It's over! Our almost 7 week cycling tour, which started in Cambodia, then went to Laos, and continued into Thailand: done and dusted. To start the summary with, here is the end: it was fantastic!!! First of all, it was also great to be back in the saddle. We hadn't done any cycling trips since August 2020, when we made a (shorter) trip in Belgium, "Le Tour des Ardennes". It had in fact been such a long time without tour cycling, that we forgot how much we love this! I did some road biking back in Belgium the last few months before we left, which indeed reminded me how much I like cycling, but it's still not the same thing as tour cycling. Tour cycling is about the cycling activity as well, but it's also and much more about slow travel, going to places you'd normally never go, experiencing them in a different and more intense and intimate way. This trip brought the feeling back for 100%!
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| A little leisurely cycling on Don Det |
At the start, we were happy to do some 60 (almost flat) kms on an average day, as we were not used to cycling anymore. Towards the end, a 100km hilly day was still quite easy. It's just amazing how you grow into it. It's not so much about getting tired - our fitness levels were good to start with - but also about your bum, your shoulders, your feet - not used to that movement and position, so it all starts to hurt after a while. The good thing: when cycling, you use a lot of energy, so you can eat a lot and still lose weight. Did we lose a lot? Don't know exactly for sure, but we surely look and feel lighter!
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| Buddha was always with us, in the 3 countries we rode through |
Our plan was not detailed at all, just a few basic lines. We'd fly into Siem Reap and start from there. From Siem Reap, we'd go northeast (a part of Cambodia we hadn't done yet) and ride towards Stung Treng, to then cross into Laos north of Stung Treng. We had also cycled in Laos before, but never the southern part, so we wanted to cover that now. How long and until where was left open initially. At some point, we would then cross the Mekong and continue in Thailand for several weeks, with as final destination Chiang Mai. The route in Thailand had totally not been decided, nor the time we wanted to take before getting to Chiang Mai. The only thing that was fixed, was that we had arranged an Airbnb stay in Chiang Mai from 22 January onwards. We kind of followed this rough plan, although we spent less time in Cambodia and especially Laos than initially expected.
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| Riding through the Koh Ker world heritage |
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| Late afternoon light emphasizes the potholes in this Lao road |
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| Many days of riding along the Mekong river |
Cambodia was a very nice start to the trip. Only last minute we found out that there is a new airport in Siem Reap, quite far from town, and it didn't make any sense to go to the town as such as it was at least 2 hours riding in the wrong direction. Siem Reap is the starting point to visit Angkor Wat, but we have been there several times in the past, so that was not our intention. Therefore we decided to stay nearby the airport for the first night (we arrived late afternoon) and skip Siem Reap altogether. We had a few nice and easy first days, our second day on the road was even a "rest" day to visit the Koh Ker ruins - which was a very nice and interesting day. From there, it was relatively easy and pleasant cycling in Cambodia. The road was good enough with almost no hills, nice scenery, super friendly people (with 1000s of children's hellos), very easy going. The days were still very hot here however, so we were back to very early starts, but that is also nice! The first few days in Cambodia we had a little bit of rain in the evening or at night - after that no more rain and blue skies! The route we took was not the usual cycling route in Cambodia, no tourist destination at all, which was nice; it also meant the accommodation was usually rather basic (but fine!) and there were long stretches without accommodation options - which we had to keep in mind for our daily planning. This all made it very attractive as well, of course! Eventually, we were reunited with our old friend the Mekong, in Stung Treng. From there, it was only 1 more day north towards the Lao border; after only 6 days, we arrived in Laos!
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| Riding in good co(w)mpany |
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| Hot days in Cambodia |
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| Buying a daily dose of healthy fruit |
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| A bumpy dusty road in Cambodia, on the way to the Lao border |
Once we crossed into Laos (via the eternally infamously corrupt border crossing), things were immediately different. It's cleaner, less messy, shops and restaurants were more attractive. We went back to Don Det, one of the "4000 Islands" (not sure if there are really 4000 to be honest), and it was so nice! We even stayed an extra day, and did some short day trips. When we left Don Det, we found that we could cycle from island to island for a while, before getting back on the mainland. This was surely one of the highlights of this trip! The end of that day was unexpected however; when we arrived at the town we wanted to stay, there was some event going on, and all hotels were full, which meant we had to continue to the next town - almost 40km further! This was something we had never encountered in the past, but it happened quite a few times on this trip that places were full or at least very busy. The day after we had an interesting visit to Wat Phou, then stayed in Champassak and Pakse. We truly liked our days in Laos; it was fantastic for cycling, although the roads were sometimes quite bad, bumpy and dusty but that also adds to the adventure. People were extremely friendly as well, and it completely made up for our first cycling experience in Laos in 2017 when we were not convinced... We wanted to give it a second chance, and rightly so because this time was so much more positive! Again, after only 6 days, we crossed into Thailand however. It was not because we'd had enough of Laos - much to the contrary - but because for cycling north, the other side of the Mekong was apparently much nicer.
