Monthly Archives: December 2016

Bicycle Touring

Day 40: Siem Reap

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no cycling,  expect 10 km to test my bike after the reassemble of yesterday.

So today I slept longer and laid in my bed until 10:30. After getting up I organised me a guided group tour to Ankor Wat for tomorrow. Then I saw a flyer of a locally based circus so I bought a ticket for there to tomorrow evening. My next item on my todo list of today was getting a SIM-card to have mobile internet again. Simply,  just walk into the mobile provider store,  they make a copy of your passport you give 10$ and you are done. A SIM-card with 5$ on it,  which is enough to buy 4 GB of mobile internet.

For lunch I just had some quick noodles. Followed by a walk through Siem Reap. Just looking at the markets and pub street. There is really not that much here,  but it is beautiful☺️ And I haven’t been to the temples yet,  ad they have a 20$ entrance fee and I will be there tomorrow.








After returning to the hostel I decided to take my bicycle and look for a shop with tools to borrow the needed tools to mount my front light and mudguard again,  as I am missing the right size of tool to fix it… There was one on the other side of the street. They rent bicycles,  so I went in and asked for the tolls,  they gave me a basket with some random tools. But the right sized tool was in there,  so I could fix everything. After it,  I went for a little ride to check if everything is looking good☺️ some adjustments to the handle bar and settle and it was done.

As it was still too early to get dinner,  I decided to get a massage. After a quick search on the internet, I found a place where blind people do the massages,  it was close by,  not too expensive (7$). It really hurt a lot such a massage, but now it feels goods.

So for tomorrow there is a guided tour at the Ankor Wat temple and another one,  from the morning to the late afternoon. In the evening I then go to this circus.

The day after tomorrow I will start cycling again😍

I am again having a little headache, but I think it is because I didn’t drunk enough. It’s really hot here: 30°C…

Oh I nearly forgot: for people located in Luxembourg: Tomorrow (Monday) there will be an article in the newspaper called “Journal”. For people not located in Luxembourg or who don’t want to buy the paper: I think it will be published on the website too. I will provide a link tomorrow☺️

EDIT: Hier ist der Link zum Artikel

Bicycle Touring

Day 39: Cambodia

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Distance: 8,75km Time: 24 min Total distance: 1441 km

So fighting over night to Singapore. After an hour of delay we started. I don’t know why,  but I wasn’t able to sleep a second… At the airport in Singapore at 5 o’clock ,  I still couldn’t really sleep,  I don’t know why. But around 7:30 I went for breakfast at Burger King😂 I walked around the 3 Terminals. I found a place to sleep and was able to sleep for 1 hour. After that I went to Mc Donald’s to have a second breakfast…


After some more sitting around,  watching stuff on YouTube,  I went for lunch at 12 o’clock,  Burger King again… At 13 finally the gate opened for my flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia. On the plane I couldn’t sleep…

Siem Reap has a really nice little airport. First I had to get a visa on arrival. Really simple:

  1. go to the desk
  2. say tourist visa
  3. give 30$ + form + passport picture + passport
  4. Go around the corner
  5. the passport is processed by 7 people sitting next to each other,  like all together took 10 seconds.
  6. receive the passport back with your visa.

Then I was allowed to enter the luggage part of the hall. in the middle was just immigration office checking the visa. I got all my stuff in good quality. After 1,5 h I was finished with packing out and building up my bike. Only the front mudguard and headlight are not fixed in the correct place or at all,  as i forgot to buy the needed tolls in Kathmandu😂 Not a problem. I will find a shop and just rent the tools. While building up,  I suddenly had half of the visa-processors and half of cleaning team standing around ne looking at me,  but they didn’t say anything, because I was building up my bike inside the luggage hall. 😂 So the few km I did today were from the airport to my hostel. The roads are actually  nice,  they ha a 2 lanes extra on each side for motorbikes and bicycles, and traffic lights with countdowns and no holes in the street and less ir even no rubbish on the floor😀

One can eve  see the planes in the back😂



So tomorrow I will visit Angkor Wat,  the big temple here in Siem Reap. Do some stuff here,  I don’t know yet.

Bicycle Touring

Day 38: departure day

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no cycling

Todays goal: get everything to the airport by time.

