What cycle tour have you recently been on?
Our most recent tour was the SpiceRoads Bali Mountain Bike Adventure in October 2014.
How many SpiceRoads adventures have you been on?
We have cycled eight long tours and a number of shorter trips. We have ridden through different parts of Thailand, India, Cambodia, Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar. After our first tour – Vietnam’s Central Coast in February 2010 – we were hooked!!
Which tour was your favourite?
Our favourite tour is always the one we are doing at the time! Cycle touring has given us the opportunity to explore new places, experience different cultures, meet new people, push our bodies and eat well! For these reasons – every tour is a gift. If we had to choose our favourite the Cycling Sikkim’s Tea Trails trip would rise to the tippy-top. It was magnificent cycling up and down the foothills of the Himalayas surrounded by rolling tea estates and meeting the most gentle people along the way. India itself holds a special place in our hearts and the fond memories of the tour are firmly sealed into our minds.
Do you train before a ride?
Well, that depends… When we lived in Washington State and Oregon, we cycled a lot — commuting as well as road and mountain biking. Then we moved to China and India where it became harder to maintain cycling fitness due to the massive (flat) cities and infrastructure. Now that we’re living in Thailand we have found our cycling rhythm again.
What do you most enjoy about being on a bike tour?
Cycling together has emerged as our best common ground for fitness. We both love the long days outside, off the main road, meeting people and seeing places we normally would not find. We love the simplicity of getting on the bike in the morning with the sole task of experiencing the day ahead. The pace of cycle touring just seems to work for us. We have met some incredible people who started out as strangers pedaling beside us and are now great friends. Plus we both love to eat and SpiceRoads allows us to do a lot of that!
Do you have any advice for anyone planning a cycling adventure?
We are both educators with adventurous spirits on realistic budgets. When we signed up for our first tour five years ago, we said to ourselves, “This is the most expensive trip we will ever take.” And now, after eight plus tours, we say to each other, “SpiceRoads is cheaper than therapy!” We love this company and the experiences it has offered us. Mary Oliver wrote, “Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” And we think that advice applies to cycling adventures too.
