state. All foreigners need to get an Inner Line Permit to enter, due to its proximity to neighboring countries - mainly China. Foreigners can only cross in and out of the state at two points and after simple paperwork we got a stamp in our passports and we were free to enter. Once in, the feel was different than any other part of India. Sikkim prides itself as India's greenest and cleanest state, having the most forest and undeveloped land in the nation. The people were much more relaxed and we could go about our business without feeling like animals in a zoo. Having said all that, it's no surprise that cycling in Sikkim was fantastic. Many of the roads were perfect tarmac, and unlike the rest of India, there was hardly any traffic. The few cars on the road seemed very patient and kind, most of the time not even honking - probably feeling sorry for this poor chap climbing the massive hills. Our first stop was Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim. It was not what we expected. Our first thought was “this is globalization”. These notions of visiting “the Kingdom of Sikkim” were replaced with a modern city boasting a United Colors of Bennington and Domino’s Pizza. Regardless it was a neat city and we enjoyed our time wandering around there. It also had the first true pedestrian street we have seen in India and Nepal! There have been plenty of pedestrian throughways but they always have cars or motorcycles squeezing through. Here not a single motorized vehicle entered. Walking through the center we felt like we could easily be in a European city. We celebrated New Years in Gangtok where, in true Indian fashion, there was power cut at midnight. It didn’t stop the city from partying and seemed to only encourage celebrating people to make up for the lack of energy. On the first of the year we left to visit more cities, and once again I cycled and the women took jeeps and hitchhiked. My favorite part of Sikkim was Temi and the Temi Tea Estate. Not only is this tea supposed to be some of the best in the world, but the area couldn't have been more picturesque or better for cycling. There was a perfectly paved road winding through the massive tea garden, and beautiful landscapes of hills and the distant Himalayas in China and Bhutan. The tea factory wasn't running, but we still got a great private tour and saw huge storage containers full of premium quality tea. Other highlights of Sikkim included seeing the huge golden Buddha and reading about his life in Ravangla, and all the downhill on the perfect roads back down to West Bengal, even if my brake pads were worn out and barley worked (I hit 70kmh, a new record!!) We decided to visit Sikkim on a whim, but we're very glad we did. It's by far my favorite Indian state, and I could have spent many more days exploring and cycling the surrounding hills. However, we were getting tired of the cold so we were ready to get back down to the warmth. -Ross
Darjeeling ‐ Dec 27, 2019

There is a lot to say about Darjeeling so we will make descriptions on some of the photos instead of mashing it together here. We loved our time in Darjeeling. It is beautiful, peaceful, but still quite busy at the same time. We had to always remind ourselves that we were in India, because it didn’t feel too much like it. The people here are much more diverse and relaxed and I felt comfortable walking around town on my own. We felt like we were still in Nepal, which isn’t far off. The major [...]
ity of the population here are Indian Gorkhas - Nepali-speaking Indians. The term effectively differentiates India Gorkhas from Nepali citizens. Indian Gorkhas are Indian citizens but face unique challenges, violence, and ethnic cleansing. The few times were were approached and asked for selfies they were Indian tourists visiting from Kolkata. In the past, Darjeeling was a cool retreat for the British wanting to escape the summer heat of Calcutta. Today it’s for Indians wanting to escape the summer heat of Kolkata. Darjeeling is world famous for their tea, so we had to check out some estates and drink lots of tea. Our homestay was at the entrance to Happy Valley Tea Estate so we walked down the dirt road winding through tea bushes to reach the factory. Outside the factory was a woman who had a little shop and she was quick to jump out and tell us to come in and have some tea. We don’t remember much of that first whirlwind encounter, but she was telling us “don’t buy the tea at the factory, it’s too expensive” and come get tea from her instead. We kind of shrugged her off and went into the factory, but the tour wasn’t starting for another 15 minutes, so we went decided to have a cup of her tea while we waited. She led us to a small, cozy room past the kitchen with comfy seating. On the table were stacks of guest books filled with messages from people who have visited her from all over the world, going back years and years. There was also a friendly couple inside visiting from Kolkata, the woman had first come when she was 18 and now she was back with her husband buying bags and bags of tea. The cheapest high-quality tea in Darjeeling she said. After we took the little tour of the factory we went straight back to the tea lady for more cups of tea. When we went to leave we asked if she would have white tea in tomorrow so we could buy some and she got really hush hush, motioning that there was a local man outside the window of the shop. She slipped us her card telling us to come back at ten the next day. We left totally baffled. We really don’t know what’s going on or how her operation works but from then on we began calling her the “tea trafficker”. Sometime in the afternoon the following day we returned to the tea trafficker for more cups of tea and to buy some white tea for ourselves, which she showed us was in a duffel bag hidden under some blankets. While we sipped away in the cozy space she took out her scale and bags and began packaging our tea. When we weren’t sipping tea we explored town and had no problem filling our days with new places. Unfortunately Darjeeling isn’t a cheap place to stay so we got moving after just three nights. -Pax

+16
Kurseong ‐ Dec 26, 2019

For two days we climbed from Siliguri to Darjeeling. From Siliguri to Kurseong we decided to take a side road, which maybe wasn’t the smartest move. The traffic may have been lighter but the the road was STEEP! We climbed higher and higher until it seemed we were in a big, wet, cold cloud cycling into Kurseong at 4,783 feet. While we waited for Rita to arrive we searched all over for a cheap hotel but things were just too expensive for us. When Ross left to check another street and I was left [...]
to watch the bikes a man approached and asked if were still searching for a room. He nodded that there was a room down some stairs to a basement under the hotel where a lot of construction was going on. For a fleeting moment I wondered if it was such a good idea to follow him down alone, but like I said it was fleeting and he showed me to a basic room where we could all three sleep for a third the price the hotels were asking for. Hilariously, there was a gaping hole in one of the walls, and after showing it to me he nodded to one of bricklayers to begin patching it up. While in Kurseong we finally heard and saw the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway - adorably nicknamed the toy train. We don’t know much about trains but the line is world famous (and a World Heritage Site) built by the British running from Siliguri to Darjeeling. It passes right through the center of town, in front of homes and businesses, and it was interesting to see how people reclaim the space after the train rolls though. Not ten minutes after it had passed in the evening people had already parked cars and lit small fires to sit right in the middle of the tracks. From Kurseong we had one more day of climbing to reach Darjeeling. Day two we took the main road, called the hill cart road, running along the narrow gauge tracks of the toy train meaning we had a smooth, manageable gradient. It was a beautiful day, the scenery was gorgeous, and we were high in the hills. A perfect riding day! We reached Ghoom, with the highest railway station in India, and from there we had a short descent into beautiful Darjeeling! -Pax

+18

Climbing to Darjeeling
Siliguri ‐ Dec 24, 2019

Outside of not being able to find the immigration building we had an easy return to India. We had a short and fast ride on a new smooth highway into Siliguri. We quickly found the mall and not so quickly found the grocery store inside the massive mall. We were a bit in awe of the mall and grocery store, we haven’t seen one in so long! The previous day we had made a grocery list so we came prepared for the slightly overwhelming task of grocery shopping for a five person Christmas feast. We foun [...]
d most everything except maple syrup, bread, wine, and baking chocolate for our dessert fondue. Our Airbnb was actually in a small town seven kilometers outside of Siliguri. We arrived on Christmas Eve and left on the 26th so we had all Christmas Day to relax and eat. I even avoided stepping foot outside all day! A perfect rest day for me. We listened to Christmas tunes, played cards, and had pancakes, soup, curry, and both cheese and chocolate fondue. It was Christmas and we had fun celebrating but it didn’t really feel too much like the holidays. More of just a reason to relax and eat a lot. There was no month full of Christmas music or decorations, no family, and no cold. There was a huge Christmas tree at the mall so we made sure to get a picture with it. Regardless we still had a great couple of days relaxing with our new friends and trying to feel festive. On the 26th Alex and Izia left towards Myanmar while Rita, Ross, and I began the climb to Darjeeling. -Pax

+10

Christmas!
Birtamod, Nepal ‐ Dec 23, 2019
Lahan ‐ Dec 22, 2019

We reluctantly left Bhaktapur to head for the Indian border. We had already extended our Nepali visa once, and it would have cost $90 to stay just 15 more days. Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world, where 25% of the population live in extreme poverty, and survive on only $0.50 per day, but the fees for tourists obtaining visas and trekking permits are incredibly high. We wish the money tourists pay the government reached those in need at the bottom, but it doesn’t seem to be the [...]
case. We both agreed we would have loved to stay much longer in Nepal, spending more money in local businesses and small communities, if not for the expensive visa extensions. Anyway, we had 6 days to cover the distance to the border, and we set out with Rita. The highway out of Katmandu Valley was much nicer than the previous road - less traffic, nicer road, there was lots of downhill, and the views of the snowy Himalayas were fantastic. At our closest point, we were only 63 miles from Mt. Everest! Sadly we never saw it, so we will have to go back to Nepal another time. We had one big climb before a big downhill to the flat Terai and halfway up we realized that it was getting dark, there had been no villages for quite some time, and we had lost Rita! Luckily we passed some roadside restaurants/shacks where we could set up the tent, grab some grub and wait for Rita to show up. Rita texted from below she had met two more cyclists - Alex and Izia from France, and had been chatting with them. They were headed the same direction, so the next morning they caught up with us and after getting a glass of fresh orange juice from a roadside vendor we summited the hill and coasted down the other side. In Baridbas we reached the main east-west highway that we would take to the Indian border. We continued cycling as a pack of five for the next days, always keeping in mind our time restraint and our goal of being in Darjeeling for Christmas. As the days went on, our goal, however obtainable, seemed more difficult and perhaps not worth rushing to get there. We finally suggested to the group that we all spend Christmas together at an Airbnb in a town just over the border and celebrate European style with an all-day feast, and cheese fondue for dinner. They sprung at the idea and we were able to relax a bit; not stressing about the amount of kilometers per day needed to reach Darjeeling in time for Christmas. One day, Izia’s knee was hurting, so she and Alex hitched a ride to our predetermined goal for the day, while Rita, Pax, and I continued cycling. When we were about 8km from the town, a man on a motorbike rode alongside us and after a brief chat, invited us to his home for the night. We felt bad leaving Alex and Izia, but this was our first and only invitation into someone’s home in Nepal, so we accepted and followed this guy down streets and alleys to his home where his wife and 2 kids were waiting. We had a very pleasant night there, talking about any number of things and learning a little more about what the kids are doing these days, aka tik tok. They cooked us a delicious Nepali Thali and gave us beds for the night. Nepal was great, and as I mentioned we would have loved to spend more time here. It’s a small country but it has so much to offer for everyone - especially outdoor enthusiasts. We will be coming back, and we have a whole list of things we missed this time round. -Ross

+15

Eastern Nepal
Bardibas ‐ Dec 18, 2019
Bhaktapur ‐ Dec 16, 2019

The day before we were leaving Kathmandu we received a message from Nicole, a former cycle tourist we follow on Instagram. She cycled from Thailand to Spain and we talked quite a lot while we were in Turkey; we were very close to crossing paths but unfortunately we never met up. Anyways she sent us a picture of her and Rita! She was the WarmShowers host Rita was staying with! Just the night before we were talking about how the cycling community is such a small world. We invited ourselves to Bhak [...]
tapur meet Nicole and help celebrate her birthday! We made the very short 20 km ride to town the next afternoon. Like Kathmandu Bhaktapur also has a famous Durbar Square but here you have to pay just to enter the city. Thankfully we have more options on the bike and Nicole sent us a route away from the highway and through backroads and alleys to bypass the toll booth and the $15 entrance fee. On the short cycle to Nicole’s we pretty instantly fell In love with Bhaktapur. The streets are narrow and car free, and the buildings are all old brick with ornately carved wooden doors, windows, and trim. The back streets are full of hidden beautiful buildings and the Newari culture is thriving. We spent the afternoon sitting on the roof, the four of us talking about our trips, life bicycle touring, and future plans. Nicole works for an organization called Happy Kids Center that works with the at-risk kids of the under-served community in Bhaktapur and runs programs aimed at stopping child labor and child marriage, keeping them in school, and providing medical services. Their biggest day-to-day operation though is the actual Happy Kids Center, which is a building next to the school. They open from 4-6pm every day after school and it’s an opportunity for the kids to just be kids. We spent the two hours there jumping rope, hula hooping, and playing badminton with the 10 to 15 kids who usually come by. A lot of kids showed up our first day because they knew there would be cake for Nicole’s birthday. That evening we celebrated in a more adult fashion with dinner and drinks at a rooftop bar her friend owns before moving back to her own rooftop for a fire and another (surprise) birthday cake. I went to bed a bit early (or not so early for a cyclist) and the other stayed up around the fire. When we woke up the next morning Ross uttered words I never hear. He said, “So...would you want to stay another night??” Usually (by usually I mean 100% of the time) I am the one who wants to stay another day and Ross wants to get going. I wanted to see more of the city in the day light and loved the company so of course I wanted to stay. That morning we had a relaxing morning in drinking tea. I finally went out to grab us some food and stumbled upon a beautiful square that we hadn’t yet visited. That was enough motivation get the day going and come back out and get exploring. Josh (who we met in Bariloche and Delhi and cycled with in Nepal AND who Rita had met in a hostel in Albania) texted he was back in Kathmandu for a couple days before his three year bicycle tour ended and he was flying home. He came Bhaktapur with a friend for the day. We wandered through the main Durbar Square, Peacock Square, and the places in between with Nicole being an excellent guide for historical context and finding the best local food. The second evening after Happy Kids Center we all found ourselves at an 11 year old’s birthday party outside of town. The party was for Nicole’s friend’s son and he invited everyone over for dinner and cake. Our third cake in two days! Bhaktapur was hands down our favorite city in Nepal and we would have stayed longer if we could. Not only for the city (Ross always jokes with me that I love every city that has old brick buildings because it reminds me of St. Louis) but for the little magic that happens because the bicycle touring community is so connected. It’s hard to convey how special it is to sit on a rooftop in Nepal talking about our experiences on the Pamir, or how long we had to wait for the Caspian Sea ferry, who our mutual friends are, and how to sustain this freedom and happiness. Even after just meeting we all have shared experiences, lifestyles, and dreams that connect us and give us a mutual understanding about each other’s life goals, worries, and the overall joy that traveling brings. We honestly might have stayed the week so we could spend Christmas here, but our Nepal visa was going to expire on Christmas Day and we didn’t want to pay to have it extended again. So very reluctantly Rita, Ross, and I said goodbye and headed for India. -Pax We donated $27 for Nicole’s 27th birthday and if you are able you can too at https://happykidscenter.org/

+19
Kathmandu ‐ Dec 8, 2019

We left with Sam for Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital and largest city. We took the main road, which was dirty, narrow, busy and we didn’t really enjoy the cycling. We met a solo female cyclist from Spain who had been traveling for 5 years headed in the opposite direction. That was probably our highlight of that stretch. We were just happy to arrive in Kathmandu in one piece. While there, we stayed with a famous WarmShowers host in town. Pushkar had gone on his own around-the-world cycle trip for [...]
11 years before returning to Nepal and climbing Mt. Everest with all 155 flags of the countries he had visited. Among the people he’s met are Sir Edmund Hillary (who bought him a new bike when his was stolen) and Queen Elizabeth, so it’s needless to say that he’s a pretty legendary dude. We didn’t do too much around Kathmandu - we just went to the historic main square and the touristy Thamel area. The historic center was very interesting, seeing the old temples and the reconstruction efforts from the 2015 earthquake. It was fun to explore some of the packed streets and smaller alleys, stumbling upon temples as we went. Sam was to set off the following day for Bangladesh, so we met up again for lunch, said our goodbyes, and played one final game of Tichu. After saying bye to Sam, we met up with another pair of cyclists we had been talking to through a WhatsApp group where we had mutual friends, Rita from Austria and Ryan from the states. Ryan was doing a little more trekking, while Rita was going the same way we were, back to NE India. She was leaving a day earlier to meet a WarmShowers host in the next town so we planned to catch her up on the road ahead. Kathmandu was nice enough, we certainly enjoyed it more than Delhi but we felt that it was nothing too special. I’m sure if we would have spent more time there and got to know it more, the city would have become more special to us, but as it stood we were ready to move on in just 2 days. -Ross

+8
Pokhara

Back in Pokhara we said farewell to most of the group. Silas’s trip was over and he was headed back home to Switzerland via trains while Sabina and Robin were taking rest in Pokhara before leaving on another trek. We had a delicious fondue night with Silas as well as a dinner at a favorite Turkish restaurant with the whole gang before saying goodbyes.
Beni

The last days on the Annapurna - the descent from Ranipauwa through Kali Gandaki Gorge - were our easiest days on the loop. We were one man down since Silas’s bike was no longer rideable and he took a bus back from Jomsom. The five of us enjoyed the descent and gradually warmer temperatures on our back to Pokhara.

+15

Annapurna: Muktinath to Pokhara
Jomsom ‐ Dec 5, 2019
Ranipauwa ‐ Dec 4, 2019

I had kind of been looking forward to leaving Manang because here the road ends, and the only way up is on the singletrack hiking trail. It was supposed to be really difficult and we were prepared to push our bikes quite a bit, but for me it’s what we came all this way for - plus I can always use a little challenge. I was not disappointed. Immediately after leaving Manang, we had to push our bikes up some steep hills, across some frozen patches, and carry them up some stairs, but the narrow [...]
trail was beautiful and every time I looked back for the others I got an eyeful of the towering, glacier covered mountains. Since we were sticking with the rule of only ascending 500m each day to avoid altitude sickness, we had short days and lots of time to relax in the guesthouse to play cards and read. One morning after we had eaten our normal breakfast, a restaurant worker came in with a chocolate cake decorated with a large 28 to a chorus of “Happy Birthday” from all my friends and the rest of the dining room too! I didn’t expect anything special on my birthday, especially here in the high Himalayas at 14500ft, but my friends had ordered it the night before and this tiny guesthouse happened to have a cake on hand which was impressive considering everything is brought up on the backs of mules! So after having a second breakfast of chocolate cake, we continued climbing to Thorung Pedi. To get there, we crossed some really cool suspension bridges and over an area hit by a landslide. We arrived around noon, but our day wasn’t over. To make the following day’s summit push easier, we decided to push our bikes partway up the pass, lock them up and return to Thorung Pedi to abide by the aforementioned 500m rule. This was the steepest and rockiest part of the trail so far, and after depositing my bike at our stopping point, I twice returned to my struggling companions to whisk their bikes away to the top for them. Pax of course was stubborn and demanded that she push her bike the entire way herself. Tired from the exertion, we raced the sun back to the warm guesthouse where we had dinner, talked about the following day’s summit push, and once again played Tichu until we got kicked out. We awoke the next day a bit earlier than usual to tackle what would be our hardest day. In the morning we hiked up to where we left our bikes, at a bridge past Thorong High Camp, unlocked them and started pushing. Every kilometer or so was a tea house and ruins of small shelters where we would rest before the next push. For hours we trudged along the narrow and snow covered trail, sometimes pushing our bike a step ahead, squeezing the breaks to lock the wheels, then pulling ourselves up by the bike. Although slow and difficult the 360 degree views of high peaks was outstanding. From the last shelter we had only a short push with little elevation gain to the pass. Thorung La Pass at 5,516 m /17,769 ft is the highest either of us has ever been and we did it while dragging our steel frame touring bikes! We were in awe that at 17,769 feet, 3,000ft higher than the highest point in the continental U.S., we weren’t even standing on top of a peak. Our whole trek had been building up to just cross a pass, putting in perspective how massive the Himalayas really are. We snapped a few photos and started the descent. There was almost no snow on that side of the pass, and a good part of the trail was rideable - at least for Silas and I, the ones with mountain bike experience. We tore down the mountainside, skidding and throwing the loose pebbles every which way, having the thrill of speed after the days and days of slow grueling uphill. Silas was more daring than I. He would rarely get off his bike to walk sections of trail, instead navigating steep technical sections with ease. Twice, trying to keep up, I fell off my bike over my handlebars, resulting in a bent rear brake rotor. I did my best to straighten it out and continued down; albeit more cautious than before. It’s on one of these technical downhill sections where Silas broke his bike for good. His bike had been having some troubles pedaling recently, but since it was downhill it didn’t really matter. I heard some loud cursing so I caught up to learn that his whole derailleur had fallen apart and parts were strewn all over the ground. We picked up as many pieces as we could find before just taking off the chain so he could coast the rest of the way to Ranipauwa. We met the others in the first town, found a hotel and finally after a number of days we were able to take a hot shower. Having crossed the pass we were now in the Lower Mustang region and here there is a road all the way up to Ranipauwa. We felt like we were already finished with the trek, even though we had at least 3 days back to Pokhara and we were still high in the mountains. -Ross

