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OK in Spanish? how about Argentina/Chile?
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Originally Posted by axolotl
(Post 20575032)
You ignored all of the OP's criteria entirely. I don't know why you bothered responding when you have had zero experience in going to the places the OP mentioned. It's also clear that you have no interest in going to the places the OP mentioned.
OP is considering going to Asia so that blows your whole criteria theroy out of the water. |
Originally Posted by Chr0m0ly
(Post 20574968)
Lots of good stuff, and some off topic stuff that’s still good stuff! The about to be newly Mrs. Chr0m0ly has her heart set on Asia. She’s mid thirty’s, I’m about to be 40, so before kids she wants a big adventure. I know it’s a stressful thing, and it’ll be a learning experience, but it’s still happening. We may end up in Cambodia without bikes, but we’re looking at SE Asia. DUN dah DUUUMM!! |
A few general comments on what you asked:
1. I really enjoyed Thailand and found it pretty easy to tour and not too expensive assuming the air miles got you there first [knowing nothing else that what you posted, this would be my preference]. 2. I've also toured in Cambodia and Vietnam. In comparison, I found Vietnam a bit more hurried and chaotic and Cambodia less developed, though I'm guessing this also depends where you ride. 3. As far as touring inside the US goes, Amtrak from CHI to NOLA is pretty simple. However, at least the roads I picked were a bit narrow and busy. There might be better choices. Some of the roads I picked in Florida were also busy, though I found at least the interior (away from Orlando) to have some quieter choices. The nights in the Southeast will be warmer than going further Southwest where the lower humidity also results in more of a day/night swing. 4. Personally I also enjoyed cycling in Baja Mexico. It took me longer than the two weeks you have allowed, but riding down the Baja Peninsula was a trip I enjoyed and there were plenty of tour reports I found of others doing a similar trip. 5. My own Christmas trip this year is likely to be starting in Brownsville, TX and cycling north up to Abilene. South TX is ok over that time, though slight possibilities of freezing/icing roads to watch out. But even with all that if you can get there with air miles, I still like Thailand :). |
Hey guys! No need to get heated! My thoughts were with two weeks (We do have those weekends on either end, so 15/16 days) my original thoughts had been maybe the south west or Mexico. But when I was talking to my sig. she had the whole Asia thing in mind. Wasn’t phased by the 24 hours on a plane each way either. I really don’t care where we bike, I just want two weeks where our “job” is to wake up, pack up, eat a thing, and get to the next dot on the map. So for me the rides the thing, and for her, she wants to see jungles and ruins. I am ABSOLUTELY aware that this is a huge bite to take on, and will be stressful. But she wants an adventure. The difference between a vacation and an adventure is an adventure has a larger possibility of failure. Its true we have not bike toured. But I have loads of hiking experience, and general “being outside all the time for a week or two” experience. We both have spent days in the saddle on occasion, and we are aware we are inexperienced. So I figure starting easy with mileage for a few days, get used to the bike handling etc. Take some overnights before hand, long weekends before we go, we’ve got months to train... take some loaded mini camping trips. Besides you know I’ll be posting about it, it’ll be way more entertaining to hear about how we had to backtrack 82 miles when a bridge was washed out than how we had a delicious Key Lime Pie at a lovely diner, right? I’ll start looking at tickets, and the miles, and I’m going to edit the opening post to include the new information about south east Asia. But Cambodia is looking tempting. Maybe I can get a few days on one or the other end of the break to make it less crazy of a time line. |
I thought is was this December? You only have 3 months. That is not a lot of time. ;)
