Bob & Claire Rogers: On the road…
Lucky says:
“To read the full article at NewBohemians.net, simply click on the update title! How easy is that? Even a Panda can do that with just one paw!”
Colorful Thailand:Bangkok One (12/20/09)
We’re in Bangkok, enjoying one of our favorite cities in Asia…
Thailand One: No Baht, and Asia Roads (12/16/09)
This tour bus/truck accident had to be fatal. The truck was destroyed…
The Temples of Angkor Wat (12/13/09)
Angkor Wat is one temple of many near Siem Reap, Cambodia…
Market Video (12/10/09)
(Includes video)
Kompong Cham Morning Market (12/09/09)
Sunrise over the Mekong and a morning spent in one of our favorite Asian markets…
Life Along a Slow River (12/06/09)
At the Cambodia border we took a slow boat up the river for a good look a river life from water level…
Vietnam: Photos and Comments (11/21/09)
A few photos from the Central Coast of Vietnam. Internet issues prevent more now, but there will be many more later, as well as videos…
Vietnam: First Impressions; More to Come (11/19/09)
Photo gallery…
Ho Chi Minh Trail: Six of Six (11/17/09)
This is final video about our search for one of the branches of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. There were many branches of the trail, in Laos as well as Vietnam…(Includes Video)
Good Evening from Laos (11/05/09)
Boys will be boys, everywhere…(Includes Video)
Full Moon Festival in Vientiane (11/04/09)
Video of Full Moon Festival… (Includes Video)
For You Cyclists: The Tunnel (10/25/09)
In Southern Yunnan, we had over twenty tunnels on one stretch of fairly new highway. They ranged from 200 meters to nearly four kilometers…
My Guaranteed Diet (10/25/09)
I weigh the same as I did in High School, but about fifteen pounds of muscle have just disappeared!
Pictures From the Mountains of Laos (10/23/09)
Here’s a selection of photos from the mountains of Northern Laos…
Lao Children: They Keep Us Going! (10/23/09)
The children have greeted us with enthusiasm, or Zippy really…They are beautiful, happy, healthy and full of energy. They make our day…
Laid Back Laos (10/20/09)
I love Laos. We’ve seen all sizes of electric blue and neon yellow butterflies; we can hear insects buzzing, frogs chorusing and birds singing; bright flowers bloom and scent the air. The children are delightful…
Change in Latitude (10/16/09)
With a 13-hour bus ride, we’ve changed the backdrop of our tour from a temperate to a tropical climate. The sleeper bus was an experience we’d wanted to try after seeing them on our 2005 tour…
Zippy Draws A Crowd (10/16/09)
Chinese do not like to be photographed as a part of a crowd, and yet they always like to be a part of a crowd…
Chicklett? (10/15/09)
We think is a world record for the smallest piece of soap in the world. What do you think?
More Photos From Dali; a Quiet Walk (10/14/09)
Photos…
Dali and Plans for Beyond (10/13/08)
Soon enough we were back to wishing for less traffic than was on the expressway. Everyone in China, it seemed, was either on the way to or from Dali. And the mid-autumn holiday is supposed to be over…
Backroads Accommodation in Shangri-la (10/11/09)
Remember the fun we had with the video detailing the trip across the road, down the stairs and over the bridge to the outhouse? This time we stayed at a “hotel” with no toilet–at all…
Shangri-la Backroads 2 (10/11/09)
Coming the backway into Tiger Leaping Gorge was more fun because we didn’t feel so much a part of the tourist hordes…
Shangri-la Back Roads 1 (10/10/09)
We took a detour after the city of Shangri-la, deepback into the mountains where the non-Tibetan peoples live. Many of the viallages are prosperous, and the spirit and cooperation of the people is inspiring…(Includes videos)
Detour to the Hospital (10/09/09)
Yesterday we took a little detour on our way into Lijaing – to the hospital. We crashed. A combination of a long day, with 1200 more more meters of climbing, a patch of water laid down by the cooling water of a truck’s brakes, a little bit of clay, and down we went…
Shangri-la: More to come (10/09/09)
Another day, another two mountains. When we reached the Yangtze we thought we would be cruising down the river for a few days, but China 214 took a hard left into a narrow gorge where we found yesterday’s accommodations…(Includes video)
Meeting the Yangtze (10/05/09)
Today was a nearly perfect cycling day: the road was smooth, and mostly downhill, with just enough cooling upstream breeze. We had a few hills, but none were long. There were friendly people, cute donkeys and goats, spectacular gorge scenery, and all our official interactions at check stations were pleasant…(Includes video)
A Thorn Tree Grows in Shangri-la (10/01/2009)
We are here to SEE Shangri-la, not be it or live it. We have conquered her mountains, seen those living Shangri-la, but have not made the truth-based myth our own…(Includes video)
The Back Gate to Shangri-la (09/29/09)
We’ve called this often grueling trip from Chengdu, the Back Road to Shangri-la. A few days ago, we entered the high gate to the garden of Shangri-la. We topped out above 15,000 feet each day, and often stayed there for hours…(Includes video)
Lucky’s High Pass (09/28/09)
There will be more mountains to come, and some will probably seem harder than this one. Zippy is making strange noises from the drive-train, and we fear we have put him under too much strain this time…(Includes video)
Loving Litang; a look back, a look forward (09/25/09)
Litang is one of the few cities in China with a majority Tibetan population. We were told in Chengdu, by a resident experienced China traveler, that we would see a more genuine view of the Tibetan people on the route we were taking than the throngs of tourists going to Lhasa.
