Hanoi nightlife.

Tom and I took a stroll through the bustling streets of Hanoi, taking in all the sights, smells and sounds we could.






With so much to choose from, I wasn't sure what to try first... So I settled for a lime tea to start with, followed by a satay-style BBQ chicken roll, wrapped up in yesterdays newspaper, washed down with a fresh bag (yes, bag) of sugarcane juice.












Walking back, dodging and being dodged by the constantly beeping scooters, I spotted a fine bit of street power and phone line wiring...





I'd hate to be the poor engineer called out to find the dodgy wire in that lot!

Now we are about to turn in for the night, so until next time...

RWK
Out!

- Posted from my amazing iPhone 4!

Location:Lãn Ông,Hanoi,Vietnam

Happy to be in Hanoi

Yeah! We made it! Roadwarriors 6; SE Asia has official started!

We've just arrived at our very nice hotel here in Hanoi after a pretty decent 3.5 hour flight, and a swift, horn-honking-filled ride though the rice fields of outer Hanoi into the throbbing, moped filled streets of Hanoi city itself.



We left my place in Hougang, being given a ride by my good mate Guy, (whom I should have taken a photo of... Sorry Guy!) in his large Mercedes van, out to Terminal 3, where another good mate, Todd, was waiting to snap a few pix of us as we headed off to the plane, having successfully checked our bikes in.




Once we landed here in Hanoi, our hotel had a driver waiting to take us on the 35 minute drive into the city.



Even though I had experienced it before, the horn use and swarming, overloaded mopeds was still a sight to marvel at, and from Toms comments, being a first for him, it was blowing his mind!






So now we are happily chilling in our room, having had the very nice, very helpful hotel staff check us in... (it seems that we are the last expected guest for the night, and were being expected with some anticipation too... The word about the 2 crazy westerners with bicycles is out already it appears!).... So I am doing this update, and Tom is turfing through all his gear trying to find the special safe place he put his pocket knife... So far, it's still AWOL, but given that we don't have that much stuff to begin with, it can't be too far...

Once we are washed up and ready to roll, (& Tom has located his knifey) it's time for RWT to experience the sweaty nightlife streets of Hanoi, and the awesome street food it has to offer... A local Auntie, squatting on the pavement over the street from the hotel has already grinned a toothless grin at us, and beckoned me over to see the hot vegetable and mystery-meat noodles she has to sell... And I'm pretty tempted... It smelt darn tasty! I reckon the chicken noodles 2 streets over that we've been recommended by the reception staff might be more to Toms liking though, so that's where we are off to soon...

More to come.

RWK.
Out!

Posted using BlogPress from my amazing iPad 2!

Location:Hanoi, Vietnam

Hanoi bound..!

The initial route south is planned out, and we are almost ready to roll... So it's time for a bit of an over-due update.
Work has been pretty busy, and my film friends and I just lost a close friend, so it's been a bit of a roller coaster of a few weeks...
But now I'm taking a bit of time to get all the tech side of things ready and updated.

One thing I had forgotten to mention about the images on this 'blog' is that if you click on any of the images, they'll open larger in the next web page...
Apologies for some of the previous images that were rather grainy... I think I messed up on a few compression settings...
Most of the images here will be iPhone snaps though, with the (hopefully) fancier images from my Nikon on the main website HERE












Well, Tom is here, having arrived safe and well last week, and we have all our gear and bikes packed in boxes... Tomorrow, once we are 100% ready, they'll be taped up and will be off to the airport in the afternoon, being given a ride by my good mate Guy, in his huge Mercedes van.





We'll be spending a few days in Hanoi, getting our bearings, sightseeing, and hopefully taking a trip out to Halong Bay, possible overnight on a Junk Boat... Photos will be posted for sure!

After that, we'll stock up on about 4 days worth of supplies, and begin the battle to ride out of the city. We are aiming to get about 100kms out on the first day, and onto the Ho Chi Minh Highway to make our way south to Vinh, the next planned resupply stop.

The next update will be from Vietnam... So until then...

RWK & RWT,

OUT!


- Posted using BlogPress from my amazing iPad 2!

Website overhaul & bike ride journal now live.

Phew... After a solid final days effort, the original website is now upgraded to current status, and all the photo albums and videos are iPhone and iPad friendly... As well as just being plain nice n new!

After multiple server firewall issues, and a buggy FTP Client I finally got the problems out the way so my poor old Mac could start pushing data onto the domain space...

Next, I'll transfer the working journal files to my MBA, so once we are on the road, I can update well from wherever we are... Internet depending of course!

The original website is still the same address, and can be found HERE and the new bike ride journal can be navigated to from that site, or can be found HERE

Ok, time to get some rest...

It's gonna be a busy week. Lots of film work on, which is great... But I still need some time to finish the PCT video too... Like I said at the start of this post... PHEW!

Night y'all.

RWK
Out.


- Posted using BlogPress from my amazing iPad 2!

Location:Hougang Avenue 9,Singapore,Singapore

6 weeks to go until we hit the road!

I'm counting the days..!

And I'm out training hard, as I know it'll pay off during the ride.
I just wish I'd remember to set my GPS when I go out to track my rides better... But it sure is good to be out.

