RETURN TO BANGKOK AGAIN

I am in Bangkok, Thailand, once more! I left Florida, USA, more than a week ago, and I have had some excitement in the process.

Let me start at the beginning. A while ago I met Brandon, a cinematographer based in Florida, USA. He is interested in documenting my travels, and he gave me a bunch of equipment for filming as I go along. My departure from Miami airport was being filmed at the check-in counter. The unflinching attendant charged me US $ 500 for excess baggage! Interesting that I had been on that same sequence of flights 3 times before, with the same baggage, and was never charged for it (I suppose they made up for it this time). Thanks to Brandon who immediately paid the fee on my behalf. Almost 2 days later I arrived in Bangkok - WITHOUT MY SUPER EXPENSIVE LUGGAGE! Exactly one week later my bike and all my equipment was delivered to me. Besides that, the cheap guest house where I have stayed in Bangkok many times was closed down when I turned up there, and it seems that the place is being demolished. Peachy GH was an institution amongst budget travelers, and it feels strange that it is now gone. My passport is nearly full, and I was planning to apply for a new passport at the SA embassy here, before returning to China and a few other countries. Surprise surprise! At the embassy today I was informed that the processing time for a new passport is 6 months. Now I have to figure out what to do and where to go in the mean time, and my savings may be depleted by that time anyway. Never a dull moment, but right now I could do with a few dull moments.

LEAVING PARADISE AGAIN

This post is a little belated, as I have already left Paradise Farm and the USA almost a week ago. Anyway, here are some more pictures from around the farm, and also pics of Warmshowers touring cyclists who have camped on the farm.

In addition to welcoming guests and servicing the guest houses, taking care of guests on the farm also ivolved serving them breakfast.

The Warmshowers cyclists had to take care of their own meals, although all the necessary facilities were available to them.

Two of the farm workers, Jani and Carmella, at a teepee brought there by guests for a ceremony.

And of course I have to again add a pic of my part-time cat, Guacomole. The ginger kitten was found at the roadside and brought to me, so I raised him for a couple of weeks until he could eat on his own. I was quite sad to have to find a new home for him before I left.

PICTURES IN PARADISE

OK, I have been back on the Paradise farm in South Florida since December, so it is probably time to post a few pictures. I have been taking care of B&B guests as before, as well as looking after a host of Warmshowers touring cyclists. The pictures below are from around the farm, and the people in the pictures are mostly touring cyclists from the USA and all over the world (Russia, France, Canada, etc.).

At some stage my hair and beard started to irritate me, so I decided to shave it all off. It was then that I discovered that I have a rather lumpy skull, so now I am letting my hair grow a bit again.

Then there have been friends camping here as well, such as Keith and Carissa who come to visit every year.

Also, Germans Fred and Ludia and their two little girls (Lotte and Malea) have been camping here for a number of weeks while helping out on the farm. Sadly they leave tomorrow.

BACK IN THE US

Been back in south Florida since December, at Paradise Farm once again. Will update later. In the mean time please see the previous post, as eventually I have put on some pics! Distances cycled on my final stint in Asia in 2015 are as follows:- From Chiang Khong on the Mekon in NW Thailand to Yuan Hom 55 km; Taha Ngam 55 km; Charoen Moean 62 km; Payo 67 km; Temple camp 75 km; Lamphang 61 km; Thoen 109 km; Hill Temple 98 km; Mae Sot 106 km; Tak 90 km; Sukhothai 95 km; Utteradit 123 km; Phitsanulok 109 km; Nakhon Sawan 140 km; Chayo 125 km; Ayuttaya 66 km; Pai Kwang 103 km; and Kanchanaburi 57 km. Total to this point is 134 041 km. But there is more! From Kanchanaburi to Samut Sakhon 81 km; Ban Pli 84 km; Pattya 99 km; Outskirts temple 80 km; Bangkok 51 km; Phitsanulok (train) 8 km; Sukhothai 67 km; Tak 82 km; Wang Chao 93 km; Kamphaeng Phet 67 km; Ban Khong Wiat 66 km; Uthai Thani 75 km; Chai Nat 81 km; Suphan Thani 91 km; U-Thong 77 km; and Kanchanaburi (again) 59 km. Total to this point is 135 202 km. Next days cycle was to Phetshaburi 69 km; Cha-Am 71 km; Hua Hin 31 km; and Bangkok (train) 12 km. Total cycled up to end 2015 is 135 385 km. I have had some requests (mostly from cyclists) to post a bigger version of my route map. Well, here it is, but I am no longer in the far East, I am in Florida USA. Good luck trying to figure out where that map leads, it is probably more of a maze!

