WELCOME TO THE U.S.A.

U.S. Immigration official: What was the purpose of your visit to Iran?

Mark: Tourism.

U.S. Immigration official: I beg your pardon sir?

I excepted plenty of attention from U.S. immigration officials when I arrived into the Hawaiian islands, U.S.A. I had passport stamps for Iran plus 3 other countries that has borders with Afghanistan. But I had everything in order to increase my chances of getting through U.S. immigration. I had exit flights booked, photocopies of receipts of hotels booked and car rental within Hawaii, photocopies of recent bank statements, a copy of a letter from my previous employer saying I had a job to return to in Ireland. And so after plenty of questions, the understandably inquisitive, but polite U.S. immigration official granted me a 90 day visa to cross the U.S. with. Its worth mentioning that when I visited an outdoor store, later that day, to purchase a part for my stove than needed replacing, I'd seen more guns on my first few hours in Hawaii than the entire 21 days I spent in Iran. And when I decided to pick up a bottle of wine in a liquor store, I was asked, (for the first time in about 15 years) for proof of age identification. 'HAVE A NICE DAY'. Considering you are questioning if I'm over 21 years of age, I certainly will 'HAVE A NICE DAY'.
Now, let me tell ye about Hawaii. I'm sorry but there is no easy way to talk about Hawaii, without unintentionally (or otherwise) making any one, just green with envy. I'm real sorry. It just can't be helped. Its Paradise. And so if you feel this next paragraph is not going to help your PCBS (Post-Christmas-Blues-Syndrome), then just skip it and pick up that credit card bill instead. Its more likely to cheer you up.

It was December 22nd. The beach was full and the waves were big and the sun was beaming down. But there was no sunshine in Ireland. Genevieve's plane was stuck in Heathrow due to heavy snow. But 24 hours late, she arrived in these islands that label themselves Paradise. During our 2 week stay here, we toured 3 of the Hawaiian Islands - O'ahu, Maui and the Big Island. There was fun times on beautiful black sanded beaches as we were battling against some of the world's biggest waves. 3 days hiking through a National Park that is home to the worlds most active volcano. There was big, big portions of food and plenty of cocktails with fat chunks of pineapple and generous portions of alcohol. Although we camped for 3 nights, we did manage to do an occasional splurge. Using my credit card and Genevieve's wisdom, we managed a 4 night stay in a 4 star beach front golf resort. (Not my usual choice of accommodation, but if you check out http://www.hotwire.com/, ye can see how such hotels can be picked up reasonably cheaply.) We even rented out bicycles and free wheeled down from the lunar like landscape of the Haleakala Volcano. The fact that Genevieve managed to overtake me on the final hill is proof that my left knee is finally shot. There was whale watching tours on board multi-million dollar speed boats and catamaranas we gazed out at humpback whales doing the full breach in the Pacific. We went snorkelling a few times in calm secluded bays that were full of so many colourful fish, you'd swear you were snorkelling in a giant aquarium. And even on Christmas Day the priest performing the service had a multi coloured Hawaiian shirt visible through his vestments. This is Hawaii. It seemed a hundred million miles away from some of the regions I had pedalled through only a few months previously and these tropical islands are so full of pineapples, you could pick one up in the supermarket for cheaper than an apple. Again it seemed a hundred million miles from where my final destination is- Ireland. When I get emails from home about Ireland, I hear they are no longer measuring rainfall in inches. They are measuring it in feet and even metres. And it seems the only it stops raining, is when it starts snowing. As a tourist, Hawaii is about as good as it gets. Date of departure was the 4th of January. It seemed like we had only just arrived. Not easy saying 'Goodbye', I reckon it will take me about 4 months to cycle across the United States.

SAN DIEGO

I arrived into mainland United States at the city of San Diego on the west coast. Gave the bicycle a real good service, got loads of maps and started planning a route across the states that allows me to see the worthy sights, while also taking the climate into consideration. Stayed at a pretty cool hostel (St Christopher's Hostel) in 'Little Italy'. Did some touristy stuff including visiting an aircraft carrier and one of the world's best zoos. San Diego zoo has it all, Western gorrillas, every big cat there is, orangutans and all bears including pandas. One of the best zoos in the world. Now lets get pedalling again.

LEAVING LUANG PRABANG

It was time to chill out and one of the best towns in the world to do so is Luang Prabang in Laos. I forget what day I arrived and I don't know what day it is today , but I guess I was here about 2 weeks. So welcoming is Luang Prabang, that in these 2 weeks, I had my regular sandwich stall, where my 'Lao Mama' would make up a fine chicken sandwich for breakfast. She'd always throw in a few bananas to ensure I'd return tomorrow. Then its across the road to where my 'Lao Papa' at the coffee stall would boil me up a pint sized ultra strong Lao coffee. The evenings would be spent chatting to different people in the hostel or heading down to the night market stall to get fresh tasty food at a reasonable price. Afternoons would be spent wandering or having lunch in a restaurant with wi-fi and catching up with emails and trying to decide where GCR is off to next.