+22

Annapurna: Manang to Muktinath
Thorung Phedi ‐ Dec 3, 2019
Manang ‐ Nov 30, 2019

Leaving Chame, we checked out of our hotel and were on our way to breakfast when Sam was bit by a dog - the cyclists’ nemesis. Earlier we had been commenting on how we were starting to trust Nepali dogs, even like them but now our trust was broken. Our day was shook up a bit - certainly for Sam, but everything turned out a-ok. We were right by the police station where we had played some ping pong the night before, and as there isn’t too much to police in Chame, they were in the middle of a m [...]
orning game when we asked for help. To our surprise they told us there was a hospital in town but we were skeptical about the services it could provide. Sam and Silas went to see if they had a rabies vaccine and lo and behold they did and he was able to get his first shot that morning. As Silas, Ross, and Sam are the fastest among us, Robin, Sabina, and I got a head start while Sam was being treated. Thankfully for the sake of my spirit, the road became much better between Chame and Manang. Not only was the scenery stunning, but the road became packed and flowy where I could finally enjoy the cycling; even build up some speed. Sam caught up to us while we stopped for a break while Ross and Silas took a detour to do some mountain biking on the hiking trail. After a small steep climb, the road finally ends at the entrance to Manang. Sitting at 3519 m/11,549 ft, most people spend time here acclimatizing and taking a rest before setting out for the pass. Our first day was a pure rest day filled with eating and playing Tichu. There isn’t too much to see in town but we enjoyed wandering through the stone streets and under the towering Gangapurna mountain. The main drag is mostly full of hotels and shops filled with supplies and hiking gear. Surprisingly, or maybe unsurprisingly, the town boasts not one but THREE “cinemas” which are just rooms where you can watch one of a handful of films including Everest, Touching the Void, and Seven Years in Tibet. During the day the temperatures were okay but at night it was very cold and the place to be was in the dining room huddled close to the wood burning stove. After the wood and yak dung burned down we retreated to our rooms, where thankfully we had extra blankets heaped on our beds. Our second day in Manang we hiked to the ice lakes. I was already feeling the altitude and we knew it would be best to do an acclimatization hike. I did jump on the Diamox bandwagon, which definitely helped with the headaches. The hike took us up to 4620 m/15,157 ft, the ice lakes themselves weren’t too impressive; just small frozen lakes but the views of Gangapurna and Annapurna II, III, and IV throughout the hike made it more than worth it. At the top we had our small lunch of yak cheese and salami sandwiches while ogling the mountain range before returning to the hotel and quickly rushing into the shower before the pipes froze overnight. Our two day stay in Manang was very pleasant and gave our muscles, lungs and minds a chance to prepare for pushing onwards to Thorang Phedi and Thorung La pass just two days later. -Pax

+21

Annapurna: Chame to Manang
Chame ‐ Nov 28, 2019

We set out of Pokhara as a group of six with our extremely light bikepacking setups and headed for the mountains. Silas, the Swiss guy who was joining us, had actually already attempted the circuit twice before, and both times had to turn around because of bike issues. This was to be his third and final attempt, and we were all hoping for his sake and ours that he wasn’t bad luck and would not doom all us to a failed attempt. From day one out of Pokhara he began having problems and while it [...]
was almost funny at the beginning became more serious concern. First he had some flat tires, then his new tire was rubbing on his frame, then his pannier broke, then his seat post bag broke - strewing his extra patches and other tools along the road until he noticed who knows how many kilometers later. Yet he continued, with no patches and some broken gear. On day two we reached Besisahar, where most people start of the trek. We stocked up on snacks and got our permits stamped in to enter the Annapurna conservation area. From here there is a road all the way to Manang but we weren’t aware of its quality. We spent day after day climbing on a dirt road, and it was as beautiful as it was difficult. The road was rocky and steep and constantly hilly. Even the downhills could be difficult. For two entire days, Pax struggled with the cycling and with her decision of attempting the circuit by bike at all. As we climbed in elevation, it became colder and colder, until even I was concerned about not having enough warm layers. The days are fine but the nights began to get quite cold and the buildings have no insulation or heating. We looked at the forecast up ahead to learn that snow and very cold temperatures would be coming. After a sleepless night worrying about being that dumb tourist that freezes to death after being unprepared, Pax bought a fleece jacket from one of the shops monopolizing on unprepared tourists just like us. The next night I bought myself a jacket from a similar shop. In every village and even in between are tea houses where if you buy their overpriced dinner and breakfast, you can stay in their hotel for free or very cheap. We say overpriced but we usually got dinner for about $3 or $4 each. Compared to the rest of Nepal its quite high. As a group of six we had some bargaining power, so we almost always got away with just buying dinner and getting the beds for free. So we cycled teahouse to teahouse, not worrying about how far we got because we knew there would be another just around the corner. We reached the village of Chame for thanksgiving. It was the same deal as always - buy dinner, stay for free. The rooms were small and cold, but downstairs in the common area there was finally heat! After many cold nights this was our first place in all Nepal with a wood burning stove. So in the warmth of the common room and the company of our friends, we ordered food and in true American fashion gorged ourselves for thanksgiving on the all-you-can-eat Dal Bhat. It was no turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, but it sufficed and was delicious after a day on the bike. That night - like every night, we stayed in the common area playing a Swiss card game called Tichu until we got kicked out. The road to Chame was super beautiful, but I won’t say much about it and I’ll let the photos do the talking. -Ross

+23

Annapurna: Pokhara to Chame
Besisahar ‐ Nov 26, 2019
Pokhara ‐ Nov 20, 2019

We took some days of rest in Pokhara to prepare for our next adventure - cycling the Annapurna Circuit. The Annapurna circuit is a world famous trek that circles the Annapurna Massif with a high point of 5416m/17769ft at Thorung La pass. We never thought we would cycle the circuit, we didn’t even have plans to hike it, but back in Delhi Robin and Sabina planted the seed and we spent the next two weeks mulling the idea over in our heads. Mostly me. Ross was immediately sold on the idea of doing [...]
some mountain biking. I was far more hesitant to summit a 17,000+ foot pass dragging our steel frame touring bikes. Finally in Pokhara I agreed and we began preparing. Our good pal Sam, who we met in Argentina and cycled with in Central Asia, arrived in Pokhara the day after us and he was also planning on cycling the circuit. At the hotel he was staying he met a Swiss bicycle tourist, Silus, who would join us as well, so now we had a whole gang. We spent a morning filling out paperwork and paying for the two permits required for the trek - the Annapurna Conservation Area Permit (ACAP) and Trekkers Information System permit (TIMS). While we were organizing permits and shelling out money we also extended our Nepalese visa an extra 15 days. The other bits we needed to do was organize gear, buy new tires, and prepare the bikes. We knew we wanted to go as light as possible to make the days of pushing our bikes more bearable so we left almost everything behind. There are tea houses the entire way so we didn’t need our tent, sleeping bags, mattresses, or cooking equipment. The only thing we really packed were clothes, tools, toiletries, a journal, a book, our cell phones, and first aid kit. Also lots of cookies. We should have weighed them but we think all together our two bags weighed just 10 lbs!! We did also have plenty of rest in town. Pokhara is a very easy place to relax and spend time so we enjoyed some of the luxuries a tourist town provides. Although everything is a bit more expensive, we finally had way more food options that the three Nepalese staples- dal bhat, mo-mos, and chow mein. We had burgers and fries one night, Indian food another, and Turkish too. We visited the Movie Garden, a beautiful outdoor restaurant and theater to watch a movie and enjoy pizza. One night we even had a get together with all the long distance cyclists currently in Pokhara, 11 of us! -Pax
Tansen ‐ Nov 18, 2019

+21

Western Foothills of Nepal
Butwal ‐ Nov 16, 2019

After a rest day in the border town of Banbasa, we crossed the Mahakali River to enter Nepal, our 31st country of the trip. At the Indian immigration office we were greeted by a gang of monkeys (who stole the peanuts off my bike) and the Nepali immigration office was so inconspicuous we almost passed it up. Most everything that people had been telling us about cycling in Nepal was true. We were surrounded by more nature, towns looked a bit cleaner, and everything felt calmer. No more selfie requ [...]
ests, no swarms of people surrounding us, more local cyclists on the roads, and many more women out and about. People also told us cycling in Nepal was a breeze compared to India but we disagree. Instead of being on a wide road with a large shoulder, the main road that ran along the southern border was narrow with no shoulder. The drivers were still crazy, speeding through villages and overtaking one another with little regard to anyone else on the road. More than once we’ve had a car (or truck or tractor or bus) barreling towards us while overtaking another vehicle, and had to jump off the road to avoid collision. We had a crazy day after Robin had an incident with one of these overtaking cars. When vehicles are hurtling towards us too close, Robin and Sabina will put their arm out to show the driver they need to get back in their lane and give us more space. An SUV was overtaking another car and almost hit Robin, so he reached out and smacked the side mirror of the car, folding it in, as side mirrors do. The rest of the day we had people following us on motorcycles asking us about it, and at the end of the day they were hauled down to the police station and had a chat with the police, the village elder, and the owner of the car. Apparently he had broken the mirror, and the owner wasn’t too happy about it. Thankfully Pax and I had nothing to do with it, so I just sat by as a witness, and in the end we were allowed to leave with no repercussions. After that eventful day we turned off the main road to make a small detour to Bardiya National Park, known for its wildlife - most famously bengal tigers! We spent two nights camping outside the park to do a one day walking “safari” through the park. Before leaving we were shown a map of where we would be walking and waiting to spot the wildlife. Our guide pointed to a section by the river where we weren’t allowed to go because it was too dangerous. After our nervous looks he said, “well you heard about last time, right?” He went on to explain that two weeks ago a local man cutting grass was attacked by a tiger. Horrified, we asked if he lived, and with a small chuckle he said “no no, the tiger dragged him off into the grass”. He reassured us by explaining we will have two guides- one in front and one in back- each with a huge stick. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately after lots of waiting we didn’t see any tiger but we did see tons of other wildlife including elephants, crocodiles, deer, monkeys, lots of birds, and a rhino! For a while we did have some adrenaline-filled fun of sneaking through the forest following fresh tiger prints. The last morning at Bardiya we were eating breakfast when Josh from the U.S. popped his head in the door. We were quite surprised because last we heard from him in Delhi his plans were to paddle down the Ganges then cycle up to Kathmandu. But as it turns out he had changed plans, ended up in Bardiya, and saw our bikes outside. The first time we met Josh was in a hostel in Argentina a year and a half ago and finally here in Neal we cycled together for 3 days until he made a detour to see Lumbini near Butwal. We cycled the busy lowland road for some days before we turned north towards Pokhara, crossing the Himalayan foothills. This stretch was much calmer, with less traffic and much better scenery. We had not climbed mountains in months, so even though it was a bit difficult, we welcomed the change. Here we made a tiny detour to stay in Tansen for the night. Unfortunately we didn’t take many pictures but we loved the town for its mountain setting, authentic feel, and historic brick buildings. All without being overrun by tourists. After Tansen we got a wonderful downhill (and a little bit more climbing) to reach Pokhara - the tourist capital of Nepal. Sitting at the foot of the Annapurna mountains this is the gateway to many famous mountain treks and most any outdoor/adventure activity is possible from here. We split an Airbnb with Robin and Sabina to rest and prepare for the next couple weeks of strenuous cycling in the high Himalayas. -Ross

+28

Western Nepal
Thakudwara ‐ Nov 13, 2019
Banbasa, India ‐ Nov 9, 2019

Back on the bikes! Finally after a long stay in Delhi, we cycled out of the city with Robin and Sabina. The ride wasn’t as hellish as we were expecting and our only complication getting out of Delhi was trying to cross the Yamuna River. As we approached the bridge, there were signs that said no cyclists but we thought ‘it’s India, anything is possible’. A kilometer or so further, a road worker motioned for us to stop, but thinking he was our only obstacle between us and crossing the brid [...]
ge we didn’t stop. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case and another kilometer down, another highway worker told us to stop - this time putting his body in front of us. I think at first he was a bit annoyed, rightly so, because the other guy had probably radioed to him that 4 cyclists had just whizzed by, but soon he was friendly, telling us directions to which bridge we could take out of the city. He even stopped oncoming traffic to help us cross the highway and turn around. After the sprawl of Delhi was finally behind us I felt my pedals getting wobbly and wobbly-er. Turns out I didn’t screw them in correctly at the airport and they completely stripped the thread in the crank arm. There was nothing we could do but try to screw them in straight and hoped they stayed in until Hapur. Eventually 6 kilometers from town the right pedal completely fall off. There was a small town at this point of the highway and, just as we expected, we were immediately surrounded by interested onlookers. First we were directed to a man who had a little bicycle repair shop but as I would have to replace the entire crankset he couldn’t help me. By this time, a man who knew English was helping us and he took us next to a welder down the road. After much discussion among ten or so men, they couldn’t do much either because my pedal is steel and the crank arm is aluminum so they can’t be welded. Ross and I discussed our options - either pedaling with one foot, him pulling me by rope, or just throwing my bike and stuff into a rickshaw - when the welder sent one of the watching kids off and told us to wait a couple minutes. He came back with a long bolt with a nut in the end that they jammed into the crank arm and screwed as far as it would go. And wala! I had a pedal to reach Hapur. We didn’t have much optimism for finding me a new crankset but after asking around we finally found a cheap Chinese set that would work just fine. Overall, cycling in India has been much more enjoyable than we were expecting! There isn’t really a dull moment in our day. There is so much going on to look at; people harvesting wheat and sugar cane, horses and buffalo transporting goods, full buses with people taking a joy ride on top. One particularly enjoyable moment was watching a monkey climb down into a roadside shop, steal a bag of chips, and watching the shop owner’s angry reaction. India has so much to take in and cycling gives us wonderful glimpses into Indian life. But the road itself can also require our full attention. In cities and towns it can be quite interesting trying to navigate our bike gang through the narrow streets packed full of animals, cyclists, motorbikes, and cars. Most of our riding is done on the “highway” which has been less dangerous than we were imagining. It’s still a crazy experience but the highways has a nice shoulder but it is often used by motor bikers who want to travel the opposite way without crossing the median. As a group of 4 (and one day 5) we attract a lot of attention. We get many double takes and thumbs up. Lots of motorbikers pull up along side us striking up a conversation, mostly for the ultimate goal of getting a selfie. Or they just go straight to taking pictures or video of us. Many people try to get us to stop but we’ve made a rule that they can take selfies or pictures but if we’re cycling, but we ain’t stopping. We’ve had two separate incidences of men following us until lunch just to take a picture. Our peaceful moments are in “dhabas” roadside restaurants for hungry travelers. The food is cheap and delicious and we aren’t gawked at here. Otherwise out on the street any time we stopped we were immediately surrounded by men, just watching us mostly. At one point we stopped at a tiny town on the main road to buy some bananas for a snack and within ten minutes there were 100-150 people watching us haggle over bananas and a pineapple. Although it’s a bit overbearing, the people have all been very nice, anytime we have needed something there is always someone offering to help. We don’t try to camp here, it is just too populated and we are too interesting to ever be left alone by locals. Unfortunately even getting a hotel can be a frustrating experience as most wont take foreigners. Before arriving in India we had only negative reviews of cycle touring India. It is challenging, and tiring, and certainly not for anyone wanting to look at nature. If we had decided we were going to try and camp every night our experience would have been much more stressful. But since we knew we were going to go hotel to hotel, much of the stress was taken out and we were left to just enjoy the madness of India. If it weren’t for the horrible pollution still hanging around we would have been just fine spending more time cycling here, but our lungs craved clean air and Nepal was looking irresistible! -Pax

+19

Uttar Pradesh
Moradabad ‐ Nov 8, 2019
Delhi ‐ Aug 23, 2019

After our little South Indian loop, we flew back to the U.S. for Mackenzie and Christians wedding. Although it was a very busy month, it was great to see all our family and friends in both Minnesota and St. Louis. People often ask us what we miss the most back home, and we both agree it’s our family and friends. After briefly considering changing our ticket to stay in the U.S. for another couple weeks for some low key time with our family, we ended up saying our goodbyes and boarding our retur [...]
n flight back to Delhi. After spending the early morning sleeping in the airport, we caught a taxi to Shivani’s house - our super host on Warmshowers, to be reunited with our bikes and the rest of our gear, where we spent the rest of the day napping, repacking our bags and trying to beat jet lag. When we stepped out of the airport, we noticed that Delhi was much smoggier than when we left the month before. We went into the city a couple days to see the sights, but it really wasn’t enjoyable because of the pollution. We couldn’t see any of the buildings until we got very close, and even then, just the silhouette, but it did make for some good photos. Although we didn’t enjoy the city too much above ground, we do have to mention we loved the metro, especially Pax of course. Delhi has a great metro system reaching anywhere we needed to go, and it was clean, safe, and super efficient. If only Mumbai had the same system... After seeing Old Delhi one morning we finally learned Delhi was in a pollution crisis, where the levels of small particulates were at hazardous levels. The air quality in St. Louis was 68, in Beijing 112, and in Delhi it was 999, topping out the meter. Schools were closed, flights rerouted, industries shut, and the odd even system was put in place; for the next 10 days odd and even license plates could only drive every other day, cutting the vehicles on the road in half. Delhi is normally one of the most polluted cities in the world, and during these days, pollution levels reached an all time global high. We read somewhere that being outside in Delhi for 1 day was equivalent to smoking 50 cigarettes. Whereas Delhi was chaotic and polluted, Shivani’s place was a peaceful refuge from life outside. Although it was impossible to completely avoid the pollution, we spent most of our time here. On top of having a beautiful home, she, like most middle and upper class Indian families, had help who served us meals, tea, coffee, and snacks, so we never had to leave if we didn’t want. Our fourth day back, Shivani invited all the other cyclists in Delhi we had been in contact with over for lunch! We had met Robin and Sabina from The Netherlands a couple days before for dinner, after we had been following each other on Instagram for a few months prior (@farawayistan on insta, if you want to check them out!). We had met Josh from the U.S. all the way back in Argentina, and now we met again here in India! Josh was planning to somehow acquire a boat and float down the Ganges River with his bike for one week, and we were very tempted to go with him. The lunch turned into lunch and dinner and dessert as we all enjoyed talking and sharing our cycling stories so much. Robin and Sabina ended up switching from a hostel to also stay with Shivani their last two days in Delhi so we can all ride out together! -Ross

+9
Pune ‐ Sep 19, 2019

Hampi was our final sightseeing destination with Supriya and from here we traveled back to her family’s home in Pune. We took a super comfy overnight bus, which we mostly slept on. Our “seats” were a double bed with blankets and pillows, personal lights, and outlets. With the privacy curtain closed it was like having a private room! Once in Pune, we had a few very nice days relaxing at her parents house. We ventured out about once per day. Here’s a short recap on some of the things we d [...]
id: 1. Learned to play carrom. It’s played on a small square table with round wooden disks and one striker. It’s kind of like a small, square, table top version of pool. Instead of cues you flick the striker, it wasn’t as easy as we thought! Ross and I looked like we were just discovering how to use our hands when compared to the Barve’s fancy finger-flicking abilities. But we loved this game! 2. Visited Ferguson College, Supriya’s alma mater. Pune is known as “Oxford of the East” for its educational institutions. 3. Supriya fought off locals vying to get a selfie with us. Ross and I usually grudgingly agree, but Supriya gives them a very firm no. She turned away more than a few people over the few days we were in the city. 4. We visited Singhagad Fort. Pune is surrounded by many hill forts and were glad we got to see one of them. We went on the weekend so there were many people visiting to get outdoors and enjoy food at the top. 5. Got on a motorbike! Pune used to be the biking capital of India but now they joke its the two-wheel capital. It was fun to ride on the back of Supriya’s bike and zip around. 6. Tried our first Pani Puri. Pani puri is a snack made of a round, hollow, crisp, deep fried pani filled with a tangy mixture of liquid and veggies that you pop into your mouth whole. On the street they are given one after the other, for me it was a stressful experience to continuously pop them back. They also sell kits to take home and make pani puri yourself. I enjoyed that a bit more. 7. Visited the Barve’s “bungalow” for an evening. They have a house about an hour from Pune to escape city bustle and enjoy nature. 8. Fell in love with tea time. Indians are very serious about tea and we think the way they prepare it is delicious! A tea masala is made with half water, half milk, and a small spoon full of sugar and drank with Parle Gs, a brand of biscuit. We started the morning with tea and again had tea at 4pm. Even on the road or traveling we had our 4 o’clock tea time. Which helped get me through until dinner (Indians eat dinner late!) It’s always a great experience to be hosted by a local, we learn so much more and feel better connected to the country we’re in. It was extra special to be able to visit finally visit Supriya and meet her parents. Hopefully not for he last time. -Pax

+14
Hampi ‐ Sep 16, 2019

We said “goodbye” to Supryia’s parents and the three of us boarded a sleeper train to Hampi, a very famous archaeological site in central India known for its hundreds of old temples carved and built from stone. It is also world famous for its bouldering, but sadly I didn’t explore that part of it and only focused on the monuments, temples and it's absolutely stunning natural scenery. We arrived at night, so in the morning we were pleasantly surprised to see temples upon temples right fro [...]
m our hotel window. Hampi was the capital city of the Vijayangara Empire in the 14th century, and they spared no cost while building all the temples. Most were decorated with detailed carvings of Hindu Gods and scenes from their great stories. We learned so much from Supryia, having studied Archeology in university she was able to tell us about the history of the Vijayangara people and even explain many of the carvings and scenes. One day, we rented bikes and cycled to the surrounding sites, highlights including the elephant stables, an aqueduct, and a stepped water holding tank. Another day we hired a rickshaw for the day to take us even farther, to the monkey temple, and to some really great overlooks. The scenery was amazing, being similar to what I’d picture the time of dinosaurs to look like. There were huge boulders strewn everywhere with palm trees like huge claws reaching for the sky. We even saw some peacocks perched on rocks also looking over the landscape! We had a wonderful few days in Hampi and had great fun with Supryia, and I’ll just let the photos speak for themselves -Ross

