SE Asia - Cycling Tour -advice/suggestions

[Jaclyn]

I cycle toured thru Cambodia a few years ago. I had signed up with a small tour group out of New Zealand. Unfortunately, they failed to get enough participants and they cancelled the trip. It was hard for me to get two weeks of vacation so I decided to go on my own anyway. And I'm so glad I did - it was a fantastic experience.

I flew in and out of Bangkok and spent a few days there. SpiceRoads Bicycle Tours offers various options (www.spiceroads.com/). I couldn't fit my schedule with their schedule, but I continue to receive emails from them and think they offer some great value tours.

I flew to Siem Reap and stayed at a small French owned inn. It was ridiculously inexpensive (about $30/day including breakfast and often an afternoon beer, daily laundry etc). (Note: You can spend $1,000/night at the luxury resorts but I do not recommend it in a country where the per capital income is less than $400/year.) I bicycled daily to the Angkor Wat temples. Because I was there longer than the typical 2 days on a bus tourist, I was able to return to various temples at different times of the day with different light. I often had the temple to myself! The temples of Angkor are a must see.

My inn did have bicycles available, but I had a folding Bike Friday.

Because tourism is so important to the economy of Cambodia, especially Siem Reap, many people speak English. The US dollar is the official currency, too.

My only regret is that I didn't spend another week there to visit Phnom Penh.

Traveling by myself forced me to interact more with various people. It was an incredible experience. Go, and post about your experience when your return.

[indysteel]

Here's the thread from RBR that I mentioned.

[NadiaMac]

I went on a tour in Thailand and Laos (mostly Laos) a few years ago, with Redspoke. We started in Chiang Mai, rode through Thailand to the border with Laos, took the river boat downstream (highly scenic), then rode about 400 miles to Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. You can see some pictures/narrative on my blog.

The trip was pretty cool. I rented a mountain bike for the tour, which was not necessary despite dire warnings of crappy roads-- my BF did the whole thing on his ritchie breakaway road bike from home and was fine, albeit a bit bumpy/muddy at moments. While our trip was supported, there was a couple on the trip who had toured in Laos and Vietnam a couple of times earlier without support and managed just fine, despite the pretty serious language barrier in the rural areas. We ran into other cyclists who were traveling without tour support as well. I am happy to provide more info if you are interested.

After riding in Laos, we went to Siem Reap, Cambodia for just a few days and rode out to Angkor Wat and around town on rented bikes. This was a really nice way to explore the ruins and bike rental was inexpensive- about 2$ a day.

[RadicalEdward]

Thanks everyone!!
sorry, been busy trying to arrange things -so looks like I'll do a tour (as in Tour, like -pay retarted amounts of money to people to give me directions) because my partner feels uncomfortable with me just going it alone, it's a fair call and I'm ok with going in a group, I just wish they weren't so expensive :P


Will check in with more info as things develop

[alexis_the_tiny]

Welcome to my side of the world! ;p Here's a blog I found really informative about cycle touring in the places you mentioned: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/inching.

If you want a sort of launch pad to go to various places from, I'd suggest Malaysia or Singapore. You'll find both places to be a good start point to being introduced to South-East Asia, plenty of English spoken and quite modern, also lots of budget flights to Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam.

If you do want to try cycling in Malaysia which, is beautiful, huge and amazing, have a looksee at my late friend's blog. He rode in Malaysia alot and did a 10 day solo tour from the south of Thailand to Singapore. Link is here

Either way, good luck and I hope things work out for you!!