Thanks for all the emails and general interest in GCR. Just to answer a few questions that regularly came up. What kind of bike do I use. This is the bike. www.koga-signature.com/build-your-own-bike.aspx?country=NL&language=en. This bike and all its components have been great except for the Magura brakes, which packed it in after 12000KMs. Complicated and impossible to fix in Central Asia. The Magura service kit I ordered didn't even include brake pads of any instructions. The final straw was when myself and a Belgium nuclear physicists spent 2 hours working on them. He threw his hands in the air saying,' Why are these things so unnecessararily complicated. They ended up in the bin. Similarly, Markus's Magura brakes were nothing but trouble after 12000KMs. All other components on my bike were XT Deore and so finally I found new XT Dore brakes in Bangkok and these have been working fine since I got them 4000KMs ago. The other thing I've gotten asked a lot, 'Is what kind of work did I do at home, that gave me the time and cash to venture off for over a year?' At home I worked as a tour guide with a company named Vagabond. Check out http://www.vagabond.ie/. Nice work driving around the best parts of Ireland keeping tourists entertained with laughter, education, fun, history and singing songs. Luang Prabang is as good as a town can be but I don't plan spending Christmas here. Tomorrow I leave town and plan to get a boat north, back up to the border region with China and Vietnam. Gcr is supposed to be a cycling trip. It will soon be time to start pedaling again

VIETNAM AND FINALLY LEAVING ASIA

And so I took that 2 day boat ride up the Nam Ou river to the town of Muang Khua, close to the Chinese and Vietnamese borders. The road to Vietnam would be classed as a dirt track in most other countries, but here in Laos it was labelled as a secondary road. The scenic 80KM journey through jungle took almost 2 days to cycle. But once I got over the the hilltop border post into Vietnam, it was 500KMs of asphalt to Hanoi.

When you take just the briefest glimpse at the history of Vietnam, it gives up an indication of the strenght of these amazing people. Although physically they are probably some of the smallest people I've come across, they are a people of great heart and patricism. Throughout history, anyone who picked a fight with these people, got their ass severly kicked. The Mongols back in the 1300's may have taken everything from Mongloia to North Africa, but there was no getting through the region where Vietnam now stands. The Chinese had an unsuccessful go at Vietnam in 1979. It was the Vietnamese who overthrew Polpot and the Khmer Rouge when the U.N. and the rest of the western world turned its back on the Cambodian killing fields. And when the mighty arm of the U.S. with the support of the Australias, Kiwis, Thai and Koreans marched into the Vietnam war, they were chucked out of therre in such a panic, that you can still see the remains of U.S. military equipment throughout the country. There are abandoned tanks at major roundabouts and junctions and theres still U.S. army trucks hauling timber on the roads here. The Vietnamese have never started a war but they have finished many. The French were about the only nation to gain hold of Vietnam when they colonised here in the 19th century. But ultimately Vietnam gained independence in 1954. What a history! What a country! What a way to finish Asia.

With just over 17000KMs cycled, I pedalled into Hanoi on the doorstep of the Pacific Ocean. In doing so, I completed stage 3 of GCR. 2 continents cycled and I now only plan to cycle 1 more (North America). Its been a great adventure to date. Slowly passing through different countries. The thousands of smiles and waves and Hellos (not forgetting the occasional roadside round of applause in Iran). Watching peoples' features gradually change from our fair Irish complexion to the lovely Vietnamese family who this evening invited me into their homefor food and a bed for the night. Throughout Asia, whether I've greeted with a handshake or some guy holding a machine gun, I've always smiled and said a welcoming Hello. And the reply has been almost always the same. Its been friendly.

YOU SEE A LOT OF CRAZY THINGS ON THE ROADS IN VIETNAM

TODAY A THOUGHT POPPED INTO MY MIND

I remember when I met a priest in Kiltegan in Co. Wicklow, Ireland.
"Where are you going?" he asked
"I plan to spend the next year or two cycling around the world", I replied
"When did you start"
"I left Naas yesterday", I replied
"I see, well, good luck", he replied, completely sure I was bonkers

And yesterday I saw the first indication of Christmas. I saw a shop with a Christmas tree in it. It must be getting near Christmas I thought. This time last year I was just 5 weeks on the road and I got as far as France. Apparently it was their coldest winter in 20 years. So this year I've decided to spend Christmas somewhere warmer. I fly to Hawaii tomorrow.
Happy Christmas. Talk to ye in 2010