+22
Panjim ‐ Sep 12, 2019

We are pretty behind with this blog because we are actually home now visiting the U.S. and surprisingly we find it harder to sit down and write a post than when we are travelling on the bikes. We spent a couple days after Aurangabad in the city of Pune, where Supriya’s family lives. Supriya was an exchange student who lived with my family in the U.S. 9 whole years ago. Her wonderful parents invited us into their home, and then on their family vacation to Goa, which really took out the stress [...]
of planning what to do in India with only 3 weeks before our flight to the U.S. The 7 hour drive from their home to Goa took us through the countryside more beautiful than we were expecting; everything very green and lush from the recent monsoon season. We stopped every couple hours at restaurants for some food, tea and refreshments, giving us the chance to empty our bladders from the previous tea stop. The last hour of the drive was going over a small jungle mountain pass full of waterfalls and monkeys, with lots of beautiful but foggy views of the valleys below. Goa is an Indian state, not a city like we thought, which was a portugese colony for 450 years until being annexed by India in 1961. Today the small coastal state is famous for its beaches, low alcohol tax, hippy tourism, and Portugese influence and architecture. Driving around Goa was driving through beautiful green fields surrounded by palm tree forests between small villages each containing at least one old church. The ocean was too rough to swim but we did have a pool at our resort and fortunately the weather allowed us plenty of swimming time. Unfortunately the hot climate didn’t agree with me and I got a heat rash on my arms, spreading to my legs that lasted the rest of our time in India. But a little heat rash didn’t stop us from having a great vacation from our vacation. Being with an Indian family takes a lot of stress away and it was nice to take a back seat and enjoy our time in Goa. -Pax

+8

Goa
Pune ‐ Sep 9, 2019
Aurangabad ‐ Sep 5, 2019

Our next stop in our tour of India was the city of Aurangabad and the nearby Ellora caves. To get there we got to use India’s extensive railway system on an overnight sleeper train! There are many different classes of railcar, but for our first time we decided to splurge for the 2nd Class AC, which turned out very nice and comfortable. We got a full night of sleep aboard, before arriving in Aurangabad, checking into our hostel and setting out for the day. Going to the caves was our first expe [...]
rience getting out of the city in India, and we found the countryside so beautiful. We took a public bus an hour out of town and on the way we were amazed by the green and unfamiliar landscape. We really missed our bikes here; usually we can go slowly and stop and enjoy the scenery, but now we were rushed past in the cramped bus onto the next stop. The caves were incredible and reminded us a bit of the monasteries of Cappadocia. Even though the entrance fee was a little spendy (the foreign tourist price was 15x the resident price), it was worth every penny. There were 34 different caves we could explore, all carved into the cliffs. Each one with unique decorations, characters and depictions, these caves were used as Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain temples, showing religious harmony is ancient India. The most impressive - Cave 16, not actually a cave but a temple entirely cut away from stone, is the largest single monolithic rock excavation in the world. These caves were really amazing, and I’ll just let the photos speak for themselves. Annoyingly this is where we began getting loads of selfie requests. Indians love taking selfies with white people, which we think is because they like posting pictures with their western “friends” on social media and just because we look like people they see on tv. While at Ellora we were constantly asked for photos, which got old pretty fast - and we always saw it coming. We would either be stalked/followed for a bit until finally a brave soul asked or someone would just come running towards us, phone in hand. When Pax saw them coming she would walk away before being approached but I always feel bad and take the selfie. After 10 or 12 requests, I began saying “no” and walking away, even though they seemed nice and I felt bad. The rest of our time in Aurangabad consisted of just walking around and eating lots of street food. The town itself wasn’t anything all that special but the food was amazing. We have had Indian food for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the past week and aren’t even starting to want anything else. We love it here. -Ross

+12

Ellora Caves
Mumbai ‐ Sep 2, 2019

Since we will most likely be cycling the north of India when we return to the bikes we decided to spend our three-ish weeks off the bikes in the south and to take the opportunity to spend time with Supriya, my Indian exchange sister. On our way to Pune we decided to spend three days seeing Mumbai, after many people telling us how much they loved the city. Supriya’s sister Utpala and her boyfriend Swapnil let us crash in their apartment for our 4 night stay. Because they live in the suburbs w [...]
e had to take the train to get to south Mumbai or any other far destination. The suburban trains are called “the Local” and they felt like a truly Indian experience. The doors don’t shut so when the train is packed people hang outside the doors, holding on wherever they can. When the train rolls in and out of a station commuters are jumping in and out to avoid the rush. The courtesy you might find in an elevator of letting those already on get off before entering does not apply, when the train arrives there is a massive push from inside trying to get out and the same force from platform trying to get in. Google or YouTube “Mumbai suburban train” and you can get a good mental image of this. Everywhere we read said to avoid the local at all costs during rush hour, but inevitably we couldn’t always completely avoid it. The first time we squeezed on someone tried to pickpocket Ross and a kind man helped us move towards the seats where we could wait for passengers to get off so we could sit down. On our way home we thought we had missed rush hour but it was jammed packed by the time we reached our stop. We mistakenly got moving towards the doors too late and as we rolled into the station there we were struggling to move to the door. Thankfully people helped us poor clueless foreigners and pushed us to the exit, a man got off the train and pulled me by the arm to drag me off. Somehow Ross also made it off and all we lost in the process was a water bottle. After these adventurous but a-little-too-stressful experiences I opted to sit in the ladies coach and Ross was left to fend for himself. Every train has at least 4 ladies-only coaches and for me they were much more comfortable than being squished in with mostly men in the rest of the train. One evening I even hopped on a whole train that was exclusively ladies only. I’ll let Ross recap his ride home that night here -Ross here - We were at the terminus so I managed to snag a seat, but at every stop it picked up more and more people. One stop before mine, I decided to start making my way to the door, but the moment I got up I realized the extent of the crowding, and that it might not be possible to move until people got off the train. I started trying to push through, but it was not working. One of the guys next to me said that it was impossible, and that I would have to wait for 1 or 2 more stops. Other guys noticed me, a foreigner trying to get off the train - and they all worked together to try to push me to the front! I had people pushing from behind, pulling from ahead, and I was able to squeeze between enough men to be maybe 4 rows back from the open train door. As we approached the station, the guy told me to “push as hard as you can” and that the wave of people coming in will just push me back into the train. He grabbed a metal post behind me and created a leaver with his arm against my back, and as the train was slowing down, we both pushed! We both came stumbling out of the still-moving train onto the platform into the sea of people waiting to board the train. Alright that was some excessive story-telling about our experiences with the Local but it was our most adventurous, adrenaline filled moments in Mumbai. Outside of our train rides our time in the city was pretty uneventful, not in a bad way just in an unexpected way. Of course the city is huge and bustling and everything was new and exciting to us. But despite rarely seeing any other foreigners, we never felt uncomfortable. No unwanted selfies, no uncomfortable staring. We were just two more people in a city of 12 million. Sadly our time in Mumbai will mostly be remembered by heavy, heavy rains. Technically monsoon season is over but the forecast our first week in southern India was nothing but rain. One day we couldn’t leave because it rained so much our streets were flooded and the Locals were disrupted. When there wasn’t a monstrous downpour we got to explore different parts of the city, mostly in South Mumbai. Our favorite moments were eating all the new street foods, wandering through markets, and marveling at the beautiful architecture the British left behind. We also happened to be in Mumbai during Ganesh Chaturthi. For 10 days people keep small clay Ganesh idols in their house and on the streets are huge community idols on stages. On the tenth night there is a procession through the streets were the family or groups take the idol to the sea, accompanied by a band, and submerges the Ganesh. Many families do the procession before the 10th night and celebrations occur in the evening so when we walked around our neighborhood at night we got to see many -very loud- processions. -Pax

+9
Delhi ‐ Sep 1, 2019

We’ve landed in India!! We are so excited to be here, as well as a bit nervous. Nearly everyone we have talked to say that India is not ideal for cycle touring because of the traffic/noise, density of people, and difficulty wild camping. We are going to worry about that later and for now store our bikes and gear in Delhi with our amazing Warmshowers host. The next few weeks we will backpack around in the central and south before flying back to the U.S. for a wedding and home visit. Let’s see [...]
what India has in store for us! -Ross
Almaty, Kazakhstan ‐ Aug 26, 2019

Our last day cycling into Almaty was a breeze - 1200 meters downhill, out of the mountains on a nicely paved road! We met our Warmshowers host, Matt from the UK, who set us up in his huge flat! Another American cyclist, Katherine, was staying with him as well (in his second spare bedroom) so we found ourselves amongst great company. Matt is a busy guy - we rarely saw him, but when we did, it was always so interesting to hear about his life. He spent 4 years cycle touring the world (and wrote a [...]
book about it, I’ll be home just after Christmas by Matt Blake), then moved to Central Asia a few years ago to teach. Having been on the road for so long, Matt knows the needs of a long term cyclist, caters exactly to those needs, and accordingly has become legendary among cyclists in Central Asia. Back in Tajikistan we heard about “Matt in Almaty” and we couldn’t be happier that he was able to host us. We were also excited to find Matt loves board games and he has a full stocked game cabinet. On Thursday he had a game night where a few of his friends came over and we spent a good 4 or 5 hours playing Catan, Camel Cup, King of Tokyo, among others! It felt so good to whittle the night away with some good board games and a beer or three. Almaty sits on the northern slope of the Ili Alatau mountain range and the close proximity (you can take a city bus from downtown and be on the ski slopes in 45 minutes) make it a popular getaway for mountain sports, as well as for tourists to visit on a day trip. Sadly, I didn’t get a chance to do the mountain sports (mountain biking), but we spent a day going up to the ski resort, which in the summer has gondolas running to the top, surrounded by beautiful landscape. Most of our time in Almaty was spent hanging out at the apartment or running errands such as finding and retrieving bike boxes, getting bikes fixed, getting other miscellaneous items fixed, etc, but this meant we spent lots of time cycling around and getting to know the city. Almaty is a very modern and cosmopolitan city, with good infrastructure and bike lanes connecting most of the main areas. We were surprised at how western it seemed, with all the luxuries of St. Louis or Minneapolis. One thing that we can’t get back in our hometowns (that I know of at least) is the experience of public baths. Almaty has the largest bathhouse in all of Central Asia, and it is very popular among locals and tourists alike. I joined Matt and some of his friends for the experience, while Pax was able to pair up with Katherine so she wasn’t totally alone on the women’s side. It was quite an experience. The whole bathhouse is beautiful building with domed marble ceilings and columns, containing many kinds of bathing styles from across the world - including Finnish sauna, Moroccan Hamam, Russian sauna and Turkish Hamam. There are also cold pools, buckets of cold water on strings, and big barrels of cold water to jump into, and even an in-house bar to cool off. There is waaay too much to try to describe, so I’ll just recount a scene from the Russian sauna. This style is the hottest of all rooms, and is filled with steam to a point that it is difficult to endure. As I enter I’m hit with a hot blast, but I say “bring it on!” because I love this kind of thing. There are about 15 naked Russian and Kazak men inside, but that doesn’t bother me either. Sitting on the top bench with my new pals, the fat naked guy next to us produces a branch of oak leaves tied together and starts hitting himself with it. Another man comes over and helps him out by hitting him with it, harder, and where he couldn’t reach. Now other men have them too, all hitting themselves or their friends with oak leaves. I was explained that being beaten with leaves will exfoliate the skin, and the airflow in the sauna makes is hotter for everyone. Plus, the aromatic leaves made it smell much better than a room full of sweaty men. Almaty was very kind to us. We were sad to leave Central Asia but very very excited for India. So, we packed up our bikes and spent our last night in Kazakhstan relaxing, and I made us a nice steak dinner, before hopping on a plane to India and beginning the next stage of our trip! -Ross

+8

Final Notes and Future Plans

Leaving Central Asia is both sad and exciting. Reaching this point at all felt like a milestone for us, we had looked forward to being here for so long. It was a place that seemed so far away, so fore...
Shelek ‐ Aug 20, 2019

Our original plan never included returning to Kazakhstan, instead going to Bishkek, but in the end we heard enough good things about Almaty to bypass the Kyrgyz capital and head back into Kazakhstan. We had a WarmShowers host lined up for us starting the 26th of August to see the city and prepare for our flight September 1st. That gave us a whopping 14 days to reach Almaty, a distance that would normally take us only 4. We thought briefly of accepting the fee and changing our flight, but in the [...]
end we decided to enjoy our last days in Central Asia by taking it slow and enjoying the amazing wild camping. So that’s what we have been doing. Reaching camp early, leaving camp late, and taking it easy. Sometimes Kazakhstan seems so huge, so empty, and so beautiful we feel like we could pitch our tent anywhere and it would be a lovely, picturesque camp. Even making camp early we rarely see a soul. Sometimes in the evening a man will come by on a horse, shepherding his livestock back home, but that’s all we get. We’ve been enjoying our long evenings reading, journaling, listening to podcasts, having campfires, and making better dinners. We have met so many short term travelers who unload their unfinished gas canisters on us, preparing for flights back home, that we haven’t had to buy gas since Osh. Now, not worrying about conserving gas, we enjoy tea, coffee, or hot coco in both the morning and evening. Luxury. Although we are rarely disappointed by the wild camping here (besides a two night stint we spent in a mud pit off the highway, pictures included), we are generally a bit disenchanted when we camp in the “national nature parks”. Besides the entrance toll and some signs up and down the road about littering and wild fires, you would never guess you were in a nature park. After staying a night at a beautiful wild camp spot on the Charyn River just off the main road we headed for the official Charyn River National Nature Park, a protected area up river. We couldn’t believe the number of people here, and were a bit disappointed to find the main trail into the canyon just an old dirt road still used by a park taxi and park shuttle to shuttle people who didnt feel like walking back and forth. Where the road ends at the river there is only a small area and it is almost completely filled with an “EcoPark” made up of bungalows, yurts, and a cafe. Its actually very nice but certainly doesn’t make you feel like you are getting out into nature. All that being said the canyon is beautiful, and worth the hype. With its red and tan walls and incredible rock formations we felt like we were in the Southwestern U.S. There was a spot on the river beside the EcoCamp that was designated for tents and we set up camp there for 2 nights. We mostly got rain while there but, another perk of it being so built up, there are many covered picnic areas so we didn’t have to be cooped up in the tent while it rained. It also gave us the opportunity to spend time with other travelers camping in the canyon. From the town of Shelek to Almaty the road runs west and the mountains run parallel below it. We spent several days climbing into the hills, again into these nature parks, to do some waterfall hikes and find great camping for our last nights in Central Asia. Towards the entrance of the parks were resorts, hotels, and retreats but the farther back we got the less developed, the less people, and the more wild. We cycled an average of just 20km per day in our last week before Almaty, just enjoying the cycling and our last days in this beautiful corner of the world. After we reach Almaty we will be off the bikes for about 2 months - the longest break in almost 2 years, so we really had to appreciate our bikes and our free, relaxed lifestyle before the hustle and bustle of India. -Pax

+29

Almaty Province
Kegen ‐ Aug 13, 2019

After our trek we crossed back into Kazakhstan - the crossing was straightforward and easy; they saw we were Americans, said something they knew about the U.S.-this time “Donald Trump”, searched one bag before giving up and asking point blank if we had guns or narcotics, and then we were back in Kazakhstan! Our previous stint here had been in Mangystau Province, the far southwestern corner, now we are in the far eastern Almaty Province and heading for its namesake, Kazakhstan’s largest cit [...]
y and former capital. -Pax
Jyrgalan, Kyrgyzstan ‐ Aug 5, 2019

Sitting on top of my rear panniers, I’ve been lugging around a travel backpack this entire trip. It’s usually used for storage - items we rarely use: right now winter jackets, our down camp booties, Paxton’s hiking shoes, rain pants and other miscellaneous things. On the rare occasion we are off the bike for a few days we will rearrange everything and give the backpack a chance to do what it was made for. In Karakol, we decided to do some treks, specifically a 5 night circuit through the [...]
mountains, leaving from the town of Jyrgalan, covering about 70 km and going over 3 mountain passes. So we found homes for everything occupying the backpack, and stuffed in everything we would need for the next 5 days. Mostly food. Our other backpack is a pannier that has shoulder straps. It’s very uncomfortable, but it had to work. We left our bikes and most of our gear at a homestay in the village and off we went! The trek was difficult but great! We chose a less popular route, combining the Keskenyia and Ailampa Glacier Loops, but decided to do it backwards, and very shortly discovered that the trail was not marked from this direction. For the first 3 days we relied solely on the GPS in our phones to keep us on-route, often finding ourselves heading the wrong direction or even down the wrong valley. The terrain was steep and many times our phones told us to go straight up the side of mountains. We rarely saw any established trail, so we just blazed our own way, trying to fathom where the trail was and why our GPS would take us this way. Despite these difficulties, the scenery was great. When backpacking, I expect to be out in the wilderness, in the forest, and far away from any people, but this was a whole new experience. The “trail” took us over mountains completely covered in grass and through pasture after pasture. Everything was green and it looked like we were trouncing through a scene in the Sound of Music. We would see families living in their yurts, men and children riding around on horses, and lots and lots of sheep, wild(?) horses, and cattle. With so many fields and grazing animals, it was the perfect environment for certain kinds of mushrooms - namely the meadow mushroom and button mushrooms! Yes, these are the same mushrooms you buy in the supermarket, but the wild variety have far more flavor and a better taste (think portabello or cremini) I started finding these mushrooms everywhere along the trail and got very excited! I picked them but as I thought about it more and more, decided that I wasn’t 100% sure that Kyrgyzstan didn’t have any poisonous lookalikes and that I should probably not eat them - so I did the responsible thing and fed them to the cows hanging around our camp. The rest of the hike was more of the same beautiful landscape and tough terrain, but with a marked, established trail. Even though we bike all day every day, we’re not used to hiking, so after a few days we were sore, and our feet (especially Paxton’s) were covered in blisters. Despite this, we both really enjoyed the trek, and with tougher feet and some dedicated trekking backpacks, we could definitely do it more often. At the end of the trek we returned to the little village of Jyrgalan where we had left our bikes. The homestay was full so we set up our tent in the backyard. Nazira, the owner, lets us camp for free so as payment for storing our stuff and camping we paid for dinner the night we returned with the other guests at the homestay. She cooked us a delicious traditional meal with fried bread, a carrot salad, soup, and dumplings. We couldn’t help but notice the USAID signs on her house and air conditioning unit so we inquired. We see the signs a lot - as well as EuropeAid, JICA, etc..- but mostly on roadworks or infrastructure signs. As it turns out USAID has invested lot into building Kyrgyzstan’s tourism industry, especially in the little village of Jyrgalan. Back during the Soviet era the town was a successful mining community, but by the mid 1990s the economy had collapsed. In 2016 six families joined forces to establish a nonprofit aimed at bringing travelers to the town, and its initial year it was solely funded by USAID. She told us last summer she was even selected to travel to the U.S., with 6 other people from different parts of Kyrgyzstan, to learn about summer and winter tourism in the mountains of Colorado. We have to say that this effort was a success, with the town now a very popular destination and having plenty of accommodations for weary hikers. We enjoyed our time in and around Jyrgalan, and topped off our time in Kyrgyzstan nicely. -Ross

+29

Jyrgalan Trekking
Karakol ‐ Aug 3, 2019

From Son-Kul we finally had the triumph of getting our last big climb done. From the lake we had a mostly downhill ride to our next town where we decided to stay a night. Before reaching town I had my first spill off the bike, trying to avoid the washboard and got too close to the slopping embankment, wiping out at a decent speed. Thankfully all I lost was some skin off my knee and a bit of pride. I nearly forgot all about it though when we reached pavement. Finally after dusty, gravely roads th [...]
e last six days we had reached sweet, smooth, beautiful pavement. In Kochkor we said a short farewell to Sam, Adam, and Tom with plans to meet up again in Karakol. Tom and Adam have a deadline to reach Almaty and even more importantly, as cricket fans, they had a game to watch and needed to find good WiFi in three days time. Ross and I on the other hand have more than enough time and decided to split so we can slow down and enjoy the amazing camping opportunities along the way. Unfortunately we didn’t really enjoy our cycle along the south shore of Issyk Kul as much as we would have liked. The lake itself is beautiful, huge, deep blue, and amazingly clear for being a big lake, but the cycling almost negated the perks of afternoon swims and beach camping. The road was bad pavement with no shoulder and usually the edge of the road was crumbling and uncomfortable to cycle on. The drivers seem to not see slowing down to pass us an option at all. If there were oncoming cars to where they couldn’t move over to get around us their only option, since they can’t slow down, was to lay on the horn hoping we will jump off the road, and when we usually didn’t they would squeeze by us. Really squeeze. Ross even got into a little road rage incident with a car...after I told him not to. Even when there were no cars coming the other way and they could give us a bit of room it seemed like they rarely did, instead buzzing by us. We agreed this has been the most unsafe we have felt on our trip. And we found it surprising how unforgiving the drivers are for how popular Kyrgystan is to cycle. Kyrgyzstan is a very popular cycling destination for Europeans who have a spare couple weeks in the summer. We meet so many cycle tourists everyday, if they are going the opposite way we usually don’t even bother to stop and chat. So it came as a great relief to arrive in Karakol in one piece. We checked into the same hostel Sam, Tom, and Adam, and confirmed Ross and I weren’t paranoid about the drivers trying to kill us. Karakol is a decent sized town very popular with Russian tourists headed to the beach and backpackers heading for treks into the mountains south of town. Here we decided to stay and do some trekking. The next morning we said a sad and final goodbye, to Tom, Adam, and Sam. Since meeting Tom and Adam our first day in Tajikistan we cycled together some 33 days and finally we were parting for good. We hope to meet all three of them again in Vietnam this winter, fingers crossed. We stayed one more night in Karakol, visiting the visitors center to get a map, buying enough food for a six day trek, and moving to a hostel where we could set up our tent in the garden and talk to backpackers about the routes. -Pax