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| Island feeling on Don Det |
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| Another ferry crossing |
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| The family car |
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| Wat Phou |
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| Pakse riverside |
And then, Thailand. Ah, what can I say. Instant happiness is what I wrote then, and it's still true. The region in Thailand where we entered, the Northeast, is called Isaan - it's a vast region. By the way, it's also the region where we used to live 25 years ago! We cycled almost 3 weeks in Isaan. We rode along the Mekong, then right across the region right through the deep interior, it was all so very nice. People were friendly and often surprised to see 2 farangs on bicycles (so yes, that is still possible in Thailand!), the food - and coffee - was good (Isaan is known for its good food), we always found good places to stay and all that at very low cost. Add to that the fantastic cycling, usually not really extraordinary but just really really nice, day in day out, with good roads (big and small) usually with little traffic, pretty scenery, in beautiful weather: recipe for perfect tour cycling! One exception to the enthusiasm: the annoying dogs in Isaan! A lot of dogs, often very unfriendly and even aggressive - although they never even attempted to bite.
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| The food is always good in Thailand, even in these very basic stalls; just be careful with the spiciness level |
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| So many good coffee shops, everywhere, all the time (except when you're really craving for a coffee of course) |
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| Surprising, beautiful rural backroads |
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| Phu Pha Thoep National Park |
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| So many night markets in Thailand, always a good choice for food (and for dessert too) or just for an evening stroll |
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| That Phanom |
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| Between That Phanom and Nakhon Phanom, one of our favourite parts of the trip |
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| Nakhon Phanom, without any doubt the "cycling capital" of our trip |
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| Mesmerizing Isaan |
We arrived in Nong Khai after a while, our old familiar destination - we've been there many times throughout the years… We also took a day to go back to Khon Kaen from Nong Khai (by train) and visit our some old friends and our old home town! That was such a nice side trip, so good to see these old friends - it felt like we had seen them only yesterday - and the town had changed a lot, for the better. Before we left Nong Khai again, we decided to go southwest (most tour cyclists take a route along the Mekong), meaning we would have many national parks and more mountainous terrain ahead. We visited Phu Phrabat, Phu Kradueng, Phu Pha Man, and Nam Nao national parks. A week with top days one after the other, with some great cycling and some beautiful hikes too - especially the one up Phu Kradueng. One of the best days of the trip was definitely the Phu Kradueng to Phu Pha Man day! Then, from there, towards Nam Nao we had the first really challenging day with a long and heavy climb. The road, right through the national park, was also beautiful but annoyingly busy - with new year coming close it was probably exceptionally busy. We loved a night in a tent at Nam Nao, it's so good you can just rent a tent with mats, sleeping bags and even pillows in most Thai national parks! Even the descent from Nam Nao toward Lom Sak was not a walk in the park because of the many "high and steep bumps", and definitely the climb from Lom Sak was very challenging! By that time, we were out of Isaan, and in North Thailand territory.
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| Taking the train to Khon Kaen |
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| Sometimes the roads are busy, especially the trucks can be a bit disturbing; even though they keep a good distance, they're big and heavy... |
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| Magnificent day hike on Phu Kradueng |
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| Bat watching at Phu Pha Man |
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| Camping in Nam Nao |
The pleasant cycling days continued, and we then had a fantastic new year's eve, camping again, in Nam Tok Chat Trakan National Park this time. Wow, what a beautiful place, what a fantastic stay, and what a fantastic away-from-it-all new year's night! Once we got to Uttaradit, we had to decide which way to go further: directly to Chiang Mai via Lampang, or a longer detour via Chiang Rai which is further towards the north. We chose the detour via Chiang Rai, because we were enjoying our ride so much and still had time, plus it seemed there would be some more beautiful cycling. It was indeed a fantastic choice, we had some of the best days of this trip on exactly that last part of the journey. We kept improving the route as we went as well: Phrae (nice town!), Nam Pong, Thoeng, and all that via very pleasant cycling roads. From Thoeng to Chiang Rai, we also found a small rural road, which was very very nice - and had an extremely steep climb ready for us. A climb that had parts of up to 18-20% slope, probably the toughest climb we have done in all our trips. We loved our stay in Chiang Rai too, although it was the first time on our trip that we saw a lot of tourists, and a lot of tourist circus. We needed some time to get used to that again.
