An update. Finally!!!

Hey guys, sorry about the wait, it's been so hectic, we've managed to cover 1000 kms in the last week. (The fact that 500 of them were via pickup truck is inconsequential) We had a couple of lovely days in Bangkok, and we are now in Sa Keow, near the Cambodian border. I've finally started getting into a schoolwork pattern thanks to the extra work I picked up in Bangkok. Still having a really great time. Still cursing the wind. Still in love with SE Asia.

Jake

Krabi.

So, A few days ago, we arrived in Krabi, with the intention of settling for a bit and getting some schoolwork done. We arrived and booked ourselves a hotel and pretty much crashed on the first night, and then realized, that we needed a place to stay, and in typical Thomas fashion, hadn't done a single thing towards booking a holiday home; this lead to frantic searching of the internet and no results. The next day we took our hired car :O down to Ao Nang, and met with a tourist agent, to discuss the possibility of renting a bungalow, We eventually came to a place in the jungle, quite spartan, but close enough to the beach for it not to be a days trip. We arranged to have the largest bungalow, and that we'd come back at 6:30 to drop off some groceries while we still had use of our car. When we came back however, the owner was there; talking to the manager with whom we'd discussed rental. It turns out that he'd tried to rent out the owners cabin, and we eventually settled on getting to slightly smaller cabins and went back to our hotel for dinner, (which was an all you can eat/cook mini barbecue buffet) In the morning we rode down to our cabins and started getting the place all sorted out. They looked a lot nicer now they had been cleaned and had natural light flowing through them. We relaxed that day; and are now settled down doing schoolwork today, (un)fortunately for me -depending on how you view it- my correspondence hasn't arrived yet, and I've rode down to Ao Nang, which isn't the close beach, and have set myself a curriculum of calculus and history for the next two weeks.

Bye for now.

Jake.

Thailand!

So, since Klang we made the journey of 358km to butterworth; and landed on Penang, we spent the night there and then got a ferry up to Langkawi.

Langkawi was amazing, we spent three nights there and had an amazing time, The place we were staying in was right on the beach, and was really nice compared to some of the places on the road. Eventually it came time to leave, and we set off for Thailand; Sutan to be exact, Our next large destination was Trang, and trust me there were a fair few bumps on the road before we got there. We stayed in a place called Langu our first night out of Sutan, unfortunately, both the maps and the road signs put it about 3km away from the towns actual location! It took a long time but we eventually figured out that there was a place we could stay just up the road. The second day we planned on staying in Thung Wa a leisurely 30km up the road, when we arrived at 10.00 in the morning we decided ( much to Michaels disappointment ) to push on to the next town, Palien. Then we came to the turn off (having done 60k at this point ) and saw that Palien was not on the road we decided on travelling to. This led to the feeding of a starving group of children, then a ride to the next town, Yan Ta Khao. There was no accomodation in this town, there was no choice but to head to Trang; However 10 km out of Trang there was a small Motel Block that Mum and Michael insisted on staying in. Today we road to Trang, booked a hotel (at 10.00 in the morning) and went to explore the town. We head for Krabi tomorrow, and hopefully we won't be pushed into riding the whole 120 ks in 1 day.

ลาก่อน,
Jake.

20/1/11 - Klang

So, I realised that I've been very slack at updating this; even though we had internet in Melaka and Banting, I haven't added anything, but really I hand in my homework late, I wake up late, I go to sleep late, the chances of me posting a post in each town that had internet was a wee bit slim, but I digress.

So we have just arrived in Klang, and are staying in the station hotel in Little India, We are here for two nights and visiting K.L. tomorrow, last night we stayed in Banting right next to a accessory store that unfortunately wasn't open; the name: The Ray Bundle, The logo, very similar to this.






So, we had a 33km sprint today, the last few kilometres very confusing, and the last km we were motorpaced by a friendly local who directed us to not only the train station; but also the station hotel, I hit 40 during that last kilometre; unfortunately that was right before a speed bump, I lost my pannier and our lead, fortunately he was waiting around the corner, with a triumphant Sam waiting behind him. When we reached the hotel as Dad and I were about to bring our bikes up we were waylaid by a man called Edwin who said his car wouldn't start, a local who told us lots about the shops and surrounds in little India. It's now time for dinner, and hopefully we can get something as good last night, when expecting (as had been the case at all the other restaurants) that a plate would be a single serving, not a family serving, We ended up with a kilo of crab, chicken, fried rice and a fair amount of shrimp, Unfortunately the bill matched the dinner and Mum has vowed not to eat in places that don't list the prices next to the meals.
So the big K.L tomorrow;
Jake

