On April 20, 2015 Greg LeMond came to see Tony at A Bicycle Odyssey as part of the ongoing forty year celebration of Tony’s shop being in business and also to celebrate their long-term friendship. This video is a series of memories and observations shared while visiting.

I moved to San Francisco at the beginning of the year and immediately found a job at a bike shop called A Bicycle Odyssey in Sausalito. As I’ve settled in I moved into an apartment on the north side of town in an area called the Presidio. It’s technically a national park, but a ton of people live in old military housing spread throughout the woods. It’s a pretty sweet deal for me as my commute by bicycle to the shop is through a national park, across the Golden Gate Bridge, back into the national park, and finally down to a beautiful waterfront town.

Monks collecting alms

Staircase to the view

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang

I left LP on Friday evening by bus. I took an overnight bus and in the morning I arrived at the river border to Thailand. Some quick stamps, a ticket across the river and before I new it, I was in Thailand. I waited at a small restaurant for the better part of two hours before my mini bus connection left the border town for Chiang Mai. It was a quick and easy 6 hour ride and I arrived in Chiang Mai before sunset.

I’ve been in Chiang Mai for 4 days. It has been fun, but I miss the quite streets of Luang Prabang. I’ve been bad about bringing my camera with me, as most days have been quite spur of the moment, hop into a random tuk-tuk and I’m off on an adventure with zero notice.

The first day I just explored the city, visited it’s many temples (of which, I honestly can’t remember any of the names) and checked out the Sunday market in the evening. The following morning, after I woke up and ate breakfast the woman running the hostel asked what my plans for the day were. I had nothing planned and she offered a full day 7 course Thai cooking course. Unfortunately, I left my camera, but I ate well to say the least. I ate so much food, it was all delicious and after all was said and done I had met some really cool people as well. That evening I ventured off to the night bazaar and roamed throughout the many side alleys and browsed all the vendors had to offer.

Temple in Chiang Mai

More temples

The next day I was feeling quite lethargic and ended up reading for the majority of the day.  And the following day I went to Tiger Kingdom, where you are able to go into the cages with tigers. The younger ones were much more playful than the more mature ones, and I have to say I was thankful for that. I was quite intimidated being that close to them; they are massive animals and it’s pretty clear that I would be torn to shreds if push came to shove. It was a really cool experience and gives you a whole new respect for the power that these animals have.

One of the big guys

Two of the tigers we got to pet

With a smaller one

There was a huge tiger in the cage next to us that stood up

Playing

And so today I catch a flight to Bangkok, where I’ll be for a little over a full day before I spend way to much time flying back to Seattle. It’s been a fun trip, but I’m exciting to be heading back home.

It’s so nice to be on the bike again and I am almost as excited to get back to the States and ride as I am to do anything else once I’m there. The roads here were pretty good; there was little traffic and after a while I turned off the “bigger” road and followed a gravel road for about 4 km.

I saw so much random stuff today on a short bike ride that I’m still trying to grasp it. Where to begin? As far as on the bike, I cycled over a live snake, I almost crashed into a herd of cattle or water buffalo (not sure what they were), saw a man put a goat in something resembling a burlap sack, flip it on its side and then drive off with it straddling a scooter, and raced a kid (probably 7 years old) on an electric bicycle for the better part of a kilometer – he was fast!

Once I got to the hiking start for the waterfalls, I parked the bike and hiked up to the falls. It took me the better part of an hour to reach the top. The entire way I was swatting awake mosquitoes and random bugs. All was going smooth, until I looked down and had a spider the size of a deck of cards on my shirt, where I proceeded to flip out in the middle of the jungle almost rolling down the side of the mountain, haha (I laugh now but at the time I was screaming like a little girl). The falls weren’t that impressive, but it was nice to be in the shade for a while before heading back out on the bike and hitting up the hills again.

[slideshow]

The trip included much chill time, both on the boat and on a private island. Swimming, kayaking and general laziness took up much of my time. It was definitely a nice break from the hustle and bustle of Hanoi, where I feared for my life every time I crossed the street. As a wise man told me, just close your eyes and maintain your pace; you’ll be fine.

[slideshow]

And so now I am in Luang Prabang, Laos. So far it’s very relaxing. It’s nice to know that the people are not out to screw you over for being a tourist, unlike most of SE Asia. Today I am going to rent a bicycle and go explore a little. Wish me luck!