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23. A change of Direction
We left Taiping well before first light to try and beat the heat and headed towards the coast again. By 9am we had covered 50km (ok 49.8km but if it hadn’t been for that last few hundred meters of gravel….) and my shirt was so wet I could wring the sweat out of it....
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22. Muggy Malaysia
We’d had a lovely hotel suite in George Town, complete with a seperate lounge and had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, but from about lunchtime onwards it was just too hot to go out and we ended up using our air conditioned lounge a lot! Much of the city slows down around...
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21. The sun never sets on the (old) British Empire.
Always a picturesque start to the day We had a couple of nice days cycling through quiet lanes and tracks on our route south before emerging into Butterworth – a very odd name for a town in Malaysia. The ex RAF Butterworth is on the opposite side of the water to George...
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20. The Other Side
Hello Malaysia We cleared immigration into Malaysia easily, it being the best organised border crossings we’ve done. We could even remain with Tilly for all the formalities instead of having to leave her outside. The only odd thing was the Malaysian Muslim officers spent...
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19. Man overboard…
We’d been told that the national park south of us wasn’t even a hill by some fellow tandemers, who shall remain nameless, so after a lovely couple of days relaxing for my Birthday, we merrily tried to cycle up an 18% “not-a-hill” and did what a...
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18. Hot hot hot
We’ve been quite lucky with the weather so far, almost no rain, just the one 10 minute deluge and we’ve generally managed to finish cycling before it got hot hot. Hot is fine but hot hot is not! But the last few days it been getting up to the mid 30’s...
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17. A Pelleton of tourers
We’ve not seen many tourers this trip which has been a great surprise as we thought the place would be heaving with them, so perhaps like London buses they clump together and we duly bumped into a Spanish lady heading to Hong Kong from Bali and whilst we were chatting to...
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16. Turning south
We left our cabin in the paddy fields at dawn and had a lovely cycle though small lanes, with ever changing scenery from Sugar Cane to strange crops we had no idea about but they looked about as worn out as we were by noon when it got really hot. We were within about 10km of...
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"The Adventures of Ten Tonne Taffy"
and Tilly the Tandem
2024 – South East Asia
1. Banned again… - When I really annoyed my mum, she used to say, "Sometimes you can get right up my back and knock… 
2. Cancelled and Refunded - We picked up our hire car in Ipswich having asked for an MG HS as we could just squeeze Tilly… 
3. Bangkok - Unless we venture to Phuket, this is likely to be the most touristy place we visit and you're really spoilt… 
4. Farewell Bangkok - And we're off..leaving Bangkok We thoroughly enjoyed Bangkok, it's a very western city and you can easily live a completely… 
You really shouldn’t be that yellow…. - Well, that wasn't expected! The first two days of cycling I found really hard. I mean stupid hot, overheating feeling… 
6. Papers Please! - The cycle too the border from Bangkok took a few days taking us though small villages and quiet roads and… 
7. Angkor Wat - The cycle to Ankor Wat from the border town of Poipet is all on the main road. I'm sure some… 
8. Angkors away - After a great week at Siem Reap, and having stocked up for the next few weeks with western essentials (cheddar!)… 
9. Cycling for pleasure - The next leg of the trip was through a remote agricultural landscape with only 1 town and few villages or… 
10. On a mission - The border crossing back to Cambodia was quicker than on the way in and the road back to Stung Treng… 
11. Phonm Penh - The ferry into PP is an experience on its own. There are about 15 ferry's, 2 of which are roro… 
12. Road? What road? - We reluctantly left our Christmas oasis of luxury in Phnom Penh after a lovely seven nights rest. Our journey from… 
13. Costa del Thailand - From Chanthaburi we headed back to he coast on a cycle lane! There's been quite a lot of these recently,… 
14. The car is King - We left our hotel about 50km south of Bangkok to salutes from all the staff and managed to weave our… 
