Spiced Out

‘Phet phet!’ warned the lady of the small food stall somewhere along the road from Trang to Krabi, ’spicy spicy!’ You hear it all the time when ordering food in Thailand. Many foreigners don’t like or just can’t handle spicy food but as a seasoned traveller I even need a bit of spice. Yeah yeah spicy, I know. ‘Chowp’, I reply, I like it, and start eating my rice and curry while being watched by the people in the restaurant.

Tasty pork curry it is indeed. After my second spoon of it I slowly register a slight tingle which through the next few spoons rapidly turns into a violent blaze. The lady from the restaurant asks if I like the food. ‘Oh yes, very delicious’ I grin to her to save face. Well, I think I made something of a smiling shape with my mouth but I am not absolutely sure since I didn’t feel my lips anymore. She looked worried. A anaesthetic sensation crept into the lower part of my face thoughout the meal.

A man sitting at my table suggests I should try the fresh green vegetables from the plate on the table and dip them in the red sauce. He smiles his three toothed smile at me and I wonder if that has anything to do with the excessive spicing that this restaurant probably is notorious for. I suddenly see lots of people with teeth missing. I politely decline.

It is only when I am enthusiastically chewing away on my inferno in curry and rice that I found why those teeth disappear. It’s the bones, no, no, chips of bones rather. In Asia it seems perfectly normal to splinter a chicken to death before you put it into your food. I really don’t see the fun in rummaging around your food, in your mouth, with your tongue, to avoid crushing teeth and perforating stomach. Especially being a hungry cyclist I just want to wolf down food because I already need more than I can eat, let alone rummage.

Reflections

Sometimes one needs time off to stare into the distance. Vacation in its meaning of being unoccupied. I think beaches offer the best views of unspoilt horizons and space. Mountains inspire me to go somewhere, travel, look beyond the next range. A beach is where I come home to.

.

.

.

.

Thailand Island

On the longtail boat to Koh Yao Noi

Just a one and a half hour ride on a longtail boat from the busy tourist island of Phuket lies Koh Yao Noi, a small island where developers have not yet started their abuse of beachfronts. Rolien, a good friend who lives on Phuket, and I just spend three days there. Three days of doing nothing more than being on Koh Yao Noi. Rooms with views over Pha Nga Bay offer the only activity necessary, looking at it.

.

We took our motorbikes to the island

 

the long and dusty road

 

 

Riding into town just as the sun is setting I realise that so enormous is the grin that I am wearing I am in grave danger of being taken as a simpleton. Children jump up and down on the side of the road waving excitedly, ‘hello hello hello’ they shout, adults smile and wave a slightly calmer greeting than their offspring, but the sentiment is the same, a warm friendly and genuine welcome to Vietnam.

I roll into the hotel courtyard at the back of the dust encrusted group of cyclists that I am responsible for. They dismount, some looking hot and weary – not a surprise considering they have flown from a UK winter to cycling all day in 30 degrees of heat – some laughing and joking and looking remarkably fresh. ‘Beer’ I shout, there is little hesitation as 14 hands rise in unison. I organise the rooms for the group and join them a few minutes later. There is nothing that washes the dust away whilst relaxing the body and soul quite like a cold beer at the end of a long hot day of physical exertion.

The cycling in the mountains of north-west Vietnam is quite splendid. The natives here are not so used to western tourists and so their welcome is genuine, from the heart. The roads are, in the main part, fine and not so busy although the imminent flooding of a valley ensures that we finish at least one day caked in a layer of dust that gives the group a satisfying Indiana Jones feel; and the scenery is just stunning with kaste mountains rising from rice fields and tea plantations and small villages of wooden house rising from the ground on stilts to protect their inhabitants from flood and snakes.

This is a fine to job.

dust precaution vietnam style

 

 

 

 

Tribe of Red Spokes and the Village School

.

‘She wants to know if you are from ‘different tribe’. Our assistant Huong was translating for a tribal girl. She was in her early twenties dressed in a black trouser suit with red and yellow trimmings. Her baby balanced on her hip she was as interested in the group of cyclists gather around her as they were in her. Although to our ears her question initially seemed odd it was for a peasant girl who had never left her village quite reasonable. After all, look at us, long noses and funny coloured eyes, tight cycling shirts, Lycra shorts, strange sunglasses and the tribal plastic hat of the cyclist. Yes, she was right, we were from the tribe of the white cyclist.

We were standing in the playground of a small village school in the hills of a remote part of Vietnam’s mountainous north eastern region. We had not dropped by and disturbed their mornings schooling unannounced and out of idle curiosity, we were here for a reason, to try to help a little. I am leading this group of British cyclists on a tour of the hill country of North West Vietnam. In many of the countries that Red Spokes run tours we have a project such as this school where we try to put a little back into the country we visit. Indeed Red Spokes CEO Dermot MacWard often talks with such passion and enthusiasm for the charities he supports that it is easy to forget that he is first and foremost running a business.

Part of the visit includes the giving of a prize for the best performing boy and girl, for the boy we took a football and, once the formalities of the visit were complete, any air of shyness that existed soon broke down as the Red Spokes team took on the local kids in an impromptu game of soccer. What the Vietnamese lacked in technical knowledge of the game they made up for in enthusiasm, energy and numbers as without fear of there bare feet being crushed beneath the mighty cycling shoes of their opponents they set about the huge Europeans with the same vigour as Korea showed against Germany in the 2002 World Cup.