But first I had to kill some time until my master plan began. I packed all my stuff so that I would have stuff to do in the 10 hours transit time in Singapore and all the restricted stuff in my luggage. I checked out of the hotel and got a free transit from the hostel to the airport offered. After some negotiation they even agreed to pass by Anil’s home first to get my packed bike which was sill stored there. The rest of the morning I spend again on the roof top of the hostel,  reading and doing stuff in the internet. I have never showed the roof top:



After lunch Tomaz came back to Kathmandu and we meet up. 😀

Finally at 16:30 my master plan began: Plain leaves at 9 o’clock. I calculated 2 hours earlier + 1 hour buffer + 1 hour going there + half an hour getting my packed bike,  so in total 4,5 hours from the hostel to the plain. so getting to the airport (5 km away) really took me like 1,5 h with passing by Anil’s home and all the traffic jams😂

Arrived at the airport the entrance was guarded,  so that only people with a ticket could enter it,  so no annoying people anymore who want money from you😀 After a first security check for all luggage everything was normal procedure:

  1. check-in: no extra charge for my bike😀
  2. immigration office: A sign told me to fill out a form,  which was then thrown away by immigration officer😂
  3. security check: quick one
  4. waiting in the departure hall
  5. boarding (as soon as it is open)

The international airport of Kathmandu is an old one. The departure hall has no restaurants or shops expect one. There I got some food. Fried rice heated up in a microwave oven,  plastic fork and no table:


So now my flight goes to Singapore (not Kuala Lumpur as mentioned in yesterday’s post). There I will have at least 10 hours (I am a little confused with time zones) at the airport before my flight goes to Siem Reap in Cambodia😀 Therefore I have my book and juggling balls on me😀

For security reasons I have my bicycle helmet in my hand luggage,  in case it will be a bumpy flight. Actually there was no more space with my luggage or in the bicycle box😂

Bicycle Touring

Day 37: visiting the last place

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no cycling

Today I just wanted to visit the last place marked on my map: Boudha Stupa.  I was told it was one of the biggest there is. In the afternoon I was back at the hotel. I had a little headache,  but I don’t know from what. In the evening I met Anil and a friend of him. We went to a china restaurant. My headache got worse,  that’s why I took a taxi back to the hotel and I will try to sleep now.

Due to the headache, I will not upload pictures today. Sorry. There are not that many pictures of today.

Tomorrow I will just get to the airport. My flight to Kuala Lumpur leaves at 9 o’clock in the evening. From where I will get a flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia 😀

Bicycle Touring

Day 36: packing my bike

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no cycling

So finally I packed my bike today, with a lot of help from Anil,  without him it wouldn’t have been possible or I had to do it in the bicycle shop.

But first we needed to get a carton box for it. Around Anil’s home there is a halfway decent bicycle shop, but we arrived too early and the shop was closed,  so we walked around grabbed a tea,  we went to Anil’s shoe store and met some of his friends around. After some time we went to get a carton box for 300 NRP (2,57€) and brought it back to Anil’s place. Back there we disassembled my bike (I came with it this morning from the hotel). I had to take of the handle bar,  so that was the first thing to come off. Then we took of everything until it fitted in the box. We started with the front wheel and the corresponding mudguard and checked if it would fit inside the box –> NO

Then we took of the rear wheel with mudguard and rack (the construction where I hang my panniers on.Checked if it fitted –> NO

My saddle was still looking out the box. That was easy,  just simply remove the saddle with the pole. Did it fit? –> the frame yeah,  the rest not everything.

The part still in the way was my front light,  as it made it impossible to place the wheels next to the frame. Did it now fit? –> kind of,  see for yourself:

After we got everything inside,  the taping began. All around the box. I had already bought a roll some days ago. It wasn’t good tape and it was inly a small one. We went out to get a new better role. A transparent tape which is not good visible on the picture,  but belive me,  it’s all around the box. It will be fun to pack everything out again without a knife, as knifes are kind of not allowed inside an airport.

After 4 hours of searching a box,  disassembling and taping we were finally finished. A big thanks to Anil,  without his help and patience I wouldn’t have been able to pack it😂

The rest of the afternoon I tried to print out my flight ticket and spend some time on the roof top of my hostel again.

I don’t know what I will do tomorrow, probably some walking around,  there is still one place on my map, which is marked and I haven’t visited yet.

Bicycle Touring

Day 35: doing nothing

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no cycling,  no motorbiking

So today I originally wanted to pack my bike in a carton box as my leg, arm and neck hurt too much to motorbike and I think there is no beautiful day route left here. So I went out for breakfast as every morning and realised how dirty my cloth were from the crash. During the breakfast a cat was constantly walking around my table jumping up and down chairs to get some food from me,  eventually she started sunbathing😂


As my cloth were dirty, I washed them and hung them up for drying at the roof top. I hadn’t explored it yet,  it is a very beautiful place with some flowers and chairs and less noise than down on the street☺️ I spend the rest of the morning and the afternoon there,  waiting for my long cloth to dry, while reading my book and talking to people.

