Most days, we would wake up at the break of dawn to start our cycling, not only because we have distance to cover, but also because we usually camp illegally. Not today. We were at a proper caravan park beside the beautiful lake, and we slept in. Did the laundry at the laundry point, and had nice refreshing cold showers. Our plan for the day was to rest and relax by the 'beach', and start cycling at about 4pm when the sun was down. We took a stroll around the campsite, and realized that it was huge. At least 15 football [View Full Entry]

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The third day of riding was our last day riding in the Tuscany region. According to our maps, there are less contour lines, which means less slopes, which means we get to cover more distance everyday. Griting our teeth, we took the longer way out of Siena on country roads, and did no encounter major slopes for the first half of the day. We were cruising and morale has never been higher. Tunnels: Tunnels are god-sent for us. Whenever we see a tunnel we would be very happy. Kind engineers have blasted a hole in a hill/mountain in order for us [View Full Entry]

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The effects of cycling takes a toll on your body physically. From the use of the upper torso to maintain the handlebar alignment, to the calf muscles that powers me up the slopes. The moment I woke up, I knew that my leg muscles were gonna be hurting. I got out of the tent - hmm, so far so good. Just a little tightness in the hamstrings, totally bearable. After all the equipments are packed and loaded onto the bike, I load up my bike. Ouch! The butt is sore and tender to the now-seemingly rock hard saddle! So, boys and [View Full Entry]

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In science, its called inertia. Starting out is always the hardest. But as the saying goes, "a journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step". The first day of riding was tailored to be less strenuous, so as to progressively get our bodies to get used the strain we are about to put on it! We were gonna cover 40km. Is 40km a long distance? Distances dont mean anything unless they are put in perspective. A car travelling down a highway would be able to cover it in around 25 minutes. Walking would probably take under 10 hours, with [View Full Entry]

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The bikes and us were trained down on 3 connecting regional trains. Our plans were delayed a day when we realized that all italian train workers were on strike that day. Maybe thats why foreigners like the PAP so much.. Vicenza and Florence is at most 3 hours apart from each other on train, but because we needed to be on trains that have bike-approved carriages, we had to transfer thrice just to get to Florence. A slight confusion also led to me missing one of the connecting trains, but lets not go into that. Very little disabled fascilities meant that [View Full Entry]

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Planning: to what extent of it is desirable? 1) To be absolutely detailed in planning every nook and cranny of a trip, in such a way that nothing can go wrong. Things to do, items to bring, hostel bookings, train passes, route maps, are all religiously prepared so that everything is 'under control' (with plan Bs in stow). After all, if one fails to plan, one is planning to fail. Some might even say its part of the joy of travelling, to feel excited even before one takes off. However, this method can be extremely exhausting, removing the relaxing and spontaneous [View Full Entry]

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Since we were staying in Vicenza for a week, we could not pass on the opportunity to visit the city of waters, Venice. Only a 1-hour train ride away, Venice was our obvious destination for a day-trip. With the cameras charged, sunglasses ready, bag slinged close to our body, we were ready to be engulfed by the throngs of tourists (like us!) along the canals. After alighting from the train, the sight that greeted me was surreal. It is just like the pictures. No cars, buses or bikes - just boats and gondolas in canals. Surely, a green city without any [View Full Entry]

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hello everybody who still reads this, how are you? The next segment of my travels is in Europe. I have never been to this part of the world, so I am really excited to step foot into this continent. Well, Europe has always been a coverted choice as a travel destination, but stayed out of my reach due to its increasing cost of living. I am fortunate enough to be granted a study exchange program with the University of Zagreb, Croatia, for a semester. Before lessons officially starts, I have plans to explore Europe. First destination: Italy. Why? Because Angela is [View Full Entry]

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The two-week long mid-semester break was a great opportunity to explore the regions in Victoria, outside the metropolitan city centre of melbourne. The travel-itch started weeks before the break and I was planning for a short trip (that i can afford). I have always been fascinated by nomadic travelling, a form of travelling not by great detailed planning, but by the spur of spontaneity. One way of doing that is travelling in campervans or caravans. Australia, was a perfect country for that mode of travelling. Firstly, road distances were long. Also, the numerous national forest/parks were [View Full Entry]

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Greetings from down under. I have not been blogging for a while now as I have been in Melbourne, Australia for the last 5 months. Well, instead of my country-hopping mode of travelling in the past, I have been blessed to be given the opportunity to live in Melbourne for 6 months.. and i will try to squeeze all memories into this almost-forsaken blog. Let's start from the beginning. After the big epic trip around china, pakistan and india, i headed back to singapore, tied loose strings up, and headed to a country larger than the continent of Europe - Australia. [View Full Entry]

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