Bicycling Boomers: pedaling through Southeast Asia

The Pattersons are out on the road again!

You may remember my post last spring about Cat and Pat Patterson’s first long-term trip—a bicycling tour that covered 57 countries over four years. It turns out that their two-year hiatus back home in Southern California was only a breather before their current trip through Southeast Asia, which they began on February 9th.

Their route started out in Taiwan, and continues through the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Hong Kong. If you happen to live in or plan on traveling to those places soon, they invite you to get in contact with them—maybe you’ll be able to meet up.

I can’t say that I’ve been on a bike for such an extended period, but I can relate to the call of the road. They say “There’s a reoccurring urge to once again be a stranger in a strange land; to see, feel, and experience the world and her people.” Even though they’ve had their share of problems on the road, including being robbed at gunpoint, Cat says “Hardships, rough weather, steep hills and of course the risks of traffic and encounters with bandits often make the best memories.”

Follow along as they add to their online journal. Reading their first few entries, we learn about their trip preparation and first impressions of Taiwan.

And of course, one of the things that they’ve noticed so far are the local cyclists. They write:
“The family that cycles together stays together. There are so many motor scooters that it is a rare and beautiful treat to see mom and kids on a bicycling shopping trip.”

Kudos to them for creating not only one but two trips-of-a-lifetime!