+19

Around Issyk Kul
Kochkor ‐ Jul 29, 2019
Son-Kul ‐ Jul 27, 2019

One perk of cycling with other people is that we hardly ever need to navigate. We rolled out of Osh late in the afternoon with Tom, Adam and Sam, not really knowing what to expect for the next leg of our trip - just knowing that the navigation and planning was pretty much taken care of. The first day or two towards Jalalabat was not much fun: riding alongside the busy road, with a few near misses with cars, and Paxton even got side-swiped and the driver just kept going. She’s okay but I was l [...]
ivid. The drivers here are terrible, we’ll elaborate on the next post.... We escaped the city, and the busy road became gravel, meandering through the mountains. Now, when I say “meandering” I mean going straight up and straight down the mountainsides with switchbacks and signs always showing that it’s 12% grade. As I said earlier, we didn’t really know what was coming up, but every evening at camp, Sam would give us a summary of what to expect the following day and it always included ungodly amounts of climbing. Our final three days before reaching Son-Kul we had consecutive 1000+ meter climbs, but as luck would have it we were able to find amazing camping spots near crystal clear streams every night to relax and prepare for the next day’s ride. Finally we climbed up and over our largest pass, climbing 1400m (4600ft) to reach Son Kul lake. It was a very long pass, and Tom kept getting punctures so we arrived quite late in the evening. This settlement consisted of two or three yurt camps on the banks of the beautiful Son Kul lake, where locals live and most run a lucrative yurt-stay businesses for tourists. We opted to wild camp in an open field near the lake, but we could see them herding their cattle, horses, and sheep every direction. We set up camp, cooked dinner as usual, and after the sun set we were getting ready to retire to the tent when a man on a horse started trotting our way. We greeted him kindly, but he rode his horse into the middle of our camp and kept inching closer and closer to us, our bikes and our tents. We could smell the vodka on his breath, and we were unsure if he could control his horse. You could tell that this horse was having a terrible time - not wanting to trample us or our gear, but the man kept guiding it closer. As soon as he noticed Pax, he brought his horse up to our tent and insisted that she go for a ride with him. By this time we had all jumped out of the tents, not wanting to be trampled to death. All four of us guys were telling him to go away and leave us alone, and I squeezed between the horse and our tent, but he would not leave or even give us any space. He kept going from one side of the tent to the other, and the horse was so close that he stepped on our tent a few times, making me even more annoyed and mad. We finally walked over towards a yurt shop where the friendly shopkeeper actually met us halfway after seeing our lights and the commotion, and he talked to the horseman into going home. Most people we meet are so nice, and this - our worst experience, wasn’t even that bad. Nobody got hurt, he didn’t take anything and ultimately he left us alone. During the night, we heard a horse coming back and sat up, worried that it was this man again, but as it passed camp, we heard the rider call out “sorry mister!” and he was on his way. In the morning we went back to the yurt shop, stocked up on some biscuits and were on our way! -Ross

+38

The road to Son-Kul
Kazarman ‐ Jul 24, 2019
Jalal-Abad ‐ Jul 22, 2019
Osh ‐ Jul 18, 2019

Sary Tash was how I had imaged Kyrgyzstan to be, lush and green, but after leaving the valley through a set of two small passes I was surprised to find a different Kyrgystan. We descended to the town of Gulcha, mostly along the Gulcha River, through valleys of green meadows but also towering red and tan rocks. From Gulcha only one pass separated us from Osh and we set out anticipating to conquer the climb and ride the downhill all the way into Osh in the early evening. We did conquer the climb [...]
but unfortunately on the way down Tom became plagued with punctures that he couldn’t seem to repair, having to stop and attempt to fix his tire every 10 kilometers. We like to arrive in town and at our hostel as early as possible in the day to get maximum bang for our buck, and as Ross and I waited at a small grocery store for Tom and Adam to appear, the prospects of reaching Osh at a reasonable hour were dwindling. The shop owners also ran a nice cafe, and behind that were open fields. We tried communicating to the family that our friends were having bike trouble, we wouldn’t be able to reach Osh, and needed a place to camp. Finally through google translate they understood and happily showed us to the nice field out back. We repaid the kindness with many runs into the shop for snacks and beer. What seemed like days later than we anticipated, we finally cycled a short 20km to arrive in Osh, the end of the Pamir highway. On the Pamir when we were having a difficult day or we were just getting tired of our biscuits and bread we would remind ourselves of the pancakes and fresh fruit waiting for us in Osh, our city of dreams. And it was our city of dreams. We finally got a bed, showers, western toilets, internet, fresh food, and a day of rest. We had long been hearing about a fabulous cafe that sold western food and our two days in town the seven of us would have lunch at Brio. Here we reunited with Sam and said our goodbyes to Ignace and David, who are both now heading to the Chinese border and onwards to Pakistan. We are crossing our fingers we will bump into them again down the road in India or Nepal. -Pax

+10

Pamir Part 5 - Kyrgyzstan
Sary-Tash ‐ Jul 16, 2019

One of the most stunning scenes of our entire trip was from when we were stamped into Kyrgyzstan to its first town: Sary-Tash. Kyrgyzstan welcomed us with rolling hills of grass with grazing horses, yaks, sheep, and cattle, all being watched over by the locals living in yurts. Behind us, huge behemoths of mountains (7000m+, 23000ft+) fully covered in snow made the whole scene complete. It was such a drastic change from the rocky, mostly brown and grey Tajikistan that we just couldn’t stop smil [...]
ing all the way down. Paxton kept going on and on about how Kyrgyzstan had a different smell than Tajikistan - like plants and wildflowers, and I did catch a pleasant whiff of plants when we stopped for lunch, so I’ll give it to her. We finished our descent into the first Kyrgyz town where we went in search of a shop, hoping to buy the fabled Kyrgyz SIM card with cheap and super fast 4G LTE Internet, as well as food for the next few days. When entering a new country, we always look forward to the first market; all its new and interesting foods, new packaging and language, and above all, different desserts! We picked up everything we needed - including SIM cards, beer, my favorite snack of smoked cheese chechil, and some strange candies, and headed off to find camp. We began to leave town and decided that the views of these mountains were just too good to simply leave them behind, so we camped in a field just out of town, still in the shadow of these peaks. We just happened to set up our tents right next to a crystal clear spring bubbling right out of the earth and providing us with our own personal stream. We had a lovely night socializing (with Tom and Adam still), and we will always remember these mountains as the most majestic mountains we have ever seen. -Ross

+16

Pamir Part 4 - Kyrgyzstan
Karakul, Tajikistan ‐ Jul 14, 2019

The next few days involved cycling over the highest pass of the Pamirs at 4655m, then down to lake Karakol and then up again to the border with Kyrgyzstan. There are always ups and downs when cycling, but this section seemed especially hilly. What made it even more difficult was fighting the constant headwind, and trying to doge rocks and bumps in the gravely, washboard road. Nearly the whole time, we cycled next to a barbed wire security fence, which we believe was a buffer zone, the no-mans-la [...]
nd with China, which was just on the other side of the hills. As we began the steep final ascent of Ak-Baital Pass, we were hit with a wind/snowstorm that made us unearth our big winter mittens from the bottom of our bags. But there we were, the highest point on the Pamir, also our highest point since leaving South America! After a few minutes at the top of the pass the sky began to clear and we got beautiful weather and views on the descent - at least until the headwind picked up again. The next day we reached the massive and beautiful lake Karakol, with snow-capped mountains rising from its banks. We stopped in the town of Karakol to resupply on water and food, but the only “shop” in town sold only 5 things: bread, instant noodles, biscuits, eggs, and candy bars. We went on our way with a stale loaf of overpriced bread and a couple eggs, up the next pass towards the Kyrgyz border. The cycling was beautiful, but the conditions were horrid. Our hopes of reaching the border that day were dashed as we were forced to abandon the bikes on the road and seek shelter from the wind storm by ducking behind a steep embankment. A friend ahead had sent us the coordinates to an abandoned building that he had used to escape the wind the day before, so we pushed ourselves to reach the building. It did give us shelter and we ended up having a nice night there, although we woke up to snow on the tent. The next day we reached the border where we were stamped out of Tajikistan, had 3 more kilometers of climbing to the geographical border and top of the pass, then 15 kilometers downhill to the Kyrgyz border station. -Ross and Pax

+21

Pamir Part 3
Murghab ‐ Jul 11, 2019

From Alichur to Murghab the landscape went from lunar to Martian. The muted pastel colors became bright and the tones of grey changed to red. About 50km of the route we enjoyed a smooth descent, and we had to take breaks just so the incredible scenery wouldn’t fly past. Before reaching Murgab we descended into a huge green river valley where we could see town 10 km off in the distance. We were excited to reach this point - finally reaching a town having shops with more than just biscuits, brea [...]
d, and instant noodles, we planned to spend a night to pamper ourselves with food, electricity and internet! Murgab is special for its container market, which consists of a few rows of shipping containers that have been transformed into shops selling everything from groceries to electronics to clothes. So, after an excellent night sleeping inside in a real bed, we set out with fully stocked panniers to see what the rest of the Pamir Highway had in store for us, but not before we stopped one last time at our favorite restaurant for a delicious $1.80 meal and some yak milk ice cream! -Ross

+11

Pamir Part 2
Alichur ‐ Jul 8, 2019

We left Korogh with our English pals Tom and Adam and a new companion Karl from Australia (70 years old!). Technically we have been on the Pamir Highway, the M41, since Dushanbe but we, like many other overlanders, think of the highway from Korogh to Osh. The first two days was a gradual climb of 2,200 meters to reach Koitezek Pass at 4270 meters (a tad over 14,000 feet). We couldn’t have asked for a better way to gain so much elevation and reach the plateau. The road was paved and the elevati [...]
on gain was so gradual we felt like we were flying up. After a tough final couple of kilometers we reached the top. We left the sprawl of Korogh behind us and the mountains spread out all around in beautiful pastels. Soon we had a beautiful descent through and almost lunar landscape with some of the bluest lakes I have ever seen. We were transported to a new land, similar to that of the Bolivian Altiplano. Finally we were on the “Roof of the World”. The first village we reached was Alichur, a pretty dismal little town on a huge plateau. We were looking forward to resupplying food but there are only two small convenience shops, the better of which sold biscuits, instant noodles, and candy. There were also a couple homestays and a restaurant where we could buy bread. Like all the towns in the Tajik Pamir drinking water is pumped from communal wells and homes are heated by burning yak dung (we saw our first yak here!). But in Alichur showers are still “banya” style, meaning communal baths twice a week. We took half a rest day here, working on the bikes and eating lunch at the restaurant. -Paxton

+26

Pamir Part 1
Khorugh ‐ Jul 5, 2019

We have been with other cyclists since the second day we entered Tajikistan, and it has been a blast. The groups keep changing depending on who is taking our route, or who is spending an extra night in a hostel or whatnot, but we seem to always set out as a group. The next section of road - from Qalai Khum to Korogh, was 240km along the Panj River. We cycled as a pack of 5, with Sam (UK), Dave (Italy, who we cycled with in Georgia) and Ignace (Belgium). Like all our experiences in Tajikistan, t [...]
he scenery was amazing, but it was unique in the sense that instead of being high in the mountains, we were in a hot river valley looking at Afghan villages across the river. We would often wave to children playing on the Afghan side of the river as we ogled the cliffs and high mountains looming above us on both sides. As I mentioned, it was very hot and dry, and there were long stretches of road between villages. When we reached a village, it felt like we entered a little oasis; there were open air irrigation ditches running every direction, supplying the lifeblood to the crops and trees and plants, transforming this dry desert-like landscape into a livable speck of green dotting the river valley. Korough was the largest city since we left Dushanbe, so we spent a day there to relax and restock our supplies. On Saturday morning, we checked out the famous cross-border Afghan market: located near the bridge to Afghanistan where people are allowed to cross and sell their goods. The merchandise was essentially the same as the Tajik markets we’ve visited save for some graphite looking stones, from what we gathered that were used to make eyebrows darker. We could easily tell the Tajiks and Afghans apart just by their dress. It was super interesting seeing the Afghan men in their traditional clothes, exactly like we expected from growing up watching the news in the U.S. This was the first time on our entire trip that I thought about our safety, hesitating to freely tell people that we are from the United States. Despite this fleeting thought, everyone we talked to was very nice and was more interested than anything about why two Americans were perusing their shops. The market was heavily guarded. Men in military uniforms with machine guns were posted at every corner, and other (unarmed, or at less conspicuous) were patrolling the market. Pictures were not allowed, and Ignace was even confronted by a guard and had to delete all the photos he had taken. We still got a few :) Korough was also a fun rest because our whole Pamir group of 8 cyclists were in the same town at the same time. The morning we left we split into two groups, one headed for the Wakhan Valley, and those headed straight for the Pamir, including us! Of course pictures will be posted when we have good internet in Kyrgyzstan! -Ross

+28

Along the Tajik-Afghan Border
Qalai Khumb ‐ Jul 1, 2019

The Tajik landscape turned it up a notch after reaching the town of Khumdon. Here we had our first of 4 police checkpoints on the way to Qalai Kum and the road turned southeast entering a beautiful gorge with steep mountains and a raging river below. Only the road took a turn for the worse, permanently becoming gravel with lots of big loose stones. The scenery made the route more than worth it, as well as a surprise waterfall we used to wash and cool down in! We were hit by a bit of excitement [...]
when we crossed the river and finally began our two day climb to the top of the pass. We camped soon after the crossing; two police checkpoints, a river crossing, and running into Loretta again slowed us from reaching higher the first day. Our next day we encountered a landslide early in the morning. The guys tag-teamed lifting the bikes over the narrow strip of dry mud to the other side. Finally cycling with three guys came in handy :) Soon after the landslide the road split where the main road continued on slightly up and another went down to cross the river near some houses. We continued along the road but a local man started yelling at us from below, communicating that we couldn’t continue and the road was impassable. We looked up and saw the French, who had split from the group earlier due to a time crunch, near the top of the detour! Reluctantly we listened to the man and began the hard climb. Later we learned the detour cut off a bend in the road that was under a swift-moving river. From here we had a steady climb to the top of the pass. The landscape turned a beautiful green and the higher we got we could see more and more mountains surrounding us. When we did make it to the top, the French were waiting and Loretta arrived soon after. Although not an incredibly high or difficult pass it felt like such a victory to be on top, after working towards the climb for 5 days and reuniting at the top as 6 cyclists and crazy Loretta. From the summit we thought we would have an easy peasy 28 km decent to Qalai Kum. The descent ended up being more beautiful than any of us imagined. With each turn we didn’t think it could get any prettier and with each turn it did. We decided instead of reaching town just before dark, to find camp early and enjoy another night in the mountains. We camped with an overlander couple from the Netherlands, who graciously gave us some food, and continued the descent in the morning. Finally after 4 flats, we arrived in the town of Qali Kum, on the border of Afghanistan separated by the Panj River. As soon as we rolled into town we were mobbed by kids all insisting we stay at their hostel or homestay. Thankfully as a group of 4 we had bargaining power and easily found a place for nearly half the price. This pass (mainly the downhill part) was some of the best cycling we have ever done. The landscape held our attention like nothing else before it. The raw, pure nature of this place was just jaw dropping. We have never seen mountains so majestic, rivers so clear and powerful, air so clean - it was really an experience to remember. On one of our breaks, Tom, one of our cycling buddies said “it’s like what they show in the movies when you go to heaven”, and we couldn’t agree more. Tajikistan is like heaven on earth. -Pax

+35

The Northern Route

Little WiFi, Little Updates

Hey All! Unfortunately the internet here in Tajikistan is terrible, and we are now on the Pamir Highway where it is near impossible to get. We can make this post using a hotspot from our phone but we...
Darband, Tajikistan

The Pamir Highway is like the holy grail for cyclists, every summer loads coming from the east and the west, mostly the west, to cycle the worlds second highest highway. A small part of what makes being here so unique is meeting so many people traveling in the same way who are also excited to be in such a special place. We left Dushanbe as a group of 6, once again cycling with Tom and Adam from England and now Pierre and Victor from France. Also leaving the same day was Loretta, who we have bump [...]
ed into many times since first meeting her in the Uzbek desert. Historically a cycle tourist, she is now running the Pamir Highway with a cart she built in India. The ride from Dushanbe was gentle climbing through first villages and later rural countryside becoming less and less populated and more and more beautiful. We have begun to grow tired of the constant shouts of “HELLO!” and “WHAT IS YOUR NAME!” from the children we pass on the road. But we figure if we were kids living out in rural Tajikistan we would also want to say hello and shout out all the English words we knew at the couple of tourists who pass by each day in the summer. What has really surprised us is how many kids there and how they often seem like little adults. We see them selling produce on the side of the road, herding livestock in the countryside, and traveling down the road on their donkey. We even entered a pharmacy where we were greeted by a kid behind the counter. Not sure if it’s because of summer holiday or it’s just how Tajikistan runs. By and large the Tajik people have been sincerely kind and welcoming, a Central Asian trend continues. -Pax
Dushanbe ‐ Jun 24, 2019

As soon as we entered Tajikistan, hills began to grow out of the flat farmland, taller than anything Uzbekistan ever dreamed of having. The hills kept getting bigger and we kept going up and up and up. When we reached the river we had seen on our map and hoped to make stay we found Tom and Adam from England already setting up camp in the same spot. We cycled the remaining 3 days to Dushanbe together. As a group of 4, we climbed the one pass between us and Dushanbe, with stunning views all the w [...]
ay. The top wasn’t actually a pass but a 5km long tunnel nicknamed “the tunnel of death” which is poorly (sometimes not at all) lit, very narrow, with no ventilation, that coal trucks and other cars trundle through at high speed. Luckily, it was easy for us to flag down a big, empty cargo van with room for 4 bikes and people to safely shuttle us through this terrifying obstacle. On the other side, we had a 77km downhill ride into Dushanbe! Everything about this ride was perfect, besides a few more short tunnels. The road became fresh tarmac, the views continued to amaze, and we could just fly downhill like we had been dreaming of the whole ride up. When we reached the capital city, we checked into the Greenhouse Hostel - a well known meeting point for cyclists, motorbikers and overlanders before and after they do the Pamir Highway. We expected a few cyclists to be there, but when we rolled our bikes into their courtyard, we could hardly find parking spots because of all the bikes! There were at least 8-10 bicycles, in addition to 4 motorbikes and 1 Jeep. We got to know everyone pretty quick, and soon one guy, Sam, said that we looked familiar and asked if we had met before. This brought back memories, and we realized that we had met each other on the very first week of our trip, 1.5 years ago in Tierra de Fuego, Argentina!! Tajikistan is already up there in my all time favorite countries and best places to cycle, and we have not even reached the “good part” yet. It is so beautiful, people are so generous, roads are good, cars don’t honk at you, and everything is super cheap. I am truly looking forward to spending lots of time in this country. -Ross

+17

Tajikistan!
Panjakent ‐ Jun 20, 2019
Samarkand, Uzbekistan ‐ Jun 18, 2019
Tashkent ‐ Jun 16, 2019

We heard enough good things about Tashkent that we decided to leave our bikes at our hostel in Samarkand and take a three hour train to Tashkent for two nights. We stayed with a WarmShowers host, Veronica - a Spanish woman working as a P.E. teacher in Tashkent for the last year. Our train arrived in the evening and she took us out to dinner where we had a wonderful evening with all her teaching pals and other friends. It was so interesting seeing the little group of ex-pats and hearing about ho [...]
w they all ended up living in Uzbekistan. We spent just one day being in tourists around the city, walking around the beautiful parks and visiting the bazaar. The main reason we visited Tashkent though (at least for me) was to ride the subway. Built in the 70s by the USSR, it’s famous for its beautiful stations. Each stop is lovely with many having themes like cotton, cosmonauts, or Islamic architecture. It was especially nice zipping around underground since I hate walking. Although Tashkent isn’t a tourist spot like the Silk Road cities, it’s the most modern and live-able Uzbek city. I also wanted to make some notes about Uzbekistan in general that we wanted to throw into a post. -We love all the fruit. Cantaloupe, watermelons, plums, cherries, mulberries, and apricots are in season and are plentiful. We have even picked lots of apricots and cherries straight from the trees. -90% of cars here are white. That isn’t a real statistic but just my estimation. -Uzbek people, and I think Central Asians in general have no idea how to line up. Or they just don’t. There is generally just a mob and any one wanting joining the line (mob) try to just cut around to the front. We have learned we have to be aggressive and forget about personal space when encountering lines. -We get very special treatment as tourists, especially in non-touristy areas. For example at the border, tourists are ushered straight through, no waiting for hours like the locals. We felt pretty guilty entering busy shops in small villages where we were immediately noticed and attended to. It’s almost like they know they can’t line up so they quickly help out the poor tourists who can’t hang. -People love ice cream here. Standing on a street corner in any large town you will always be able to spot at least a couple people with an ice cream in hand. We always partake, especially because they go for a mere 20 cents. Life has been good. -Pax

