"A honeymoon to Remember" The greatest cycling blog of all time?

GearoidP · 03-09-2009 12:24pm #1

Looking at the blog on the below link my lunch break in an office in Dublin has become a bit of an escapist pasttime of mine...

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/bikingbarkleys

It's a couple currently cycling around the world on their honeymoon. It's got over 600,000 hits and is shaping up to be the greatest cycling blog of all time. Well worth a read! They're currently in Kyrgyzstan. Incredible mountain passes in that part of the world!

petethedrummer · 03-09-2009 12:40pm

I was just reading their gear list and found this.

- 4 reading books (Stephen King's The Stand, but read sections torn off after reading;

That's dedication to weight saving.

LDB · 03-09-2009 12:50pm

Great Blog and what an amazing adventure for them. jealous!

Caroline_ie · 03-09-2009 12:58pm

LDB wrote: »

Great Blog and what an amazing adventure for them. jealous!

uh oh ... careful what you wish for ...

LDB · 03-09-2009 1:01pm

Caroline_ie wrote: »

uh oh ... careful what you wish for ...

Yeah if I'd have seen this a few months back I could have been doing a different hoenymoon alltogether. I dont think i'd be committed enough to sell my house and give up my job to do it though!

GearoidP · 03-09-2009 1:57pm

Half way down this page,
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=3Tzut&page_id=125011&v=13
they describe what happened as they approached a 10,000 foot pass in Pakistan on 21st of August 2009 - and I thought I was adventurous on my way to Gael Force in Westport that day!!! ->

Just when I thought Kohistani people had gotten a raw deal in reputation, I stopped to wave to a group of women who were waving frantically at me from a village below the road. Waiting for Sam, I was standing there when one of them sprinted up the hill towards me, holding out her hand to shake mine, me still thinking this was a friendly encounter.

Then she plopped herself on the road in front of my bike, her foot on my front tire indicating that I wasn't to move. At this point I felt the mood turn from typical friendly interaction into a Confrontation. I indicated that I'd like to push my bike on and started to do so, kinda over her leg, and she reached out and clamped an iron paw onto my handle bars.

Just then more women crested the hill and she gestured to them to get over there and help her with me. They started swarming, yelling very loudly and man o man, did they smell. It was the most striking thing - Pakistanis are normally so fastidious about their toilette (for instance, EVERYONE irons all the time, and we are always such slouches in comparison, in our wrinkled travel clothes), but these women had a deep, smoky smell that was more than just filth and body odor. They smelled exactly like the woman who had thrown her toddler at me in northern Vietnam, apparently wanting me to take the child, who was screaming, while the woman's face alternated between roaring laughter and bursts of sobs - she was incomprehensible to read, I think because she was quite insane.

These women were exactly the same way, total madness in their eyes, cackling and shouting loudly. It seemed they wanted me to give them money, but they were mostly intent on preventing my forward progress. Children appeared too, but they watched the adult women set to work on me. Sam eventually pedaled up, yelling that my rear pannier was being taken off (I had been focused on hitting at the hands on my handlebars and keeping them away from my valuables in the handlebar bag), so he barged into the melee to reconnect my pannier. The women scattered at the sight of him, and with a few still clinging onto my front handlebars and one starting to hit and slap my back and butt, I was able to start pushing my bike forward, leaving (I'll totally admit it) Sam to fend for himself with the mad women. They were no match for him, and he was through pretty quickly, although they started hurling rocks at him. He turned and threw a large rock in their direction, which caused them to run back down the hill.

I was in full sprint to the pass, riding with the kind of vigor that can only be fueled with enormous amounts of adrenalin. Wow, I didn't know I could clear those kind of conditions so quickly!

Lumen · 03-09-2009 2:04pm

We heard a few rocks land behind us as we passed, and once Sam stopped and took down a teenage boy he'd seen throw a rock at me. Once I saw a kid gripping a large rock and looking ready to throw it at me, I pointed at him and yelled "OY!", which caused his father, sitting nearby, to pick up a large rock and aim it at the boy, threatening to throw it at him if he released his rock towards me. This served the dual purpose of causing the boy to drop his rock and answering my question as to where these kids learn it's okay to throw rocks at people.

Classic.

