Tag Archives: too hot

Day 20 – Padua II or some things deserve a second try

Today, we left our campground at the doorstep of Venice bright and early. We had good reason to be on the road at 9am. I had booked tickets to see the Scrovegni Chapel at 10.45am! We need to go in the direction of Padua anyway to start our way home and Flo said there would be time to see the frescoes if we got tickets. I was very happy about that.

Having said our goodbyes to Venice yesterday, we now said goodbye to the campground and our Swiss neighbours. Their dog had entertained our kids for many, many moments. Especially this morning, it meant that I could pack in relative peace.

look at this blue, and the stars in the “sky”

We left on time with the intension of having a second breakfast in Padua after having picked up the tickets. These plans changed, however, when we got into a traffic jam because of an accident further up the road. We wouldn’t be too late but there was no time for a second breakfast.

We kept Number 3 going with juice and snacks, while the Agent had pureed fruit to go. Because the frescoes are almost 700 years old by now, the athmosphere in the chappel has to be maintained and controlled very carefully. Moisture from sweat can lead to damages, including salt blossoms on the wall. Thus, the access is restricted (even more so in Covid times) and you have to sit in a room watching videos for at least 15 minutes to aclimatize and let your body adjust to the cool surrounding before you are even allowed in. The kids and Flo did quite well allowing me to do this rather kid-unfriendly procedure.

If you study art history, there is no way you haven’t had a lecture or a seminar on Giotto. To see it for real was pretty epic. Even if you’re ushered through and can only 15 minutes in the chapel. Even if the Agent got unhappy about halfway through and I carried her around telling her about virtues and vices. Yes, this was a win for me.

Afterwards, we went straight to a nice cafe for our second breakfast. It turned out to be rather fancy; it did have decaffeinated tea though which is a first in Italy. Number 3 surprised us a little with his wish to order macaroons. He successfully negotiated that he could have three though as this was the same price as one piece of cake and he devoured them all himself.

Afterwards, it was time to get going. The lago di Garda was our next destination. Still hungry, we got take-away sandwiches at a tiny place right next to the cafe that was recommended by the Lonely Planet. It was good value for money and we got huge sandwiches we could eat in the park right next to our parking garage. Number 3 even got a kids’ sized one with ham and cheese – which he also devoured dutifully.

Both kids slept through the car ride pretty much until we got to Lake Garda. It was hot by now and shade was hard to come by.

the lake right in fron of our campground

The campground turned out to be pretty, with views of the lake, and be entirely in the sun. I got grumpy until we had the awning up and there was at least some shade to be found. Sitting in the shade unmoving, waiting for the breeze to cool you down a little, the heat was becoming bearable again.

It wasn’t the kind of place with easy access to the lake. Flo and the kids checked out the lake but decided only to dip their toes a little. The kids were allowed to stay up late though, until the sun had disappeared behind the hills over at the far side of the lake. The tent was simply too hot to try and get them to sleep until then.

Day 9 – That summer feeling

We call every day where we don’t move camp a rest day on our trips. Most of them end up being everything but. So if you imagine a quiet afternoon with a good book on the beach … not quite us. We move at a brisk pace, especially for a family of four. So we always have 5 more things to do on a rest day, because you know: We got time, right? That is on top of everything that made us stay in the first place.

Both kids enjoyed having the place to themselves

I tried to be smart though and venture a bit into multitasking. So after our breakfast, we packed a few essentials and moved to the lakeshore. I was able to finish up the two blog posts in our back-log while Number 3 (and, to the extent that we let her, the Agent, too) enjoyed the lake. We were the first ones out and had the lake all to ourselves. Small mistakes were made, but overall this was a great success. In hindsight, we just should have told Number 3 to take off his clothes all at once rather than waiting for him to get first his pants and then the undies wet. He had a blast, though, and even made new friends with the 5 and 8 year olds kids of the campers two lots down from us.

This is why we went on this trip. We get to spend so much time with our little ones – who are ever so slowly turning into remarkable little characters. Many times a day, I get this flush of emotion when realising just how much I love them and how blessed we are to get to knowing them.

We somehow managed to squeeze another load of washing into our lunchtime window, although naptime was a bit of a challenge, probably because of the heat. Oh, and Number 3’s digger addictions. There was a sit-on toy digger on the camp’s playground and he found it. Getting him off that playground took a serious bit of convincing.

