Wherever I went in Indonesia people would always ask me ‘go to Bali?’. It was as if they thought I’d taken the wrong bus by accident and ended up in their village when I was supposed to be in Bali. Most of the foreign tourists coming here end up on Bali & Gili and they … More Indonesia Part 5: Attack of the Monkeys (Bali, Lombok and Sumbawa Islands 30/08/16-09/09/16)
One of the things I dislike the most about South East Asia is not being able to wild camp anywhere. There’s either too much jungle to squeeze a tent in, or people have cleared the land to farm or build a house. I miss stealth camping a lot, so when I saw a track leading … More Indonesia Part 3: Mountaintop Traffic Jams (Merak to Yogyakarta 15/08/16-23/08/16)
The landscape was changing again. The fields of rice disappeared and the hills began to undulate once again but now they were only occasionally covered in palm or rubber trees. Small cassava trees (a root vegetable) were growing across the hills and farmers were drying crops in the sun. It suddenly occurred to me that it … More Indonesia Part 2: Falling Victim to Sumatra’s Deadly Roads (South Sumatra 08/08//16-14/08/16)
It was time for the last push to Australia. Leaving the glossy world of Singapore behind me I caught the boat for Pulau Batam – my first stop in Indonesia. On my last trip to South East Asia I made the same trip across the water, so I was prepared for the culture shock of … More Indonesia Part 1: Sailing into the Southern Hemisphere (Pulau Batam & South Sumatra 30/07/15-08/08/15)
Skipping Kuala Lumpur I headed south from Klang. It was the same old west coast Malaysian cycling – busy roads and uninspiring scenery. A few dragon fruit farms spiced up the roadside activity but as quickly as they’d appeared they faded back into endless palm oil plantations. I remember being excited when I saw my … More Malaysia Part 2: It’s a Small World when you’re on Two Wheels (Klang to Singapore 20/07/16-26/07/16)
Still on my mini-holiday with mum, we headed over from Railay to Phi Phi island. My parents had visited Phi Phi when they back-packed South East Asia in the 80s. We were both curious to visit the place: my mum wanted to see how the new ‘poster child’ for Thai island tourism had changed and I … More Thailand Part 4: Eid al-Fitr in the Deep South (Krabi to Malaysia 26/06/16-07/07/16)
I received my Laos exit stamp and walked out towards the Mekong. I crossed this same border 5 years ago – but last time you had to take a boat across. Now there’s a long ‘friendship bridge’ connecting the two countries at their most northern shared border crossing. I quickly jumped on my bike and started … More Thailand Part 1: Drowning in Songkran Festival (Laos to Chiang Mai 01/04/16-16/04/16)
The last blog ended by the Yangtze river. From there I turned west to climb over the last mountains separating me from Dulong valley. I was advised not to take the road by the family I stayed with but as usual that just made me more keen to try it out. I guess that’s become … More China Part 7: Cock-fighting in Dulong Valley (13/02/16-25/02/16 Judianzhen to Lincang)
After my slightly chaotic visa run in Hong Kong, I hopped off the plane and re-entered the Middle Kingdom. I was back in China, there was no mistaking that. Two steps outside the airport exit I was mobbed by a million shouting and spitting taxi touts. I took few more days to relax in the … More China Part 5: Camping Amongst Wolves on the Tibetan Highway (Chengdu to Litang 13/01/16-27/01/16)
After almost a year of cycling around the world it was pretty weird to get on a flight. It felt a little surreal. After so many months of moving tiny distances on the map I was suddenly being transported hundreds of miles away in just a couple of hours. Had I cycled from Chengdu to … More Hong Kong: The Shambolic Visa Run (03/01/16-12/01/16)
JKB's Bike Ride 