Already 5,000km !
August 15, 2023 marked the start of our journey from Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. After much thought and preparation, we embarked on what was soon to become one of the most important experiences of my life.
It didn't take us long to discover the beauty of this country that too few people know about. From the very first days, we were traveling through the country's mountains and rice fields - breathtaking landscapes that never ceased to amaze us. However, the start was a little less glorious for the bike, which was already showing some weaknesses. We could have done with a little more preparation.
But all this is just a detail if you look carefully at what we've achieved in these 9 weeks. We discovered seashores, uninhabited mountains, valleys carved out by torrential rains that did nothing but slow us down.
Two typhoons later, the gamble had paid off and we were off to Vietnam, where a completely different experience awaited us.
Things got serious when we set off for Halong Bay. An emblematic site in North-East Vietnam, the detour was a logical one, even if it was complicated by a number of technical problems and bike problems. But a week later, we were there, and Cat Ba Island offered us its beauty.
This was followed by several days exploring this unique island, as well as a ferry ride back, while streaming much of the crossing of the entire bay. A unique moment that I was lucky enough to be able to share with the community. After a brief stopover in Haiphong, we moved on to Ninh Binh - a national park with incredible geological movements that we discovered over several days, despite the questionable weather...
A few hundred kilometers later, we arrived in Phong Nha, a sort of Ninh Binh that's all too familiar to tourists from all over the world. Here, nature reigns supreme, which means that 4G is all too rare, impacting certain streams. That's why we quickly headed south to Vinh, then on to Hué and Da Nang.
But that wasn't counting the power of the Vietnamese weather, which decided to flood the whole city of Hué for several days, greatly impacting my itinerary and forcing me to take the bus to the end of our arc in Vietnam.
A few days later, we crossed the border between Vietnam and Laos by stream - again, a world first in this part of the world. From now on, the route ahead of us remains entirely uncharted on the platform, which is as exciting as it is worrying, because sometimes, if nobody does something, there's a reason.
To our surprise, 4G followed us and enabled us to stream without too much hassle - which is quite astonishing when you consider the incipient infrastructure in this part of the country. However, we soon realized that there wasn't much to see between the tourist hotspots. So after a short detour to Champassak, an ancient temple from the Angkor period, we headed for one of my favorite places in Laos: the 4,000 islands on the Mekong. We'll be staying there for a few days, as life is simple and inexpensive.
Then it was already time for us to head north towards Pakse, where an off-stream expedition awaited me, in the company of two Frenchmen I'd met on the islands. We began a 3-day expedition to the Bolaven Plateau, with the aim of discovering its beauty and coffee-growing.
It was so beautiful and simple... a moment I would have loved to share in a stream, if the network quality had given me the chance. 45km later, we crossed a new border with Thailand, whose itinerary was quickly disrupted by a doggy who was a little too happy to see me...
90km after crossing the border, I realize that Thai dogs have a particular attraction for bicycles... but they're out of luck, as I have enough strength in my legs to outrun them. That said, during a detour to Det Udom to discover a unique (but closed...) temple, a dog a little jealous of another got the better of part of my calf, resulting in a change of itinerary in order to follow the major public hospitals for the vaccinations I needed.
So we make our way along national roads full of sticky trucks. Unfortunately, this part of the trip wasn't quite as scenic as we'd hoped, but it did allow us to discover some unique towns such as Buri Ram and Nakhon Ratchasima. Then we had to pick up the pace, as our goal was to spend the December 31st festivities in Bangkok - which we did!
A visa extension later, we continued our journey along the east coast towards Cambodia. We discovered numerous islands and even camped on the beach at Rayong. A hike to the highest peak on the island of Koh Chang later, it was time to head for our 5th country: Cambodia.
This is where the technical limits of the stream equipment began to be reached... Multiple network problems, temperatures in excess of 40 degrees in the shade and some roads that... aren't really roads, took their toll on many of the batteries used for the stream, as well as on the stream setup itself. However, this didn't stop us from exploring Angkor National Park on foot - a first for Twitch.
Une semaine de dengue plus tard, il était temps pour moi de quitter le pays, au risque de dépasser la limite de mon visa de 30 jours. So, to save time, I take a bus to the border and head back to Thailand with the aim of buying the right gear for the bike stream. However, as nothing ever goes according to plan, the equipment decides to let me down completely, forcing me to move on to Bangkok, where the solution will be hard to find.
Since then, I've decided to take a break to rest and recharge my batteries - in other words, I work all day lol. Very soon, we'll be back on the road, heading for new, unexplored lands.
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