The Journeys ... The Current Trip

When I planned to study in Australia, I already had my escape plan. I never intended to stay here forever. The idea was to study for a year, work for a year and then go traveling again. Plans change and that is a good thing. If everything would happen as we plan it, how boring life would be...

So, after four years of living in Perth, the time has eventually come to embark upon a new adventure. Probably to compensate for the 'overtime', this is intended to be a 'real' adventure: cycling through Asia for two years

The thing is, if we do something too often, we start seeing flaws even in the most exciting activity and get annoyed and bored with it. That's what happened to the relationship between backpacking and me.
After years of traveling as a backpacker, I started to realize that even as hard as we may try to avoid it, one tends to fall into pattern: similar routes, similar destinations, similar activities. And, don't get me wrong, that is fine for a while - and as most people only backpack once in their lifetime, they don't get to see those patterns. But I did. I found myself avoiding backpacker 'ghettos' more and more. Trying to stay 'off the beaten track'. And when I ended up in one of those places, I tended to either isolate myself or hang with the most cynical person I could find. (You guys are great, by the way. You know who you are.)
I think the seed for trying a different mode of travel was planted at the end of my last trip – while in India and Thailand. Both places fascinated me and I wanted to see more of them. At the same time, I was appalled by the 'traveler scene': people following trodden paths, eating Western food, socializing only with fellow travelers and at the same time claiming to be the real deal. Now I had a dilemma: I wanted to go back to India and South East Asia – but I wanted to be as little part of that scene as possible. Of course, that is possible to do within the 'traditional' traveling norms: but one has to be more vigilant about the 'mission'. However, traveling should not just be a mission, but enjoyment. So, I was contemplating a solution for this luxury problem.

Then, when Erika had arrived in Perth and after a few cycling tours, the solution had presented itself: let's ride our bicycles through Asia. This way we simply couldn't fall back into the the backpacker patterns of going from one comfortable destination to the next. At the same time, we would be forced to stay in places most people just see from the window of a bus or a train. That settled it.

So, here we are now: four weeks away from D-Day. The plan is to cycle for two years. Starting in Indonesia, we intend to ride through Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Nepal and India. We do have an idea of how to approach this tour – but as you can imagine, there is no way of setting such an undertaking in stone. We will probably assess plans, routes and options on a day-to-day basis and much of that 'plan' might change.
There are also a few alternative plans and unknown factors that we are tossing around. We are contemplating going to Myanmar, but will decide that once we are in Thailand based on cost and political situation. We are also playing around with the idea of a holiday in the Philippines, where Erika still has extended family. That will depend on cost and season once we arrive in Vietnam. And there is the case of 'the region that shall not be named' – our gateway to Nepal and India. Riding through there will depend entirely on the political situation. Currently, it looks very bleak – but let us hope things ease up a bit in the next year and a half.

First things first. Indonesia. I will write a diary entry in about one week to enlighten you on our plans for that first stage.
I hope you are as excited about reading about our trip as we are about actually doing it.
Adrian