Eight Hundred Kilometers Later: Lists

How difficult is it to write about a two week bike trip across Southeast Asia? Every day there seems to be a highlight of the trip and trying to compress it in one entry seems extremely challenging. Yet creating separate posts for each day pose their own challenges as well. 

How long can I keep this up? Editing pictures, creating infographics and writing half-baked entries that may or may not be posted? It's worth a shot to write something memorable. Or maybe just to sit down and write.

Practical Stuff on the Road
1. Your gadget should have a wordless travel app. Or better yet, pictures of things you will really, really need on the road, like: eggs, water, ice, toilet, guesthouse.
2. Never cross a border on your own or else be scammed like Pen. She was charged 50,000 dong upon entering the Cambodian border of Bavet for God knows what reason.

Caught on camera: scammed at the border!

3. Tell your bank you're traveling abroad so you can withdraw from your ATM. Otherwise, be prepared for a frustrating process of unsuccessfully trying to withdraw from your ATM or searching for a money changer or a bank that's open on a late afternoon on a weekend. Yeah. Exactly.
4. I don't care what anyone says on how gadget dependent we were. Wifi rocks. Gadgets rock.
5. Do not look at your Garmin/whatever gadget you are using to measure your mileage/kilometer signs. You will go crazy. Especially if your expected mileage for the day is 90kms and you're only on KM 30.

Do not look at your Garmin! You'll go crazy!

6. Instead of taking the Poipet border to enter Thailand from Cambodia, take the Osmauch border instead if you have time. What a hassle-free/people-less experience it was!
7. Get a Brooks saddle. Instead of suffering through saddle sores, and weird blisters from cycling shorts and uncomfortable "performance/racing" saddles.
8. There are always little roadside stores where you can stop for a meal or a cold drink, but always bring comfort food. For this trip, we brought a whole jar of Nutella.

Beer and Nutella were lifesavers

9. Extra clothing is overrated. Doing our laundry became a regular occurrence and big cities always gave us an excuse to shop for clothes.

We spent a lot of time doing laundry. We were so used to seeing each other's undies hanging all over our room.

10. Just put your bike in an effin box. We were confident that airport check-in counters would allow us to roll our bikes in (without any packaging whatsoever) simply because we've done it before. Airports have strange rules sometimes. So to avoid the hassle of nearly missing your flight (or just to avoid the hassle), just get a decent bike box and pack your bike in.

We got away with unboxing our bikes in both Manila and Bangkok but not without endless pleading. Next time, we'll just put our bikes in boxes.

11. Do not take a late night flight out of Manila to HCM. Otherwise, be prepared to sleep outside the airport.

We got kicked out off the airport and spent the night on benches outside waiting for sunlight.

Cambodian Guesthouses Rock.
1. Wifi all the time (except in the tiny town of Samreoung, 60kms away from the Cambodia-Thailand border).
2. Rooms that can comfortably fit 2 queen size beds, huge wooden chairs and tables and still have space for your luggage.
3. Bathrooms that can fit a queen size bed.
4. Speaking of bathrooms, bidets in EVERY bathroom.
5. Toothbrushes in every guesthouse. (Quality wasn't so great though. Every time I used one, my gums and tongue would be scraped raw.)
6. Extra towels and blankets
7. Hardwood bed frames.

Our Gadget List
2 iPad minis
1 iPhone
1 Sony Xperia
1 Samsung Galaxy Note 1
1 Kobo Reader
1 (non-functional) Nokia
1 GoPro Hero 3
1 Lumix LX7
1 Garmin Forerunner 305
1 extension cord
A lot of cables/chargers

How to Keep Yourself Entertained on the Road
1. Tell yourself over and over you can do it
2. Think of new business ventures to topple existing ones
3. Sing songs from the Sound of Music and Disney movies
4. Put your earphones on and listen to your iPod (er, not recommended)
5. Take out the GoPro and ask your companions stupid questions.
6. Daydream..
7. Pray/meditate.