So naptime dragged on a bit, organically transitioned into coffee time – all the while, promises about things we can do started piling up for Number 3. For the first time on this trip, we decided to split up. I am not much of a water nut, so Nina and the big brother decided to go for another (real) swim, while I took the Agent of Entropy out for a shopping run. I had added “cooking risotto from scratch” to get rid of our remaining fresh zucchini to the long list of to-dos for the day. Oh, and it was finally time for ice in our icebox – the butter demanded so, or at least that was my excuse.

A brief stroll along the lake later, it was now 4.50 pm, we all joined up again. Number 3 had turned slightly blue from an hour in the water while I was a bit hot from my walk in the sun. We equalized things by a minute or two of cuddle time 😀

I got to work on the risotto – and it was around that time that things turned south a bit. Our hero up to this point lied to his Mum about me having approved it and walked away from his sous-chef duties to play with the damn digger again, all on his own. When dinner was ready, tantrum ensued and he outright refused to join in the meal. Slightly soured by that turn of events, I maybe were not the most patient dad at bed time – and it had maybe 35°C in the tent – so that took almost exactly until it was time for us to hop in the car, start up discord and play our regular Friday night game.

Rest day, eh?

Side note:

– to avoid another disappointing take off, I religiously forced the car into “drive” mode every few hours to force it to charge the 12v battery. That works fine while it is charging the main or when the charger is disconnected, but leads to weird behaviour when the main is at 100% but the charger not disconnected. It seems like some software optimisation is still required. We’ll find out if all that at least had the desired effect, tomorrow –

A good morning starts with an encounter with a garbage truck 🙂

Day 268 – Welcome to Iran

Sunrise equals breakfast time 🙂

All of the reports on Horizons Unlimited are full of descriptions about the shipping to Bandar Abbas and they all had their story to tell about the Iranian bureaucracy. Flo was dreading it and we had scheduled for a whole day in the port just trying to get Rocinante out of customs. If possible, we would hire a fixer to help with the paper work.

For now, when the lights came on on board of the ferry, there wasn’t even land in sight. Half an hour later, breakfast was served at which point I went back to reading…nothing would happen for a while. Land came in sight, we docked and yet still, we were sitting around on deck waiting for anything to happen.

Close to the port now

Finally, Jan and Flo rode the bikes out of the ferry to the immigration terminal. There, the only English-speaking officer of the port welcomed us and helped us through the dealings to get the passports stamped. It involved a bit of paperwork already, including giving a rough itinerary and a section about your thoughts on Iran. Maybe half an hour later, we had our passports back and could start with the process of the temporary import of the bikes. Well, almost. Flo had left the carnet with the bike and while it was just outside the glass wall, we were locked into the building. It took an officer to unlock a door for him to quickly grab the carnet.

With our passports in hand, we left the immigration building and were immediately brought in contact with a fixer who spoke nearly no English. Not wanting to negotiate a price AFTER he had rendered his services, we negotiated now and got an amazingly great offer of US$15 per vehicle. That was even cheap enough for Jan so we went through the process together.

First picture after all the paperwork was done

Or rather through the waiting time. While our fixer knew almost no English, he definitely knew the process of importing bikes well. Thus he walked around, made copies of the carnets and passports, collected stamps in multitudes and got us through. Mostly, it involved him walking to the next building, us sitting down in the waiting area and then moving on to the next building once he said so. In the meantime, the paperwork in his hands took on epic proportions (about three trees had to die for it, would be my guess) and it became clear that we would have had no chance getting through it ourselves. Plus, the customs office would close at 3 pm before which we really wanted to be done.

At 2 pm, everything was done. We were good to go…once we had paid. Our fixer had two other people working for him as well at this point. One of them showed us the break-down of the costs: US$70 for fees, copies and legal things that they had paid for us already and then another US$70 for their services. Well, we had negotiated a price of US$15. Once we wrote it down to make absolutely clear what we meant, horror dawned on our fixer’s face. He clearly thought we had agreed on US$50 per vehicle. Also, the others didn’t seem too happy about the pre-arranged price. In the end, Flo paid US$70 for the legal stuff and US$30 for their services while Jan stuck to the original price. In the end, he paid US$19 for their services.