.

Meanwhile the tribal girl was explaining how, aged 18 she had met her husband at the “love market” and now, four years down the line he has left her literally holding the baby. Life for theses people is not the bed of roses that it is for we in the West. Here poverty does not mean just one plasma screen TV and a smaller car, it means having nothing other that hopefully some food and shelter provided by the caring people of your village.

Due to limited classroom space the school runs its lessons in three shifts. Unfortunately due to the six o’clock sunset it is often a little troublesome for the last sitting to see their text books, chalk board and teacher. To help with this, this group has agreed to fund the necessary cable, switches fixture and fittings needed to light the classrooms.

Visiting the school was a great experience for the group the teachers and the pupils. Hopefully it has helped to forge an understanding of the lives of peoples of very different cultures.

I will be back here just after Christmas leading another group. We will take with us from Hanoi all they need for the electrification project and hopefully raise a little more money towards improving the quality of the education of these great kids.

A Little Test Ride

The last five days I have been cycling down south to Malaysia to see how bike and backpack and, not the least important, I perform. A little test ride. All three of us performed outstanding on an individual level but as a team a few things need adjusting. The weight of the backpack for example was fine but didn’t go together with the hardness of the saddle. Gear ratio and the intake of sunset beverages will also be looked into before leaving on the long journey. All in all this ride didn’t immediately scare me into running from this ridiculous challenge. There were moments of discomfort, yes, but the smiles, cheers and thumbs up of many Thais passing on motorbikes were heartening. Thais love excercise, especially when somebody is doing it for them.

Sunset at Pak Meng, South of Thailand

Sunset at Pak Meng, South of Thailand

Sugoi Sponsors Fixed & Free

We are happy to announce that our streamlined setup has now been completed with the sponsoring of Sugoi clothing. The word Sugoi is a Japanese term for “Incredible”. Looks like the Osmosno Brothers need to do only one thing then: be incredible in it.

www.sugoi.com

High Altitude Cycling at Sea Level

Cycling around Phuket we (my friend Rolien who lives on Phuket and I) came across a set of houses referred to as Art Village. I was just about to start a fierce climb up to a view point but thought a cultural diversion would make a acceptable excuse to postpone the pain of the upcoming ascent on single speed.

Just when one of the village inhabitants approached us with a ’sawadeekhap!’, the Thai hello, I noticed two very strange looking bicycles leaning against the wall. The young man told us that he and a friend had cycled on these bikes, which they had made themselves, from Chiang Mai, in the north of Thailand.

It was not the first time I saw such a bicycle. I think it was two years ago in Laos that I met a guy travelling on one of those. A Lamplighter Bike, he explained then. A long time ago they were used by men with torches who lit the street lights in cities just before dark.

I was very anxious to try one of them but when I felt the brakes or rather the lack of them I backed down and thought it wise and enough for now to just take a picture from me on it while leaning against a wall. Rolien, who joined me on my training round today, on a motorbike, very wise, already put the camera on video mode to cover me bouncing down the hill shouting help and reaching for branches. I know, that would have been better but sorry.

Kitipong Ngowsiri from www.theloveartstudio.com

Osmosno in Hanoi

Hanoi By Night

Arriving in Hanoi late I had no idea how the city worked. Thinking that I had read somewhere that it all gets rather quiet after eleven, I feared that finding food may prove a tad problematic. As it turned out this could not have been further from the truth. Within ten minutes of dropping my bags off at my hotel I had turned down the pleasures of an hour or two of carnal frivolity thinly disguised as massage with a lady on a motor scooter and instead found myself in a most convivial colonial style cafe with a glass of draught beer in hand and a meal on the way.

It was a lively sort of a place, mainly locals with one or two Westeners scattered around. In the corner two drunks were becoming quite animated. Although I am far from fluent in the language (to tell the truth, I don’t know a single word) I am sure that they were at the “you’re the best friend I’ve ever ‘ad” stage of the evening when there was a flurry of back slapping as one of them decided to call it a night. Following an initial and somewhat unsuccessful attempt at rising from his chair he changed his course of action. Whilst sliding from the chair to a point somewhere beneath the table he decided to don his motorcycle helmet, a procedure that caused apparent concern from the waitress as he almost cleared the table of its ample quantity of empty glasses. Once on his head the hat was to him as the cape is Super Man. Full of

renewed power he was on his feet and ready to go. He navigated an interesting and less than direct route to the door during which time he overturned no fewer than seven chairs. He did this to a constant accompaniment of encouragement from his friend who by now was puzzling over the intricacies of his Zipo lighter. I can only say that I hope he had more success negotiating the traffic of Hanoi on his motor scooter than he did navigating his way to the door.

Miche Drivetrain sponsored by Louis Verwimp

Not only does our bike feel a lot stronger, it runs a lot smoother and it looks a lot better with this new Miche crankset and halflink chain. As we wrote recently some of the uphills here in Thailand proved to be an enormous attack on body and bike. It is reassuring thought that on the other side of the force of pulling hard on handlebars and pushing down on pedals there is a drivetrain that can handle a bit of abuse.

www.miche.it