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Category: #18: Armenia

Armenia – the good, the bad, and the ugly

Armenia – the good, the bad, and the ugly

July 16, 2019June 1, 20201 Comment

Warning : this not a sugarcoated sweet little tale of cycling through the beautiful Armenian landscapes. Language is perhaps a little abrasive at times, but I am from North London. Apologies for not sharing with closer friends and family sooner, but I only wanted to write this once. Our planned route through Armenia was going … Continue reading Armenia – the good, the bad, and the ugly

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Picture Book

We arrived home in March and suddenly it's New yea

We arrived home in March and suddenly it's New year. Never the concept of time has been so strange to us. From waking up in a new place every night and travelling across countless countries, cultures and landscapes; to be back and such time suddenly have passed.
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We never planned to come back like this, but as hard as it has been to accept it, the truth is that we saw so much, experienced so much, that we can only be thankful for it.
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For this unique opportunity; for all of the people we met along the way; and all the amazing and unique landscapes this world was to offer and that are up to us to protect. To the simple freedom of cycling and camping each day, having the previllege of crossing countless borders along the way.
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The dreams of travelling and exploring are still present, be it in whatever size they come, so let’s see what 2021 brings.
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Happy new year everyone!

[11 Feb - 20 Mar, 2020] We entered Vietnam in the

[11 Feb - 20 Mar, 2020]
We entered Vietnam in the search of change in scenery, climate and culture. We got all three. As soon as we zoomed down the border we were had lush green landscapes, a much appreciated fresher air and quite a different culture… In food, architecture, writing system, everything. It was just what we needed…
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There were however 2 problems with our sudden change of plans from continuing in the South of Laos and transition to Vietnam, One we were very hungry and out of food, two we had no money with us. And it seemed there was no place to exchange it.
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The faces of complete amazement or even fear in the villages of the Laos side near the border, confirmed that we choose a very remote and unused border crossing. Luckily we were saved by a local friendly vietnamese who offered to exchange some money with us. We were off to a good start.
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From them on Vietname was giving us some quite good experiences. Amazing amazing food, amazing landscapes like the ones near Phong Nha, and not forgetting, amazing coffee! And local! If only a bit slow to brew in the Phin….
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As we watched the sun rise in the sea to the East (as opposed to set in the sea as in Portugal), we realised how far we had gone…
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Then gradually, but not slowly at all, things started to change. People not accepting us in restaurants and later on, when we cycled in the North without a tent, not even in guesthouses… We started to feel unwelcome and the trip started to lose its sense.
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A big part of this experience had been the contact with people. Be it strangers on the side of the road in a small chat, or people who began as strangers but become friends after inviting us into their homes…
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We were so lucky to have the best @warmshowers_org hosts @gunboat.diplomat Chris and Alice, hosting cyclists for their very first time!, and who made us so much, and so easily, feel welcomed in their home and lives, and who gave us all the support we needed in these crazy times.
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With borders starting to close, and the world changing ever so quickly, it was time to come back home. Without us expecting it, and with many more adventures planned, the trip had come to an end...

[26 Jan - 11 Feb, 2020] We named our blog post abo

[26 Jan - 11 Feb, 2020]
We named our blog post about Cambodia "corruption, pyjamas, dust and a lot of sugar cane". That's a pretty good summary of our experience, but of course it doesn't summarize it.
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We did deal with some sort of extortion at the border, that we avoided, by pretending to call our embassies and by ignoring the special queue we were told to use, but as soon as we finally managed to cross, we were received by friendly people and many cheerful hellos.
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Unlike corruption however, pyjamas is something that was constant through out. Apparently it became something of a fashion, and you shouldn’t be surprised to find women wearing them in all sorts of places. We were told that a woman wearing it meant she was married. We can’t be sure if that is true, but the truth is, it made it quite peculiar seeing so many women in their pyjamas, in all sorts of shapes, colours and funny patterns.
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As for dust and sugar cane there sure were a lot of both. Dust because most roads, or at least the ones we took, were of these fine lovely particles that insisted in finding their way to every inch of your skin, bicycles and bags.
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To be honest, we did try to cycle the most interesting and less busy roads possible. The one stretch we couldn’t avoid it, around Sihanoukville, we faced sudden death countless times from the countless trucks racing towards us.
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Sugar cane on the other hand was our saviour. From the suffocating heat, the dehydration from the dripping sweat (a nice mix with the dust….) and the consequently lack of energy. We were always very happy to find a roadside stall selling this life elixir. It was interesting in itself to see the squeezing of the sugar canes in these almost home made machines.
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Cambodia wasn’t perhaps the country with the most interesting landscapes, but it did have it’s interesting aspects. The many ferries we took the countless times we crossed the Mekong. The nice time we spent in Kampot by a swimming pool and trying out different local dishes. The simple high houses along the road. The funny interactions we had with monks in some of the temples we stayed at. And all the friendly curious people. Mostly wearing pyjamas :p

