Thanks for the thoughtful and informative comments, Bike Friday people. It seems like the cardboard argument is edging out the case argument, here at headquarters. But clearly our previous happy go lucky plastic bag days are ended!

When we go on trips to SE Asia, freedom is the most important thing, meaning we may enter at one point and leave to return home from another point hundreds or thousands of miles from the entry point. In terms of packing our Bike Fridays that means we have always used cardboard boxes. Andrea has fashioned a few from other boxes or cut down bike boxes. I tape them into box form. They are the exact size of the maximum allowed for checked baggage on any airline so we have never had a problem with the airlines. Cardboard boxes are always expendable if we come home from a different city than where we entered. It's a little bit of work and hassle to build boxes but in the end I believe it is the most versatile and definitely the cheapest way to go. One time in Bangkok we even found boxes that were the exact size we needed.
I wouldn't dream of using a suitcase at least in SE Asia mostly because I can't imagine any hotel holding two large suitcases for months without charging a lot of money. I left a backpack at a hotel in Bangkok for a month 20 years ago and was charged a dollar a day! What would two large boxes or suitcases cost today I wonder. Not worth it.
Even if we were to travel with suitcases (that, by the way cost a lot of money themselves) and we did find a hotel that would hold them, I would still view that as such a big hassle that I wouldn't want to do it just as the trip begins. I'd rather fashion a box at the end of the trip.
Bottom line: cardboard boxes. We have never had anything damaged in them. We can pack all sorts of stuff around the bikes and we have never come close to exceeding the weight limit. Cardboard boxes, man. Easiest, cheapest, expendable, easily replaceable. I would imagine that a person could even find a shipping company that would either have the right size box already or even be willing to make them for us. Less hassle is the way to go when overseas and we have found cardboard is that way to go.

I'm with Scott on this. It took me a few tries, but I even found a hotel near the airport in Venice willing to receive and store our cases for 8 weeks. That was the most difficult one; the most it's taken before was 2 tries. It's worth it to us to pay a bit more for a hotel willing to do this, but every time they have also had a decent place to pack or unpack our bikes and even provided a hose or bucket of water to clean them up a bit.

Our current cases are much easier to use than the S&S case for my coupler-equipped bike (and fit any of the bikes we own) plus--and my back loves this--include an integral workstand. The downside is that they may trigger fees but the most we've paid so far is $50 each way on a round trip to Europe. On the other hand, we can manage with just one bike case each and no other checked bag, unlike my S&S case which barely holds my bike.

We have to do a bit of disassembly but don't find it a problem, except the time I broke my derailleur wire. That was entirely my own fault.

As a counterpoint, if I’ve counted correctly we’ve flown with our Bike Fridays on 22 tours now, always with suitcases. We have never failed to find a hotel willing to store our suitcases for the duration of the tour (often up to three months), and I think always for free other than one time they charged us a 100 euro storage fee. Our only real mishap was last year, when UPS lost our suitcases - but we think that was at least partly our fault.

It’s true that the rack has to come off, but I’ve never found that to be a big deal. I do agree though about hauling a suitcase, which looks really unattractive to me. Much better to just pay the shipping cost to send them forward to the endpoint.

I agree, there aren't good solutions. This is the first bike trip we've taken where we actually started and ended up in the same place. AND we knew people in that city, who were willing to store our boxes out in the hallway AND the boxes were still there when we got back. So now these boxes, which were cobbled together in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand, have taken three flight legs and still look pretty good, what with all the packing tape on them. It's not a perfect solution, but so far the bikes are virtually unharmed. We do remove front and back racks, however.

Baked in a wood-burning oven, perhaps, but Italian? Not to my eyes. Looks American-style to me.

Guff is something none of us need to accept but here we are. So sorry about the gifts that were lost.

Grackles are really a wonderful species. We were mesmerized listening to hundreds of them congregated at sunset years ago: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/tucson16/to-duncan/#1355_b77f7eb4bbb3137e855e58e2e06436bc

All of the birds in this family are great singers, although mockingbirds are the most notorious. The family also includes catbirds and the thrashers. The mockingbird is the only one that makes it into the PNW though.

My brother sent this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNNX3f3_svo which is a Mockingbird recording. I think it's a tropical one. Amazing variety of calls.

Ah, part of the Amaryllis family. We successfully grow those from year to year.

Yes, your link sure looks like it. But we have so far seen none of the residents of one of these, whoever they are.

Palm fronds are a classic for road repair. The pile of white bricks in the background is hard to see, but it is about a foot high - it's good enough to stop even a car. Another road classic is the large puddle - no telling what it conceals. Famously, since Dodie is in front, she gets to explore these first!

Most of the birds ran away quickly as the waves came in, but this guy must have found something just too yummy to leave behind.

Great shot!