Jan talking to the locals in search of a currency exchange

DONE! Good to go! I should have mentioned earlier that it was incredibly hot, most likely 40 degrees. Now, back in all our motorcycle gear, we were cooked. Jan only had dirhams with him so we had paid his fees in US dollars in the port. Thus, we were looking for a bank now so he could exchange his money. Everything was closed though. Once Jan started to ask locals for help, they all said that it’s siesta and things would open up again later on. However, one of them led us to a currency exchange which was also closed but opened up just for us.

Having sorted the money, Flo and I now looked for a hotel. The same helpful local recommended a budget hotel for us which we checked out. It was slightly pricey for our budget but close to what the Lonely Planet described what the lowest price around. While we checked into Ghods Hotel, Jan used the wifi to check up on his couch surfing for the night. So we parted. Flo and I had a little nap in our room, sitting out the heat and waiting for the shops to open again.

So much choice! This is just one of two counters

At 6pm, we went out. The extremely helpful staff of the hotel sent us to “City Center” to buy a local SIM card. We got 5GB for a month now and it worked without an issue. From there, we just grabbed a bite to eat before I saw a confectionery shop which I HAD to check out. In the end, I left with a box filled with four different types of sweets…all of which I had to try immediately in the hotel room. 🙂

: Having a whole row for yourself = amazing, having no pillow = not so much

: Sunrise equals breakfast time 🙂

: A pilot came on board soon after sunrise

: Close to the port now

: First picture after all the paperwork was done

: Jan talking to the locals in search of a currency exchange

: So much choice! This is just one of two counters

: Neatly stacked…

: …but not really self-explanatory. The only solution: Try everything

: This is the small version of the box

: Delicious content

Day 234 – Museum of Siam

Modern museum, modern picto-dudes

After having spent all of yesterday on putting Rocinante in her cage, today we wanted to see something of Bangkok. I’m kinda through with temples and royal palaces and Flo expressed similar feelings so the Museum of Siam it was.

The tuk-tuk driver was a bit of a gangster getting way too much money out of us “tourists” for a rather short ride. Arriving at 9.55am at the museum, we waited for 5min for it to open and were the first people in. Which turned out to be a blessing as we got to see the short movie and about two rooms before we were steam-rolled by school classes. There seemed to be about 5 classes on our heels. At one point, we decided to let them pass and stay back a bit but then more classes appeared and the noise level just couldn’t be helped.

Love the wall paper. A classic!

The Museum of Siam is quite new and interactive which made it a fun museum to experience. The English translations are good, giving you insights into the history of Siam, which was the countries name before becoming the nation state of Thailand. To be honest, Flo and I loved the “Thailand in the 70s” part the most as it was perfect for taking hilarious pictures.

After two hours, we left highly entertained to find some food. As the tuk-tuk fare here had cost us 150 baht (NZ$6), we decided to take our time and walk back to the hotel thus also seeing more of Bangkok. In theory, the plan was perfect and it also worked well in practice apart for the sun scorching down on our every step.

The open wasteland with the palace in the back

So we stuck to the shade of trees as long as they were available and were dearly disappointed when we crossed a “park” that consisted entirely of scorched brown grass. Makes no sense to have such an exposed space in this climate. That needs to be reserved for places like London where you happy about every ray of sunshine. =P

Cooling down again took some hours as there was no pool available and we headed out again for dinner this time to an Israeli restaurant. Getting some different flavours was so delicious! We shared a plate of falafel, hummus, chips and salad with a side of tzatziki with pita bread. So, so good! The tzatziki plate looked like it had been washed once we were through our meal…Flo made sure to get even the tiniest rest.

Flo actually decided to use some of the evening time to catch up with his family. Quite late, we then skyped with Lina and Michael as we’re gonna visit them soon after landing in Dubai. So exciting! Haven’t seen them in aaaaaaaaages (2 ½ years).

: Food stall prop at the entrance.

: Modern museum, modern picto-dudes

: The noise was quite impressive.

: Part of the exhibition bit on Buddhism

: Models of the royal fleet

: French and Chinese vessels

: Depicting the rural village life

: How good are your cannon firing skills?

: Through British (Malaysia) and French (Laos and Cambodia) pressure, Siam had to map its provinces

: Wooden water buffalo toys and little drums. I love water buffaloes and these were so cute!

: Testing the cooling ability of the rice hat

: This just looks silly now…

: Thai propaganda never looked so good =P

: Love the wall paper. A classic!