Another US based suggestion would be Georgia. You could even drive there from Chicago. Georgia has lots of pretty little towns to explore. As far as Asia. As I suggested why not consider a combo tour / vacation spot? You could back bags for a few overnights and for a ride from a "home base". Don't be afraid to use a train or a bus to get you out of the city if that is were you decide to stay. Something like that would require a lot less planning. Just pick a location, throw some stuff in a bag and go. Return to your home base and repeat the next day or two. You would get your adventure without too much risk. Heck just going to Asia is an adventure on its own. ;) With your 40 mile limit, that is going to require some real planning if you want to do a multi day tour. No matter where you stay tent or hotel, you will need a place each night. Not too awfully difficult to plan but 3 months is not a whole lot of time to figure out where to stay, what route to take etc etc. Personally I would want at least a year to plan such a tour. Something like the Great Allegheny Passage that I have done so many times, yeah give me a couple of hours to pack and I am off. ;) But Asia? That would take me some time to plan. |
I would suggest you look at some online resources to get information about accommodations and ground transport options for Cambodia, Thailand, & Vietnam:
Rough Guides & Lonely Planet have good sites. For example, here's a link to the Rough Guides description of accommodations in Cambodia: https://www.roughguides.com/destinat...accommodation/ I also suggest you look at some trip narratives for your potential destinations on crazyguyonabike.com: Bicycle Touring: A place for bicycle tourists and their journals I found that touring in Thailand was just as easy as touring in North America or Europe, and in some ways, easier. Laos isn't as developed and has a much smaller tourist infrastructure and population density. I haven't been to Cambodia. A guy I toured with in Laos much preferred Thailand & Laos to Vietnam. I never made accommodations reservations (except for my first night when arriving in Bangkok or Chiang Mai). I don't think you'd have too much of a problem with a 40 mile limit in most of Thailand. I don't know about Cambodia. Like mev, I preferred Thailand among the countries I've toured through in SE Asia. Around xmas & New Years, you're probably looking at an airfare of at least $1,600 each. Prices are about half that a few weeks later. You also need to see what the baggage rules are for each airline you're considering, esp. if you're bringing your bikes. |
Maybe you could find a supported tour there? It would be more expensive but all the planning would be done for you. And you could do more miles since they will be likely hauling your gear. The issue would be timing. A tour might not match up with your weeks you want.
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Se Asia it is then.
do take into account the time to get over jet lag, 12 days is pretty short to deal with 6 hrs plus of time difference. If at all seriously interested in biking in SE Asian countries, look up recent trip journals on Crazy guy on a bike, where searching for a given country will give you more insight into riding in x country, including real cyclists views on traffic and whatnot. General take I've seen is that no need to take camping gear, and accommodation and food is inexpensive, outweighed by sometimes wackadoodle driving from folks. Crazy guy is a great resource for good solid info, I used it a lot researching trips in Mexico and Central America. As an aside, Southern Mexico and non touristy areas were really neat riding through and people very friendly. As someone who has toured a fair amount, I'd just add to be realistic about both of your riding comfort zone around traffic and being both calm yet fast reacting to potential dangerous traffic situations. Have fun planning. |
Originally Posted by fietsbob
(Post 20575108)
....FWIW a friend is teaching Music* in a school in HCM city, Vietnam, now..* (He came back and picked up his recumbents* to ride while there....
well, there's your answer. you have a friend in saigon who happens to be a biker. can you say "ấm vòi sen chủ nhà"? roundtrip to saigon, spend the first day there with your friend recovering from jet lag, get some riding advice from friend, ask friend to store your boxes for a couple weeks, spend 10-12 days riding tropical southern vietnam while your friends back home are freezing their "mông"s off, return to friend's place, pack and fly home. should be plenty of options around hcmc to keep you occupied. alternate would be to fly into phnom penh (visa on arrival), then cycle to saigon (need visa in passport first), have your friend get some bike boxes ready, fly out of hcmc. you can arrange your visa for vietnam online if flying into the major airports. if crossing by land, you need a visa in your passport from an embassy first. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ef3f9eee21.jpg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7e5c9c5f26.jpg |
If you choose SE Asia you need to be aware of several things.
