Bike touring

As it turns out, maintaining a blog about a seemingly infinite array of daily experiences whilst cycling around the world is more work than I thought. It’s hard to believe that my last post is about my time in Java and that I am now hurtling through the edge of the Kazakh Steppe on a train from Almaty.

Scratch that last part – as I pick up this blog post again for the first time almost six months after my train ride in Kazakhstan. I am now sitting in the living room of my host’s home on the edge of village somewhere in the eastern part of the Taurus Mountains in central Türkiye. I’ve been here for a couple of days waiting out a continuous torrent of rain. I felt like a frozen drowned rat when I came upon the entrance of a hydroelectric plant and was welcomed into a warm office by a pair of security guards flanked by three German Shepherds. The friendly men blasted their heater, brought me lots of hot çay (tea) and even let me borrow a dry jacket whilst mine dripped water onto the floor.

As the saying goes, time flies when you’re having fun (mostly). Unsurprisingly, the expedition has not been all sunshine and roses. I have faced many challenges along the way and I am sure I will face many more before I get to the finish line. See: recent events – one of my coldest days because of the freezing rain despite it being late spring.

The heat and humidity of South East Asia did not abate in South Asia. Cycling through the plains of North India during the height of summer was almost unbearable. I experienced daily temperatures exceeding 35°C with a relative humidity of 70%+. It was nothing short of killer.

It was so hot and humid in Kolkata that I’m 99% confident my dripping sweat (effectively sea water) killed my DSLR camera as it rested against my soaking wet t-shirt. Fortunately, I was in a big city and whilst the many camera repair shops I visited quoted prices that exceeded the cost of the camera I was able to find a second hand replacement.

Rest in peace my dear Canon 60D. We’ve been on many an adventure together, I’m sorry I didn’t treat you better but I will never cease to appreciate the amazing moments you helped me capture over the years.

I’ve um’d and ah’d many times about whether to continue to try to update this blog in chronological order. However I’ve come to realise that I will never catch up to where I am today, the downside of which is that some of the experiences and memories of recent times will fade as I cast my mind back six months.

So Dear Reader, I think a bit of a recap is in order. I do plan to expand upon my experiences but for now I shall try my best to get you up to speed. I apologise for the lengthy break between posts. My last update described my time in Central Java.

From Java I opted to take a ferry to the huge island of Sumatra. I was originally thinking about going straight to Singapore from Jakarta but the more I heard about Sumatra the more I felt drawn to explore it. I’d heard it described as the Wild West of Indonesia, untouched jungles filled with tigers and stories of bandits waiting around every corner to rob hapless bike tourists like myself.

Whilst nowhere near as densely populated as Java, the parts of Sumatra I travelled through did not prove to be that wild. I did pass through some stunning jungle national parks but sadly large swaths of the native vegetation have been cleared to make way for ugly palm oil plantations and oil fields. On the plus side, I didn’t encounter any of those pesky bandits either. In fact, I experienced the opposite, the people of Sumatra continued the Indonesian trend of being incredibly friendly, kind and generous. They also continued to be obsessed with selfies (little did I know that the people of Bangladesh would take all of these qualities to a whole new level).

I would have loved to have cycled all the way to Medan on the northwest tip of Sumatra but by this point I’d spent almost three months in Indonesia and had a rough plan to get over the Himalayas and Pamir Mountains before winter later in the year.

I got as far up as the city of Padang before cutting a route across the centre of the island to finish in Dumai. It seemed Indonesia did not want to let me go easily, I succumbed to my first bout of bad belly (plenty more to come on this front) three days before I was due to leave the country. With over 300km to go, I experienced almost crippling stomach cramps and it was a real race against time to get to Dumai before my visa expired.

Fortunately I made the deadline and took the high speed ferry across the Malacca Strait to the World Heritage Malaysian city of Melaka. Taking the ferry proved to be a breeze with my bicycle. It was infinitely better than the hassle of breaking the bike down into a box to travel by plane. My stomach problems did not let up however and I bunkered down in a lovely hostel for a full five days before feeling strong enough to continue onto Kuala Lumpur.