Then finally Anil’s phone (nepalease friend from the Annapurna Trek) was switched on and we arranged a meet up in Kathmandu. I had to take a taxi to get there. Because if the traffic it took me like half an hour longer than the calculated time by maps.me (the offline navigation app I have).

Arrived there I found Anil quickly, we had some tea and moved to another place to have dinner at a nice quite restaurant with music I know from back home. The nepaleas cook worked in Australia but came back to open a restaurant here. Together with a group of artists, he painted the walls,  really beautiful. The wood was no normal nepaleas food,  I had a really good piece of steak with spaghetti and a brilliant sauce,  for normal price☺️


Anil has a car so for the way back I didn’t need a taxi😀 And we figured something out on how to pack the bike in a carton box tomorrow😀

Bicycle Touring

Day 34: On a motorbike

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no cycling but biking,  distance: I don’t know,  somewhere in between 70 and 100 km

So this morning I finally got to rent a motorbike. After some negotiation I got a bike for 1400 NRP (11,94€) fuel and helmet included. It was something with I think  125cc.  Good enough for renting and driving the first time a motorbike😀 Afterwards I understood why they went so down with the price. The display for the speed wasn’t working,  so it always showed 0 km/h and kilometers weren’t counting too😂 But I didn’t care about it.

I asked for a good place to ride and went of. Out of the touristic place into the main road into the direction I was told to go. Police told me that the road is blocked by… they couldn’t tell me,  so I went around. Slowly I got out of Kathmandu, some waiting at intersections which were handled by traffic police. Out in the nature and little villages it was a beautiful road up the hill with lots of curves, I git used to shift gears up and down. Really great.
As I had my camera in my backpack it took me lots of time to take it out,  so I didn’t take that much pictures today.

The road to come up☺️

a good part of the bad road to go down

Same as on the bicycle,  always were a helmet, especially if it is a cool one

After reaching the top,  the asphalt disappeared and going down on the other side was more hard and slow work but still nice. Somewhere more down in the valley the asphalt came back and I started to get faster again (not too fast,  normal speed) Eventually there was some water on the road, because of a river I think,  I break with the front brakes and then… I kissed the floor… my front wheel blocked and went into another direction, me sliding on the ground next to my bike. Immediately some people came to help me,  got my bike off the road and stopped the engine. Really nice,  I was back on my feet in no time. I checked,  just some little abrasions and bruises. Luckily I had long cloth and my helmet on☺️ Just my gloves were in my backpack as they got too hot even when riding. One guy told me to get checked up in a medical place 1 km away. So I did, I got into an examination room and the guy packed out clean working equipment,  didn’t touched anything with his fingers,  just with clean pincers until he got out some glows and started cleaning my wounds. He just charged me like 100 NRP (0,85€ 😯) for his work. 

I continued to get back to return my bike. On the way there were even more traffic jams than on the way out. At the renting place they didn’t even noticed anything that the bike had a crash😂

Grabbed some dinner with Jimmy the Australian guy of my dorm and now I am relaxing in my room.My shoulder starts to hurt a little bit,  but I will be fine.

Will I ever ride a motorbike again? Hell yeah,  it was awesome,  I learned from it and now I know better😀

Originally I wanted to rent a motorbike again tomorrow, but I don’t know if there are any more cool roads near Kathmandu and I have to check how I am feeling tomorrow.

Bicycle Touring

Day 33: Sending a package

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no cycling

Todays task: sending a package contains my tent,  stove, water cleaning system,  isolation mat and cooking stuff back home as I will never use it. I will keep back my sleeping bag,  as it can be useful when the blanket isn’t that warm☺️

So I informed myself first: price,  opening hours, required documents. First I did a copy of my passport as they need one. Then I organized my stuff so that I could send home my front panniers home too as I don’t need them anymore. I packed everything to send in my front panniers and everything to keep in the 3 back panniers. Outside the guest house I just wanted to know how much a taxi would be to get there,  because walking half an hour with the panniers isn’t the best method. The taxi drivers I asked all seem to don’t know the official post office,  so I decided not to take a taxi but walk. Just out of curiosity I checked out one of the many places, where they offer cargo service. After he got me a price of 8$ I was curious because I know that 10kg cost around 80$ in the post office. Then he told me that it is 8$ per kilo. After weighing my luggage (8,2kg) he tried to calculate the price and always started with 8*8,2+?-x±y=price. You see what I mean,  then I went out to go to the real post office.

