10.000 km bike travel in Asia

15 Apr 2012 3

May I introduce you to Marcel, my traveling buddy for the last 2-4 months.

[I] roll along, lost in reverie, on the 2nd day, as I see Florian sitting at a [bus] resting place. A beautiful scene. I drive by and yell “hello” and he also back.

As if we were in Germany in a village and one of us is sitting in the pub and the other is just passing on a bicycle. But in fact we are somewhere in Asia.

(Marcel, the bike tourist)

Marcel traveles by bicycle through Asia. He pedals every day in the heat through the backcountry, while I am being chauffeured by buses and trains.

bike tourist Marcel

I loathe bike tourists in numbers. People travelling by bicycle, often think, they have to prove something to the world. This means monolog-like conversations on only one topic…

Riding a bicycle is always the same and there is nothing to report about it.

(Marcel, the bike tourist)

Marcel, not so much. In general, he is at rest and if at all, only wants to prove something to himself. He rather wants to be seen as a human being, not as a cyclist. His athletic performance is downright embarrassing to him.

Marcel in Southeast Asia

Marcel can downplay his athletic performance, but it’s undeniable. Since a few days ago, we can congratulate him on cycling the magic distance of 10,000 kilometers during his Asia trip.

It is 10km up and then 10km back down. After this, the game starts anew.

(Marcel, the bike tourist)

In the Himalayas, he has cycled over passes of 5000m plus and in Malaysia through the winter monsoon. He welcomed the mountain roads in northern Thailand and Laos as a nice change from the lowlands.

cycling in Cambodia

What impresses me more than the mile-crunching, is Marcel’s meditative contemplation on the bike. He sits for hours in the saddle every day. Although there is an absolute lack of stimulus, he doesn’t get particularly bored.

On the way there, I believe, nothing happened. But I tend to forget a lot by now and the days flow into one another.

(Marcel, the bike tourist)

In the evening, he stops for the night in some hamlet in a Homestay, where nobody speaks English. He sits down for dinner with the family and then reads a book before bedtime.

Even if there are 3 huts on a hill, there is a homestay sometimes.

(Marcel, the bike tourist)

deserved hammock rest

It sounds like low cost travelling, but not as much as you would think. Accommodation and food costs in cities are favorable. But in the countryside, you often pay monopoly prices as a foreigner.

At lunch, I was royally screwed over again.
[...]
the price lottery is really annoying!

(Marcel, the bike tourist)

Marcel’s bike is an ancient boneshaker, with worn out drive components and a broken fork. It will hopefully still make it to China, the probable end of his journey.

ancient boneshaker

We met last year in Kolkata. He cycled in the midday heat into the tourist ghetto, with his baggy saddle bags. I immediately thought, this can only be a German, and so he was.

Marcel had just cycled three months all across India, from one sea to the other. He was looking for new roads and found them in Malaysia and Singapore – through Thailand, Laos and Cambodia to Vietnam.

The traveler hasn’t reached his goal, yet.

(Marcel, the bike tourist)

My travel speed in Thailand was slower than any bike could be. That’s why we’ve seen each other in 4 countries by now. Unfortunately, I had to step up a gear since Cambodia and say goodbye to Marcel – for this time.

All You Can Eat Restaurants go bankrupt, when Marcel arrives

Repeated encounters like with Marcel are usual on the Banana Pancake Trail. You always meet 2, 3, X times. With Marcel this was sometimes planned and always a pleasure.

Together, we were