As I near the end of my Southeast Asia bike trip, I’ve finally begun writing about the beginning of it.  Eventually, I hope to be caught up… but for now I hope you enjoy these little stories from when I first got on a bike!

 How can I describe those first few heady days of biking? I’m hopelessly naive about my timeframe, sunburnt, my knees, thighs, and BUM are endlessly sore, terrified to deviate from My Pumpy’s biking guide, and most importantly, excited again about travel. I’m happy to be off the bus, biking through rice paddies and past exquisitely decorated monasteries, while farmers, their faces protected from the sun with T-shirts functioning as masks, slowly overtake me on tractors. Where I go is entirely up to me. (more…)