+6
Samarkand ‐ Jun 14, 2019

+15
Qarshi ‐ Jun 12, 2019
Bukhara ‐ Jun 10, 2019

Bukhara was our next stop on the Silk Road. The first night, we stayed with a man who hosts travelers in an old caravansary right in the center. Just as a thousand years ago, we arrived after days in the desert ready for a rest. In the evening we chatted with him and another traveler from Slovakia, him practicing his English with us and her practicing Russian with him. We moved to a cheap hotel the next day for the WiFi and showers where we met Guy and Kamilla, a pair of AMERICAN CYCLISTS! This [...]
is a big deal, because even though it’s not uncommon to meet other cyclists, none of them are ever American. In our 1.5 yrs on the road, we have only met 2 cyclists from the US before Guy and Kamilla. And as a bonus they are from Indiana and Ohio. Midwestern, American, cycle tourists are an extremely rare breed indeed. They were staying at the same hotel, and we enjoyed a dinner out together. They are cycling west from Taiwan, so we exchanged tips and stories, plus we now have a contact for any questions we have in the future. Bukhara itself was a cool, old city with buildings beautifully decorated with blue and green tiles. We spent a day walking and cycling around, just looking at the buildings and enjoying $0.23 ice creams. The bazaar was also a highlight where we bought delicious cantaloupe and watermelon and ate until we had stomach aches. Now only one more stretch of desert to our final historic city and until the mountains of Tajikistan. -Ross

+12
Urgench ‐ Jun 7, 2019
Khiva

After Ross’s unfortunate day we continued our march toward Urgench, if nothing else but for the hotel room with AC waiting for us. We soon left the desert and everything became green and full of fields, orchards, and people. We knew we were going to have to ask someone in the fields to camp, so we cycled late into the evening to enjoy the more bearable hours of the day. When we were ready to camp we asked some people working in a field who said yes we could pitch a tent wherever we wanted. A [...]
man and his granddaughter also approached us on the road and said he would like to host us in his house. We cycled with him to his village and we were warmly received by his large family in his beautiful home. The focal point of Uzbek homes is a room with a large elevated area with a short but long table in the center, surrounded by cushions and pillows. Similar to the chaihanas, you can eat drink then promptly take a nap! The houses are large because usually the grandparents, sons, and their families all live under one roof. Soon, Dinovar, a neighbor, burst in and warmly greeted us in English! She is an English teacher at the local school and couldn't believe there were two Americans in town. She took us to her house where she lives with her in-laws and prepared us a delicious traditional Uzbek meal. In the morning Dinovar picked us up again and we were taken to her parents’ and brothers’ house for breakfast. Her mother had also been an English teacher. Dinovar explained when she was a child she went to a summer camp put on by Americans and it inspired her to become an English teacher. We are the first Americans she has met since then, 20 years ago, and now we are inspiring her to travel! So she really was both very surprised and incredibly happy to have us in her village. We covered the short distance to Urgench and checked into our hotel with AC. After a night of cooling down we took a 40 minute mini bus, for about 38 cents each, to reach Khiva - the reason for our little detour. Khiva is an old Silk Road city, about 1500 years old, but not quite as known or visited compared to Bukhara or Samarkand. It reminded me a bit of visiting Dubrovnik in the off season. A completely walled, beautiful, historic city and without the tourists. We saw a couple groups of westerners wandering around here or there but for the most part the tourists seemed to be Uzbek. The city is like something of a picture book of a middle eastern country, we didn’t know these places actually exist, and they are beautiful. We can’t wait to hit the next two famous Uzbek cities! -Pax

+26
Urgench ‐ Jun 6, 2019
Manghit ‐ Jun 4, 2019

Just outside of Nukus, I think I had maybe my most miserable day of the whole trip. Picture this: I wake up in a hotel room with a bit of an upset stomach and diarrhea but we (I) don’t want to stay another night because hotels in Uzbekistan are really pricy. So, after stocking up on groceries and relaxing a bit in the cool lobby, we venture into the inferno that is the Uzbek desert. We cycle out of town, and with every bump in the road, my stomach gets jostled a little bit more. An hour into [...]
the ride I’m sweating profusely, losing all the water I had been trying to drink throughout the day, and what’s left in our bottles has been heated to a point somewhere short of boiling and is nearly undrinkable. We take some breaks, but standing still is even worse than riding - having no breeze to help cool down. On one such break, I spew my breakfast and the remaining water in my system onto the sand. We decide at that point to make camp for the day so I can get some rest. Unfortunately, it was only 3pm, the sun was still high in the sky, and being in the middle of the desert, there was no shade in sight. Pax set up the tent for some shade while I tried to sip on water and rest. We moved inside, but found it to be comparable to the misery faced outside - just as hot but with no air movement. Being too weak to find another alternative, we both lay there in the makeshift sweat-lodge in the middle of the desert, drifting in and out of sleep, just waiting for death or at least a vision to present itself. All I could do was wait. I kept looking at my watch but it seemed like time was dragging on and on. I kept waiting for night to fall and hoping that the clouds on the horizon would rush to my aid and drop some cooling elixir in the form of an afternoon thunderstorm. The clouds never came, but eventually the sun dipped low enough that the tent’s shadow grew just big enough for one person to lay down. After wreching the one cucumber I had eaten, I was finally able to sleep for a couple hours in that glorious small patch of shade. Eventually the heat gave way to the shadows of dusk, and there was plenty of room for both of us to spread out and cool off a little. As bad as the day was for me, I’m sure it was almost as miserable for Paxton. She had her health, but had to endure the same excruciating heat and wasn’t so apt for sleeping 6 hours in the middle of the day as me. She also let me have the first bit of shade that night :) I think it’s safe to say that camping in the desert in midday is something we both never want to do again. -Ross P.S. I’m feeling better now
Nukus ‐ Jun 1, 2019

Heat, water, and cold water - it seems like these have been the topics of 90% of our conversations in Uzbekistan. The most used phrases being “it’s too hot”, “I cant drink this water, it’s super hot and nasty”, and “let’s stop for cold water”. We entered Uzbekistan and cycled through 500km of desert to get to the first city, Nukus. We weren’t super prepared, didn’t have much Uzbek Som, and the the first ATM wasn’t until Nukus, so just like in Kazakhstan, we rationed foo [...]
d and did long days trying to reach civilization as soon as we could. We were still cycling with Mustafa, so our money had to go even further to feed 3 people until he was able to withdraw money himself. That being said, we had some very pleasant cycling days. Most days we had a tailwind pushing us across the flat expanse and cooling us off a little from the 100+ F heat. We got in the habit of stopping at chaihanas every couple hours and simply buying a bottle of ice cold water (or occasionally Fanta) to share. After gulping down the much needed moisture, we would usually take a power nap to take full advantage of being out of the sun. Many cyclists hitch, bus or train this section of Uzbekistan, but we decided to just cycle though. We met a few drivers and motorcyclists who told us to “just turn around now”, unbelieving it was possible for someone to cross the desert on a bicycle. It was possible, and not altogether unpleasant. It was hot, sandy and physically taxing, but it made our night in an air conditioned hotel in Nukus all the sweeter! -Ross

+7

Karakalpakstan
Beyneu, Kazakhstan ‐ May 25, 2019

Our time in Kazakhstan was very brief and we only saw one tiny corner of this huge country. We had envisioned relentless heat, headwind, and endless, boring steppe and we had each filled our phones with podcasts to prepare for boredom and monotony. Our plan was to get through it as fast as we could, mostly on a mission to get to Uzbekistan, but Kazakhstan ended up being more enjoyable than we had hoped. Our ride leaving the ferry port for our first village was an exciting welcome. We saw our fi [...]
rst camels and herds of horses running freely, and interacted with many friendly locals. We laughed when a military vehicle passed and used their megaphone to say “welcome to Kazakhstan” and were humbled when a car that had passed returned and gave us each a cold water bottle and a Snickers bar. For six days we crossed the steppe with Mustafa, the Turkish cyclist we roomed with on Professor Gul. Besides the company, cycling with Mustafa has come with perks: because Turkish is so similar to most central Asian language he can communicate with people, at least at a basic level. Our English is virtually useless here, Russian is the second language and we haven’t done our homework to learn basic phrases yet. So being with Mustafa has been a great help to communicate here and because he is very outgoing we have met many nice folks. Our first night we camped with a Turkish caravan of trucks transporting power-plant equipment from Turkey to Uzbekistan. They invited us to have dinner with them and in the morning they again made us a delicious breakfast before we took off. Three days out from our next ATM we had essentially ran out of money, but we would still stop at almost every tea house to take a break and get out of the sun. And at every one, we were either given free tea and bread or another customer would buy us a round. We will mostly remember Kazakhstan for all the people we met who helped us along our way and the incredible and vast steppe. The tailwinds didn’t hurt the experience either! -Pax (Since Azerbaijan I have officially become Pax, telling people my name is Paxton just isn’t worth the struggle. And another note on trying to make our lives easier -when we are asked where we are from the response is usually, “Oh! America! New York?! California?!”. We’ve slowly gone from saying we are from St. Louis- in the middle, to saying “5 hours south of Chicago”, to just Chicago. Mom, I hope you can forgive me. We joke that soon we will just claim CA or NY as our home to make things easier...)

+41

Kazakhstan
Kuryk ‐ May 21, 2019

Finally! The ferry to Kazakhstan! We have been anticipating this ferry a long time. For those nationalities, like ourselves, who can’t enter Iran and those who don’t want to hassle with the difficult Turkmenistan visa after Iran, the next option is to take a cargo boat across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan. The passage has quite a reputation as there is no time table and the ship arrives and departs whenever it pleases. We have heard from many cyclists and heard many different experiences so [...]
our only preparation was to buy lots of food and expect a long wait. We arrived at the ferry port after a difficult 70km ride and were happy to find two German motorbikers were already there. Throughout the day we were joined by two Dutch motor-bikers, a polish motor-biker, one Turkish cyclist, and French, American, and Norwegian backpackers. To buy tickets we first had to get crisp US dollars from the ATM then head to the ticket office, inside a shipping container. We were pretty excited to learn that a ship would leave “tonight”. Then we had to head to “the bank”, another shipping container, next-door to pay. Finally with our receipt in hand we went back to the ticket office where we were told to return in an hour for the actual ticket. Hanging around the port wasn’t too bad except for the sun. There’s a container with toilets and one with showers, and a small market where we spent the rest of our manat. There you can camp but we were told of a waiting room so after finally getting our tickets a couple hours later that’s where the party moved. After lots of asking, “tonight” arrived and there was no news of the boat. We finally accepted they won’t tell us anything because they themselves don’t know when the boat will leave and our running motto became “maybe, maybe not. Inshallah”. But after sleeping that first night in the waiting room, the next afternoon someone came and told us we can board the boat! The ship, Professor Gul, is a old cargo boat with cabins, a kitchen, and dining room for truck drivers crossing the Caspian. This was our first time being on such a boat, and besides two stained glass doors leading to the dining room there were no frills about it. The passengers without trucks were the first to board and we were left to wander around until we found a seating area where a grumpy Russian woman led us to a room and gave us linens. We chose the cheaper room option, a tiny cabin with 2 bunk beds and a sink that we shared with Mustafa, the Turkish cyclist, and Madu, the French backpacker. BUT we did have a window so we were feeling pretty fancy and very much enjoyed the air flow. It certainly was not a luxurious ferry crossing, but it was entertaining nonetheless. Humorously, we had to be given a key to unlock the women’s restroom, that we were instructed to keep in a safe spot. On the boat I was one of only 3 women, excluding 2 who work on the ship cooking and cleaning, so the boat had the kind of atmosphere you might expect in a ship full of Russian and Central Asian truck drivers. But we had a great time with our roommates and other travelers passing the time in between meals by napping, sitting on deck and learning yoga. Over the course of our ride we were given 4 meals, most of them hot and pretty tasty. After 30 hours we docked in Kuryk, Kazakhstan in the middle of the night. Thankfully the port in Kuryk has a new terminal with a cafeteria and fast WiFi so we had a pleasant night sleeping there and getting our last bit of internet before the Kazakhstan steppe. -Paxton

+17

Caspian Sea Crossing
Alat, Azerbaijan ‐ May 14, 2019
Baku ‐ May 12, 2019

+18
Şǝki ‐ May 9, 2019

After entering Azerbaijan a couple things changed. When in town we get a lot more staring and lingering, and while on the bikes we get constant “HELLO!”s from people leaning half their body out the window of their Ladas (but we prefer it to the honking from Georgians). Both Azerbaijani culture and language is very similar to Turkish. Tea houses full of men playing backgammon line the road and we are happy we can now use our tiny but helpful Turkish vocabulary to get by again. And finally, Az [...]
erbaijan is HOT. We started feeling it the night before we crossed the border, but every day since, we have had a renewed appreciation for shade. It has been in the 80s and sunny, so every stretch of Highway without shade has been a scorcher. It has been beautiful - rugged mountains covered in thick forests and lots of farmland. After Paxton had a little bout with heat exhaustion, we stayed two nights in Sheki, a touristy town known for the Sheki Khan’s summer palace and karavansary; where Karavans would stop on the Silk Road to rest and trade goods. We planned on staying just one night, but our friends Dave and Tom showed up, so we splurged for another night (a whopping $6 for a private room) and ended up doing like the karavans used to and having a rest day. The ride to the Caspian sea was hot and hilly. One especially hard day, we had to climb up 400m with no shade, just to go down the other side and see another looming hill. We wanted to be done for the day, so we took a dirt track at the bottom of the valley to find camp. We passed a barn with an open door, and not 2 seconds later had been ushered inside for tea. We sat down at the table and were presented with copious amounts of cheese, yogurt, cream, butter, along with bread and veggies. It turned out we stumbled upon a dairy farm and its very friendly owners, and spent the afternoon eating and trying to talk with the 5 or 6 people there. It was great to get out of the heat for a while, but as it got later and the sun lowered, we excused ourselves and went to find a place to camp. They sent us off with a big bag of fresh cheese, and we had a wonderful night among the grazing cows. In the morning they again had us in for breakfast and sent us off towards Baku with more bread and cheese! -Ross

+21

Azerbaijan
Lagodekhi, Georgia ‐ May 5, 2019

There is always a flat route and always a hilly route, and once again, we decided to head into the mountains. The first two days out of Tbilisi were nothing but rain and hills, making us second guess our choice, but finally when the clouds lifted, we were at the top and regretted nothing. We sailed down to the valley floor where we intended to camp, only to find every potential camp spot covered in 2 ft of water from the river. Aside from not finding a place to camp here, we wanted to put some m [...]
iles between us and the river due to a traumatizing experience I had with a shepherd’s dog, which I will not recount here. So, we pushed on into the sprawling villages and farmland. We were not sure where we would camp, and it was getting late, so when a group of people at a house waved us over for dinner, we accepted - hoping to camp in their yard. These guys had been feasting and drinking, and promptly filled glasses and plates for us. After a while, Paxton went to bed (which they gave us, inside their house) but I stayed out with the group. I knew no Georgian and they knew no English, but as the night went on and the 5 gallon carboy of wine became lighter, we all seemed to understand each other just fine. In the morning, we packed up and were on our way to Lagodekhi National Park to go on some hikes (read: mushroom hunts) before leaving Georgia for its neighbor to the east, Azerbaijan. -Ross

+18

Last days in Georgia
Telavi ‐ May 4, 2019
Tbilisi ‐ Apr 29, 2019

In Tbilisi we stayed with David who had been hooked up with a free apartment while he sorted out his Chinese visa. We are in no rush, so we stayed here a whopping 5 days. This is longest we’ve ever stayed in one place, and maybe the first time ever we had some true “rest days”. Usually days we aren’t cycling we go on a hike or spend all day seeing the city, but at least a few of our days in Tbilisi consisted staying in the apartment truly relaxing. I will give Ross some credit here, he h [...]
as gotten much better at relaxing and understanding what a true rest day should be. When we did finally take a tourist loop around the city, we learned what we already knew...Tbilisi oozes cool. I stand by my statement of proclaiming Tbilisi one of the coolest cities I have ever visited. The old town is mostly old brick buildings with beautiful wooden balconies surrounded by sprawling city that would be indistinguishable from a Central European city. Intermingled are many examples of modern architecture like the Bridge of Peace or the gondola traveling above the center to a hill overlooking town. We have been meeting so many cyclists since Turkey because the Caucasus act as a bottleneck for everyone headed to Central Asia from Europe. Ideally cyclists reach the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan in the summer. Tbilisi is a popular place for cyclists to take a rest, obtain visas like the frustrating Chinese visa, tune up bikes, and stock up on spare parts before hitting Central Asia. Because you are allowed to stay in Georgia visa-free for 365 days, many travelers ending up staying. Even the guy who gave us the apartment had been cycling from the U.K. and made it to Kazakhstan where he found it to be too hot, turned around, and now lives in Tbilisi. Meeting up with other cyclists both passing through and taking a couple rest months added to Tbilisi’s fun atmosphere. -Paxton

+16
Tsalka

The next phase of the ride was climbing back into the mountains to visit the Javakheti region. When we arrived here, the scenery was like nothing I’ve ever seen. The whole region is a plateau at about 2000m, but there are huge snow covered mountains (volcanoes?) in every direction. It was really a spectacular feeling riding in short sleeves and being surrounded by extremely snowy mountains The mountains rise out of the lakes and make reflections like you see on postcards or movies, but never i [...]
n real life. We really enjoyed cycling this region, and to make things even better, we had another great wild camp spot - this time with some company. We spotted a couple of big overlander trucks parked in a field overlooking a lake, so we stopped to say hello and ended up staying the night. People drive these BIG all-terrain trucks that are essentially campers to the extreme. They look like something the military would have to reach extremely remote places where they don’t know what to expect. (See photos) We’ve been dreaming about getting a look at the inside of these trucks since we first saw them in South America, and our dream finally came true! We were invited inside for tea, and later for dinner and Georgian wine. It was a very pleasant night of socializing and being amazed at what luxuries they brought with them. The rest of the ride to the capital city, Tbilisi, featured rolling hills through a river valley and more views of majestic mountains. All in all, the weeks’ ride from Batumi to Tbilisi was one of our favorite routes of the whole trip, and Georgia is quickly earning a top spot in places we’ve loved to cycle. -Ross

+29

Javakheti
Akhalk'alak'i ‐ Apr 27, 2019

After our first pass we were soon in the Samstke part of the Samstkhe-Javakheti region. Here we spent the days peacefully cycling through huge green canyons, simply enjoying the view. Wild camping in Georgia is so easy. Every night we easily find beautiful sites with flat ground. One especially great camp we found included a picnic table, fire ring, and was right next to a beautiful river. We never buy beer, but since we were with Dave, that night he and I decided to split a huge 2.5L jug so it [...]
was now cooling off in the river. As I was looking for firewood, I stumbled upon a flush of Morel mushrooms!! I called over Paxton and Dave, and after that we kept finding more and more(el)! It was so fun sharing my knowledge with Dave, as he never saw these mushrooms and was very interested to try them. We found 32 in total, all within 50m of where we had made camp. We spent the night making food, sitting around the fire, drinking ice cold beer, and roasting lots of fresh mushrooms! -Ross

+18

Samtskhe
Akhalts'ikhe ‐ Apr 25, 2019
Khulo ‐ Apr 23, 2019

The ride out of Batumi brought us through the older towns where Soviet era buildings stood with the hammer and sickle still stamped on their gates. It was a stark contrast with the modern city center with all the high rise apartments and skyscrapers. Batumi gave way to a lush, green river valley that we began to climb. This region, Adjara, is one of the wettest temperate regions in the northern hemisphere but thankfully we had a sunny forecast ahead of us. It reminded us a little of when we were [...]
in Bolivia on our way down to the jungle. On our second day out of the city we stopped to look at an old overgrown fortress when another cyclist appeared out of nowhere! We started talking to Dave, and found out he left his hometown in Italy about 6 weeks before, and is cycling to see Mt. Everest in Nepal. We were all headed in the same direction, so we continued cycling together. Dave seemed to be better prepared than us: he informed us that this road actually turned into a 2000m (6000+ft) mountain pass, and other cyclists had recently reported lots of snow and water on the road. He had his sandals out and ready to wade through streams and puddles, and was mentally prepared for some hard days of cycling. We, on the other hand saw the nice looking road into the mountains on our map, and decided to give it a whirl. The next few days were nothing but sunshine and good vibes. It was fun cycling with another person, and before we knew it we were on a tiny road cutting through 4 meters (12ft) of snow on either side! It was unreal how much snow there was here, when just 10km down the road there was only a few patches of snow here and there! On our way down, a Georgian couple driving up the pass saw us and started asking us some questions. They parked in the middle of the road, got out of their car, and produced a bottle of champagne and glasses for us to have a toast, or celebration or something (I’m not really sure why or what it was supposed to be). This created a three car back up but the other drivers weren’t surprised or angry, and some even got out and joined us! It was such an odd experience, and I think it captures the “typical Georgian” perfectly. -Ross