15. Bridge over the River Kwai - Kanchanburi, is the home of the bridge made famous by the David Lean film Bridge over the River Kwai. The… 
16. Turning south - We left our cabin in the paddy fields at dawn and had a lovely cycle though small lanes, with ever… 
17. A Pelleton of tourers - We've not seen many tourers this trip which has been a great surprise as we thought the place would be… 
18. Hot hot hot - We've been quite lucky with the weather so far, almost no rain, just the one 10 minute deluge and we've… 
19. Man overboard… - We'd been told that the national park south of us wasn't even a hill by some fellow tandemers, who shall… 
20. The Other Side - Hello Malaysia We cleared immigration into Malaysia easily, it being the best organised border crossings we've done. We could even… 
21. The sun never sets on the (old) British Empire. - Always a picturesque start to the day We had a couple of nice days cycling through quiet lanes and tracks… 
22. Muggy Malaysia - We'd had a lovely hotel suite in George Town, complete with a seperate lounge and had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, but… 
23. A change of Direction - We left Taiping well before first light to try and beat the heat and headed towards the coast again. By… 2024 – Friends and Family
Wheeling our age… - As you get older the list of ailments grows, those younger than us will be thinking it won't happen to… 
Melt down - I've been fighting my bad back and the old knee is giving me some gyp too but we've been making… 
JOOO…(Jonny off on one) - We've noticed a change in our hotel stops in the EU this trip. We've not had any hotel with those… 
Back to reality… - No priority disembarking at Dover! None of the proirity to cyclist that we'd enjoyed when boarding our ferry in Dunkirk..back… 
5. Things can only get better - We had a couple of days off in St Alban's - surely one of the hilliest cities in England -… 
The North! - "Eee by 'eck lad, tha's like a pair of whippets on't one o' them double seaters..." Welcome to the North!… 
The North East Coast. - Hornsea is a town that time forgot. There are no chains! Heaven! It a gem of a seaside town and… 
Another late off the press finale… Bail out skipper - Our coastal 2 day break at Seaton Carew was a nice stop with an extremely noisy hotel, but the beach… 2024 – An Indian Winter
Out of our comfort zone… - Abu Dhabi I've said before that we talk frequently about where to go to escape the lovely English winter, then… 
What have we done! - Reassembling Tilly Suresh, owner of the best bike shop in the world! Lost its former glory... Kamwaadeswaa Temple Amateurs..!! We… 
Time for a rest! - And we're off.... Having had the chance to experience the traffic in Chennai first hand in multiple tuk tuks, we… 
Outshining the Prime Minister…. - Leaving behind the oasis of our beach hotel we headed south on the main road. There's no choice here unless… 
Live long and prosper.. - Leaving Pondicherry on a bicycle at rush hour is an activity only Klingons will truly appreciate. Before jumping on to… 
Happy People - Sacred Pond Sacred Pond Temple entrance Cerimonial Chariot in Kumbakonam Another Cerimonial Chariot.. Our day off in Kumbakonam saw us… 
Monkeying around - Moving on from Thanjavur we decided to take the main road as the small roads added too much distance between… 
Ablutions … - Toilet roll! Much of the world doesn't smudge and flush© like us westerners, but use soap and water in the… 
About turn… - After an excellent 4 night stop in Madurai we left at 6.20am to get through the city before the madness… 
Religious wars - Surprisingly the area around Kanyakumari is Christian and full of churches, big brand new immaculately kept, expensive and very impressive… 
Best we stay another night - Varkala Cliff The whole point of coming to Varkala was to walk along the cliff edge restaurants and 'posh tat'… 
The Tea Plantations - The town of Munnar isn't much to write home about, but the hills surrounding it are covered in tea plantations.… 
Back at the coast - Our final ride to the coast was a short hop from our riverside hotel to our beach hotel - it's… 
Idyllic Coasts - Mangrove beach, mini Goa After being told by multiple people, as we headed up the coast, to visit Mini Goa… 
Elderly couple - It's not always fun being in the news - The journo who interviewed us recently kindly referred to us as… 
And that’s a wrap.. - After our lovely night in 5 star luxury we had another two ferries that may or may not run but… 
Better late than never…. - The final installment of our India trip !!... The flooding in Dubai had disrupted numerous flights, people were waiting for…