Day Two

We started off the day today setting up our bikes for the first ride of what we have begun to call the Tour de Laos.  We began the day with a 30km cycle to the Kuang Si Waterfalls.  These are an amazing set of small waterfalls that are fed by a much larger, much more impressive waterfall.  There are several pools that you can go swimming in so we took the opportunity to do just that.  In one of the pools there is a knotted rope attached to a tree so that you can swing from it and jump into the pool.  Of course I had to give it a go.  On my 3rd go, my hands were slipping from the rope so I held on tighter, but kept slipping.  By the time I hit the water my hand was hurting so I swam towards the edge to get out.  As I was swimming, I looked at my hand to see why it was hurting and found a rather badly dislocated middle finger on my left hand.  I got out of the pool and headed over to some of the group that was sitting nearby and announced that I needed a medic.  Someone suggested that it needed to be pulled back out, but no-one was that keen to do it, so i did it myself.  They helped me bandage it up and use my ring finger as a splint.  The result is the picture you see below.  It would have been great to have a picture before I pulled it out, but you'll just have to take my word on it that it was impressive.

All of this excitement happened before lunch!! We had lunch at the waterfall and then spent some time taking photos.  At the site of the waterfall is also a bear sanctuary.  These beautiful sun bears are being saved from ending up on dinner plates around Asia.  The organisation, free the bears (http://www.freethebears.org.au), was started by an Australian woman named Mary Hutton.  We spent some time watching the bears have their lunch and taking some photos of them.  We then jumped back on our bikes to head back to the hotel; another 30km.  We freshened up and then went into town for dinner at a nice little bar where one of our group, Simon, was playing his ukulele and Alicia was singing.  It was a nice night and the food was great.  I ate Luang Prabangers & Mash.  It was the traditional dish as we know it, but the sausages were typical of this area of Laos.  The place itself didn't really have any traditional Laotian food though, which was a little disappointing.

Tomorrow is probably going to be one of the toughest days as there are lots of big hills.  It is also the day that we leave Luang Prabang and ride towards Phonsavan.  As my finger is now throbbing and I have a big day tomorrow, I'm going to sign-off.  No guarantee that I'll have Internet access tomorrow so I'll update the blog again when I do.  I'll leave you with an image of Luang Prabang (it's off in the distance) from the top of the highest hill we climbed today.

Day One

Today was a very busy day.  We left the hotel in Bangkok at 7am to catch our Bangkok Air flight to Luang Prabang.  It was an exciting time as it was the first time that the whole group got to meet each other.  They are an interesting and fun group of people.  Our flight to Luang Prabang was on a small propeller plane seating about 100 people.  We got here in one piece.  The views from the plane as we were landing were great.  You could see the forest extend for what seemed to be forever (pictures below). The airport in Luang Prabang is very small and it felt a bit like stepping back in time as all the decor felt like it was from the 70s. Nonetheless it felt very welcoming. To give you an idea of how small the airport is, there is only one baggage carousel and for some reason it is still labelled with the number 1.  We cleared customs and met our tour guide who got us to the hotel.

The hotel we are staying is called the Villa Santi Resort and yes, it is as nice as it sounds which was a welcomed surprised.  We had a quick dip in the pool before heading out to tour a few of the Buddhist temples.  Laos has a strong Buddhist following and women need to have their shoulders and knees covered or they cannot enter them.  We were told that there are temples that the women cannot enter at all.  We visited one temple in particular that was on the top of a big hill that we had to climb a lot of steps to get to.  The view from up there was great and well worth the climb (photos are on the camera so will have to wait until I get them off).  Apologies that I haven't mentioned the names of any of the temples.  The simple reason is that I don't remember them and they don't had out flyers with information about the temples.

