Source: Evening News (Norwich) {Main} Edition: Country: UK Date: Saturday 25, February 2012 Page: 32,33 Area: 1119 sq. cm Circulation: ABC 18831 Daily BRAD info: page rate £2,320.16, scc rate £9.23 Phone: 01603 628 311 Keyword: Exodus Pedalling furious sly through Indo-China Despite stifling heat and the odd saddle sore, the 500km bike trip that KATE HODAL undertook through Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam turned out to be the ride of her life. When the poet TS Eliot penned, in 1922, his immortal line that “April is the cruellest month”, he was not cycling through Indo-China in 34C heat with 95% humidity. But here I am on a mountain bike in the middle of the Thai jungle, cursing the poet, the sun and sticky heat dripping down my arms and legs. It is 10am on day two of a 500- kilometre cycle tour of Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, and I wonder if I have already lost my mind. The thick air is sweet with the milky scent of frangipani, the hills dotted with endless palm trees. Bamboo-framed houses on seven-foot high stilts squat in rows along the dirt roads, their thatched palm roofs blowing in the hot wind. As I shuffle around, trying to find a comfortable position for the 95 kilometres looming ahead of me, I can say with certainty that my bum will never forgive me for this two- week bender of eco-alternative tourism. Eight of us, all strangers, have decided to pedal our way through Indo-China on a 16-day tour with adventure specialists Exodus. If it weren’t for the slight breeze awarded by our two wheels, we’d most likely be napping like the locals in hammocks alongside the road. Even the stray dogs are snoozing in the middle of the street. April is the preamble to the monsoon season in Indo-China (southeast Asia’s peninsula containing Burma, Thailand, Malaya, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) and as a result scorching heat can sometimes erupt into thunder and water droplets the size of cotton wool balls. Our motley crew - comprising a German, a Canadian, a Pole, two Danes and a few Brits - has prepared for the weather by wearing breathable lycra, wrap-around shades and cycling shoes. I own none of the above, a fact that elicits clucks of disapproval from the more serious cyclists when they see my leopard-print dresses, turquoise sunglasses and large hoop earrings. But I am here for the views - not to race! And anyway, the brochure said that this was a “moderate activity” trip so I’m surprised, being the youngest in our group, that I am also the slowest. We are such a fast group (the Tour de Sadists, I dub them) that our soft- spoken, 30-something Thai tour guide Al, who cycles this route six times a year and is unfazed by the heat or the distance, continually looks like he’s been dunked in a pool of pure sweat. But in true Thai style he laughs off the challenge of ascending hills and long rides, setting off quickly each day before anyone can complain. Our other local guide (we always have two, throughout the trip) is much more relaxed. A former Buddhist monk, Sart’s real job is as a singer in a Bob Marley band. Astonishingly, he plays Bob Marley. “I wear a wig,” he confides. “You would be surprised at how similar we look.” Sart and I become fast buddies, stopping together to marvel at the surrounding landscape: vermilion and gold leaf Buddhist temples, water buffalo in the emerald rice paddies, farmers with eight foot-long shotguns, and children holding out their palms for rapid transit high-fives. One day, after feeding a few stray puppies on the side of the road, I realise the Tour de Sadists are racing each other - and, even more bizarrely, motorised tuk-tuks - to the day’s ‘finish line’. “Now they’ve really lost their minds,” I Reproduced by Durrants under licence from the NLA (newspapers), CLA (magazines), FT (Financial Times/ft.com) or other copyright owner. No further copying (including printing of digital cuttings), digital reproduction/forwarding of the cutting is permitted except under licence from the copyright owner. All FT content is copyright The Financial Times Ltd. Article Page 1 of 5 206228193 - KRICHA - A12454-20 - 57174750
