Intro etc.
South-east Asia holds a special place in our hearts. It was here, in the late-middle years of our lives, that we re-discovered the joys of cycling and it was here that we ventured out on our first cycle tour. Over the past three years we have spent six months cycling in the region taking in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. It is such an easy place to tour with friendly locals, great food, affordable accommodation and (if you look carefully enough) quiet back-roads on which to chill out.
From a cycle touring perspective 2018 was a pretty good year for us with three and a half months in South America and three months in Japan. But it had its fair share of downsides as well. Consequently we spent far more time back in South Africa than we intended to and we entered 2019 feeling pretty knackered both physically and emotionally.
So south-east Asia was an easy choice when we needed a relaxing place to turn to where we could recharge our batteries.
We leave for Thailand on the 6th of February returning to South Africa on the 5th of April. The plan is to fly into Bangkok, catch a train down to Chumpon and cycle southwards towards Malaysia down the Andaman Sea coast. Lankawi Island is the designated turning point on what will essentially be a visa run into Malaysia to give us an extra 30 days in Thailand. From here we will head back to Bangkok. The initial southward direction should provide us with mostly tailwinds at this time of year and the route will be mostly quite flat. This is just as well because we are both terribly unfit. To make things even easier for ourselves we will be taking far less gear with us than usual because we will stay in guesthouses and hotels throughout the trip. As always, a plan is simply a broad idea so let's see what eventually happens.
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