Sur le Velo

If you ever want to know how to attract attention abroad, carry around lots of seemingly heavy and awkward gear. We pushed our way through the crowds of people at the backpacker area of Khao San Road in Bangkok, with our bike boxes in tow and SPD cleat sandals clicking with every step. Mat carried the bike boxes on his head, Asian style, much to the amusement of ex-pat beer drinkers and the Indian boy on the corner trying to sell him a suit ("Hello sir, would you like a nice suit when you are done with all of that work?") Adding to the confusion, we tried to convince our guest-house owners to allow us to pay them money to store our empty cardboard boxes, so that we have something to protect our bikes on the airplane for the return flight. Despite what you may think, paying someone to store an empty box in Bangkok is not as easy as it might sound. Unlike India, in Thailand not "everything is possible".

Tomorrow we are leaving by train, heading northward to Ayuthaya, and then will be hopping on our bikes to ride to Chiang Mai, a hilly city in Northern Thailand that neither of us has ever visited. We have been practicing our communication skills and strengthening our stomaches by eating only at local restaurants without English menus. Thanks to Mo's practice on a Thai language game on the flight from Taipei (Air China isn't that bad after all!) we can now say "two, please" which is quite effective when pointing at your preferred noodle and meat type. While this methodology has worked quite well, for dinner tonight we ended up with the spiciest meal we have ever eaten, seemingly sauteed hot chili peppers on top of rice. Barely able to finish, we ran straight to the 7-11 for a yogurt drink in a bottle to quench the fire in our bellies. Being optimistic yet perhaps foolish, we keep repeating our mantra: It will all be easier once we are on our bikes...

P.S. For the francophones reading this, we really tried to properly accent our post title - but alas, the Thai language keyboard we are using wouldn't have any of it. Hopefully you can figure out what we were talking about despite the missing accent aigue.

P.P.S. We stole the inspirational picture of women waiting in line to cross the border into Vietnam from China from our friend Ryan's online photos. We'll think of this whenever we start complaining about how heavy our "loaded down" touring rigs are.