Following the climb down from the temple, we headed off to the famous Laos night markets.  There are heaps of stalls that the vendors set up and take down each night it seems.  There is so much colour and craft at the stalls, but it does get a bit repetitive.  Not wanting to spend all my money on the first night and the first place we'd been to, I was controlled.  It also helped that the market vendors are nothing like their counterparts in other Asian countries I've been to.  Not once did I get hounded to buy something and every time I stopped to look at something, the vendor would politely say hello or "sabaidi".  When you did want to buy something, you didn't even feel compelled to haggle.  Most things are quite cheap here. Finally, we all had dinner as a group and some kicked on for what I presume will be a long night.  Given tomorrow is our first day of riding, I thought I'd be a good boy and give it a miss.  Don't want to go too hard too early. :-)

Day Zero

We've arrived in Bangkok for a stop over after a fairly uneventful flight.  We leave for Luang Prabang in the morning.  I've met two of my fellow riders so far, Finn and Kath from Adelaide.  I'll meet the rest of the team in the morning.  I also discovered that I am the only one from Melbourne.  I'm not really sure how to feel about that.  On the one hand, it's good that Melbourne is at leave represented, but on the other hand, it's a little disappointing that there weren't more people.

Nothing much to report today.  I've had a night cap with Finn and now it's time for bed.  We have an early start in the morning.  Up at 6am and leaving for the airport at 7am.

Hopefully I'll have access again tomorrow and will update then.

Last training run

This weekend just gone was my last big training ride before the big trip.  Five colleagues and I rode the 75km round trip on Melbourne's Eastlink from Ringwood to Frankston.  The event was being held as a fundraiser for Hanover, an organisation working to prevent homelessness and lift people out of poverty.  Despite the heavy rain at the beginning of the ride, it was a very enjoyable day and wonderful to see so many riders in one place.  I've included below the statistics from the ride.  Interestingly, it didn't log the sections in the two tunnels right at the end which is why it only shows 70.96km.

Only 3 more days to go!!!

One Month To Go...

Yesterday marked exactly one month before we depart on our epic adventure to Laos and Cambodia.  Training is well on the way, flights booked, shots had, fundraising targets met, etc.  All that's left now is to buy some additional clothing, soak clothing in repellent, charge the cameras and pack.

I also bought a Contour+2 (http://contour.com/products/contour-plus-2) camera and a bike mounting kit that I plan to use over the couple of weeks that we are away.  I'm playing with it at the moment and taking some test videos.  If I get the chance, I'll post some up here before I go. I would love to get some feedback from you as to mounting positions you think might work.  Stay tuned.

Don't forget that even though the fundraising targets are met, the more we raise, the more can be done to support the Laos Water Project.  Donations can be made here.

Over and out.

Preparation Ride

This weekend I went on another ride with my mate Mike.  We ended up doing about 60km all up at an average pace of 22km/h. The ride was almost entirely on bike tracks, many of which were tricky to ride on and slippery too because of the rain that we had the day before and during the ride.  If it wasn't for that, I think we could have done a better average.  I tracked the ride with the Endomondo iPhone app, but it is in two parts because I accidentally stopped the tracking when we stopped for a short break.  Anyway, if you are interested, the data is below.  The data shows that we rode 51km, but I wasn't tracking some of the riding we did before and after, which would take it to about 60km all up.

Not long to go!

There are now just over 50 days before I set off with 15 others on our long cycling trip through Laos and Cambodia.  Training is now in full swing and with the help of all my supporters, we've raised almost the minimum target of $8000.00 for the Laos Clean Water project.  It has been a phenomenal effort.

On the training front, I've been riding consistently at least twice a week, but a recent trip to Europe and some work travel I've had to do has slowed down my preparation.  This week, I'm aiming to get out on the bike three times in total.  I rode to work yesterday, I'll ride again tomorrow and then a longer ride on the weekend.  I think if I can maintain three days consistently, I should be prepared enough.