+29

Adjara
Batumi ‐ Apr 22, 2019

Often times we don’t notice too much of a difference crossing into one country from the next but we definitely noticed in Georgia. Straight away we were reminded we were now back in a Christian country with a church at the border. The drivers are crazier, the roads worse, and alcohol is everywhere. When we are out shopping we have to divide by 3 instead of 5, we are relearning all our basic words like hello and thank you, and getting used to their fairy alphabet- ეს ასე გამო [...]
იყურება. We could hardly believe our eyes cycling into Batumi, big high-rises, luxury hotels, and strange modern sculptures. In the summer it is a big resort town, mainly for Russians, but while we were here it was cool and overcast. The center is the old town which reminded me a bit of New Orleans because of the balconies, palm trees, and funky vibe. Overall we really enjoyed our time in the city. On the street we met 3 Germans on holiday and booked a night in their room at a hostel. We rarely stay in hostels because in past countries it has just been cheaper to get our own apartment rather than two beds in a dorm. We also have so much stuff we usually explode all over the room. So we enjoyed getting to hang out with other travelers for a day! In the evening Miki, from China and a new friend of the Germans, came over and made us an amazing Chinese dinner, fueling us up before we headed into the mountains in the morning! -Paxton

+12
Hopa, Turkey ‐ Apr 21, 2019
Ardeşen ‐ Apr 20, 2019

From Cappadocia we decided we would try to hitch or take a bus to the Black Sea. We weren’t particularly looking forward to anything, we weren’t interested in cycling over the mountains, and Turkey is a big country and we have been here for quite a while. We tried hitching for a day but few trucks passed and we easily gave up. So we cycled on to Kayseri and bought a bus ticket! When we woke up from our 12 hour ride, we found ourselves cycling with the sea to our left and beautiful, lush gree [...]
n hills to our right. After cycling out of Trabzon we pulled over at a water spigot and while we were stopped 4 other cyclists arrived! Two Romanians on a tandem and two French each pulling trailers with huge solar panels. Cycling the coast is beautiful but not ideal for cyclists. The traffic is fast and there are many tunnels but at least for most of the way, but unfortunately not in the tunnels, there are big shoulders. We have a hard time believing how green, lush, wild, and steep the hillsides. Çay is produced in this region and there are tea plantations everywhere. It is also famous for hazelnut production. In Rize we stayed with Mustafa, a WarmShowers host who owns a cafe. On the second floor he has a room for cyclists to sleep and we spent a night there with the French couple form earlier, Marie and Yacob. The next night, around 5:30 we began looking for a place to camp. It wasn’t looking great because all of the steep hills and rocky coast, and what little flat land was obviously owned by someone and being used as farmland. We noticed a hazelnut grove just off the road, perfect for the tent so we set off in search of somebody to ask permission to camp. The first human we saw was this lady with a huge bundle of sticks on her back. She didn’t know anything about the hazelnut forest but she showed us to an empty tea warehouse where we could pitch our tent out of the rain! She then insisted we come back to her house for dinner, tea and to meet her family. We met her husband and two daughters, and spent the night eating way too much food and warming ourselves in front of their wood stove. After dinner, two neighbor girls came over and we all sat in the living room drinking çay and talking through google translate. It felt like we were getting quizzed by a panel; the four girls were sitting on one couch all conferring quietly to each other in Turkish, then one would speak up in English to ask us a question. We spent the night in our tent (after refusing their offers of sleeping somewhere in their house) and in the morning we went to the neighbors’ house for breakfast! Their mother had prepared us a proper Turkish breakfast including menamen and all the fixings. We spent some more hours talking to them and learning all about their lives in this little town in Turkey. Most interestingly, and least surprisingly, we learned they make their livelihoods by growing tea and selling it to the çay factory directly across the road. Then buying the tea right back! Both families we met in this town by chance, took us in and showed us so much hospitality that it made us sorry that we were leaving Turkey. It felt like we had a real connection with them, and we were sad to leave. Alas, we did leave but not before we were showered with gifts to remember them by: Paxton was given two bracelets and a scarf, and we both left with a pair of knitted socks. We will always remember Turkey for the nice people and their unlimited hospitality, and how some strangers helped make Turkey one of our favorite countries. Pictures to come! -Ross and Paxton

+11

Black Sea Region
Trabzon ‐ Apr 18, 2019
Göreme ‐ Apr 13, 2019

The ride to Cappadocia took us through many valleys and ridges that started to look more and more like something we’d see in Utah. Red dirt, bizarre rock formations, desert looking landscape - you name it. What placed us in Turkey instead of the western U.S. was the frequent mosques and that there were 1000 year old cave dwellings carved into nearly every rock formation we passed. It was very impressive, but we were holding our breath for Cappadocia because everyone we’ve met has only sung i [...]
ts praises. Cappadocia is the meeting place of all tourists in Turkey. Everyone, no matter travel style or budget visits Cappadocia to see the park and the hot air balloons float over the Martian landscape every morning for sunrise. The park consists of numerous valleys and plateaus, with steep sandstone cliffs weaving their way all through the region. Within these cliffs are thousands of rooms carved out that were used as homes, churches and schools in the 10th Century. It’s possible and actually very popular to stay in “cave hotels”, but it’s very expensive. When we arrived, we understood the hype. We were in a state of amazement and couldn’t stop ourselves from taking photo after photo because it was just so beautiful. We stayed for three nights atop one of the plateaus just on the edge of a cliff, along with 6 other people all driving camper vans or trucks of some kind. We even met back up with our Spanish friend David from a few posts ago! This was one of our all-time favorite camping spots, and we definitely could have stayed a few more days had the weather not turned sour. Two of the mornings, we were excited to wake up at 5:30 to the sound of huge fans inflating balloons, readying them to float through the valley for sunrise. This was really a surreal experience; hundreds of hot air balloons, launching all around us and filling the valley with life. The balloonists (?) it seems would try to get as close to the valley sides and floor as possible, one passing literally two feet above my head! (See photo!) We spent lots of time exploring the valley and hanging out with other like-minded travelers, and overall had a wonderful time there. Our time in Cappadocia is definitely a highlight of Turkey and even for our entire trip. We would love to return one day and live the whole experience over again. -Ross

+21

Cappadocia
Derinkuyu ‐ Apr 11, 2019

Back in Aksaray we stayed with Onder, a WarmShowers host who told us that the previous night he had hosted a French family of four who are cycling to Iran. We had kept them in the back of our minds hoping we may run into them on our way to Cappadocia, and we finally did! We rolled into Derinkuyu later in the day and were on the fence whether to stay in a hotel for a night to get WiFi and showers before we hit the more pricey tourist town of Göreme. In the lobby of the first hotel we stepped in, [...]
we saw a bunch of bikes and bags, which sealed the deal. In the morning over breakfast we met Manuel, Céline, Jeanne (8), and Elsa (5) and got talking about our plans and time on the road. By the time we were done with breakfast, we decided to cycle together the rest of the way to Cappadocia! The 6 of us made quite a group. Manuel and Jeanne ride a tandem bike with a trailer while Céline rides a normal bike pulling a wheel with something like a recumbent bike attachment for Elsa. The spare wheel has pedals and a chain so Elsa can pedal if she wants but often she is looking around, talking, or sleeping. These guys must have very strong legs because these bikes are heavy and the hills are very challenging for them. We have met quite a few families traveling the world by bicycle with small kids, every single one of them French. We finally learned in France, unlike the rest of Europe, it is legal to homeschool, so many families choose to travel and teach heir kids on the road for a year or so. It was really cool to see how the girls dealt with life on the bike, and constantly moving around. They seemed to love it, and adapted just like us to the mentality that it is just their normal life now. We find it encouraging to see these couples still cycling after having kids, and we know it’s always an option in the future ;) -Paxton

+18

Then there were 6
Ihlara ‐ Apr 9, 2019

From Selime the next area we wanted to check out was the Ihlara Valley. The valley is famous for its natural beauty as well as its historical significance. Carved into the canyon, only 14 kilometers long, are 105 churches and almost 10,000 “landmarks” - which are places like rooms and tunnels. Many of these churches still have the original frescoes painted on the walls and ceilings. It was quite amazing to be in a small stone church with paintings that could be easily placed in Europe only t [...]
o walk out the door and be 20 meters up in a beautiful canyon in central Anatolia. On the flip side the frescoes are badly damaged, with lots of names and words etched into the walls and most of the faces and hands being scratched off. Part of us found it amazing to be able to step into a 9th century monastery so freely and part of us felt that these places needed to be seen from behind glass to preserve the incredible history. But cycling the canyon itself was another fun highlight! A hiking trail runs along the bottom along a river from the exit in Selime to the beginning in the town of Ihlara and after asking around in Selime we found it was possible to cycle the trail, with some sections we would have to walk. So we set off from Selime! After visiting the Selime Cathedral in the morning we didn’t have time and didn’t want to finish the canyon in one day so we found camp at a gorgeous spot where the valley opened up a bit and we could pitch our tent on a flat meadow on the Melendiz River. The second day was more difficult than the first, we had to tag-team our bikes up and down rocky sections of the trail many times but over all it was completely worth it and we were very happy we got to experience the canyon in its entirety. When we reached Ihlara we had one final bike-hike to get out of the canyon and suddenly we were back up on the steppe, a different world. I liked the snarky quote on the sign when we left, “A visit to Cappadocia without seeing Ihlara, where nature, history, art, and culture meet, cannot be considered a visit.” -Paxton

+16

Ihlara Valley
Selime ‐ Apr 7, 2019

It’s been a whirlwind these past few days, so here’s a little taste of 2 of them. We altered our route to go to Selime after a fellow cyclist messaged us and strongly recommended the Selime Cathedral. When we pulled up to the location she suggested we camp, who did we find? David from Spain whom we met 3 days earlier in Konya! He was with a couple from Germany also driving across Asia so we joined them for the night, camping below the giant cliffs and wild rock formations for which this reg [...]
ion is so famous. We all really opened up to each other, and in the evening we got a raging fire going and had a family style dinner with grilled veggies, meat and dessert. The next day we not only checked out the cathedral, the largest in Cappadocia, but the hundreds of other rooms and passages carved out of the mountains in the 9th-12th centuries. It was incredible to see, and even more incredible to think about what it must have been in its height. There were schools, houses, cellars, and everything you need to run a functioning city, all carved out of the cliffs. We have now seen hundreds of these dwellings but as these were the first we explored we were pretty enthralled! -Ross

+15

Selime Cathedral
Aksaray ‐ Apr 6, 2019

+13

Konya-Aksaray
Eskil ‐ Apr 2, 2019
Konya ‐ Apr 1, 2019

We’ve been very surprised at how clean Turkish cities have been and Konya was no exception. They seem to employ hundreds of people to landscape and clean streets. We saw tons of city workers gardening, riding little electric sidewalk sweepers, and one guy power washing the concrete surface of a town square. Their hard work seems to pay off as the city, or at least the center, is pretty immaculate. With all the landscapers and city workers, their parks are also on-point. We seem to always see [...]
huge parks with picnic tables and lots of green space in every city, and it just so happened that attached to Konya‘s huge park was a free campground where we could pitch our tent with electricity, water, and clean bathrooms with hot showers! This gem of a campsite was no secret, as later in the day 3 other overlanders showed up: a Spanish man driving to Nepal, two Germans driving to Mongolia and back, and a Turkish couple touring around Turkey. We spent the evening chatting with them and even getting to practice a little Spanish with our new friend David. Sadly on the flip side of the clean cities, we often encounter lots of litter and trash while we were out on the road. Cycling from Konya towards Aksaray, the scenery became a bit more of what I was expecting the steppe to be: flat grassland or shrubs with trash strewn about. We decided to take a detour off the main road to see Tuz Gölü, which means salt lake. The salt lake wasn’t too impressive for us because it is surrounded by marshland and where we camped we couldn’t really see it, even from the lookout tower. But to be out there seemingly in the middle of nowhere was really incredible. We could see for miles in every direction, the horizon only to be broken towards the east and south where some mountains rose in the distance. I felt quite vulnerable because usually we do our best to hide our tent behind trees to make sure no one stumbles upon our camp or spots us from the road, but here we were completely exposed. The next day instead of going back to the road the way we came, we decided to try and cross the huge marsh/grassland to reach Aksaray. The map showed that a trail would lead to a village which would have a road to town but in reality there were many trails that split and merged and crossed, and soon we realized our map was lacking. Thankfully there were quite a few shepherds roaming around and we got some points in the general direction we needed to go. The main routes in Turkey have actually treated us very well because they have such big shoulders but for once it was nice to really get off the beaten path again and get a bit lost. -Paxton
Beyşehir ‐ Mar 30, 2019

Warning: long post. After over 1 week in Istanbul, we were itchin’ to leave the hustle and bustle of the big city and return to our normal slow pace of life in the saddles. Still, we left Antalya feeling refreshed ready to hit the road. Our first stop was Manavgat - a town we knew nothing about, save that there was a bicycle cafe whose owner hosted cyclists. When we arrived, we were immediately served çay (Turkish tea) and a hot meal from the cafe’s menu, free of charge! We chatted with t [...]
he owner and his friends about cycling, routes, and any other number of things for a couple hours before he closed down the cafe and moved aside some tables on the outdoor patio so we had room to set up our tent. The owner was so nice and almost too hospitable; in the morning when he arrived, he made us a full breakfast (of menemen, our favorite) gave us a spare bike tube, and gave Paxton a pair of bicycle earrings! We reluctantly said our goodbyes and headed off into the mountains. Before leaving town, we walked to the central bazaar to get some fresh fruits and veggies. We immediately noticed that there were quite a few tourists, and as we walked through, we noticed that prices were in euros, signs were in German, and shopkeepers even started to heckle us in German. How strange (or bizarre, you could say)! I guess for whatever reason, all the Germans come to this town in Turkey for holiday, and the locals have embraced it. We can see why the Germans love Manavgat though - it’s a small town that is super clean, has very good infrastructure, nice walking and cycling paths, and a meandering river on which you can take boat tours up to their musical fountain bridge. Ok enough about our wonderful time in Manavgat and on with the trip. For the next few days, we did what felt like only uphill. It was steep, windy, and as we got higher, it got colder. After over 1000m of elevation, we reached the first pass. From here, we got our last glimpse of the Mediterranean Sea and its warm climate that we have been enjoying since January, and were welcomed into central Turkey and its bitter cold with some flurries. The following day was more of the same, but after some steep steep hills, we decided to put out the thumb and see if we could hitch a ride to the top. Luckily, people in Turkey are super nice, and if they can help, they will help. Not 30 seconds after we decided to try and get a ride, this old guy in his old truck picked us up as he was going up to the mountains to fill water jugs from a spring. As he was driving up these steep, mountain roads he kept gesturing cycling, being out of breath, and being cold. He was clearly happy that he could help us out, and we were happy that we didn’t have to go through all the pain and suffering of cycling those roads. There was no real descent from these mountains, instead it kind of plateaus into the steppe that is central Turkey. So, as we were cycling on these flat roads, a scary thing happened. I was in front, my head down trying to fight through the headwind and Paxton was right behind, drafting. I wizzed by something close, just missing it. I hear a “taaang” and I knew Paxton wasn’t as lucky. A road sign that had had been bent down almost parallel to the road had snuck up on us and caught Paxton’s handlebars as she passed by. She was thrown off her bike, but was just fine. The scary part was looking at her handlebars afterwards: right where her hand usually was, the bar tape had been sliced clean apart straight to the metal. This sign could have easily lopped off a few unlucky fingers had they been in their usual resting place by the brake leaver. But alas, we emerged OK and ready to take on the rest of Turkey. From there we had an uneventful ride to the shores of Lake Beysehir where we found camp at a beautiful but very cold picnic area. -Ross

+19

Into the Mountains!
İbradı
Manavgat ‐ Mar 27, 2019
Antalya ‐ Mar 25, 2019

+3
Istanbul ‐ Mar 17, 2019

Istanbul! We have so much to say about our week there! We decided to fly from Antalya because domestic flights in Turkey are cheap and we didn’t want to cycle through the madness of Istanbul. We knew we wanted to visit the city and I didn’t want to miss the chance to see Cangül, my Turkish exchange sister, and her family. Mackenzie also flew in for the week so we had a fun little group! There is too much to say about our stay with Cangül and the incredible city that is Istanbul. I have upl [...]
oaded a bunch of pictures and put some descriptions under most of them. We enjoyed a lot of tourist activities (but didn’t enjoy the crowds), ate way too much food (but enjoyed all of it) and spent time with Cangüls amazing parents. Not pictured is the Hamam Cangüls mom took us to. A Hamam is a Turkish bath and it was a more incredible experience than we ever could have imagined! We essentially bathed ourselves for two and a half hours in a beautiful marble and blue-tiled sauna. Mackenzie felt like she had gone back in time and I felt like I was in Game of Thrones. It was certainly one highlight of our time in Istanbul! -Paxton

+38
Antalya ‐ Mar 16, 2019
Kemer ‐ Mar 15, 2019

From Selçuk, we had two options: go through the interior over some high mountain passes, or stay along the coast and tack on an additional 100km. We had a deadline to get to Antalya in time for our flight, and it felt like either way we’d be cutting it close. We could see the mountains in the distance, and they were just covered in snow, so we chose to stay low and warm, even if it meant some long days. Staying along the sea was amazing. The weather was great and the water was so blue. We en [...]
joyed stopping in the small towns and having lunch in nice parks along the sea before continuing our ride. As we got closer to Antalya, we recalculated the kilometers and found that we’d have to do some 100+km days. These were loooong days but the scenery and weather made it pleasant. -Ross

+15

Mediterranean
Kas ‐ Mar 13, 2019
Fethiye ‐ Mar 12, 2019
Muğla ‐ Mar 11, 2019
Çine ‐ Mar 10, 2019
Aydin
Selçuk ‐ Mar 9, 2019

We took the advice of our Couchsurfing host in Izmir and decided to leave the city by taking the train south to the last stop. This way we could spend the day walking around Izmir but still get out of the city sprawl and find a place to wild camp. When we reached the end of the line we realized on the same platform was a train headed for Selçuk, our next destination. So we hopped on! Technically I don’t think our ticket was good to go all the way to Selçuk but we didn’t have any problems. [...]
We wanted to visit Selçuk to see Ephesus, an Ancient Greek/Roman port city and maybe the most famous archeological site in Turkey. The city was once second only to Rome and was famous for its Temple of Artemis, which is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. These ruins were so different for us to walk through because it was an entire city. So it was pretty powerful walking down the streets and seeing the houses, theaters, temple, library, and toilets and being able to imagine what the city was like when it was bustling in the 1st and 2nd century AD. -Paxton

+11
Izmir ‐ Mar 6, 2019

We have been looking forward to Turkey for a long time! We’ve heard stories from other travelers about the delicious food and cheap prices, and we’ve been excited to start out third and longest leg of our trip - Asia. So far, we have loved every minute here. Right from the get-go we were warmly welcomed by our host the first night, who was so generous and gave us more than we could have ever hoped. She and her boyfriend gave us a tour of the village, bought us dinner, and left us the whole [...]
flat for the night while they stayed at his place. In the morning she brought us to some local hot springs at the edge of the sea, then once again bought us lunch! We were tempted to accept her offer to stay another night, but we have a little time crunch so we pushed on. Next, we made it to Izmir - our first big Turkish city. They had a fantastic bike trail along the sea that ran all the way from the suburbs to downtown, surrounded by parks and green spaces. We wanted to see if the stories we heard were true, so we spent a day walking around taking in the sights, sounds, and tastes of the city. We determined that yes, everything is cheap and delicious! We even ran across a food truck giving away these fried dough things for free! FREE! We later learned that these trucks are common, set up around noon, and just give out free dessert to anyone who gets in line. We’re still not sure why though.... Just spending these 4 days here and seeing Izmir with its big markets and cheap prices was really neat, and it makes us look forward to spending the next month in Turkey and seeing more of what it has to offer -Ross

+4
Çeşme ‐ Mar 4, 2019
Chios, Greece ‐ Mar 2, 2019

We reluctantly left Athens after 3 days and took a ferry to the island of Chios (pronounced key-os). We had hoped to take a night ferry but unfortunately this one only left in the mornings. So we woke up at 5:30 am to to reach the 7 o’clock ferry which didn’t arrive to Chios until 9:45 that night. But we love being on boats so we enjoyed the day sitting at a window table eating our ferry snacks and watching the islands go by. After 3 nights in Athens and purchasing the ferry tickets, our wal [...]
lets were feeling the pinch and we didn’t want to stay at another hotel in Chios. So when we arrived we cycled in the night until we reached a small forest just outside town and threw down the tarp and our sleeping bags to stay the night. The next morning we woke up and began cycling into the mountains before having breakfast at a nice overlook. Cycling on Chios was challenging but so nice! There is very little traffic and always a beautiful view. The villages are small and picturesque and the wild camping was plentiful. Only the hills gave us something to grumble about. Our favorite little town was Pyrgi. Most of the buildings have gray and white horizontal patterns all down their front, including the church. The streets are narrow and maze like and when you look up even the bottom of balcony and archways have the patterns. We wish we could have stopped at other Greek islands too, but Chios was beautiful and Turkey was calling! Gobble gobble. -Paxton