Elation, Pain, Surprise: Part 3 Weary (09/24/09)
We couldn’t imagine another day of near hypothermia, and more hills and bad roads. But, we didn’t want to stay another day with the road workers, nice as they were, so we packed up our filthy gear and steeled ourselves for the day. By the time we were ready to go, the rain had stopped, and there was even a hint of blue over the first hill…(Includes video)
Elation, Pain, Surprise: Part 2 (09/23/09)
The five tiny calves at the bottom of the ladder were the future for these women. Their house was smaller than most in the village. I wondered where the men were? What would the little girl’s life be like?
Elation, Pain, Surprise; a series of three (09/22/09)
We were in the middle to nowhere for three days, climbed more passes than were supposed to be there, were never below about 14,000 feet and bad weather surprised us. The road to Shangri-la is always filled with life and surprise…(Includes video)
A Mixed Bag and Next Up (09/19/09)
The road was nice all the way to the top, and looked like a beautiful 40 kilometer downhill from the top. It was not however to be…(Includes video)
Highest Point: Continued (09/18/09)
Though the mountain was crowded with lots of construction workers, it was somehow comforting to have some of the road crew trying to beckon us over to their fire to warm up. They didn’t seem to understand that our lightweight clothing was plenty…(Includes video)
Highest Point For Us Ever… (09/18/09)
Yesterday we rode Zippy to the highest point ever. We started at 8,500 feet in Kangding and topped Zheduo Pass at 13,900 feet in 35 kilometers, or 21.7 miles, all under construction/repair. (Includes video)
Into Tibetan Lands… (09/15/09)
The first weeks are the hardest, and these mountains are really really hard. We might have kept these mountains for the end of the trip when we are fit, but then the passes are snowed in; there is a typhoon approaching the coast, and we might get it even now. Hope not.
First Pass, Chinese Cycling Friends, and a Long Tunnel… (09/13/09)
Last night at a basic binguan, we met three Chinese cyclists and they showed great interest in Zippy, our tandem. In the morning a larger group of their club friends arrived and there was round of picture taking and general language confusion, but lots of smiles. We saw the large group off up the mountain, had our breakfast and followed about a half-hour later. (Includes video)
The Tea and Horse Route… (09/11/09)
As we were leaving Ya An today, we saw some beautiful, larger than life, bronze statues of horses and men carrying heavy burdens. A sign nearby indicated that it was a memorial to the ancient route that took tea to SE Asia…
Video of our first days on the road… (09/10/09)
So many things go on during our days of pedaling that we thought it would be good to post a video of what we see in an average day so far. This is combined from three days, with lots left out! (Includes video)
First Days… (09/09/2009)
Pardon the look of this post. We are on Chinese computers and things don’t work the same, and we can’t read the characters! We finally were able to get our Word file opened, but failed with the video files. We had a video for here, but the computer could not recognize my file formats. We have not been able to find WiFi.
On The Road to Shangri-la At Last… (09/07/2009)
After five days of building up Zippy, visiting pandas, exploring Chengdu, we are leaving. Claire has been organizing route maps from the China road atlas Peter Snow–Cao gave us and I have been playing on the computer. (Includes video)
Chaos Theory In Action, Chengdu, China… (09/05/2009)
Claire says please disregard any swear words from the stoker. Bob says, with the right attitude, you can make anything fun. It looks like guru John Hoyle found a fix [for the video problem]. If you need a website, see his link at the left. He’s a fixer. (Includes video)
Internet Plea and Panda Fix… (09/05/2009)
My worst fears have been realized about not being able to connect to FB, or twit… I was told this morning that (this country) is blocking these (Internet Places) here in Chengdu, perhaps all of the country. Apparently this started about three months ago. Would all of our friends on FB please post to your site that we are unable to communicate via FB in any way, including posting links to our site? All you have to do is click on the little FB logo at the bottom of our post and follow the easy directions. You can communicate with us directly by posting a comment at the bottom of the blog, just as if it were FB.
Arrived Chengdu… (09/04/2009)
We’ve arrived in Chengdu, China. Having some Internet issues, but will have more complete post in the next couple of days before we leave the city. Despite jet lag we got Zippy put together with a couple of problems that were solved with a little patience and some muscle. Lucky was particularly helpful, supervising and giving encouragement. We went riding around town today, and it is crazier than Beijing, more like Baku, Azerbaijan. We attract quite a bit of attention on the tandem, something they appear to have never seen.
Lucky Arrives Safely in Hong Kong… (09/02/2009)
Bob was disappointed that we landed in the dark, and he couldn’t add to his collection of photographs taken from airplanes around the world. This airport place is all gleeming and sparking clean and the food is expensive. Bob says that means it’s not the real China. Claire says we’ll be in Chengdu this afternoon, and then the real China adventure begins.
Zippy is on his way! (09/01/2009)
After weeks of worrying about getting our oversize tandem on the airplane, it went without a hitch, unless you consider $175 extra, a hitch. Oh well, the price of taking your transportation with you. Now if he just gets there in time, along with his two wheels in two other bags.
End of Updates