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| The climb out of Lom Sak, with rewarding views |
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| Lovely Chat Trakam National Park |
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| Fantastic scenery, fantastic cycling |
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| One of the interesting Wats in Phrae |
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| 10/10 cycling roads |
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| The insane steep climb towards Chiang Rai, I don't think we'll ever forget that one |
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| Surviving in Chiang Rai |
From Chiang Rai to Tha Ton we had probably the most beautiful day of this entire trip, riding along the Kok River. Again, not the route most cyclists take, yet so marvellous and definitely doable. We were getting close to the end but still had some good cycling ahead, with Chiang Dao as a next stop (there we had to do 4 attempts again before we found a place to stay!). The area around Chiang Dao is very beautiful, less known than the major attractions of the region but well worth a visit, with its magnificent rugged karst mountains. Our trip kind of ended at our favourite little resort in Ban Rai, called Veni Vana Valley, where we stayed 3 nights, just to chill and enjoy before the last formality - the final ride to Chiang Mai. Again these last days, we mostly found small roads to ride on, because the main roads here are busy and unpleasant. They're mostly OK and quite comfortable for cycling, it's just not so nice with the busy traffic, the noise, the exhaust fumes.
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| At the early part of the Kok River ride, with interesting traffic on the road |
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| Yaaay, river crossing! |
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| Such a beautiful scenery, we took an extra break |
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| Hill tribe territory |
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| Marvellous scenery near Chiang Dao |
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| Misty and cool morning |
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| The coolest coffee shop of the whole trip, Far Away coffee |
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| Rice planting time in some regions, like here a bit north of Chiang Mai |
This was absolutely a fantastic trip and it has definitely inspired us again to do some more tour cycling again in the coming years, after having "forgotten" about it for several years. South East Asia remains a great place to cycle: because of the climate, the people, great scenery, good food, and low cost, … Of course, for Thailand, it also helps that we are very familiar with the country, and that I speak the language. It makes things easier, and it changes the way you are perceived and accepted by the people. Also, on this trip, we met very few other cyclists - with the exception of the last few days, we only met 3 other tour cyclists, of which 2 (a couple) the very first day! That's all! This is because we cycled in an area unknown to tourists, and we chose unusual routes - which is sometimes more tedious but so much worth it. In fact, we have seen very little tourists (well, foreign tourists, because we have seen plenty of Thai travellers, definitely around the new year's period), to the extent that it was weird once we did and we needed to get used to it.
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| Koh Ker |
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| The Lao-Thai border |
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| Dessert stall on the night market |
What would we have done differently? I can’t really think of much, definitely not on our itinerary. Oh yes, we would not take a rest day in Mukdahan again, it was an uninteresting town; rather in That Phanom or Nakhon Phanom, just a bit further. Maybe we could have spent a bit more time in Laos, which was also our initial intention. Maybe we should have inflated our tires a bit more LOL. And maybe, just maybe, I would take camping stuff, not sure. It's for sure extra weight and hassle, while now we travelled very light, with each just 2 paniers. But there are so many opportunities for nice camping, in Thailand especially. There are many campsites and definitely it's always great to stay at the national parks. I would not do this for cost reasons, just because we love camping; I'd estimate our average nightly accommodation cost to be around 15€ or so. I’d definitely not take cooking gear though, there is no need for that, just tent, sleeping mats and bags.
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| Sometimes things are not the way you expected - but there is always a good solution! |
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| So many nice places to stay, sometimes in totally unexpected places like here - in the middle of nowhere |
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| View from another guesthouse |
And with that, it’s really sayonara for now! But as I said above, the inspiration and appetite for more tour cycling has been nourished again, so let’s see what the future brings!!!
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| That's the end folks! Until the next trip! (or maybe until I feel like writing anyway). Thank you to all my loyal readers! |