+20
Athens ‐ Mar 3, 2019

+22
Malakasa ‐ Mar 2, 2019
Thiva ‐ Mar 1, 2019
Delphi ‐ Feb 28, 2019

Well, all of our raving about the beautiful Greek weather finally caught up with us in the form of rain, wind, cold, and snow. To be fair, we made the decision to go into the mountains well aware that the forecast didn’t look so good - but we wanted to see the ancient ruins at Delphi so we went anyway. The ruins were impressive. This sanctuary, being “the navel” of Ancient Greece had huge marble temples dedicated to Apollo the God of War, erected on the mountaintop, with demanding views [...]
of the valley below all the way to the sea. That night we had even more excitement: we camped for the night just out of town, and as we finished dinner, a motor home pulled in next to us and they invited us inside for tea. Turns out they were two Aussies touring around Europe (and Turkey) and it was so fun to just spend a couple hours out of the cold chatting with them about life and traveling. The night was cold and clear, but we were exposed. If the wind was anywhere close to what it was the previous night, we would be forced to risk damage to the tent, or else take it down and find a new spot in the middle of the night. The night was not calm, and we ended up quickly packing up our tent at 1:30AM to just sleep under the windy, flurry-filled sky. From here we set our gaze on Athens. We had heard so much about it (good and bad), so we had to check it out. On the way there, we met two Swiss cyclists also going to Athens! After the normal pleasantries, we all set off together, with a silent understanding that we would be traveling companions for the next 3 days until we reach town. It was great, riding with Jolan and Sara. They told us that cyclists in Greece often sleep in churches (which we did), we had some good conversations, and Jolan showed me a couple roadside plants that I can forage and eat! It was fun being a pack of 4, and watching people watch us all wiz on by. We parted ways in Athens, but they are en-route to Japan, so we may very well see them again in Asia! -Ross

+17

Delhi and some mountains
Messolonghi ‐ Feb 21, 2019

Cycling in Greece has been exactly how we’d imagined; picturesque costal roads winding in and out of bays of crystal clear water, with islands in the distance. The roads have been fairly calm and most have a large shoulder so the riding has been nice. It really has been perfect, not to mention that every day feels like a nice summer day. For the first time in months, we’ve been cycling in short-sleeves, and today Paxton even got out the ol’ shorts! The sun feels so good on our pale bodies, [...]
giving us a little taste of the warmer summer weather ahead. Greece is in a different time zone than Albania, which means that we get one more hour of light at the end of the day - which is super nice! We can now find camp around 5pm and have an hour of light for dinner before retiring to the tent. And now it’s even warm enough to stay out after dark. We usually find camp on a deserted beach, and eat dinner while watching the sun set over the sea. Apparently Greece is a popular cycling destination; over the past week, we’ve seen more cycle tourers than we have over the past 6 months in Europe! When we see other cyclists, we always stop to chat and see what they are up to. We enjoy checking out each other’s set ups and giving tips about the road ahead. So far we’ve only crossed paths with people headed north but we have been talking to a few other couples who are heading our general direction who we hope to cross paths with at some point! -Ross

+21

Western Greece
Mitikas ‐ Feb 20, 2019
Preveza
Igoumenitsa ‐ Feb 18, 2019
Sarandë, Albania ‐ Feb 16, 2019

Our remaining days in Albania were spent cycling along a beautiful coast with many climbs, most of which were at a gradient a bit too steep for my taste. The first climb was our highest and toughest in Albania, but once over the pass we were rewarded with wonderful views of huge mountains on our left, the sea dotted with islands on our right, and miles of the costal road we would soon be pedaling ahead of us. Albania is cheap so we took our time and also spent a couple days in the town of Saran [...]
dë before heading towards Greece! I also wanted to mention two random Albanian curiosities: 1. Chuck and Susan way back in Shkoder warned us that Albanians shake their head side to side to say yes, and wag their finger at you to say no. Ross and I experienced it at the post office! The woman at the counter was available, and to signal we could step up she smiled and shook her head at us. It feels so unnatural but that our gesture for “No” is their gesture for “Yes”! 2. Albania has these bunkers all over the country, built during the communist era from the 60s to 80s. I added a picture of one at a castle we visited. But they really are everywhere. In the middle of cities, in peoples yards, on mountains. There are an average of 14.7 per square mile, courtesy of Wikipedia. Check out the “Bunkers in Albania” article -super interesting! Albania ended up being full of surprises. We had been warned about both people and dogs and neither gave us any problems. We found the cities to be full of life. The northern coast was full of wetlands and farmland while the southern coast was mountainous and rocky. The food seemed to be a mix of Albanian, Greek, and Italian. We loved this country and will return on a future “Summer in the Balkans” tour! -Paxton

+16

Southern Albania
Himarë ‐ Feb 14, 2019
Vlorë ‐ Feb 11, 2019

While the scenery hasn’t been spectacular, cycling through north and central Albania has been great way to see the country and what makes Albania special - it’s people. The rural landscape reminds us a lot of Ukraine or Romania, along with the architecture, the occasional horse drawn cart and the overall slow pace of life. However, instead of church steeples and shiny domes dotting the horizon, mosques’ minarets pierce the sky. We haven’t talked to many people because almost nobody know [...]
s English, but everyone we’ve interacted with has been very friendly. Almost every single person we pass - children, construction workers, farmers, shepherds, etc...always wave and say “hello”. We haven’t experienced this in any other country. One time we were eating lunch at the side of the road at an abandoned car wash, when a crowded bus stopped to let somebody off. EVERYONE on the bus was glued to the windows waving enthusiastically at us. It all happened in about 4 seconds and then the bus was gone, it was a surreal experience. Another way we feel the Albanian love is through people’s generosity. We were stopped in this tiny village looking at our map when a man driving a cookie delivery truck (what a job, right??) came up to us and handed us each a pack of cookies. No words were said because he didn’t speak English, but he just wanted to do something nice for us. The day before we were also given a free bag of apples! Northern Albania has its share of non-farmland too. We always found ourselves heading back to the sea to find camp for the night, like when we made a detour to Divjaka-Karvasta National Park. This wetland area had many hotels and restaurants but also a nice long beach and marshes. We found camp for the night between some sand dunes and had a spectacular sunset over the Adriatic. While we are enjoying Albania we are really looking forward to the mountains and better scenery we are hearing about in the south. So onward we cycle! -Ross

+18

Northern Albania
Divjakë ‐ Feb 10, 2019
Durrës ‐ Feb 9, 2019
Shkoder ‐ Feb 7, 2019

We arrived in Shkoder and were warmly greeted by our WarmShowers hosts Chuck and Susan. They are a retired ex-pat couple who left the U.S. to cycle Europe for two years only to fall in love with Shkoder and stay. In the warm months they cycle tour all over Europe and in the winter they host cyclists through WarmShowers. But when I say they host cyclists, I mean they take it like it’s their job. They don’t turn anyone away so we heard stories of hosting 10 cyclists at a time and while we were [...]
there they sadly commented a couple times that they had no new messages so wouldn’t have any cyclists for at least a couple days. They even selected their apartment because it had wide double doors for getting loaded bikes through, a room downstairs for storing bikes, and plenty of floor space and a large deck for sleeping cyclists. To give you a nice visual of this amazing couple Chuck has a long beard and pierced ears and wears a matching sweater with Susan that she knitted herself. Chuck and Susan’s love for Shkoder made us fall for this little town we probably would have passed right through if it we hadn’t known. We had noticed when we entered that Albania had a South American feel. Life is out in the streets, with people walking and cycling and open markets with people buying and selling goods out on the road. There’s no industry in Albania so people just find something to sell. And just as we found in South America, you can find people selling just about anything. Susan told me it is one of her favorite parts about living in Shkoder, she has a lady she buys her olive oil from, someone she buys eggs from, a man who sells the best apples across the street. Living here has been the first time she felt she belonged to a community, an aspect we loved about South America and a feeling she never felt in the U.S. What also made Shkoder feel special was how calm the roads felt. Although they are very busy with many cars and cyclists, the cars are very patient and rarely honk. After months of fast, crazy, city drivers we were amazed to watch people casually cycle side by side down crowded streets while cars and buses patiently waiting for a time to pass. Ross and I enjoyed wandering around town. We had our first Byreke, a popular pastry. We got both our bikes looked at and bought our patches for just shy of 5 dollars. We made a run to an orthodontist for Ross, his permanent retainer had to be replaced along and with a teeth cleaning we were in and out in 45 minutes and only €40 poorer. We also visited the fortress to the south of town that had beautiful views all around. We extended our time with Chuck and Susan an extra day but we would have loved to stay longer. They emphasized they didn’t want us to feel like guests and we really didn’t. Sharing meals and stories with them was something very special. We were sad to leave their kindness and hospitality but we hope to see them again. In a couple months, after 6 years of living and touring in Europe, they are giving up their apartment and starting their next adventure of cycle touring through South America. -Paxton

+17

Shkodër
Podgorica, Montenegro ‐ Feb 4, 2019

We spent only 3ish days in Montenegro and we wish we could have stayed much longer. After a lovely stay in Kotor we continued south by heading for the capital. First we had a 1,400m (4,600 ft) climb up to Lovcen National Park and the namesake mountain for Montenegro. We didn’t get too far because we found the perfect abandoned building to camp in as the weather started to turn. After the storm passed we were rewarded with an incredible sunset and view over the bay below. We finished the climb [...]
the next afternoon, and were surprised to find ourselves in a little winter wonderland. As we climbed higher, we started seeing snow and ice until the roads became a solid ice sheet and the snowbanks were over our heads in some places! We didn’t have too many problems going up, but the first 4 kilometers of our descent was half biking and half sliding down the road. We made it down to the first town with only a few falls each, and from there we had a plowed road and a descent that lasted us the whole 56km to Podgorica! We were stunned by the scenery the whole way. Our road took us down into the large valley where Podgorica and Lake Skadar sit. What we weren’t expecting was the beautiful mountains and hills surrounding it. We cycled through the capital, only stopping at a cycling shop to pick up some parts we have needed, but we enjoyed passing through. The city was very nice and we cycled on bike paths for the first time in quite a while. Like all the Balkan countries we have visited Montenegro had incredible natural beauty that we hope to return and see one day in the summer. -Paxton

+18

Montengero
Kotor ‐ Feb 1, 2019

+15
Dubrovnik, Croatia ‐ Jan 30, 2019

The Walled City, Kings Landing, or Dubrovnik; no matter what you call it, it’s a very special place to see. We spent a day walking around the old town and marveling at the beauty and antiquity of the city walls. Once inside the city, limestone streets pave the way through beautiful, traditional, medieval Croatian buildings. It lives up to its nickname “Pearl of the Adriatic” for a reason and was a perfect ending to our time along the Dalmatian Coast. We stayed with a Warmshowers host Niksa [...]
, who doesn’t cycle, but loves hosting cyclists, showing them around Dubrovnik, and hearing about their experiences. We were able to store our bikes in Niksa’s garden, where he had 7 different types of citrus trees (kumquat, orange for juicing, clementine, wild orange, lemon, grapefruit, and Washington orange) as well as one pomegranate tree! We learned all about the different kinds of oranges, had freshly made juice in the morning, and ate way too many of them for our own good. Paxton especially liked the kumquats - or as she calls them “poppers”, because you just pop the whole thing, peel and all into your mouth and chow down! We loved our time in Dubrovnik and Croatia but now we head south to Montenegro to see more of the Balkan Peninsula. -Ross

+12
Ivanica, Bosnia and Herzegovina ‐ Jan 29, 2019
Ravno ‐ Jan 28, 2019

We planned to head back to Croatia the day after Mostar but as it turned out, we couldn’t resist staying a couple more days! We started seeing signs for the Ćiro bike trail going towards Dubrovnik, and thought that it would be the perfect way to experience a little more of this country. The route was well marked, and followed an old Austria-Hungarian railway line overlooking this breathtaking valley with mountains in every direction. It had a VERY gradual uphill gradient the whole time, and b [...]
efore we knew it we were high on a mountain, just taking in the scene. Around 3:30pm, the time we usually begin to search for camp, we started seeing caution signs, indicating land mines were in the area. We knew that Bosnia and Herzegovina was riddled with mines from the Bosnian War in the 90s, but this was the first time we saw them in person. We decided to go a bit further to perhaps get in the clear, but we kept seeing more and more mines. We passed a detailed map of where all the known mines were, and what areas were “suspicious land” so we decided to make it to the next town, where it was supposed to be mine free before finding camp. As it was getting late and dark, allegedly in the clear zone we turn down a dead end road in search of camp. We see a flat spot 20m off the road perfect for the tent. Cautiously, we haul our bikes down, still thinking that every step we might feel the click of a mine’s detonator and be goners, but trusting that the mine map hasn’t lied. Once there, we start to relax - until we see, not 30m away one of those unmistakable mine markers. Then we noticed that some of the rocks around us had red marks painted on them, and it was at this point we had a little freak out and gingerly retraced our steps back to the relative safety of the road. We ended up pitching our tent literally on the side of the road next to some old bunkers. Besides the mine fields, we loved our short time in Bosnia and Herzegovina (we were actually in Herzegovina the whole time). We had very few expectations of the country, so it really amazed us with its beauty. Now we head back to the mine-free republic of Croatia and continue our trip South. -Ross

+8

Bosnia and Herzegovina
Gabela
Mostar ‐ Jan 26, 2019

We have crossed into Bosnia and Herzegovina! We thought we would have an easy days’ ride to Mostar up the Neretva river valley but instead, we had a very long, hard, windy day. When we reached the outskirts of Mostar and the valley opened up, the wind really picked up. We were getting blown off the road and were forced to walk our bikes, which at times even that was impossible. We dare say that the wind was probably as strong or stronger than what we ever experienced in Patagonia. Miraculously [...]
a big windowless van saw us trying not to fall over, and the driver offered us a lift. With briefly thinking about the “sketchiness factor” we quickly threw our bikes in the back and soon we we were speeding through Mostar! We couldn’t communicate but he took us to the northern point of the city, saving us many kilometers and so much time. 7 long kilometers later and just before dark we arrived at “Zemljani” farm. Here we stayed with Bambi, his dog, and two cats on his small permaculture farm just north of Mostar in Potoci. He lives on 5 acres of mostly vineyard, but he also has olive trees, fig trees, and a greenhouse. He was generously given the land to work and live on for free, so in turn he gives back by hosting travelers. He has already had over 200 cyclists (we were 214 and 215)! Over the summer, volunteers began building a little building as an indoor space for cyclists passing through. Since we were the only visitors he had, we were able to put up our tent inside and enjoy two nights out of the wind. We used our little house as a base to see Mostar for a day. Mostar is an incredible little city. The old town full of stone buildings with stone streets all perched above the river with the famous Stari Most bridge connecting them. Mostar is a historically and currently multiethnic city and we found seeing all the minarets (we saw 7 from the top of the bridge) and Turkish inspired souvenirs interesting. In contrast to the idyllic old town, evidence of the war is visible throughout the city in the ruins of bombed buildings and “Don’t Forget” graffiti. The two ottoman era bridges, Stari Most and Crooked Bridge, both collapsed in the 90s as a result of the bombings but they we both restored and now Mostar is again a popular tourist stop. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a fascinating country and Mostar was just a little glimpse of its history and culture. -Paxton

+13
Ploče, Croatia ‐ Jan 25, 2019
Makarska ‐ Jan 24, 2019
Omiš ‐ Jan 23, 2019
Split ‐ Jan 21, 2019

We have been cycling along the coast for about a week now, and it is everything we hoped. We heard that the costal highway is a circus in spring, summer, and autumn with all the cars, trucks, and tourist buses barreling through at high speeds, but we heard it calmed down in the winter. This bit of beta was dead right - there are so few cars that we can enjoy the scenery and even stand in the middle of the road for photos without constant honking or worrying about getting flattened to the tarmac. [...]
Obviously, the downfall of cycling in the winter is the weather and landscape: it’s colder and more brown. Everyone we meet says that we MUST return in the summer to see all the green and the life that warmer weather brings. Our last host said that in the summer, they are constantly having barbecues and taking guests on their boat to visit the surrounding islands. Not to mention the beaches... there are so many beaches that the locals say are like paradise on earth. It is still beautiful and greener than we expected, with olive trees and evergreens spotting the coast. Enough about Croatia in the summer and back to reality. Right now, we are in the tent waiting out the rain before we get back on the road. If there is one thing to break Paxton’s spirit, it’s rain. We have had very good luck with the rain so far but today is our first day that looks super gloomy, and likewise so is Paxton. When I just asked her what was her first choice for today, she said in a dramatic voice “that we never leave this tent until it stops raining, and that it stops raining for like four months” then added “Why? Why? Why?” Anyway, she will get through this rain just like we will get through this winter. I think that we owe a little misery for all the amazing times we’ve had and will have on this trip :) -Ross
Šibenik ‐ Jan 19, 2019

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Costal highway
Biograd na Moru ‐ Jan 18, 2019
Starigrad Paklenica ‐ Jan 17, 2019
Karlobag ‐ Jan 16, 2019
Senj ‐ Jan 15, 2019

Just like it was easy to slip back into life at home, we found it pretty easy to get back to our life on the bikes. Even our lunch of meat, cheese, and mayo sandwiches were delicious from day one. But being jet lagged when we returned has changed up our schedule a bit. We generally crawl into the tent around 5:00 after dinner when it has become dark and cold. After getting warm and cozy in our sleeping bags, we have difficulty motivating ourselves to stay up. Our first night, embarrassingly, we [...]
accidentally fell asleep at 5:30. But we woke up at 5:00 in the morning, journaled and read in our sleeping bags before getting up at 7 at the crack of dawn. We stay up a bit later now but so far we are enjoying a schedule of crashing at the end of the day and waking up before light in the morning. We are very much looking forward to more sunlight so we can have longer days on the bike and more time to relax at camp. The first five days back on the bike we spent climbing hills and mountains on our way to the coast. The weather held out for us too - as long as there is no precipitation, we are happy campers. After climbing our last pass we finally enjoyed a long descent and our first glimpse of the sea! Before descending, we took a road parallel to the coast but about 800 meters above sea level. It was a beautiful road to bike but it was very steep and rocky with very few prospects for setting up a tent. We began to really worry when we saw this scary looking storm on our tail. With nowhere to hide, we kept riding until by chance we stumbled upon a perfect spot tucked behind the ruins of an old house. We set up the tent in a hail storm and had a peaceful night before finally riding all the way down to the coast into Senj. -Paxton

+10

To the coast!
Ogulin ‐ Jan 12, 2019
Karlovac
Zagreb ‐ Dec 17, 2018

Hello again! We are back in Zagreb! After traveling with Nola we flew home to the States to spend the holidays with our families. We thought being home would be pretty strange, and it was, but we found it surprising how familiar everything was and how easy we slipped back into our old lives. Things that have been so exciting for us the last year like certain foods, a full kitchen, warm beds, and electricity became normal again. It was wonderful to see friends and family and we loved every minute [...]
of being home. Two days ago we flew back to Zagreb where our bikes and gear were waiting for us. Our bikes have been needing a little maintenance so we gave them a bit of love by replacing parts yesterday and today we take off! We are very thankful for our wonderful WarmShowers hosts and their adorable cat Grum here in Zagreb. They so kindly let us not only stay before and after our trip home but also stored our bikes and gear while we were gone. This July they are starting a world biking tour of their own and we hope to cross paths with them somewhere on the road! So today we leave the comfort of this warm apartment and hit the road. Being off the bikes for so long made us realize how much we enjoy what we do, so we can’t wait to get going refreshed and ready for another year of cycling! -Paxton
Plitvica

Our next stop was the mountains! As we drove away from the coast, there was more and more snow on the ground until we reached our destination, a little cabin in the forest down a long icy road. A fire had been lit in the stove, and it was welcoming after our 4 hours in the car.. The next day we went to Plitvice Lakes national park - home of Croatia’s tallest waterfall! Here, we felt like we were in a winter wonderland with pristine snow all around. Since it was winter, we weren’t able to do [...]
most of the hikes, but the ones we did were beautiful and had lots of frozen icicles hanging down from the cliffs. Paxton even made a new feline friend that made us even more excited for our upcoming trip home to see family and our cat E.G! -Ross

+6

Plitvice Lakes National Park
Split ‐ Dec 16, 2018

+12
Zadar ‐ Dec 15, 2018
Lun
Zadar ‐ Dec 14, 2018
Starigrad Paklenica

+8

Paklenica National Park
Motovun ‐ Dec 11, 2018
Pula

The Istrain Peninsula was a little slice of what I imagine the Italian countryside to be like. Historically it was a part of Rome and later Venice and around 45,000 people still speak Italian today. The countryside is very picturesque with vineyards and olive groves covering the hill-sides, and old walled villages on the hill-tops. We spent a day driving around, tasting wines, stopping at all the hill towns, and learning about their multi-national history. We stayed in the city of Pula, just 2 b [...]
locks from the big roman arena. In ancient times it held gladiator fights, and today is still used for concerts and other events. A self guided tour through the city showed us more remnants of the Roman Empire everywhere in the form of ruins, and even a 3rd century floor mosaic in nearly perfect condition uncovered in the 1960s when they were cleaning after World War 2. Before leaving, we did a great olive oil tasting. Last month we listened to a podcast on olive oil, and found it pretty fascinating. Especially olive oil fraud. After learning about it and seeing all the hubbub in this region we had to try - and it was actually really great! I loved the earthy taste and smell of them, but Paxton was indifferent and wasn’t too keen on drinking a bunch of olive oil that she thought all tasted the same. Regardless it was a fun experience and left us all feeling a bit more sophisticated. -Ross

