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Month in Pictures: December 2013

January 6, 2014

Our most recent stories and photos from the road…

Kat's hair has gone from ultra long to short over the last few months. It's definitely much easier to manage while we travel by bike!

Japanese koi fish — Japanese koi blew our minds! We didn't realise that they can grow to over 100cm, can live longer than 50 years and come in so many colours. We can now appreciate why they are a popular tattoo subject!

Paul van der ploeg — Recognise this face? It's Paul van der Ploeg (ahem... current world champion mountain biker) who looked after us in Germany - coming to you from Tokyo!!! Great to hang with some familiar faces!

Japanese cat cafe — Japan is full of truly wonderful attractions and one of the most magical of these is the cat cafes. Juliette and Kat spent one incredible (expensive!) hour petting, scratching, feeding, wooing and falling in love with two storeys of cats. Purrrfect.

Ipad — The advertising budget is a bit low at the moment, so we'll stick to opening www.cyclingabout.com on iPads in Apple stores from now on!

Paul van der ploeg — We somehow convinced Paul and his fashion designer girlfriend Juliette to come and talk at the British School in Tokyo! We are fairly sure there were some pretty inspired students in that classroom, whether it was to travel the world, be a professional athlete or a fashion designer.

Bike in a box — This can only mean one thing... we're leaving chilly Japan and arriving in the tropical Philippines!

Tandem bicycle touring — Flying to the Philippines was a great way to actually see what we're carrying on our tandem, EVERYDAY... up EVERY HILL! It looks like a lot, but we are travelling for more than two years, so we can't cut too many corners. It's hard to believe it all fits comfortably on one tandem bike!

Riding in the Philippines is considered madness by many locals. Jeepneys are the vehicle that dominate the roads - we need to be most careful of the ones with no lights!

Tondo manila — It is our intention to volunteer throughout our time here in the Philippines. We are looking at the option of project managing the construction of a school after it was wiped out during the recent typhoon... HOWEVER... since arriving it's become apparent that our time may be more productive working on sites like this, where people literally live in a rubbish dump. Getting children into education programs gives them a better start to their life. We'll work out how we can be most useful over the next few days!

Camera on car — Does anyone know whether we were recently street viewed/recorded by Google/Naver/equivalent while we were touring Japan? If so, that would be dead COOL! However, the cameras don't quite look right for this purpose...

Tondo young focus — There's nothing much more gratifying than seeing children, who live with almost nothing, receiving Christmas presents! Well done Young Focus on creating this special moment.

We're finally out camping in the Philippines! Although it was magical staying with Liza&Dave, it's also nice to have our home back. Territory marked with sweaty cycling shorts...

Pretzels in the Philippines — It's amazing what you find in rural areas of the Philippines. Pretzels... as good as in Germany!

The Filipino people are world renowned for their hospitality - regardless of how little they have, they will offer it. After asking to put up our tent in his garden, Charlie had us showered, fed and sleeping in his own bed for the night! Thanks Charlie and family.

Feeding fish in the Philippines — The Philippines is world famous for diving; in fact, there are internationally renowned underwater photographers getting around our very hostel. Today we fed colourful fish in the shallows, tomorrow we dive to the depths!

Tandem bicycle touring in the Philippines — The Filipino people are VERY keen to trade places with Kat, the only problem is that they can't quite reach the pedals!

Co-motion cycles tandem — A very MERRY CHRISTMAS to our friends and family in the Southern Hemisphere! Those in the north may rotate their screen if desired... Thanks for your support this year - it's the perfect xmas gift!

It would be naive to think that Alleykat wouldn't be surrounded by family at Christmas. We were adopted by this gorgeous family in the Philippines, where we ate, drank and karaoke'd the night away!

Coconut in a bag the Philippines — If you see a person with a machete and coconuts, it's a must stop shop! So, so refreshing and delicious - we could get used to this island life.

Gun in a house, the Philippines — Although we've felt safe everywhere we've been in the Philippines, it's always a bit uncomfortable staying in homes with these on the wall!

Sabang, the Philippines — We're currently undertaking an Open Water Dive Course in the Philippines! The water and reefs are incredible... we feel so lucky to have the time to do these kind of things!

New Year's Eve - a time for friends, fun & reflection. We've had a year pretty full of everything, even karaoke! Read about our Japanese adventures in our latest blog post: https://www.cyclingabout.com/index.php/2013/12/asia-lp-track-2-japan/

Author

Alee Denham

Alee is a bike and travel addict who has cycled through 100+ countries and doesn't really have any plans of stopping. Along the way, he creates technical resources, in-depth reviews, inspirational videos, how-to guides and more. If you've learned something from him, you can support his mission to create the best bike travel content HERE.