All posts by Julie Glynn

I am a Podiatrist and a mother of two boys (12 and 9 yrs old). We live in the idyllic town of Denmark in Western Australia. I have always wanted to take my family on a challenging character building adventure. I believe that there is only a small window of opportunity where your children and old enough to enjoy and remember the adventure but young enough that missing 6 months of school will not be too detrimental to their educations. This is that window. We are taking our two Bike Friday tandems to Singapore and we are planning on cycling to South Korea.
Julie

Ko Chang rest day

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We arrived in Trat safely yesterday afternoon after a swim in an old quarry.  I was surprised at how nervous the boys were, to go swimming in a blue pool of fresh water. I think they have watched too many episodes of river monsters.


We decided to travel to an Island off the coast of Trat called Koh Chang. We were going to cycle to the ferry terminal and bring our bikes to the Island with the intention of cycling around the island. What stopped us was a quick look at the topography of the Island. Very very mountainous.  Instead we caught a tuk-tuk to the terminal and we are hiring a car tomorrow to do our own waterfall tour. There are 6 waterfalls on the island and Robert wants to swim at all of them. 

There is a pool at our accommodation and Allister become king of the kids. Three local girls joined the boys in the pool and they all had a great time. 

Julie

The thunder chunder.

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Patrick has developed an amazing gag reflex. When he smell something bad he gags. If the smell continues he vomits. 

In the past the bad smells have been rotting rubber or garbage trucks but yesterday we cycled past a prawn farm that was being emptied.  The smell was like rotting seaweed with a hint of fishy sewerage.  

The smell was thick and lasted for about 50 meters.  Patrick ended up doing a thunder chunder.  We stopped once we were past the smell and I had to use a whole bottle of water to wash off the rear pannier. 

We all laughed about it for about an hour. 

Julie

Amazing day.

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Today we had our usual 50 km planned but it was broken into three convenient section.  Last night we stayed in a remote beach hotel. There was no shops and very few restaurants.  We have been purchasing all of our staple foods from 7-Eleven’s. There is a 7-Eleven around every corner in Asia, except last night.  We were running out of bread and had no apple juice or fruit left. We checked on the map and the closest 7-Eleven was 15km further down the road. We decided to eat what was left of our food and then just cycle straight to the 7-eleven for morning tea. 


We also planned on visiting a waterfall on the ride today. The waterfall was a perfect 18km from the 7-eleven.  When we arrived there we were the only foreigners.  There must have been 200 Thai’s and us. It was amazing. 


As you can see in the next photo. We were not the only animals swimming in the water. 


There were hundreds of carp. They were harmless but they did bite a little bit.  


Julie

Two nice days with one hiccup. 

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We have had some really pleasant cycling over the last two days. Beachside roads with a slight sea breeze.  Just about perfect.  Coffee shops in the middle of nowhere. Scenic bridges. Deserted quarries.  Single lane tracks through prawn farms.








The only hiccup was Allister’s seat post fracturing while he was cycling.  Luckily he felt it going and didn’t hurt himself.  It could have been nasty. 


It was an easy fix as the frame has a telescopic extention and there was enough seat post left to use again. I will be letting bike friday know about it though.  Allister is not a big guy, I am assuming that the seat post had a fault line.  The boys and I were horrified imaging what sort of damage he would have done it himself if it fractured while he was going fast downhill.

Julie

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Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all of your comments.  We try to reply to every comment but have just been told that it is not easy to find our replies. Allister is looking into it and hopefully it will be easier soon.

Please keep on commenting. We love hearing from everyone.  The boys get a real kick out of knowing that someone has read what they have written.

Missing you all but having too much fun to come home.

Julie

Julie

The oldest profession in the world. 

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We found accommodation in a town called Ban Chang.  It is only a cross road on Google maps but when we cycled into town we realised that it is a small city.  We saw a sign for a hotel called the Grand. We decided to head towards it. The boys decided to race us on foot because it was only 500m down what we thought was a quiet road. As the boys rounded a corner on the foot path they ran straight into a squeal of ‘working girls’. The girls were all dressed up ready for a night of work. The street we were on was the equivalent of Hay street in Kalgoolie.  Both of the boys stopped in their tracks in shock.  This gave the girls time to close in. Patrick got a squeeze on the bum and Robert got a kiss on the cheek.  The girls were hooting with laughter and the boys were horrified.  The boys pushed their way through the girls and made it out alive. Later we had to explain to Patrick what the oldest profession in the world is.

This morning was like every other morning.  We woke up expecting to have a great day. We live in hope. When we went to load the panniers on the bikes we realised that my rack had broken away from my bike frame. This is a problem because the rack wobbles and it puts a lot of load on the other attachment sites. 

When we looked closer we discovered that the bolt had sheared off at the frame. Big problem.  The owner of the hotel offered to help and to cut a long story short, he ended up getting two of his mates to come to the hotel with a welder and an electric drill. Kingsley and Phil would be horrified at what they did to get the bolt out of the frame but after about an hour they had it repaired.  That bolt hole will never be the same again but I don’t care.  It’s fixed. 

We hit the road mid morning and made it to a beach side hotel by mid afternoon.  The closer we get to Cambodia the hotter it is getting.  We are hoping for an early start tomorrow morning to avoid the midday heat, but who knows what tomorrow has in store for us. 