Of course, no preparation would be complete without a visit to the travel doctor for the dreaded shots.  It's not that I don't like needles or that they bothered me, but as a precaution, the doctor decided that getting a tetanus shot would be a good idea.  "You never know when you might fall off and sustain a wound" she said.  "Better to be sure" she said.  That's all well and good, but if you've ever had a tetanus shot, you will know that your arm remains quite sore for days afterwards and that was something I was not looking forward to.  I tried to get out of it, but given that my last one was about 12 years ago, and they are only supposed to last for 10 years, I caved.  This was on Saturday.  It is now Wednesday and it is only just starting to feel normal again.

Visas are also now complete, but my wallet is now much lighter.  Between Visa fees, express post envelopes, passport photos, money order fees and $150 later, I should now be able to enter both Laos and Cambodia without hassle...I hope.  It was a worrying time though because the process is that you have to mail your passport to the embassy in Canberra, they do their magic and then send it back to you with a nice shiny sticker inside representing your entry Visa.  The whole time, your passport is completely out of sight and what gets done to it is out of your control.  I had to do this twice; once for each Visa.  I'm not suggesting that either the Laos or Cambodian Embassies would have done anything untoward with my passport, it's more that I had no idea where my passport was at any point in time.  I have to say that I was relieved with it returned to my both times.

I still need to work out what I will be taking with me and what I still need to buy.  Don't forget that you can still make donations at http://www.everydayhero.com.au/aldasilva.

Trivia Night Update and more...

I have been slack haven't I?  It's been way too long since I provided an update.

This update should have come a long time ago, but here it is nonetheless.  The trivia night was a great success.  We raised $1800 on the night with the trivia and silent auction items, plus another $1800 with the raffle that was drawn that night.  A huge thank-you goes out to all those people that came along and made it a success.  Another huge thank-you to those that helped with donations, setting up, selling raffle tickets, writing questions, etc.  The raffle winners on the night were as follows:

1st Prize - Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 - Chris O
2nd Prize - Olympus TG-320 14MP Digital Camera - Joseph D
3rd Prize - $100.00 JB HiFi Voucher - Barry M

The raffle took the total money raised to $7650 (including the online donations).  This is not far off the $8000.00 minimum I need to raise for the Laos Water Cycle Project.  So what's next??

I'm looking at potentially running one or two other events.  However, I'm open to suggestions as to what you think would be fun to do.  Please leave your feedback in the comments section.  Looking forward to hearing back from you.

Training is progressing well too and I'm hoping to do another ride this weekend before I head off to Europe for a couple of weeks.

Trivia Night Reminder

Just letting you know that the trivia night is this weekend, Saturday 14th of July.
Basic details below:


Entry:$15
Starts: 7pm (round 1 at 7:30pm)
Where: Brimbank Anglican Church - Corner Ely Court and Cemetery Road, Keilor East
BYO snacks and drinks


Hope to see you there.

Training Update

It's been a while since the last training update and I must admit that it has been a little difficult to get out of bed in this cold weather to ride.  I've also been travelling a bit for work which has meant I haven't been getting a lot of riding in.


A couple of weeks ago, I did a 51km ride which took me through several suburbs in and around Melbourne's North/Northwestern suburbs where I live.  Each time I go for a ride, I capture the data using the Endomondo app on my iPhone.  Here are some of the statistics:


Distance: 51.12km
Duration: 2:37:37
Avg. Speed: 19.45km/hr (not even close to the speed of the Tour de France riders)
Max Speed: 47.20km/hr (that's more like it, but I'm sure that was going downhill)
Elevation: Up 250m, Down 254m


I also rode to work today, which is about 20km each way.  The ride home is always tougher that the ride in to work for several reason, but mostly because I do a lot more hill climbing on the way home as seen in the stats below.  I was still quite pleased with myself today as I managed to do both legs of the trip in under 1hr.


To Work

Distance: 20.55km
Duration: 0:54:55
Avg. Speed: 22.45km/hr
Max Speed: 42.90km/hr
Elevation: Up 72m, Down 126m


To Home

Distance: 20.63km
Duration: 0:59:59
Avg. Speed: 20.63km/hr
Max Speed: 32.79km/hr
Elevation: Up 179m, Down 170m