One final thing: do check with your Foreign Affairs department for travel warnings before you leave. Border areas in particular can be hot spots. |
Chromo
please take all these points into consideration Avole-excellent points, and most will apply to a non biking trip as well Chromo, in my opinion, taking points like these into consideration and seriously is a given when planning a trip like this. Being both aware and planning ahead of time for possible eventualities is part of the "plan for the worst, hope for the best" attitude to responsible trip prep. I absolutely agree on eating in popular frequented eateries, this was my rule in Latin America. Last point, if you end up biking, use mirrors and hone your constant glancing into them, and being extremely situationally aware at all times. i use a Take-a-look mirror mounted on my helmet visor. Visors help a lot with strong sun. Daydreamy riding is not recommended--again, I'm relating to my experiences in other parts of the world, not asia. |
By your name, I’m assuming you will bring a steel bike so the local smithy can fix it. |
Originally Posted by Chr0m0ly
(Post 20575461)
Hey guys! No need to get heated! My thoughts were with two weeks (We do have those weekends on either end, so 15/16 days) my original thoughts had been maybe the south west or Mexico. But when I was talking to my sig. she had the whole Asia thing in mind. Wasn’t phased by the 24 hours on a plane each way either. I really don’t care where we bike, I just want two weeks where our “job” is to wake up, pack up, eat a thing, and get to the next dot on the map. So for me the rides the thing, and for her, she wants to see jungles and ruins. I am ABSOLUTELY aware that this is a huge bite to take on, and will be stressful. But she wants an adventure. The difference between a vacation and an adventure is an adventure has a larger possibility of failure. Its true we have not bike toured. But I have loads of hiking experience, and general “being outside all the time for a week or two” experience. We both have spent days in the saddle on occasion, and we are aware we are inexperienced. So I figure starting easy with mileage for a few days, get used to the bike handling etc. Take some overnights before hand, long weekends before we go, we’ve got months to train... take some loaded mini camping trips. Besides you know I’ll be posting about it, it’ll be way more entertaining to hear about how we had to backtrack 82 miles when a bridge was washed out than how we had a delicious Key Lime Pie at a lovely diner, right? I’ll start looking at tickets, and the miles, and I’m going to edit the opening post to include the new information about south east Asia. But Cambodia is looking tempting. Maybe I can get a few days on one or the other end of the break to make it less crazy of a time line. |
found this online....bike tours with bikes included, or bike rental. not a recommendation.....and there must be others out there.
https://www.spiceroads.com/destinations/cambodia they have a 14-day tour from saigon to bangkok. a bit expensive at $2750, or can rent bikes in bangkok or chiang mai at about $15/day. and googles shows us a bunch of bike rental shops in saigon....imagine schlepping two bikes to o'hare in the snow and slush would be a miserable experience. |
Wasn't going to contribute but since someone above suggested southern Cal, here's an idea. Fly into LAX or SD airports and bike part of the coast or inland area. 3 years ago from Nov-Feb, I biked from Oceanside down to the border (lots of things to see and do for free), then east over the mtn pass into Imperial County. (This is Mexicolandia, so altho I don't condone it, you could use your Spanish to your heart's delite.) then back to Oceanside and north along the coast to SLO. Imperial county is flat and all farm land - easy to camp next to haystacks. SD County is hilly. Then you could bike up the east side of Salton Sea to Joshua Tree Natl Park. You could use Amtrak to return to either airport. I did this portion of the trip in 3 weeks, but was only biking about 20 miles a day max. It gives you a varied landscape ( ocean, desert, farms, etc) and terrain. Temps can be chilly, but not like in the north. And the state is in a perpetual drought, so altho winter is the rainy season, you probably won't see much.
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Originally Posted by Chr0m0ly
(Post 20575461)
I’ll start looking at tickets, and the miles, and I’m going to edit the opening post to include the new information about south east Asia. But Cambodia is looking tempting. Maybe I can get a few days on one or the other end of the break to make it less crazy of a time line. |
Update!
Here it is. We are packing our bikes onto an Amtrak in Chicago, and heading to Louisiana for a Hanukkah ride to end in New Orleans for New Years. Other than Chinese and a Star Wars movie on Christmas is there anything else to check out? We’re thinking about getting out in Hammond and bike to Nola along the Mississippi. What do you’all think? Good riding around Nola? Places to hit? |
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