Julie

Another one of those days. 

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Today was supposed to be an easy 38km ride to a white sand beach. Well it didn’t go to plan. Firstly, Allister was stuck on the phone with the Samsung repair people. He then needed us to backtrack to a bank to deposit money into the Samsung repair account.  We cycled back and predictably, the bank didn’t exist. We could only find an ATM with no deposit facilities.  

We decided to push on in the hope of finding a bank along the way. No luck so far. 

There were two options for cycle routes today. Coastal and highway or inland. We chose inland because Allister felt it would be nicer than the highway. We all agreed and headed off. This was our first hurdle. 


After crossing this creek and cleaning the grit out of our shoes, we were just about to head off and a motorbike arrived in front of us. The driver of the motorbike was a police officer and he told us we were not allowed to proceed. Understandably we quickly backtracked across the creek again. 

In the end we had to zigzag our way south.  After a while we stopped at a 7-Eleven for a cold drink. There was another cyclist there having a drink. He was on a road bike.  He was Anglo looking and after being in Pattaya, I assumed he was Russian.  We all sat down outside to have our drinks and Allister started chatting to him. To our surprise he had an Irish accent. The first thing he said to us was that he was surprised we were not German because he assumed we were German because they are the crazy ones who do cycle tours with their kids. We all had a laugh. 

He asked us where we were headed.  He explained that the route we had chosen was not great and he volunteered to lead us. We agreed.  He cycled with us for about 25km. 

Julie

It’s been a while. 

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Had a nice rest in Hua Hin. We spent our days reading, watching movies, eating great food and our nights were spent wondering the many night markets around Hua Hin.  My favourite dish at the moment is sticky rice with mango. 

We spent half a day at the immigration office in Hua Hin, getting renewals on our visas. That was an eye opener.  We have been so remote and away from other tourists that it was strange to be surrounded by them at immigation. Some people are so rude and impatient. The boys and I had fun people watching while we waited. 

We researched our options for bipassing Bangkok. Our options included ferry (expensive), private taxi (expensive and uncomfortable) or bus (5 hours). In the end we chose the bus. The seats were business class quality and the cost was half the price of the ferry. The bikes fit easily in the cargo hold so we did not have to disassemble them. 

We are now in Pattaya.  I can understand why it is not a popular destination for Australians.  Pretty much every tourist here is Russian.  It is the Russian equivalent of Kuta for Australians. We are cycling away this morning and I doubt I will even return here.  It is so developed with shops, restaurants and hotels.  It reminds me a lot of Kuta.

Allister is still having phone problems.  We left his phone in Surat Thani for servicing, with the arrangement that they would post it to us in Hua Hin. Well, it didn’t arrive.  He is now on the phone with them trying to get it posted to Trat but they are asking for more money because it is not a Thai phone and they can not use Thai parts to repair it.  I have a feeling he should cut his losses but he wants to get his phone back. Once we cross the border into Cambodia, I suspect that will be the end of it. I doubt they will post it to another country.  

Allister also repaired his first broken spoke. He did it very well. 

Julie

Gross picture.  Do not read if you are squeamish.

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Rain did not stop us.

Pot holes did not stop us.

Wild dogs did not stop us. 

Jungle paths did not stop us. 

Broken spokes did not stop us. 

Bridges washed away did not stop us. 

Head winds did not stop us.

But this has.

We went for a swim yesterday afternoon and Allister stood on something nasty.  

I dressed it last night and then reassessed it this morning.  There was some pus and signs of infection. I put my Podiatry foot down and have advised on 4 days of rest to allow it to heal. So we have organised transport to Hua Hin to be closer to the Bangkok Hospital if we need it. 

We are disappointed that we have missed out on some great coast cycling but it is what it is. We are also running low on our visas so we are planning on going to the Hua Hin immigation office on Monday to apply for an extension. 

Julie

Two bridges 

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Today we literally left our hotel at the crack of dawn to make the most of the calm morning. Yesterday’s head winds took a lot out of us. We watched the sun rise over the gulf of Thailand as we cycled along.  It was a beautiful way to start what turned out to be a day of challenges. 

We bumped into two groups of touring cyclists today. The first group was two guys who had a lot of local information about the area. 


They told us that there was a national park ahead of us that we could cycle through even though the maps indicated that you couldn’t.  

They were wrong!

Due to the huge rains and flash flooding in Thailand this monsoon season the bridge had been swept away. The problem was there were no warning signs so we pushed the bikes for 3km through thick jungle to discover that the bridge was gone. 

When we turned our bikes around we were all really disappointed because we hate to backtrack.  Amazingly, about 2 minutes back down the path we met up with two other cyclists.  They had also been told that you could get through.  When we describe the state of the bridge to them they also turned around. 

We ended up cycling with them for a while and stopped for lunch together.  At the lunch stop the boys were a great hit. You can’t see it from the photo but the lady behind Patrick had bright lipstick on. Both boys left the restaurant with lipstick kisses on their cheeks.

We cycled on thinking we only had a few more kilometres to go before we would reach a town with a hotel. Little did we know that the national park bridge was not the only one affected by the flash flooding. 

Read Robert’s blog for more details but basically we were determined to not have to back track again.  We carried everything across the water bit by bit. 

We made it.  I would also like to say that I am so proud of the boys and how they coped with today’s challenges.  They were both amazing.