[19 Dec, 2019 - 26 Jan, 2020] In the Pamir we met

[19 Dec, 2019 - 26 Jan, 2020]
In the Pamir we met 6 other cyclists but after we all took different routes. We wiggled through China towards Laos, @tenmillionturns went to Pakistan, @12brakeblocks entered China and took a different route heading to Vietnam and @to.china.by.bike took a similar route to us in China, but also headed to Vietnam (overstating their name :p).
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But we would all be in Thailand at a similar time, so we agreed to spend Xmas there. It was very funny to imagine our different dots going along the map until we joined up again. We had a great time together, splashing in the pool, exchanging tales and travel plans and comparing feet sun tans.
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After 10 days of lazyness, it was sad to say farewell again. Like our routes up to Xmas, we all went our different ways, some to Malaysia, some fly to Australia, others back home, while we would stick around Thailand.
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Of course, as soon as we left our lazy days, we had to cycle the steepest roads we ever faced... Some impossible to cycle and even pushing, we had to took turns and push one bike at time. Thailand had without doubt, the steppest roads on our trip...
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On our way across Thailand, we passed many curious looking fish growing farms, several scary burning sugar cane fields, some of the biggest lizards we ever saw and of the most beautiful sunsets. And we had also the chance to visit the many fascinating buildings of the old capital of the Siam kingdom - Ayutthaya.
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We also camped in a floating boat and in many Buddhist temples. We were never refused entry, and had different levels of interaction. Sometimes just left be, others with long peculiar conversations through the translator. In a temple in particular we were lucky that they had a English speaking monk and we had a very long and interesting conversation, after having watched their morning meal ritual.
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In our time in Thailand we felt everything was easy and relaxed. It was crazy hot as in Iran, plus the humidity, but the mostly friendly people, the crazy array of local fruits, the yummi local dish Som Tam and the many 7-11s with AC, made life much easier...

[7 Dec - 19 Dec, 2019; 11 Feb - 22 Feb, 2020] We e

[7 Dec - 19 Dec, 2019; 11 Feb - 22 Feb, 2020]
We entered Laos, in a bit of a rush to meet 6 other cyclists we had met in Central Asia. By coincidence all Dutch, not sure if by coincidence, all carrying a @helinox camping chair :p
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We had cycled with most at different stages, but we hadn't actually all been together in one place. That is until we all agreed to spend xmas together in Thailand.
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By the time we entered Laos however, that meant we had only 2 weeks to reach our Xmas nest. Which meant we had to do some very steep cycling, again with 1000 m elevation each day. Luckily we had the training from Armenia...
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And truth be told, be it from the Armenia or cycling at high altitude, or from all the ice coffee and banana snacks we had along the way, it was not nearly as hard as we thought.
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Entering Laos coming from China was also quite a contrast. From very busy roads and massive small towns, we quickly changed to much more empty roads, small scarce villages going along the road, people sharing a fireplace or queuing in line for a shower from the local tap.
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People's lives seemed simple, but also quite relaxed. With the constant cheerful hello, or "Sabadiiii!", coming from the many village children, and also adults.
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Camping however had a new variable of its own as well. Where will the sun rise wasn't now important at all, but where is it safe. Reminisces of BiH and a shemeful war legacy left behind coming to our minds. The farmers huts however prove themselves to be good camping spots. One night we were even offer to sleep in a hut by the local school.
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After a very relaxed time in Luang Prabang, with plenty of smoothies and coconut pancakes, we clocked 20037.5km, meaning in practice we had cycled half-way across the world, and treated ourselves to some local hot baths. We also treated ourselves with amazing views over the countless green hills at the distance.
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Since we were short on time we did only the North of Laos, but later on came back, coming from Cambodia to explore the South. We lazied out in the island of Don Det, but quickly became saturated with the heat so hoped sooner than planned to Vietnam. But more on that later.. :)

[10 Oct - 7 Dec, 2019] How to describe our time in

[10 Oct - 7 Dec, 2019]
How to describe our time in China in a single post?..
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We entered in the Uyghur autonomous region, a highly policed region, where every move is controlled and surveilled, so cycling there didn't seemed that much fun. For example, a quick visit to a local market costed us more than 1hr in the local police station...
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So we decided to have a small a train ride of 28h further on to Lanzhou and start cycling from there across the Tibetan plateau. This region although not officially part of what is known as the Tibet autonomous region is in practice, historically and culturally, Tibetan.
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All along the plateau we were constantly surrounded by stupas, praying flags and also many furry coat yaks. We were impressed by the experience of visiting Labrang, a pilgrimage sight and home apprentice monks and to an impressive amount of turning wheels.
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We were also mostly surrounded by snow and a chillin freezin cold. Not only was it now November but we were also again above 4000m, so we were again tested in our gear and resilience. Camping had an added important variable, where will the sun rise and how soon will it reach our frozen tent?
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But we were also surrounded by something else. That gave us warmth instead. Sometimes literally... Beautiful and kind people with the best of smiles and sympathy. Tibetans seem to smile with their entire soul.. Will never forget this kind old lady who owned a shop when seeing how cold we were, invited us to her little corner and light up her stove for us and just beamed at us with her smile.
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As we aimed south to Laos, we lost and gained altitude several times, oscillating between icy roads and green lush fields full of vegetables (most welcomed after our diet in Central Asia).
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From the initial refuses to give us SIM cards, fuel or even indications, to people who get out of their way to help us. From frozen snowy hills to bright yellow plateaus and lush green vegetable fields. From empty mountains just to ourselves, to truck filled unfriendly roads. China was without a doubt a land with many contrasts...

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