Cycle Asia: The Pre-Match Warm Up…
- by Liam Isaac
The route has been planned, the kit not quite organised and the first aid kits filled to the brim with a combination of mosquito spray, dissentry medication and malaria tablets… what a treat!
So with slightly less than two weeks left before embarking upon this epic adventure, it seems like an apt time to look in more depth at what we are actually about to attempt. Up until this point, it has been easy to look at the trip as a series of facts and figures: number of countries covered, 5. number of kilometers to complete, 5,000. Days in which to do both, 84.
However, with time ticking by, the trip is becoming ever more ‘real’. Talking to cyclists in preperation for the event has made me aware of just how physically gruelling the cycle is going to be. I am told that, in the near 100% humidity, we can expect to sweat until we literally have no liquid left to give, resulting in what could be a 10kg loss in weight over the nearly three month period. Who needs Atkins?!
Another ‘interesting’ realisation came to me whilst trying to organise the cycling lycras just the other day. As I stood there with the salesman talking to me about the reason why the near inch thick foam in these particular shorts were the best option for comfort on a “ride such as ours”, I began to muse as what levels of discomfort whilst on a saddle could possibly cause the necessity for such an implant!
Luckily, the volume of organisation still ahead of us has meant little time for worry over such matters and, perhaps more important still, the pro’s awaiting us in Asia far outweigh what may be considerred as the possible cons… Besides, I’m always looking for new extreme ways to strip weight.
In the next three months we are set to see the famous twin petronas towers of Malaysia, the once joint largest buildings in the world, The cosmopolitan cocktail that is Bangkok and the decadent Silver Pagoda of Cambodia. On top of this, we will ride elephants in Northern Thailand, take a cruise around Halong Bay, Vietnam and, in 98 days from now, we will end our journey by rolling into the mysterious and ancient Khmer temples of Angkor Wat.
Countless people have shared similar itineraries before us, the only real difference between them and us will be method of transport! Any sane people would have organixed to travel by bus or have at least hired a dodgy car with bold tires and an engine fresh from the production lines of 1960’s communist Russia!
Alas we have opted for the eco-friendly and far more rewarding method of two wheels and manual labour!… all for a good cause.
At this point it might be a good time to properly introduce the team who will be participating in the ride. First up there is me;
My name is Liam Isaac. I am 23 years old and come from Llantwit Major in South Wales. I have spent the last six months living the dream and travelling around the world with the rest of the guys and, prior to that, I graduated from Bath University with a degree in Architecture. There are a number of reasons why i was so keen on taking part in the organization and completion of this event besides the obvious one of supporting such a good cause.
However, there are also more personal reasons. We have made a point of doing things ’slightly differently’ whilst travelling the world and this journey is a continuation of this theme. By cycling the route we are going to experience Asia from a completely different point of view from your average traveller, hopefully seeing the countries we go through from a completely different perspective and meeting people along the way who backpackers would not normally run into.
Next up is Chris Moore, 22, from West Wales… but we don’t hold it against him. Chris is also a University of Bath Graduate, having been awarded a degree in Mathematics. Nicknamed the Siege, I would love to give you a magical story about how he obtained the name however, because the story is perhaps a little inocuous, I shall leave it up to your imagination… It’s to do with his initials!
Chris is fanatic about new experiences and, one of his main reasons for looking forward to Asia is the sheer number of completely original challenges and adventures that await us. Having bungy jumped and loved it – after the he had been pulled up at the end it must be said – Chris is now keen to Ride elephants, go tubing and simply experience what kind of achievement it would be to actually complete the monumental task that we have set ahead of ourselves in taking on such a massive distance on a contraption who’s hayday was arguable the early 1900’s. Surely we should have motors!!!
Our next participant – shock horror – is yet another ex Bath University graduate, having studied Economics there for four years. 23, James Clark is perhaps the one of us with the most adventurous background having already driven a rickshaw aka. death trap, across india, and hitch hiked his way through Nepal… amongst other escapades!
James is the one who inadvertedly came up with the original idea for the event whilst four of us were sharing a fine local brew around a bar table in Samoa. Somehow the conversation came on to what we wanted to do after this year of travel was over and Clarky said that he had always wanted to cycle from Beijing to Moscow in an attempt to get all of the remaining adventure ‘out of his system’ before settling down to work in his beloved London. Before we could discuss that pearl of information he came out with, ‘Hang on! Why don’t we cycle around South East Asia?”, and like that, this whole thing became a reality.
I don’t need to tell you by now what, or rather where, Max Beasley, 21, was before this year, suffice to say, he graduated from that place with a degree in Psychology! Max is the longest of all of us, nicknamed the long man on account of his near superhuman ‘wingspan’…
Besides having a charitable core, Max is a bit of a culture vulture. His main goal in travelling is to fully immerse himself in as many cultures as possible. He is looking forward to travelling around Asia as we will be going through five completely different countries, each of which is very different to anywhere else that we have ever been to or even seen. He is also looking forward to some of the fantastic scenery to be found along the coasts of Thailand and Vietnam.
And last but not least, there is the German. Nicknamed GG for no other reason than the fact that no none German person in the world can pronounce the name, jibberish that is Giannis Geiss!
The pup of the group, Giannis, 20, has not even been to university yet, let alone gone to Bath. We met GG in America half way through our trip and he’s been with us ever since. He wants to take part in this adventure because, since spending some time with our group, he is no longer able to speak proper German. However, neither is his English yet perfect. As a result, we are the only people on the planet who can understand his hybrid Gerglish language and thus he is wholly dependent on us to keep in contact with the outside world!
Unfortunately, the above is not strictly true. In reality Giannis has a heart of gold and, having spent a year working in a hospital, he is soon to go to university to study medicine.
So there you have it, that is the gang introduced. By the time we have posted up our next blog we will more than likely actually be on the road so wish us luck and please please donate if you have not done so already… or again if you are made of money! It really is for a great cause.
Cheers All,
Liam =)
March 25th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Ha! So it was Clarky who tricked y’all into this. I suspect there is some deep psychological reason for it; perhaps an unrequited love affair with bicycles stemming from the sad loss of a bike he had in London. But enough of her…
Good luck, all of you. I shall be thinking of you every day. OC(H)