I had a fantastic few days in KL with some old friends. Many thanks again to Viji, Kala, Arjun & Rohan for having me stay with you. It was exactly what I needed after a challenging end to Indonesia. From KL I headed north into the Cameron Highlands and then onto the foodie heaven that is Penang before cutting a line east across the top of peninsular Malaysia through some amazing jungle scenery where I encountered some wild elephants and the biggest spider I’ve ever seen.

I spent a few days on the Perhentian Islands including doing some super cheap scuba diving before crossing into Thailand and country number four. I was keen to explore the deep south of Thailand before taking a bit of time out to relax on some of the famous islands off the west coast. I rejoined the mainland in Krabi Province and from there I made a beeline for Bangkok.

I booked a flight from Bangkok to Dhaka – the capital of Bangladesh. I would have loved to have cycled through Myanmar but it currently is and has been in civil war for the best part of 75 years with a few small windows of stability. I looked at the map, saw Bangladesh and asked myself “When is the next time I will get a chance to visit Bangladesh?”. Talk about a baptism by fire. Dhaka is still the most hectic, congested and dirty city I encountered during my time in South Asia. As hinted earlier however, the people of Bangladesh proved to be another level of friendly, kind and helpful.

After an Indian visa mishap (long story short I could not cross by land into India with my eVisa) I had to book one more flight from Dhaka to Kolkata. I was able to spend 2 weeks cycling around north east Bangladesh and it still shines as one of the most unexpectedly lovely parts of the trip.

India – ah India. A land of contrasts and paradoxes. I look back on my time in India with a strange mix of love and something bordering on loathing but with an overarching sense of fondness. India is humanity turned up to maximum volume, a sensory overload, smells, sights and tastes I’ll never forget. Even now I am salivating as I think about all of the amazing meals I had – breakfast, lunch and dinner were my favourite parts of every day (except for the occasional heavenly cooling relief of air conditioning).

I cycled from Kolkata to Kathmandu, Nepal. I accidentally smuggled myself across the Nepalese border before returning to India to find the seemingly camouflaged Indian passport office. In Nepal I fulfilled my dream of cycling the epic Annapurna Circuit. I had cooked up said dream eight years earlier when I hiked the circuit and encountered a grizzly cyclist from Germany on a bamboo bicycle.

I returned to India and continued across the Gangetic Plain to Delhi passing through magnificent cities and towns filled to the brim with history, monuments and temples. I took a short break from the expedition to meet my parents who were on another adventure of their own in Europe. It was exactly what I needed after experiencing a mental lull and finding myself dearly missing family and friends from home.

Upon my return to India I was racing against the clock to enter China before my Chinese visa expired. I travelled to the northwest and encountered some of the most spectacular scenery of the trip. It was during this period that I found myself riding with another cyclist for the first time since my friend Simon in South Australia a year before.  As it turned out Devan was from Indonesia and was cycling to Mecca in Saudi Arabia to complete the Haj pilgrimage. It was a really fun step change from cycling solo and we ended up riding together for nearly a month.

Himachal Pradresh, Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir blew my mind. I didn’t have nearly enough time in this region but all the more reason to hopefully return one day. Heading back south to the famous state of Punjab I finally crossed into Pakistan. My Pakistani friend Hasham, had lined up several news channel interviews. Devan and I found ourselves on a whirlwind media tour including a live TV appearance.

The people of Pakistan lived up to their famous hospitality with countless free meals, bags of fruit, water and sweets. Devan and I parted ways in the capital of Islamabad as he was headed for Afghanistan or Iran depending on his visa success and I was going north to China.

I took on the famous Karakoram Highway with more mind blowing mountain scenery. I absolutely adore how mountains across the world have their own character. They have always instilled in me a sense of wonder and the Karakoram was no exception.

Unfortunately I experienced more stomach problems and I found myself feeling super weak and throwing up directly from the saddle on the side of the road. To my dismay this round has continued to plague me in one form or another right up until today. More on this and the rest of the recap in my next post. Thanks for reading!