Muar, Muar, Johor, Malaysia - 15/1/11

Salamat Datang Ke Malaysia,and since I exhausted my knowledge of Malay in my last post and in that greeting I think I'll stick to English from here on out, Malaysia has been amazing,the food is brilliant and the roads are well maintained, and since the main thing about this adventure(if you wish to call it that) is biking then having a road that looks like a road rather than one that looks akin to the surface of the moon is a pretty good thing.The trip so far has been lovely, and the courtesy of the drivers in Malaysia has made me wonder how I cycled in Blenheim,The traffic is probably 2-3 times heavier yet we have had people nearly drive off the road to avoid hitting us. We are treated like kings by most of the restaurateurs, and it makes me feel quite bad about how New Zealand as a nation dislike and distrust the Asian migrants, when in fact they are wonderful people (though they are horrible parkers), but back on pitch, after Singapore we stayed in Johor Bahru, then Pontian Kechil, then Batu Pahat, then Muar, each of these has been the capital of their respective district and they are named as such e.g. Nelson-Nelson. We are planning to leave the state of Johor tomorrow, and stay in Melaka, Melaka, Melaka, Malaysia.

Anyway, Thats my bit for today.

Jake Thomas.

Sngapore 11/01/11

Man, just realised everyone else has already posted a Singapore piece, It looks like I'm well on track for getting out of date.

Tonight is our last in Singapore, I've had a great time in Little India and Chinatown, and now upon my wrist sits a "swiss navy" watch, the food here is amazing and so are the people, everyone is so polite, however it could be a facade to help them fleece you of your money, as after michaels destruction of our previous camera, we decided to have a look for a new one; the guy tried to sell the one we had our eye on to us for 1100 dollars then he rather willinngly haggled down to 580, then 520, and then brought the price back to 580 with the inclusion of a tripod, super long lasting battery, 8gb flash card and a case.

We turned the corner after purchase walked into a second store where a guy was selling it for 300 dollars.

But the price of most stuff is around 5 to 70% less than in new zealand, I think sam has already used the example of the chocolate at quarter price, and in most of the smaller places prices are set much above what they are willing to sell it for and haggling is rife.

On the bike tomorrow and into malaysia, hopefully I can get me some Ray-Bans... or would that be Ray-Bons, you never know in the markets of Asia.

English to Malay translation

Man, baru semua orang menyedari lain telah diposting sepotong Singapura, Sepertinya aku baik pada jalur untuk keluar dari tarikh.



Malam ini terakhir kami di Singapura, aku punya banyak masa di Little India dan Chinatown, dan sekarang pada pergelangan tangan saya duduk sebuah "swiss navy" menonton, makanan di sini adalah menakjubkan dan begitu adalah orang-orang, semua orang sangat sopan, tetapi itu boleh menjadi fasad untuk membantu mereka fleece anda tentang wang anda, kerana setelah penghancuran Michaels kamera kami sebelumnya, kami memutuskan untuk memiliki mencari yang baru, orang itu cuba untuk menjual yang kita miliki mata kita kepada kami untuk 1100 dolar kemudian ia lebih willinngly tawar-menawar ke 580, lalu 520, dan kemudian membawa harga kembali ke 580 dengan dimasukkannya bateri, tripod super tahan lama, kad 8gb flash dan kes.



Kami bergerak ke arah di tikungan selepas pembelian masuk ke kedai kedua di mana seorang lelaki menjual untuk 300 dolar.



Tapi harga barang yang paling adalah sekitar 5 hingga 70% kurang dari di New Zealand, saya kira sam telah menggunakan contoh dari coklat dengan harga triwulan, dan di sebahagian besar tempat-tempat yang lebih kecil harga ditetapkan jauh di atas apa yang mereka mahu menjualnya untuk dan tawar-menawar tersebar luas.

Pada sepeda besok dan ke malaysia, mudah-mudahan saya boleh mendapatkan saya beberapa Ray-Ban ... atau yang akan Ray-Bons, anda tidak pernah tahu di pasaran Asia.


Good Bye For Now,
Jake

Introductions.

Gidday guys, My name is Jake and I'm the eldest of the three children embarking on this adventure.
I'm not sure which angle I'll take with this blog but at the moment i think I'll focus on keeping it full.

So. Introductions, as I've said I'm the eldest of three children, and my parents recently hit their midlife crisis, but instead of buying a nice sports car for me to drive around they decide to cycle around the world!
I'm fifteen and a half years old and I come from Blenheim, Marlborough I've been interested in cycling since I was twelve and to be honest I'm really looking forward to the whole biking segment of it, however whether I can put up with my younger brothers for a year without friends and school as a distraction from their annoyances remains to be seen. So seeing as I still have no idea what to talk about seeing as the trip hasn't even begun yet, I think I'll just sign off here.

Jake Out.