Arrived there it was 12 o’clock so I had 2 hours left before they close. Yeah you need at least one hour. Here the procedure

  1. Fill out the form,  which is only available in nepaleas language. On the table there was a form taped,  where the required filed were explained in english,  but still I needed help from a women sitting there (I think she was a post employee). I wrote down sender,  receiver and content.
  2. Bringing the filled out form back to the guy who gave it to me,  he checked it and told me which fields were missing,  so I filled them too.
  3. leaving the form there I needed to find a carton box (they had many of them there) were all my stuff would fit in. Eventually I found one with the help of an employee.
  4. That employee closed the carton with tape and sewed fabric around it.
  5. On this fabric I then wrote the receiver’s address (my father) and my own name and phone number.
  6. By another guy the seam got sealed with wax.
  7. Then I needed to go to one desk who send me back to the first desk to get my form I left there which I needed to pay for (5$).
  8. Finally somebody behind a counter accepted my package. But again I needed to fill out another form with receiver, sender and content. This form was then taped on my package where the address was already written on😂
  9. They weight it (9 kg, the carton box and fabric make the difference hopefully). I paid 6135 NRP (52,69€)
  10. I received a sheet and was told that there is a tracking number on it☺️

20 to 30 days should it take for the package to arrive.

My package is the next to be sealed

As half of the day was already passed I decided not to rent a motorbike today. Instead I visited some more temples and places of worship on foot as yesterday. Originally I wanted to visit 2 places marked on my map but I got stuck in the first place as I had to pay an entrance fee and got a free to pay guide (at the end I could give him whatever I want). So he showed me the temple called Pashupatinath. It’s a place where people are cemented after death. He also explained me a little bit about the hindu religion. After more than 2 hours of going around,  seeing fires where bodies were burning,  I went back to the hotel as it was already 16:30 and the sun started going down.

So and from now on there will be dead bodies on the pictures!

Tomorrow I will finally rent a motorbike (hopefully) 😂

But first I have to drink rum with my russian roommate in my dorm 😀

Bicycle Touring

Day 32: Doing some tourist stuff

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no cycling

EDIT: I don’t know what my blog has now,  but it is showing images taken in portrait as landscape, when you download it or open it in a new tab it’s orientated the right way.  Also in my editor it is orientated the right way… I am trying to fix this…

So today on the program were the bigger temples (e.g. the monkey temple) a little bit outside of the touristic center but still in reach of foot distance. So I just marked the points on my map and started walking. By walking through parts where less to no tourists go,  I could see more how life is here☺️ Lots of pictures not that much of text. And it isn’t even everything I saw☺️

sometimes there is a really nice little green park in the middle

While walking some people started to talk to me. On of them then showed me a little bit around and told me a little bit. I forgot his name🙁

Finally there are some people in my dorm at the guest house. With Jimmy,  an Australian guy, I will go for dinner with some more people from Belgium (not Kim and Nathalie),  Netherlands and Japan😀 We went to this one place, where they have the best fries. As far as the guide book is right,  the cook went to Belgium to learn how to make good fries. They were good,  but didn’t have my sauce Andalouse!

Tomorrow I will either go to post office and check how to send some stuff back home as I don’t need it (tent,  stove and water cleaning system) or I will rent a motorbike and drive out a little bit☺️

Bicycle Touring

Day 31: trying to get a new handlebar bag

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no cycling

This morning I walked in the touristic streets. First to get some breakfast then to see a little bit of everything,  there are lots of little temples, but I didn’t went out to the big once, that is something for another day.

Then I saw the consulate of belgium:

In front of which was a climbing wall

with one of the coolest training boards I have ever seen

I am amazed of the graffiti and wall arts which are sometimes here

Work security? He was painting the wall. Actually there is a second one sitting behind him also painting

In the afternoon I spend like 5 hours to get a handlebar bag as my old one doesn’t have the impression to last the whole trip. I went to the Vaude store, as they told me on the phone they would have some, but they misunderstood me. When I arrived there they gave me a bag for my rack, where my red panniers are hanging. When they finally understood what I needed, they told me that they sold the last one some time ago… But they called a guy who is asking around and he is currently my last hope. After I left the store I checked out some decent bicycle stores, bu they only sell mountain bikes and no bags… Otherwise I will try to stabilise the bag a little bit.

As I still want to do my motorbike touring, I will probably rent one in the next days, as it was already an idea in Pokhara.

I was just informed that some images are turned the wrong way, you can tell me that , then I can try to turn them the right way.

I also added the video of me juggling 3 rocks at Annapurna Base Camp at day 19