: One too many, Flo, one too many…*shakes head*

: It played actual music! Horrible but great!

: A sneak peek into the palace. 500 baht / person did not sound inviting to us.

: Bangkok is not old. It was built after the old capital did not seem fit anymore.

: Pretty, ey? Flower in a park.

: The open wasteland with the palace in the back

: Nominally this is a Buddhist country, but the Hindu and Animist iconography is everywhere

: Needs must, we are behind!

: So … scrummy!

: Food and knick-knacks everywhere.

: That is why Microsoft paid 1 billion $ for Minecraft …

: I lost my appetite for fish a bit when I realised how poisoned all the rivers are

Day 232 – Packing in Bangkok

2 lanes frontage road, 4 lane highway and 3 lane tollway (overhead) all going the same way …

A whole day to get into Bangkok. Not to be bad with just 250km to go. Unfortunately, it was 38 degrees again which felt like closer to 50 degrees on the motorway in the scorching sun. Also, getting into Bangkok is simply a nightmare. Motorbikes are not allowed on the proper motorways where you pay toll so instead, we were going on the same road as all the trucks and scooters. This meant jam-like conditions starting as far off as 60km before Bangkok. In the heat. The whole ride was just exhausting, nothing more. At some point we stopped at a 7eleven and hid inside just to get our core temperature down again in an ac’d space. BUT, even the worst traffic moves and we arrived at our accommodation at lunch time.

Dropping all the luggage into the room, we just headed out again to have lunch and acquire some form of dinner as our room was out in the sticks, close to nothing but the warehouse where we needed to go tomorrow. We found a local market for some veggie noodle soup and a 7eleven with the option of toast and cheese. All set for the rest of the day, we went back.

Yeay and ney piles will soon be forming.

Cooling down was the most urgent point on our to do list now. Luckily, a pool was available (in the shade) which provided us with ample opportunity. Afterwards, we unpacked everything we own, checked if we could take it on a flight or had to chuck it out and repacked. It sounds like a neat package in one sentence but it actually was a lot of work. The spray cans of WD40 and chain oil had to go (flammable) so Flo actually cleaned the bike before applying both for the last time. We updated the route on the world map on our pannier, put the paperwork, clothes and toiletries to the side as we will need this here in Bangkok with us for the next couple of days and packed the rest.

In between, we had a lovely afternoon break patting the resident cats and figuring out that hiding inside our room is really the most comfortable option.

: 2 lanes frontage road, 4 lane highway and 3 lane tollway (overhead) all going the same way …

: … and even all this road is not enough some times.

: Weird triangular room. It was cheap and clean, though.

: Noodle soup for 40 baht 🙂

: Yeay and ney piles will soon be forming.

Day 231 – Klicks

We had a good night’s sleep in our little “resort” in Hot (resort in Thailand means a hotel a bit out of the city center or out in the fields). Today, we even got a free breakfast – including fresh strawberries!

The first bit of the route was “scenic”

We had about another 100 km of more or less windy back road until we were planning on hitting the highway 1. These really turned out to be quite nice, even if my arm was still taking a bit of enjoyment out of riding. It would still get stiff and cramp after like 30 minutes of riding. On top of it all, it was once again scolding hot. Riding was still fine, but any amount of walking or stopping out of the shade were just … inadvisable.

Once we hit the highway 1, it became quite a different ride again. 600 km of flat land on a road pretty close to a motorway. Cruising speed moved up to 110 km/h, at least outside of the many stretches of roadworks forcing both directions on one of the two multi-lane strips. The kilometers just melted away.

We passed this pick-up going at least 80kmh so the dog was quite deformed

After a very brief and unmemorable lunch in Tak, we were on the road again when a macabre first for the two of us occurred. As expected at a little traffic jam on a stretch of roadwork, we came past an accident. A ute came off the road and had hit a tree. As we passed it, we both got a look at our first dead person that we can remember. Lying right there on the road with the paramedic just taking pictures of him was a lifeless human form wrapped in white sheets – with one blue and mangled hand sticking out.

We got the whole thing for a very good price

We ended that day with only 250 km to go in another resort somewhere in the no-man’s-land between towns. The benefit was a killer price for an excellent room – the down side was that we were not prepared for the fact that we could not just walk 100m and have dinner ready. I ended up riding another 20 km alone in search of food and all I came up with in the end were crisps and an eight month old one-square-meal.