Winston - Reflections from Home - Trial by fire: new bike, first tour, first time in Asia

Winston - Reflections from Home

Reflections from Home – Birmingham, Alabama

I wanted to take a few days to process the experience of our southeast Asian bike tour before making a final post to the cycleblaze blog. The expression is a cliché, but for me this was the trip of a lifetime. I have made many short bike trips of 3-5 days in the US and Europe and ridden numerous long days over 100 km, but never anything of this scope or duration. And as our title stated, this was my first trip to Asia. Although I am healthy and fit and an experienced traveler, this was a formidable undertaking at age 66. But it was something I had wanted to do for many years, and I am so grateful to Ian for his willingness to travel with me on this trial by fire bike tour.

I am not an athlete by nature. I was reared in the sports-crazed culture of Alabama in which football (American style) was a virtual religious sacrament. But I was a clumsy, fearful child. The other boys saw this and ridiculed me for it. My self-defense was to reject their interests, their values, and their sports. I was not sedentary, but I spent a lot of time alone, and riding my bike proved to be a good outlet for things that did interest me: being physically active, being outdoors, and something I could do alone, removed from the hypercompetitive culture of my youth. So the vast majority of my cycling throughout life has been alone.
I have come to learn that a little competitive spirit is not a bad thing. It can be a social boost to help us achieve more. This wasn’t just my first extended bike tour, it was my first multi-day bike trip with a companion, so that was another challenge for me. There was no expectation that I would compete with Ian in speed or endurance; I simply had to keep a reasonable pace. At times, that was a great challenge. It was my goal to ride through northern Vietnam and Laos. I knew it was mountainous, and Ian cautioned that it would be hard. Long, steep hills followed one after the other. I wouldn’t say that I could not or would not have climbed these long hills had I not been with a cyclist of Ian’s experience or caliber. However, his example pushed me forward at times when my confidence was flagging.
I will be processing the experience of our time in Asia for years. The landscapes and forests were beautiful, and the farms, villages, and temples fascinating. The unexpected juxtapositions of timeless ways of life in rural Asia immersed in the digital age were sometimes jarring, but we (or I) quickly came to see how much more difficult the trip would have been without the reliable internet signal. The only night of the trip when we slept rough was mostly the result of inability to communicate (lack of a Lao SIM card) and search online for accommodation. Of course, this was compounded by my slow pace climbing steep hills. Even though it felt at times that we were finding our way despite the imperfections of google maps and komoot, I, at least, was happy to have a resource with more detail than my paper map. We were constrained from Ian’s ideal approach of wandering in complete freedom firstly by setting beginning and ending points from the start, and a secondly by the time limit that I set. These constraints, along with specific places I was set on visiting, largely determined the route we would take even though we didn’t map it from the start. There were several instances where we deviated from what was likely the most direct route to investigate something else that sparked our interest. These proved to be some of the most memorable experiences of the trip.
Of course, the most fascinating experiences of the trip centered around the people we encountered. I have heard endless stories of the generosity and hospitality offered to strangers by people who have little to share. I have had some experience of this in South America and Africa, but never so many as in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. With no common language, people old and young wanted to meet and interact with us. We would buy something at a shop, and they would give us something extra. We wanted something to eat that wasn’t already prepared and they would cook for us. They were unguardedly curious about the two strange foreigners who appeared in a remote Lao village on bicycles, and patient as we punched poorly translated requests into cell phones. And the children were a delight. At times when I was not sure if I could continue peddling, I would be reenergized by little voices calling, “Hello! Hello!” or sometimes “Goodbye! Goodbye!” or occasionally a pretty teenage girl saying, “I love you!” We were the source of great fascination from children as they went to and from school, played in front of their homes, helped out in the family shops, and excitedly tried out a few words in English. I will carry the voices and faces of the children with me forever.

And naturally, Ian and I experienced friction. To me, that is impossible to avoid when you travel for weeks, mostly in a language bubble, with one other person. Ian and I have known each other for 30 years and share many interests and values. But we have distinctly different personalities, temperaments, experiences in life, and approaches to dealing with challenges. If, at times, we were short with each other, I would like to think it was borne out of fatigue, frustration, misunderstanding, or just differences in how we face a challenging situation. I would never have made this trip without Ian. Period. I might have made a bike trip of this length. I have faced similar physical challenges. I have faced equivalent mental challenges. I might have travelled to remote places in Asia. Without a partner such as Ian Wallis, I would have never combined all those things into a single trip. A few people at home have asked me if I would do it again. Maybe not in exactly the same way. But when I do set about for another long bike tour (across North America, perhaps), I will have a model to work from and experience to apply. For that experience, I have Ian to thank.

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Graham SmithHi Winston that’s one of the best reflective posts I’ve seen in a cycle touring journal. Well said.
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