Chips Lovell · 03-09-2009 2:08pm

You don't have to go to Pakistan. There are plenty of places in Dublin that will provide that authentic experience.

blorg · 03-09-2009 2:13pm

petethedrummer wrote: »

That's dedication to weight saving.

I remember doing that on my first long tour in Spain, we had the Lonely Planet guide already ripped up into the sections that we were going to be cycling through and would tear off and discard as we passed...

scottreynolds · 03-09-2009 2:29pm

LDB wrote: »

Yeah if I'd have seen this a few months back I could have been doing a different hoenymoon alltogether. I dont think i'd be committed enough to sell my house and give up my job to do it though!

Perhaps Mario and Raam will go there?

ROK ON · 03-09-2009 2:42pm

I just do not understand the type of wanderlust that compels people to travel to dangerous sh1tholes. I mean, I have travelled and backpacked in a hell of a lot of places (my honeymoon took 10 months). But I just dont get this adventure bravado.

LDB - d not be persuaded by this nonsense. Enjoy your upcoming honeymoon. There are a helluva lot of nice laces in the world, without resorting to travelling thru some dump where you will be attacked by crazy women. Honeymoons should be memorable, not a replay of a saturday afternoon on Moore St/Henry St.

LDB · 03-09-2009 2:48pm

ROK ON wrote: »

LDB - d not be persuaded by this nonsense. Enjoy your upcoming honeymoon. There are a helluva lot of nice laces in the world, without resorting to travelling thru some dump where you will be attacked by crazy women. Honeymoons should be memorable, not a replay of a saturday afternoon on Moore St/Henry St.

Thanks! I'll get to cycle the golden gate bridge and beyond so it's all good.

scottreynolds · 03-09-2009 2:50pm

ROK ON wrote: »

I just do not understand the type of wanderlust that compels people to travel to dangerous sh1tholes.

I know exactly what you mean - I went to Blanchardstown the other day.

blorg · 03-09-2009 2:58pm

ROK ON wrote: »

I just do not understand the type of wanderlust that compels people to travel to dangerous sh1tholes. I mean, I have travelled and backpacked in a hell of a lot of places (my honeymoon took 10 months). But I just dont get this adventure bravado.

I think if aiming to cycle around the world some of this may be a bit unavoidable... There is something in touring where it is very satisfying to cycle from one point to another point very far away and not every bit you pass through on the way can be littered with rose petals... Remember they are cycling through not to.

scottreynolds · 03-09-2009 3:16pm

blorg wrote: »

I think if aiming to cycle around the world some of this may be a bit unavoidable... There is something in touring where it is very satisfying to cycle from one point to another point very far away and not every bit you pass through on the way can be littered with rose petals... Remember they are cycling through not to.

Yes... I would like to be the First to annouce ROK ON's annual cycle the 5 Star hotels of the world tour.

About this event... Cycling only through the most luxurious of properties, esatates, and hotels of the world you will circumnavigate the globe*. The cost of this event has been kept relatively modest so only those with a personal net worth of USD $50m+ need apply.

*Please note where cycling is not possible, due to the poor, sick or troubled populations, either personal jet, or helicopter, transfers will be used.

P.S. If we can get three people signed up for this we can all go free.

Lumen · 03-09-2009 3:25pm

I'm with the 5 star coward. I've no issues with roughing it but would want to avoid anywhere I'd be viewed as a walking ransom/beheading opportunity.

I had an "opportuntity" to travel to Baghdad on work during the early occupation and turned it down after about 3 seconds of consideration. Gunfire makes me nervous.

Chips Lovell · 03-09-2009 3:36pm

If someone's going to be trying to kill me, I'd prefer to be getting paid for it. Doing it for leisure is kind of perverse.

ROK ON · 03-09-2009 3:38pm

Lumen wrote: »

I'm with the 5 star coward. I've no issues with roughing it but would want to avoid anywhere I'd be viewed as a walking ransom/beheading opportunity.

I had an "opportuntity" to travel to Baghdad on work during the early occupation and turned it down after about 3 seconds of consideration. Gunfire makes me nervous.

Seems a rather pragmatic viewpoint I think.

"A honeymoon to Remember" The greatest cycling blog of all time?

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