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Total distance to date 14,080 kms It had been 3 months and 6 days since we departed Sydney, 5 countries and God only knows how many steamed rice with mixed vegetables meals we have had. Since collecting our bikes off the banana boat from Sumatra in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at the end of March we have seen and experienced so much. We were glad of the better roads, less traffic and extensive choice of food and drink, a contrast from the ultimate chaos of our Indonesian journey during Ramadan. We drank our last “Bintang” beer and welcomed its Thai “Chang” replacement. We had a wonderful couple of days exploring the old Colonial city of Georgetown on Penang island, Malaysia, with its small cafes, restaurants, interesting architecture and street art before heading to the border with Thailand, a much anticipated part of our journey. The Thai border crossing formalities went as smoothly as it possibly could have and the towering limestone formations covered in dense deep green foliage made our first days ride in Thailand, “The land of Smiles” a pleasure. Having read that Thailand ranks second in the world’s most deadly roads report we were apprehensive but pleasantly surprised. We found the roads to be in good condition with spectacular scenery, traffic on the routes taken were generally very light, although we did not go to Bangkok, and the drivers courteous and safe. What a welcome surprise. There were many highlights to Thailand: living up to its reputation as the land of smiles with its wonderful, kind and polite people, the Sonkran New Year water festival where we all got a good soaking whilst embracing the wonderful custom, the delicious and spicy cuisine and the spectacular scenery seen on the 700km Mae Hong Song road loop with 1,864 bends taking us to the Northern City of Chiang Mai, seeing elephants along the way. It just kept getting better and better. We have had time to do some sightseeing and hikes with a huge choice of caves, temples and waterfalls to visit. After 23 days in Thailand we crossed the mighty Mekong river on the Australian funded Friendship Border crossing Bridge to Vientiane, Laos, again with much anticipation. It’s always a milestone entering a new country. Laos’s ancient culture, hospitable people and verdant landscape delivered another unique experience for all of us. We managed to spend a few days in the ancient ex capital Luang Prabang sampling the cultural and culinary delights before heading north towards the border. Our research had warned us of the poor state of the roads in Laos and they were not wrong. Deeply pot holed, washed away, with landslides, deep gravel traps and bull dust to contend with while trying to pass large and slow moving Chinese lorries making their way to the northern border crossing with China. We took a river trip to remote villages, swam in waterfalls, explored caves and hiked to viewpoints over the densely forested landscapes. Although we only spent 12 days in Laos it was very captivating and we have all vowed to come back sometime in the future. We are now traversing the hugely varied landscapes of China with over 8,000kms to cover in 3 weeks on our journey to Europe.
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