Returning home...

Arriving in Chiang Mai it was clear that I needed a little R&R before returning home, I checked into a comfy hostel and even had an afternoon nap, but wandering around the vast touristic night market was still a daze. My legs hurt and I was literally stumbling around aimlessly, hoping to experience the night market in its fullest but in truth my mind’s processing power was somewhat dulled. Eventually I found an internet café and skyped home to my parents, who must have been slightly concerned at how I looked / sounded as I stuttered my way through banal conversation. I bumped into a couple of girls who were heading off into the jungle as I returned, they of course saw gibbons.

Beautiful skies above a Chiang Mai graveyard

I was all templed out in Chiang Mai so hang out
in a cool coffee houses instead

To recover I have a couple of days in Chiang Mai and then another 2 in Singapore before the long flight back to London. In Chiang Mai I can’t stomach the long drag up the mountain to the temples but instead spend a day cruising round lowland Chiang Mai, checking out some of the temples and inner suburbs. It’s such a massive tourist & international city that it’s hard to get away from people everywhere. I get some shirts fitted – over the last year I’ve gone from an 18” to 16 ¼” collar! Chill out in the awesome iBerry café, outside the main tourist areas the city is lovely. In a suburban park, people exercise the afternoon away using public gym equipment scattered around an oval running path. Thais play football and some strange volleying game with a hackysack aiming to kick it into a series of nets 15ft in the air. It’s always strange that the more tourists there are, the harder it is to meet people as they’re caught up in their own lives or there’s simply too many to say hello to everybody so you tend to keep to yourself more. I do catch up with the guys from Mae Sae and chat to a Vicky, an English nurse hoping to find work in Australia. With food still on my mind I spend a morning at cookery school with 3 women and our teacher. It’s great fun and Elana, Jen & Julie are great fun – Julie even introduces her own ideas to her cooking frightening our playful teacher. Finally I find a bike box in a small bike shop and pack up my bike for the last time, it’s the end of a long, sometimes painful, but always entertaining ride.

Baggy clothes

Yes ladies, I can even cook (well I can now)

Enjoying the fruits of our labour

Tanjong Beach, Singapore - imported sand
in the middle of a shipping lane

Onto Singapore I’m confronted with sweltering temperatures and air-conditioned modernity. I manage to check my bike in early at the airport so there’s no danger of me rebuilding it to head off for another ride. My hostel has key cards, wi-fi, washing facilities, air conditioning and anything else I might want to drag me back into the western world. I’m lucky to find that my friend Timmy’s working in Singapore and he drags me out into the leafy suburbs for a LONG swim with his triathlon club – it’s a real struggle and my arms, having wasted away over the past month, burn as we repeat long course 400s with less than 10 seconds rest between each (the others swam faster and got more). I explore the brand playground of Sentosa Island, a man-made theme park, that was worth seeing but not spending too long at, fortunately I’m able to find a quiet spot on Tanjong Beach; filled with imported sand and overlooking vast shipping lanes, this beach looks like it would be heaving at weekends and the party would run all night. Back in the city it’s easy to stumble on the colonial history of the island, but now it is much more of an Asian melting pot, with people of every nationality scurrying around on their seemingly urgent business. By evening the air cools off and I retreat to the riverfront for some cold beers contemplating the past 12 months – it’s been epic, but strangely the next 3 months where I’ve committed myself to figure out where and what I want to do seem much more daunting…

Several bridges apparently make this the...

Downtown Singapore

Butterfly at Singapore airport

Arriving in Heathrow I breeze through passport control and customs – so much for Olympic delays and strikes. It’s bloody cold though – in Singapore it never got below 25 degrees at night, back in London it’s 15 degrees in the evening during mid-Summer. My family’s there to meet me (or at least those that could feasibly make it are) and it’s great to see everybody after a year away. As I’ve a 3hr drive ahead of me and a long weekend at home, I’m sure the stories will come out over time.

Back home with half the family - looks like I lost a lot of weight in the mountains - down to 95kg!

Looking back over the last 12 months it’s been quite a ride, the stats bear it out, but more importantly it’s been quite a personal journey too. I’ve survived cycling through 40 degree heat with 100% humidity in Wisconsin and freezing temperatures wearing shorts and sandals in the high mountains of Montana. I’ve cycled through big cities, small cities, towns, tiny villages and vast open tracks of countryside – across fields, high plains, great rivers, deep valleys and high mountains. I’ve dragged my bike & body up the steepest roads I’ve ever seen in Thailand and trusted it to carry me down steep switchbacks on rough roads where I’d no idea what was round the next corner. I got hit by a car and survived, spending my first night in hospital (since maybe I was a baby) and collecting some impressive scars. I’ve set myself up to live and work in 2 new cities, met countless people, made a few good new friends and reconnected with plenty of friends who had moved overseas. I’ve spent days on end with only my own company and not gone completely mad (you might disagree). I’ve relied on the generosity of strangers and things have worked out for the best. I’ve left things to chance and chance has been good to me. At different times I’ve felt tired, broken, lonely, concerned, desperate, scared, excited, euphoric, drunk, sober, alive, fast, heavy, happy, content, motivated, lethargic and a whole lot more. 

