South East Asia Tour
25th January -11th April 2001
PLANNING
We used the Lonely Planet Road Atlas for Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. This was not always as accurate as a cyclist likes. Distances were often out by up to 20 kilometers which makes a difference to a day's cycling!
Our guide books were all Footprint publications, the Thailand, Laos and Vietnam Handbooks.
We received the greatest help from Mr Pumpy's website.
GETTING THERE AND AWAY
We flew to Bangkok with British Airways. The carrier on the London Bangkok leg of the flight was Qantas. We always fly BA because they carry our tandem without a box which we prefer. The luggage handlers can see what they are carting around!
The Thailand Visa is available on arrival in Thailand.
We obtained a Visa for Vietnam in Bangkok at the Vietnam Embassy. This took five days. The visa is a present valid for entering the country at any point. We planned to cross over at the Lao Bao crossing from Laos. The visa is for one month and extensions are available in Hanioi and Saigon.
The visa for Laos is available at the border crossing, in our case on the Friendship Bridge which crosses the Mekong between Thailand and Laos at Vientiane.
We returned by air from Hanoi to Bangkok. Vietnam Airlines wanted us to pay $80 to transport our tandem so we flew with Thai Airlines.
GETTING AROUND
We cycled most of the time but also made use of public transport.
IN THAILAND
We took the train out of Bangkok as far as Ayutthaya.
We paid 35 Baht for two seats and the tandem cost 70 Baht! We loaded it ourselves into a carriage which had a suitable space for bikes. A kindly water vendor directed us to the right coach.
One day after a particularly long day and with many hills and quite a distance to go we flagged down a pickup truck and got a lift without much problem.
We also loaded the tandem onto the top of a bus between Lomsak and Loei, in the North East.
IN LAOS
We used a bus between Paksen and Thakhek as we could not have done the 210 km in one day. Again it was not problem to load the tandem, together with other bikes and luggage on the top of a bus!
IN VIETNAM
We used the train between Nha Trang and Saigon, between Saigon and Hanoi and between Lao Cai and Saigon.
On the first two trips the tandem traveled on a different train and had to be delivered to the station a day earlier. At Lao Cai we simply loaded the bike into a luggage car half an hour before leaving. There are fixed rates for the transport of bicycles.
THE ROADS AND THE TRAFFIC
IN THAILAND
The main roads are very busy but have a good shoulder. The secondary roads are generally not as quiet as Mr Pumpy found two of three years before us. However the further north we got the quieter were the roads. The quietest road was between Chiang Khan and Nong Khai along the Mekong River.
IN LAOS
There is much less traffic in Laos, and many more cyclists particularly at the beginning and end of the school day.
The road is reasonable between Vientiane and Savannakhet but the road on to the Vietnam border is awful unless the Japanese road builders have been there first. They are hard at work and where the road is complete it is wonderful. However most of the road is still the one completed by Russians and Bulgarians in 1986 and is incredibly awful. There are very short asphalted stretches which are pitted and pot holed. These are interspersed with long stretches of unpaved, or once paved road. Sometimes it is merley full of potholes but often it has been vaguely repaired with huge chunks of rock. It was very dry and the dust raised by the little passing traffic was awful. You need a mask for your mouth and nose!
IN VIETNAM
The roads vary. Highway 1 between Hanoi and Saigon is deteriorating. It is a fairly narrow asphalted road. Where it has been repaired and resurfaced it is excellent but there are long sections of bone shaking surfaces to endure. Traffic is still light but I am sure will increase every year. We encountered the heaviest traffic in the Mekong Delta and least on the road ujp the Red River Valley in the North West. Everywhere there are more motor bikes than cars and buses and of course you share the road with many cyclists.
One road rule for both motor bikes and bicycles appears to be, "You are only responsible for what is in front of you." People come out of side roads and change lanes without a backward glance! The fellow behind must look out for you and avoid you.
ACCOMMODATION
As we never do any free camping we cannot comment on this. We did carry our sleeping pads, spare sheets, sleeping bag and a mosquito net. The mosquito net was very useful when the budget hotel did not provide one or provided one with holes! The sheet or a sheet sleeping bag is essential i9n Laos and Vietnam where budget hotels often provide only one sheet.
Plenty of good backpacker budget guest houses in tourist areas. In other small towns accommodation of was always available although sometimes the cheaper hotels and government guest house were very basic.
FOOD AND DRINK
Food is never a problem in South East Asia. Everywhere people are waiting to sell you food and drink. We avoided the water and pumped all our water through a microfilter. However bottled water is widely available even in the smallest villages.
ROUTE DESCRIBTIONS
Thailand: Ayuthaya to Nong Thai
Laos
Vietnam-1 Highway 1
Vietnam-2 The Mekong Delta
Vietnam-3 Up the Red River
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