Well, Tom was due to have arrived last week, but due to some family things he had to sort out at home, we have put the start back 5 weeks...
So he now arrives on the 29th of June, and we will be heading to Hanoi in the first week of July.

I've had the pleasure of riding with my buddy Michael a few times lately, and he's been setting a cracking pace, using his iPhones training app to keep a steady, and pretty quick rhythm. I had to push a bit harder to keep up, so it was excellent training.


The weather has been pretty decent for riding in too. It has been a little overcast and sometimes looked a bit gloomy, but the humidity was lower than usual and without the sun toasting my ass, it was nice to crank harder and feel a cooler than usual breeze.


I've also been upgrading and improving my bike... Nothing major, but when I have been out in the rain, the waterproof bags have been fine, but I've been well sprayed by water coming off my tyres... So decent mud-guards were called for.



I used a couple of old ones I've had kicking around for a while, and boogied up some mounts to get them fitted.


I also added a small spray guard to the down tube too... I figured it can't hurt!

Today, I took off all the panniers and emptied all the gear out again for another good sort-through to decide what else I could get rid of, or if there's anything else I probably should be taking.


I reckon I will actually take one more t-shirt for around camp or in town, and maybe one more pair of shorts for the same thing.
I'm making do with 2 pairs of bike shorts, but due to the amount of sweating I'll be doing, it might be wise to pack a third pair...
The spare flint I have might stay behind... I don't need 2, plus I have a small gas torch too, so fire and stove ignition should be covered.

With both my small HD Xacti video camera, and the awesome GoPro HD Hero, the video coverage should be great. I'm still wiring hard to get the PCT video finished before we start this adventure, but it's going well, and it is helping me to note down things I'd like to do when filming along the ride.



My new MacBook Air is going to be a great addition, giving us the ability to back up all our video and pictures, as well as create great web updates to the full website. That'll be uploaded soon, and can be found by navigating though the main Roadwarriors website

For now, it's time to post this update and get some work done.

More to come!

RWK.
Out.

- Posted using BlogPress from my amazing iPad 2!

Location:Eu Tong Sen St,Singapore,Singapore

Headwinds. They both blow and suck..!

No matter which way you ride, unless it's in a vacuum (& then, you wouldn't be riding for long..!) you're gonna suffer a headwind.
I've been out today, following a new route... Well, getting happily lost actually... but the training was made that much harder for the persistent headwind I was seemingly always riding into.
All good practice though, I suppose.
Right now, I'm sat under a huge shade tree, enjoying a cold 100-Plus (Isotonic drink) and taking 10.




Once I've got a bit of energy back, it'll be time to head back home and review all my gear again.

I'm still needing some new camp/town shoes... Ones that are light and flattenable, so they go in the Panniers easily... So I'm off to a sports-gear oriented mall later, to see what's available. At the moment, I'm training with a bulky, heavier substitute pair, so anything smaller and lighter will be better.

So, it's now less than 6 weeks until Tom hits Asia, we get our various visas, and begin Roadwarriors 6!

Before then, I'll have the other main website journal up, and there'll probably be more training entries here before the trail entries begin...
More to come soon!

RWK.

OUT!

- Posted from my amazing iPhone!

Location:Kensington Park Dr,Singapore,Singapore

Training begins again.

After a too-long break from riding, I'm back out again... And it feels great!
I had a chronic bout of long lasting 'flu which stopped me training for about a month.
I managed to get out once, thinking I was recovered enough, and it was awful.







After that, once I was better, I spent some time back in Australia.
But now, with 99% of my gear sorted, I'm out sweating it up in the Singapore heat again...
The bike is fully kitted out with all the gear I'll be taking. I'm going upscale too, now having decided to take my big DSLR instead of my old compact P-n-S.
I have made my rear rack bag into a padded case, so hopefully, my Nikon will ride sweet and safe.
I just scored a new lens too... I wanted something that would do all that I needed, without sacrificing image quality... After a lot of looking, research and testing, I settled on the Tamron 18-270. I'll post some shots from it in a later update.














Well, riding out today, unfortunately, I'm solo, as John has just moved away to the other end of the island, and Todd has had a few things to deal with, with work, health and travel.
So until Tom arrives in about 7 weeks time, I think I'll be having to be self-motivated!

I've got pretty much all my gear loaded up... Probably more than I'll actually carry once I have a final sort-through and either ditch a few things, or maybe share them with Tom...
Plus I loaded up my bags with 5L of water & a big grocery bag of food... Just trying to replicate the weight we will be riding with day to day as we make our way south.

One new addition is a shiny MacBook Air, which will be our photo and video back-up device, as well as provide us with good email access, and allow me to upload full website updates in addition to this iPhone/iPad 'blog'.

I don't have a web address for the new journal yet, but once I do, it'll be posted here and on the main Roadwarriors News Website.

Ok, well, I've had enough of a rest, so now it's time to hit the road again and make my way home.

More to come!

Cheers.
RWK.
OUT!





- Posted from my amazing iPhone!

Location:Yio Chu Kang Rd,Singapore,Singapore