Surprise/d…. yup, I passed

Surprise and call me surprised!

I was checking email while at the Taipei airport only to find a message from one of my Deutsch teachers telling me that I’d passed my test with a very good score.

WOOHOO! Hurray for me.

I’m uploading photos from Vietnam at a mad rate. There’s quite a few in there already and should be more coming in the next couple of days. Kera has yet to start doing the editing that she’d like to do before she uploads hers. I’ll let you know when that happens. In the meantime….. go here for pics.

It’s good to be home for a bit. However, we’re always looking forward to our next trip. Speaking of which, I got my entry in to SSWC ’08 in Napa. If all works out well, we should see a few of you there.

Also, a sign that the Deutsch are FINALLY realizing that 29′ers aren’t of the devil. I saw a Specialized Stumpjumper Comp 29′er in a window on Leopoldstraße the other day. Here’s a pic of the bike in question.

Anyway…for someone like me that’s been riding 29′ers for almost 5 years, I find it somewhat unbelievable that they still haven’t filtered in to the market here. The magazines still refer to them as “Trend”. Ingorant…. that’s about all I can say about that.

O.K., guess that I’d better get on to something else. Ciao for now.

Well….it’s almost a wrap.

You might know that after 3.5 weeks of attempting to access my blog, I find a place where I’m able, the day before we leave for home.

Oh well. Definitely worse things than that can happen.

 In short, I’ll write about the whole trip when I get home and after posting pics over on Flickr.

 However, I can say that we’ve had a fantastic trip and having an extra day here in Hanoi to goof off is probably a good way to end a trip. It’s a bit like bookends for our vacation, actually.

If any of you folks ever manage to make it to this side of the planet, whatever you do, don’t miss the amazing mountain village of Sapa. It’s been, by far, the highlight of the whole trip. Well, add to that the wonderous Phuoung (our tourguide). He’s endured the terror of an incredibly diverse crew of miscreants the likes of which he’ll probably not soon forget.

 I’ll expound on the previous comment about not being able to access my blog. I seem to remember a report of NPR a couple of years back about many Southeast Asian countries not allowing access to blogs from the outside world. That seems to be true as I’ve not been able to access mine or anyone elses blogs from anywhere in the country until I found this little internet cafe here in Hanoi.

 Kera is back at the hotel attempting to rest up and recover from a cold that she caught a few days back. It’s been getting progressively worse. Luckily for us she got it on the end of the trip, not the beginning.

 O.K., to end this, we’re very well, very happy and ready to head off toward Munich tomorrow morning. We’re looking at heading toward South America as our next big trip in maybe 2 years or so. Who knows. It’d be great to do a couple weeks of hiking and camping in the mountains of Peru, Chile or Bolivia. We’re both ready to do a bit less riding in buses, trains and walking in cities and headout on a bit more of an adventure.

 We hope that everyone is well and we’ll see you folks in Munich in a few days.

We’re about off

A photo from another of our adventures will have to do as our Christmas photo -

Just a few more hours and we’re off to Vietnam. It’ll be our longest (well, at least my longest) vacation ever. We’ll be there 3.5 weeks. We’re both looking forward to it. I think we booked this ticket sometime in the neighborhood of August or so. Because of that, we’ve had a long time to think about this trip.

For your info., we booked our trip though Geckos Adventures and here is the link to our trip. It’s called Vietnam Encompassed. It’s the same company that we did our Egypt trip though. We both found them to be quite good so we took a chance and did it again though them.

Also, if you’re interested in women pro cyclists getting at least a minimum prize rate check out this petition. Even as a former promoter, I find it to be a really good thing. My hope is that if it passes, it may bring more women in to cycling and possibly raise the bar enough to give us a chance to actually see them race once in awhile. O.K., a guy can dream can’t he?

Last Saturday we went out riding with the Bier-Klub. The ride wound it’s way south along the Isar river to Kloster Schäflarn and then back to München. We started at 10 in the morning and Kera and I arrived home shortly after 16:00 (4:00 p.m.). Unfortunately, it’s the longest ride that either of us have done for a long, long time. Therefore, we were both a bit sore the following day. Pics we took are here.

Either way, we had a good time hanging out with the rest of the boys.

Check out this crazy video on Ruhmlos. After we get back from vacation, I plan to do a bit of writing for this site. I may even do a video for him here and there. He’s got some interesting ideas for me to work with.

For those of you ready to trade in your car for a bicycle check this out…. Car/Bike Follies by Fat Tire Beer

Obligatory Christmas content below -

O.K., got to get. To our friends & family in the States, we miss you. To our friends and family over here… we’ll see you soon. To everyone, Have some fantastic Holidays (no matter your choice) and have a safe and Happy New Year.

Ciao!

Kera & Michael

Time to face the fact…

It’s time that I face the fact that I’m going to have to break out the rollers or the trainer. I’ve been sitting here for a week now looking at a freshly built bike and basically all it’s done in the time is sleet… or I’m working when it’s nice out. Naturally!

Something many people know about me is that I HATE riding in rain. It’s odd because I’ll run and do so many other things in the stuff but it drives me nuts to ride in the rain. Maybe too many MS-150′s spent pedaling all day in the rain being cold or too many years battling mountain bikers and horse riders that tear up trail by riding in the rain. I don’t really know what it is. It’s just a fact.

Kera made this sweet new bag for herself. She’s been debating for ages as to what to make. Glad she, finally, did it as I happen to think that it’s her best yet. We’re tossing about ideas for a new, bigger one for me. Granted, I love my Green one (a little of which is in the pic) but I often carry so many teaching supplies or clothes to the gym, etc. That way, maybe I an part with the “Nicaraguan Baby Carrier” as Cotter calls it (big Chrome bag that I’ve had for years).

Anyway, she’ll post more pics on her Flickr site when she gets home, I’m sure.

We are off to Vietnam in 11 days. Wow! Until I wrote that it didn’t hit me how close it is. Cool! I’m taking running stuff with me becasue in 3.5 weeks I’ll go insane if I don’t exercise a few times a week. I experienced it last year when we went to the States and worse when we were in Egypt. ‘Sides, I might get to see some really interesting things along the way.

I’m off to go buy buttons for the cool Bayerisher (Bavarian) sweater vest the Kera knitted me. Then school till late tonight.