Here we go again! Quite a while since our last tour, to
France in June this year. This time, we're leaving to Cambodia! Our first destination is Siem Reap - by plane. Siem Reap is well known as the city from where to explore Angkor Wat. For us it's actually "just" our starting point, as we've been to the Angkor temples a couple of times before. From Siem Reap, we'll be cycling south towards Battambang and the Cardamom Mountains and then towards the coast, near the border with Thailand. Roughly following the coast eastwards, we'll then make our way to Sihanoukville.
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| Our bikes, nicely packed in boxes this time |
Once in Sihanoukville - around mid December - we will take part in the "
Solstice Hash On Tour" for a couple of days, in Sihanoukville and Kampot. After these hash events and meeting up with our dear friends, we'll make our way north again, probably up to Stung Treng and from there east towards Vietnam. By January 5th Sander and Vere (our children) will join us in Hoi An, for a 3 week holiday in Vietnam until the end of January - without bicycles. Once we're reunited with our bicycles we will most likely continue our tour, but without concrete plans yet. Crossing through Vietnam, into Laos and from there into Thailand? Continuing north, even into southern China again? Or finally to Myanmar? Who knows. We might even miss Malaysia too hard and go back (...). We'll see, in any case: we're ready for some exciting weeks and months on the bicycle again!
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| Rough route until early January |
Why do we keep touring on our bikes, you might wonder? Well, it's fairly simple. On the one hand it's a fantastic way to explore, there is no better way to get off the beaten track and really get a good feeling and impression of how life is "out there" - wherever you go. But also, it's life reduced to its basics - and honestly, that feels so good! It's just us, the bikes and whatever/whoever we encounter. We carry almost nothing with us - especially this time, with at most 10kg of luggage each, just the bare essentials. It is enormously liberating, to live life with only those pure essentials. No need, at all, for "stuff". Even back home in Malaysia, we have heavily decluttered our life (if you don't know what that is: Google can tell you) and we rely less and less on material stuff. On the bicycle, there is no option: the less you take, the better. Once you live like this, it's almost addictive: life is so much easier and more free if you don't have the burden of possessions...
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| On the way to the airport |
Of course, the less you use and own, the less you're a burden to the sustainability of the planet as well. We've become very conscious of that in the past number of years, and it has been an important topic on this blog from the beginning - it still is. While we certainly travel because we enjoy the adventure, the excitement, the exploration, the journey, we also do our very best to live consciously and contribute to a sustainable world - bike touring is a good way to do so. So that is a last important reason for our travels and also, for this blog: we love to inspire. Inspire for a meaningful and non-materialistic life, for an active change your lifestyle to reduce your carbon footprint and for a positive change in your impact on the planet.
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| Getting to and through the airport with bicycles, always a bit of an adventure by itself |
So here we go, ready for Indochina, from now until March? April? And the blog will surely be regularly updated, so stay tuned!