+16

Istra Peninsula
Opatija ‐ Dec 7, 2018

We picked up a car in Zagreb and after almost 11 months Ross is behind the wheel again. We drove straight to the coast and first stopped in Rijeka and Opatija. We love being on the coast and although it certainly isn’t the tropics it’s not terribly cold and seeing palm trees and evergreens makes us feel warmer! Opatija has a beautiful promenade along the sea that we strolled down from our apartment to the center to check out the holidays happenings. The town was beautiful but the walk and la [...]
ter the sunset on our way home really stole the show. -Paxton

+8
Zagreb ‐ Dec 3, 2018

Zagreb has been in our sights for some time now because it marks the beginning of our Long Rest. Recently, cycling in the the cold has been getting us down, but knowing that Zagreb was within reach kept our frozen feet peddling. We didn’t plan on returning home so soon but an opportunity arose and we are happy to say we’ll be home for Christmas!! As it gets closer, we are getting more and more stoked to see family, friends, resupply on some essentials, and have a never ending supply of delic [...]
ious food and treats! But first, we are meeting my sister Nola, renting a car(!!), and will be traveling around croatia with her for two weeks. When we return to Croatia in January, we will be heading straight for the more temperate Mediterranean coast, so our coldest days should be behind us! We arrived in Zagreb and rearranged our bags for spending the next month off the bikes. We stored our bicycles and panniers with a WarmShowers host, and we’re now traveling with only one bag each! We met Nola, even after going to the wrong bus station, and had a great couple days in Zagreb to kick off her vacation. The city boasts a great Christmas market (the best in Europe 3 years in a row) and mulled wine and sausages were being consumed en masse everywhere we went. Nola is a big fan of museums so we visited quite a few. One of our favorites was the “The Museum of Broken Relationships”, which houses personal items people have held onto from past relationships, each having a unique story to tell. We also surprisingly enjoyed the Croatian Museum of Naïve Art, which we weren’t too excited about when we heard the description as “art by untrained peasants”. But these peasants could make some cool, trippy, eccentric art! Our favorite piece was of townspeople baffled and amazemed by a total solar eclipse. We could relate to their wonder, having seen one in Missouri just last year. So now the Long Rest begins! Look out Croatia, we’re on the road and commin’ at ya at 70 km/hr. -Ross

+7
Kutina ‐ Dec 1, 2018

Finally in Croatia! We have been stoked to reach this point. It’s one of my favorite countries, we are seeing family, taking a bike break, and this is our turning point where we begin heading east to Turkey! But first we head for Zagreb. Crossing the border brought us hills, wineries, legible signs, and our first police pullover (which ended anticlimactically with no issues). We were also delighted to see that Croatia has Kaufland - one of our favorite grocery stores! We are big fans of superm [...]
arkets in general, but Kaufland has been especially exciting; they are huge, have WiFi and bathrooms, and sometimes a cheap cafe. We hit one almost every day in Croatia so we always have a guaranteed place to go warm up at some point during the day. Plus, they have my favorite treat: a mint chocolate bar for only 3.49 Kuna ($0.54). With my chocolate as a pick-me-up we always leave Kaufland rejuvenated. Our most notable day cycling through Slavonia was December 1st. It seemed every house we passed had slaughtered pigs hanging in the courtyard or fresh meat strung up in a shed. Many were accompanied with families, alcohol, and music. Ditches along the road literally ran red from the blood oozing down driveways to the sewers. We asked our host in Kutina if this was some kind of holiday but he explained it has just gotten cold enough recently that people are able to butcher their pigs and prepare the meat without worrying about the heat or the flies. He himself had just finished working a 10 hour day with his father preparing this winter’s meat. We’ve had a break from the rain but the days have been very cold. Packing up camp is painful for our fingers and sitting on the ground for breakfast freezes our feet. So our morning routine is to pack up, eat some bread, and start cycling as soon as we can. Plus we ran out of fuel so we couldn’t have oatmeal if we wanted too. What’s keeping us going is knowing The Long Rest is waiting for us in Zagreb! -Paxton

+6

Slavonia
Slavonski Brod ‐ Nov 30, 2018
Vukovar ‐ Nov 29, 2018
Backa Palanka, Serbia ‐ Nov 26, 2018

+12

Serbia
Novi Sad ‐ Nov 25, 2018
Belgrade ‐ Nov 23, 2018

We continued through the remainder of Serbia on the Eurovelo 6 all the way up to the Croatian border. We love taking bike routes because we don’t have to navigate and they take us off busy roads and onto nice scenic back roads. The Danube is a beautiful river and although the scenery is all the same and nothing too special, cycling up the river was nice and felt familiar to rides back home. What wasn’t nice was the cold weather creeping in. More and more we find ourselves caving and finding [...]
a room for the night when we have been riding in the rain all day long and don’t want to set up our wet tent. The trail took us through Belgrade where we spent a night doing a walking tour and enjoying the Christmas lights. We would have loved to spend more time in Belgrade and Novi Sad, both being neat cities with lots of history. We also took a lot of pictures of what we have been calling bee-mobiles. They were also very common in Romania and Ukraine as was beekeeping in general. Now that we have some beekeepers in the family we take special notice whenever we see these cool hives. -Paxton
Kovin ‐ Nov 22, 2018
Golubac ‐ Nov 20, 2018

When we entered Serbia, we expected to be welcomed by war criminals and flat landscapes, but instead it turned out to be very pleasant. I will say we had some of the coldest, wettest, most miserable days of our entire trip, but that wasn’t Serbia’s fault - it’s because we decided to cycle through at the end of November. Immediately after crossing the border, we started cycling on a marked international bike route: the Eurovelo 6. It hugged the bank of the Danube River, occasionally climbi [...]
ng up the bluff to viewpoints before dropping back to the water. We especially loved the part coined as “the iron gates of the Danube” where there were tall cliffs on both sides and only a narrow passage through. We kept on the route and it took us past more immense cliffs and mountains covered in snow butted up against the river. We don’t have too many photos of this part because it was about 2C and raining - the worst possible combination for enjoying the scenery and leisurely stopping to take photos. The only break from the rain we got was while going through the numerous tunnels and lunch under a shelter we found on the side of the road. We spent thanksgiving camping in a forest on the edge of a swamp. With no towns or supermarkets near, we had our typical fare of rice, carrots and meat; but since it was thanksgiving we treated ourselves to 2 pieces of toast each! Not the most glamorous thanksgiving we’ve had, but we made up for it the next evening in the hostel in Belgrade. -Ross

+12

Serbia’s Surprises
Drobeta-Turnu Severin, Romania ‐ Nov 18, 2018

We didn't have high expectations when leaving the mountains, and I dare say I even slipped into a little funk at the prospect of cold weather and lack of scenery ahead. Thankfully the countryside continues to impress us. We cycled up valleys and over ridges that still gave us sweeping views and camped along rivers that reminded us of home. We reached the Danube and were excited to begin following it up to Serbia. But, DISASTER! After going over a small pass I tried to start peddling again and [...]
I found I couldn't. After taking a look we realized it was something we couldn't fix on our own. The bearing on one of the pulleys on my rear derailleur was completely destroyed making it no longer able to spin. We asked if there was a bike mechanic in town but we were told we would have to go back over the pass to Orsava. So as sleet began to fall we pushed our bikes back up 3 kilometers and glided down into town. We returned to the grocery store we had visited in the morning where we had encountered a very friendly security guard who spoke good English. He didn't have good news and confirmed we would have to go back to Severin to find a bike shop. We stayed the night in a hotel (the only one we could find in town that was open) to figure out what to do next. We knew we couldn't continue biking on for lack of large towns so we would have to return to Severin. We checked WarmShowers and to our delight there was an active member who also owned a bike shop! We reached out to him and he confirmed he could help us out. We jerry rigged my bike so we could make it to the train station but our hopes of a short train ride were dashed when the ticket counter lady made some calls and told us it would be up to the train conducter if our bikes would be allowed on or not. We couldn't risk waiting 5 hours for the train only to find out if we would be allowed on or not so we decided bike the 30 kilometers back to Severin. This was probably the coldest most miserable ride yet; on a busy road, with an unreliable shoulder, in the snow and worrying that my bike might give out. The pain in our toes was pretty unreal. I tried to think about people actually freezing on Mt. Everest suffering real frostbite to remind my self people had it worse. Thankfully my derailleur held out until the very end - Ross only had to tow me a bit. Ionut welcomed us into his warm shop, gave us tea and coffee, and got to fixing my bike right away, and even looked at Ross's too. Going into a bike shop is usually a shameful experience, embarrassed by our lack of upkeep but Ionut was helpful and got to making sure everything was in working order instead of pointing out everything we needed to replace (we are going to be dropping some money and doing some serious tune ups in Zagreb). In the evening he invited us into the mountains with his friends to enjoy some hot springs! We drove up the road we have traveled 4 times and into 5e mountains. It was a wonderful time. It was well after dark but the hot springs were lit illuminating the steam and the snow as it continued to fall. We basked in the heat for about an hour and the cold of the past two days melted away. That night we shared dinner and a drink with Ionut, then spent a warm night sleeping in his shop. -Paxton

+8

Last days in Romania
Eșelnița ‐ Nov 17, 2018
Drobeta-Turnu Severin ‐ Nov 16, 2018
Craiova ‐ Nov 14, 2018

After a couple days in Braşov and a detour to see what’s touted as “Dracula’s castle” we headed for Romania’s most famous road: the Transfāgārāsan. We expected this mountain pass to be closed due to snow and ice, but after talking to our warmshowers host in Brasov we found out that it is still passable for cyclists! We were looking forward to having the whole road to ourselves, but since it’s been so warm, the roads were clear and there was still the occasional car. After the 30k [...]
m climb it was fun to look back at all the switchbacks we had biked and we could even see the city we started from 1.5km below! We left all this behind with a semi-sketchy ride through the closed off tunnel at the top and over 100km of downhill on the other side. What a ride that was! Riding through the Romanian Carpathians was great, but we have now left the mountains and have been passing through only farmland. It’s interesting to see all the small villages and interact with people, but we already miss the beauty of mountains. Next stop: Serbia! -Ross
Curtea de Argeş ‐ Nov 11, 2018
Căpățânenii Ungureni

+9

Transfăgărășan
Cârțișoara ‐ Nov 10, 2018
Bran ‐ Nov 8, 2018

Dracula’s Castle
Braşov
Bicaz ‐ Nov 3, 2018

Romania! While Ross says Ukraine has been his favorite European country to cycle I think Romania has been mine. The history and surviving traditions make it unique and the landscape is beautiful! We haven’t been here long but we feel like we have already seen and done so much. We have tried to stick to the mountains, enjoying all the passes, scenery, and forests. Wild camping is legal and commonly practiced so we have no problem finding great spots to pitch our tent each night. I apologize for [...]
not writing a proper post but I did write about some of the highlights in the descriptions of a few pictures. Thankfully our time here isn’t over yet and although it is getting colder we still have good weather ahead!

+27

N. Romania
Vatra Dornei
Borșa ‐ Oct 30, 2018
Sighetu Marmaţiei ‐ Oct 28, 2018
Satu Mare ‐ Oct 26, 2018

We had to leave Ukraine sometime, so we set our sights on Romania. We were excited to see the Romanian Carpathians, but Ukraine had different plans and would not let us cross the border by bicycle. We tried unsuccessfully for a good hour to hitch a ride across before giving up and starting the 2 day ride to the next closest Ukraine-Romania border. As we were biking, we saw the border with Hungary, and tons of pedestrians and cyclists were crossing, unhindered by any silly rule. We took the hint [...]
and decided to cross, then try and make our way back to Romania. We crossed without a hitch, but soon realized that we had no maps or translator for Hungary downloaded, we had no money, we only had 4 days left in the Schengen Zone, and wild camping was illegal. We had to get to Romania! We passed through a town with free WiFi and quickly downloaded a map, found the nearest Romanian border about 45 km away, and gunned down on it at full speed. We enjoyed what we saw of Hungary, but we were really racing the sun and had to not only get to Romania, but also find a place to camp before dark, so it was just a fast grind. We did end up crossing into Romania with no problems whatsoever, and we found a hotel with a big lawn and picnic shelters where we could pitch our tent. All in all, it was an eventful day and we can both say that it was our first time biking through three different countries in the same day! -Ross
Kölcse, Hungary
Nevetlenfolu, Ukraine
Vynohradiv ‐ Oct 23, 2018

Warning! Long post ahead! This week has been a real whirlwind! We expected to have a non-eventful few days riding through the mountains to the Romanian border, but day after day we met memorable people and ended up on a little detour. As we were leaving Sveryner Lake we first met a group of cyclists from Kiev. We chatted, took some pictures, and went on our way. A couple kilometers down the road, they came speeding up to us and asked if we wanted to join them on a trip to the bear park down the [...]
road. We didn’t have anywhere to be, so we obliged and suddenly were part of a Ukrainian bike gang! The bear rehabilitation park was a big fenced in forest on the side of a mountain that housed tons of brown bears, which our newfound friends told us all about by translating all the informational signs. After leaving our bike gang, we set our sights on the top of a small pass where we planned on making camp. As soon as we reached the summit, tired and sweaty, a group of friends who were picnicking and clearly having a good time (there was a lot of vodka involved) invited us over. Only one man spoke English but that didn’t stop everyone else talking to us in Ukrainian, putting shots of vodka in our hands and encouraging us to eat all their delicious traditional Ukrainian meats and cheeses. After they left, we started looking at where to settle down for the night and pitch the tent. A family was BBQing a bit off the road in some trees at a site with a picnic table - the perfect camp spot. We didn’t think they looked like they would be staying the night, so after working up a little courage we went over to inquire and see if they would leave their fire going for us. Only their young son Vladimir spoke English, so using him as an interpreter, his parents said yes they would be leaving shortly, but also asked if we would stay and have dinner with them. Feeling guilty, once again we took advantage of the Ukraine hospitality and were offered their remaining grilled sausages, chicken, and pork along with beers, vegetables, and salad. They even gifted us a roasting skewer for our trip. Before leaving, we swapped contact info and they invited us to visit them in their village. The next day we met Yura in Dubove. He found us having lunch in a park and though we had to communicate almost entirely through Google Translate, he ended up talking us to a cafe, a soccer game, and finally a restaurant before we finally departed to find camp. Three days after first meeting Vladimir and his family we arrived at their village where we were of course greeted warmly with tea, wine, and delicious snacks. They took us on a walk around their village and up to the old ruins of an Austria-Hungary era castle that had fantastic views of the valley. After a great evening in their company they sent us off with a bottle of homemade wine and homemade plum vodka! We are going to miss Ukraine for so many reasons but our fondest memories may be from all the generous people we have met here. -Paxton

+16

New Friends in Ukraine!
Dubove ‐ Oct 21, 2018
Synevyrska Poliana ‐ Oct 20, 2018

Ukraine is quickly becoming one of my all-time favorite countries! We had no expectations upon entering, but we found that it has a unique feel to it different than any other place we’ve ever been. The people are much more friendly and talkative than they were in Poland, even if fewer of them know any English. There have been many times when someone approaches us speaking Ukrainian, and when we tell them that we don’t speak or understand a word they’re saying, they just continue to talk an [...]
d point and gesture just as enthusiastically as before. We usually just shrug, say thank you, and go on our way, wondering what kind of tidbit of knowledge we just missed out on. It’s not just the friendly people and feel of the country that we love - we have been riding through the Carpathian Mountains and the scenery is straight out of an autumn storybook scene. We love waking up every morning to cycle through mountains filled with beautiful trees (and mushrooms). The altitude is nothing compared to what we did in South America but it is still exciting to be climbing passes again and enjoying descents through mountain valleys. And the road side services in the Carpathians have been great! Free camping areas, picnic spots, and springs of drinking water are everywhere! Since wild camping is legal we have had no problem finding a great place to sleep each night. Unfortunately for Ukraine, it has the lowest average personal income in Europe, but fortunately for us that means that it’s a very affordable country to visit. We don’t feel bad about going over-budget splurging on snacks or a hot meal for just 1 or 2 dollars. Since things are cheaper we are able to experience more, like buying roadside honey or going out to a traditional Ukrainian restaurant. We made an unexpected detour to Sneyver Lake. While we were taking a break at the top of a mountain pass, a Ukrainian tourist told us we had to visit Sneyver Lake, a famous Ukrainian lake and one of the 7 Natural Wonders of Ukraine. Honestly we were a bit underwhelmed by the lake but the journey there and the surrounding area was beautiful and we are so glad we made the trip. All in all, Ukraine has been great and we are excited to continue our trip through the Carpathians. We’re a little nervous for winter here, as it’s supposed to snow in a couple days... check back later to see how that goes for us! -Ross

+10

Ukraine’s Carpathians
Lviv ‐ Oct 13, 2018

Hello from Ukraine! Some of this is a bit of a repeat of what we posted on Instagram but in case ya didn’t see it... Obviously our crossing into Ukraine was a success! We never planned on coming to Ukraine but when we found out once our 90 days in the Schengen Zone are up we have to spend another full 90 days outside before returning. So we had to resort to some new route planning and now here we are! We could find very little information about cycling in Ukraine. We had read one blog post whe [...]
re they weren’t allowed to make the crossing by bike and had to wait for a truck to give them a lift across. We also heard the wait could be for hours or even overnight. When we arrived, the first Polish officer kindly warned us that Ukraine wouldn't let cyclists through, but she still waved us on. Thankful that we had banked a couple extra days in the Schengen Zone and wondering what we would do next, the Polish customs officer stamped us out of the Schengen Zone and told us "good luck". When we got to the Ukrainian passport control, the officer took our passports and was very interested in our bike set-up but said nothing, giving us a glimmer of hope that they would let us through. After a little waiting around, the customs officer shouted "Americans!". We went to to the window, he made a little joke about Putin and Trump which we all laughed at, before he said, "America, Ukraine!" with his hand shooting from his chest like a horizontal rocket ship. We were lucky the whole thing took us 45 minutes. Once we were in Ukraine we saw the infamous long wait for those trying to enter Poland. The cycling in Ukraine became hillier and the roads became much worse. We were anticipating an easy, short ride to Lviv, but when we started out and found ourselves at a road block, we realized that maps.me was routing us right through a military zone. Thankfully the guard was kind and spoke English and told us we needed to turn around and what general direction to go. The day was mostly zig zagging along backroads and zig zagging around potholes until we hit one of the highways leading into Lviv and saw people walking and cycling on the big gravel shoulder. It wasn’t scenic cycling but we took the opportunity to make up some time and get into town. When we did arrive in the city we had about two hours before we were meeting our host so we checked out a pizza place by her apartment. We were excited to see that our dollar goes much further here - we treated ourselves to two pizzas, chips, a hot coco, and a beer for a little over $7. Olga and her husband (whose name we could never grasp) met us there and helped us bring our bikes and gear up to their 4th floor apartment. We loved our day exploring Lviv. We didn’t have a whole lot of expectations, so everything surprised us. On the walk to the center, we started seeing tanks, missile launchers, and other fancy military vehicles driving past. It turned out that it was a special military parade and when we arrived at the center they were all parked and people were welcome to take pictures, ask questions, and, if you were a kid, climb all over them. The city center was full of people with things going on everywhere with more tourists than either of us anticipated. We discovered Lviv has a thing for coffee and chocolates which we enjoyed as we walked around the center, before climbing a hill downtown that had wonderful 360 degree views. Our hosts lived almost an hour walk from downtown so between seeing the city and getting there and back I was tired and done. I hate walking. And we walked 26,000 steps! We went down to the supermarket below their building, where I mentioned they are nearly living my dream of living above a supermarket, we got beers and a couple packages of different delicious sweets, we enjoyed our last evening with them chatting about each other’s travels and getting suggestions for our rout through the Carpathians. -Paxton

+12

In Ukraine!
Budomierz, Poland ‐ Oct 12, 2018

The last few days in Poland were a time of magic and happiness. Everything fell into place like it was meant to be. As soon as we left Warsaw, we noticed that Autumn had come in full force. As we were cycling through the forests, it was impossible not to appreciate the amazing fall colors and scenery of eastern Poland. There were tons of mushroom hunters about, and more than once I saw them with buckets full of mushrooms! One morning, it was extremely foggy out and the cycling was dream-like. Ar [...]
ound every corner and over every hill looked like something from a cycling postcard or magazine, and to top it off we just happened upon the Green Velo bike trail again, which took us all the way to the Ukrainian border. Poland was one of my favorite countries so far, and the week’s bike from Warsaw to Ukraine was really just the icing on the cake! -Ross

+6

Autumn in Poland
Warsaw ‐ Oct 4, 2018

After easy cycling on the Green Velo through the Polaskie region, we left the trail and blazed our own way towards Warsaw. For the first time in Europe, we were cycling on busy roads with no separated bike lanes or even shoulders. With lorries barreling past,