RAFTING DOWN THE MEKONG

With a farewell party consisting of about 50 screaming kids, we took the boat to water and began our journey out of the town of Chang Saen in Thailand and down the Mekong towards Laos. Our starting post was just 10KMs south of the 'Golden Triangle', a tri-country border between Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, infamous since the 1600s for its vast opium plantations. Now its more famous as a tourist attraction. Once the boat was in the water, the powerful current had it and we quickly jumped on. The good news is it floats. Although the boat is designed to take 450 kilos, there was always the niggling fear that the weight of the two bikes, 50 kilos of luggage, food and water and Markus and I on board was going to be too much weight for the boat. We quickly learned the current played a bigger role in deciding our direction than our paddling could dictate. But very soon we had it out of town and we practiced different paddling strokes as we tried to come to terms with our new mode of transport for the next few weeks.Initially it felt fast. Within 15 minutes of being on the boat, the town of Chang Saen was far behind, but in general the boat moves at an average speed of about 8km/hr. We called the boat 'до свидания' (do svi-dan-niye). Its Russian for 'Goodbye'. All through China we never learned the Chinese word for 'Goodbye', so we just continued with до свидания (do svi-dan-niye). We had enough food for 3 days, but we were sure we would survive on fishing and wild bananas. Neither proved very successful though. Every second local was fishing and their hugh nets rarely caught anything bigger than 3 inches long. And the bananas were difficult to get and the few we did get were either rock hard or rotting.For the first few days the Mekong acted as the boundary between Thailand and Laos. We had the Thai entry stamp in our passport and hadn't yet got the Laos visa, but when we spotted an empty beach on the Laos side for our first nights camp, we didn't hesitate to paddle up and set up camp and start preparing dinner. Just at sunset, 3 barefoot men, dressed in old and shabby military clothes and carrying machine guns approached us. They walked in our direction about 30 feet apart from each other. It was quite a shock but we greeted them as we do everyone else; We waved, said hello and gave a nervous but friendly smile. Using sign language, we explained we wish to eat and sleep here and tomorrow we move on. To this day, I don't know if they were Lao military, pirates, hunters or security for an opium plantation. Either way, they made a phone call and said goodbye. We gave them an orange each, said до свидания (do svi-dan-niye) and continued with dinner.We paddled on for another 4 days. It was all the same stuff - generally quite calm which requires more work and a few occasional rapids and whirlpools which gets the whole thing going. For a lot of the time we seem to be working our way through 'Lake Mekong' as we call it. The current can be very gradual and if you don't use the oars, you get nowhere. But when the current kicks in through the narrow spots, it gets real exciting. Waves splashing over the boat, currents pulling us left and right and whirlpools sucking us in and doing double 360 degree spins before spitting us out with a jump. Our route took us from Chang Saen in Thailand to Huay Xai in Laos. From there, we continued through Laos to Pak Beng and Luang Prabang. This is my third visit to Laos. I've toured here before by bus and by bicycle so it was great this time to see the country by boat. Every night we slept on beaches except for one night on the floor of a river boat restaurant in Pak Beng. Here we got free accommodation and a place to tie up the boat, as long as we ordered dinner and breakfast from their reasonably priced menu. This little town had a reasonably sized market that we could stock up on foods for the next leg of the journey. It took a further 5 days to get down to Luang Prabang. Now the scenery started getting real interesting with rolling hills of dense jungle. There were few and small settlements, but because this region is poorly serviced by road and the only route to the outside world is through the Mekong, these places were very sparsely populated. We docked in at a few villages just to check them out and fill up our 6 litre water bottle and check to see if someone would sell us a fish. Although these communities were very primitive, there were still some schools and the children would come running down to welcome the tourists in the unusual inflatable boat. These people would be used to seeing tourists go by on the tour boats, but it would be very rare for tourists to venture into these villages. The kids would stare wide eyed with surprise as we wandered through the villages looking for food and drinkable water. In total we have been about 12 days on the water and one of the hardest things about travelling in this way is the fact that we rarely know where we are. When cycling, the sign posts at major junctions always give you, at least, a rough idea to where you are. But with these small villages, they are rarely mentioned on maps. There are obviously no signposts to indicate distance and no one seems to have an idea of the kilometre distance to the next decent sized town. And so when we came around a corner to face the familiar sight of the truly beautiful Unesco Heritage town of Luang Prabang, it was just brilliant. We had made it to, what I consider to be, the best town in South East Asia. We deflated the boat, and lugged everything up to a nearby "cheap,cheap, special price for you, my friend" guesthouse. And then we sat down and had a beer. In fact we had a few of them.The coming days were spent chilling out in this very relaxing town. We toyed with the idea of putting most of our stuff in storage in Luang Prabang and taking just the boat and the bare minaminal of stuff to near the source of the lively Nam Ou river. High in the mountains, this would have been exciting stuff. Up till now, the adrenalin quantity of any proposed venture seemed to be the deciding factor in taking it on. And so it was time to maybe slow things down abit. Travelling with Markus has been an absolute blast. Rarely do you get to meet someone with so much energy. But Markus has family and friends arriving over to Bangkok in a couple of weeks and I'm thinking of continuing on to Vietnam and the Pacific Ocean. We said farewell over a few more beers and came up with a few exciting adventures for the future. Who knows, maybe we'll dog-sled across Greenland at some stage in the future. But my present plan is to rest up for another week or so and then pedal the last few hundred KMs to Hanoi in North Vietnam.