Drunk in Iowa

Euphoric riding with friends into Vancouver

Most of all I wanted to do it and I went and did it, it’s just that now I need to pick up the pieces… so what did I learn:

• ·     I love the open countryside, but I still need to live in amongst the life and opportunities of a city
• ·     Compact cities with accessible public spaces within them and accessible countryside are best
• ·     Public transport is awesome but requires compact cities to make it work
• ·     I don’t need a big garden – why would I want to spend every Saturday morning mowing a lawn I rarely use anyway - public parks are better
• ·     If I can put my mind to it, and visas allow, I can get a job and set myself a life anywhere in the world but…
• ·     …I miss my friends and family from back in the UK too. Friend & family mean a lot to me so clearly there’s some thinking to be done there
• ·     If you put yourself out there, the generosity of strangers will blow you away; I got fed, housed, ferried, boozed and accompanied by people I’d never met before out of their own pockets and/or  precious time
• ·     Water polo is a fantastic sport full of generous people that put me up all over the world and set me on my feet in Brisbane, Sydney & Melbourne
• ·     I love riding my bike, I love challenging myself, I love the feel of tiredness through physical exertion and I may just be a little competitive / stubborn
• ·     I can repair my bike and keep it on the road unless some muppet in a car hits it at 100kph
• ·     It seems that I bounce & roll rather than crash in a heap – so far this has proved very useful
• ·     I want a lifestyle where I can stay active and am not just stuck at a desk, but…
• ·     …I want to work in something that’s intellectually challenging and interesting, so again, more thinking to be done there
• ·     You really don’t need a lot to get by, a couple of panniers and a tent is probably plenty, I didn’t really miss anything I’ve returned to find packed up in my basement
• ·     Summers are fantastic and I’m not looking forward to meeting winter for the first time in 18 months!

As these blogs have progressed they seem to have got a lot longer, changing from brief summaries to give an insight of what and where I’m at into a chance for me to relive experiences now several weeks past. Hopefully you’ve found both interesting, and if not, at least there are a few photos to look at. There are many stories I haven’t told, many of which will probably only come back to me when prompted by something utterly random. Keeping a journal and then writing it up was hard work; imagine trying to write your thoughts down for an hour after riding for 10 when all you want to do is chill out over a beer or go to sleep. It’s been worth it though, so much happens on the road that it’s almost impossible to keep track of everything – a week can feel like a month, especially when you look back and realise how far you’ve come in such a short time. I hope though this blog I’ve given you some insights into the road and maybe inspired a couple of people to get out there and do what they’ve always wanted to as well.

It’s been great to raise some money for the North Staffs Adventure Playground, I’m really pleased to know that not only have indulged myself over the past 12 months but we’ve also managed to help a really worthwhile cause; if you haven’t already, please consider donating to the Adventure Playground, it’s easy through justgiving, they really would appreciate it and put the money, however small, to good work helping disabled and disadvantaged kids where I grew up.

http://www.justgiving.com/BigRedOnABike

So here are a few statistics from my ride…

• Distance Travelled: 8,900 miles
• 408,000 ft climbed – 14 times up Mt Everest
• 12 punctures
• 7 rear tyres
• 4 front tyres
• 3 chains (1 snapped!)
• 1 new Bottom Bracket
• 3 falls (all at a standstill or low speed)
• 1 Broken Spoke
• 2 smashed wheels in 1 big crash
• Top temperature: 40 Degrees Celsius (Wisconsin & 100% humidity)
• Low Temperature: 2 Degrees Celsius (Montana, USA)
• Highest Pass: Big Horn Mountains, WY, USA at 9,015ft
• Biggest Climb: 4,500ft in 14 miles (Big Horn Mountains, USA)
• Biggest Descent: 5,000ft in 18 miles (Big Horn Mountains, USA)
• Most Climbing in a day and steepest day: ~10,000ft in 70.5 miles along the Burmese border in Thailand
• Hardest and Longest (time) Day: 100 miles in 10h 37min to the Vietnam / Laos border at Na Maew
• Biggest Day: 139 miles into Missoula, Montana, USA
• Fastest Day: 17mph into Missoula, Montana, USA
• Maximum Speed: 50.8mph descending on the Princes Highway near Merimbula, NSW, Australia
• Slowest Day: 8.7mph over 62miles through Laos’ mountains from Sam Neua to Nam Neun
• Pair of Sunglasses lost / broken: 8
• Weight at start: 109kg (17st 2lb)
• Weight at end: 95kg (14st 13lb)
• Weight lost: 14kg (31lbs)
• Most fun state / area: Iowa, USA – RAGBRAI is Crazy
• Most Fun City: Tie: Chicago / Melbourne, great times with great friends in a friendly city
• Most beautiful US national park: North Cascades, Washington – green forests, snowy mountain passes and deep blue lakes
• Most stunning area in SE Asia: Mountains out of Sam Neua – heavily forested, people out working and the road skipping from ridge to ridge
• Most stunning road: Highway one south of South Francisco, love those sweeping curves
• Hardest road: Mud, rain & mountains from Sapa to Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam
• Toughest guy I met: Sirius, walking across the USA!
• Cheapest Pint: $0.20 Bia Hoi sat on a plastic stool in Hanoi, Vietnam
• Most expensive pint: $10 – pretty much anywhere in Australia when not drinking Carlton or equivalent
• Most random roadsign: “Beware of go-karts coming downhill” illustrated rather than written (Laos)