BACK IN THE FAR EAST

OK, I am just trying to stay up to date. I arrived in Bangkok last night 35 hours and 3 flights after leaving Miami on Wednesday. In the same cheap room in Peachy GH as before. Luckily it is weekend and I have to wait till Monday to check about visas and permits which I may need from certain Embassies. Now I can relax for a while and get my sleep/wake cycle in sinc with this area (12 hrs ahead of where I have come from). Will update again as soon as there is something worth saying. Perhaps a photo or 2 as well.

BACK IN PARADISE

And now, eventually I can get to where I currently find myself. There has been a fair amount of suspicion of me having dropped off the edge of the earth, and so forth.

Anyway, it is not quite that complicated. By the time I was leaving China I was already in some serious financial trouble (having to take trains and busses to get back out of the country in time). Thanks to my sister Olga for looking out for me, and the Western Union line must have been red-hot!

Then, by the end of November the guest season in Florida had started to pick up again, and Gabriele of Paradise Farm (where I'd spent a part of the previous winter) was keen to get me on a plane to resume my former duties. Thanks to Gabriele for the plane ticket as well as for sending me cash in Thailand

So in December I arrived back on the farm close to Homestead (South of Miami), and started taking care of the guests in the B&B bungalows again. The cat (Guacamole) seemed somewhat indifferent about my 6-month absence, but I was glad to see her again as I had not expected to ever return.

Once again, I don't really get off the farm, but I have met many wonderful people from all over the world (especially from the North in winter). Initially I came to the farm as a Warmshowers.org guest, and now I have had the priviledge of taking care of many other Warmsowers members who regularly come cycling in here. Some are pictured here, apologies to the many others, I may not have taken your picture.

My bike (Old Saartjie) is set up for shopping duty at the moment, and I have cycled more than 1000 km in the past few months to the grocery stores in the area (of course I do not add that to my total mileage!).

Where to next? In a couple of weeks I hop on a plane to Bangkok to resume my travels in the far east. I've found that Bangkok is a good hub and starting point for visas and permits etc. I still have a section of China to cycle through, and Myanmar is on my to-do list (hopefully it will work out this time).

LEAVING PARADISE

Well, I nearly didn't get to leave, but I'll discuss that later on in this post. The point is that eventually I have left the USA, proven by the pic of the first leg of my epic flight coming in to land at JFK.

So, let me start at the beginning. I haven't written much about what I've been up to since my trip to Jamaica. The fact is that I've been back at Paradise Farm for the past few months. The farm is situated in the Homestead area on the Southern outskirts of Miami, Florida (http://paradisefarms.net/).

Not only does the farm produce organic fruit and vegetables, but they also have a number of B&B accommodations – and amongst other things that was my main task, to take care of guests. In March conditions had warmed up sufficiently for farmer Andy to go back to Illinois for the summer, so I inherited the bungalow where he had been living amongst the mango's, avocado's, coconuts, and bamboo. My adopted cat (Guacomole), who was by that time pregnant, also moved in there with me.

Time flew by in Paradise, but I wished to carry on with the bike journey in the Northern summer, preferably picking up in China where I had previously left off. Gabriele, the owner of the farm, graciously offered to pay for my flight (obviously an offer I could not refuse). The plan was to fly from Miami to Hong Kong for the Chinese visa, and proceed from there to Chengdu. I also desparately needed a new tent and some decent waterproof bags, and I'm thankful to my sister Olga for taking care of those things for me.

My flight from Paradise was arranged – it would stop over in Toronto, Canada, from where I would get the next flight to Hong Kong. It was, as usual, a mission to get the bike and all my equipment packed (I was allowed only 2 items, and my main worry was the amount of overweight baggage I would be charged). But then it all fell apart, and at the airport I was not allowed to board the plane! I needed a new Canada visa to transit at the airport in Toronto (my previous visa had already expired). So the flight had to be hastily cancelled, and by that night I was back on the farm for another 3 weeks. At least that gave me time to look after the 4 kittens until they were old enough to find homes. By that time they had literally taken over my room!

Gabriele was wonderful enough to buy me another plane ticket, but this time I had changed my mind about Hong Kong, and I had decided to go to Bangkok Thailand instead. The plan was to make my way from there to Laos where I had previously obtained a Chinese visa without any hassle. So, that is how I eventually left Paradise, and after a tiring 25 hours of flying (via New York and Dubai this time!) I landed in Bangkok – without my wallet! My flight from Florida had been early AM, so I had spent a sleepless night at the airport, and was obviously not all that sharp going through security with all the things I was trying to save from having to check in (and I probably left the wallet in one of the trays to be scanned). As though Gabriele hasn't already done enough, she has mailed the wallet to me, so now I am waiting for it to arrive here in Bangkok. In my usual reports I would give a cycling distance update at this point, and I DO HAVE AN UPDATE! While at the farm my almost daily excursions to the grocery stores added up to about 700 km (but I don't add that to the total distance - of course!)