Category Archives: Travel Narratives

Bob and Claire Rogers’ travel writings from 40,000 miles on a tandem bicycle, crewing on a sailboat in the South Pacific, a mountain bike adventure across the center of Iceland… Follow adventures and misadventures from the outback of Australia, the Silk Road, the jungles of Laos and more.

They get your close to the people, their politics and economies, the detritus of war and the happiness often found amid poverty. Se the world anew from the seat of a tandem bicycle at 12 miles an hour. Your view of many places will be enriched and deepened.

Tchepone, Laos and the Southeast Asian War
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Because of our most recent travels in Asia on our tandem bicycle, I have developed a new interest in the Vietnam War, really the Indochina War of my youth. My draft board called me in 1964. I presented myself, got on a bus and taken for a physical and mental evaluation. I was just out of hospital for a bleeding ulcer. They didn’t know how to cure ulcers in those days, and they knew military food would kill me: 4F. I have always had some survivor’s guilt, partly because I have seen the toll that particular war took on many of the surviving draftees. The vets I have shared this feeling with have said I didn’t miss anything, and to let it go. I think I have. Maybe traveling there, seeing the land and the people involved has had something to do with my coming to terms with those feelings. My appreciation for anyone who fought there is deep. It was one helluva place to have to fight a war. Read the rest of this article…

Flashbacks to a favorite place and time: joy and thanksgiving
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It was the beginning of another physically challenging day, frosty, clear, with wood smoke on the air. But that wasn’t it. The roadhouse we stayed in the night before had a mix of police and interesting locals drinking lots of beer and eating many fascinating dishes. The architecture was beautiful. The temple just before the village seemed to hang, glowing white in the thin air, from a cliff. We almost got lost, nothing new. No. It was something else. Read the rest of this article…

Traveling Today’s Tea Horse Road
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We`re hauling only one pound of tea on our aluminum horse built for two, a tandem bicycle we’re riding along the same course as an ancient trade route between the Tibetan Empire and the Chinese dynasties. Our cargo includes another 69 pounds of gear weighing us down as we angle up switchbacks and pound through potholes and washouts. Why would we subject ourselves to this arduous endurance test? To glimpse one of the most treacherous and lengthy trade routes on Earth. At least that is how the route was described by Jeff Fuchs, in his 2008 book, The Ancient Tea Horse Road: Travels with the Last of the Himalayan Muleteers. Fuchs has revived interest in the route after scouting its remaining traces to find clues to the people who last walked it. Read the rest of this article…

The Turtle Chronicles; Motorhome Travel, New Horizons
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Tomorrow we begin six months of travel in our motorhome, Turtle. We begin again another volume of the Turtle Chronicles; motorhome travel and the discoveries it brings. This is not the full on adventure our bicycle tour In Search of Shangri-la, but a mellow exploration from Tucson to Alaska and back, the crooked long slow way, with lots side trips by bicycle, hikes to discover new sights, and as always, making new friends. Join us, and look for my essay in Escapees Magazine. I’ll give you a heads up and a link. Read the rest of this article…

He Broke Our Hearts
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He was small, middle aged and Han, dressed in his Saturday night black and red athletic shoes, patterned jeans, and what looked like an army jacket, sans patches; perhaps he had been a soldier. As he got deeper into his cups, his emotions found expression in his face and hands. He touched his eyebrow, rubbed his hand from forehead to chin, shook his head. Once he traced a tear coming from his eye with an index finger, and even used it to show him slitting his own throat. Read the rest of this article…

Lucky Visits the Plain of Jars
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There were all these big things made out of rock in Laos on the Plain of Jars. I got to look at the jars and saw myself in the water. Lorenz and Alex from Germany laughed. The other two nice people from England were Will and Jo. They introduced me to Eeyore. He is in a famous book called Winnie the Pooh, who is a bear. Eeyore is not a bear. He is a donkey. He is the nice people’s traveling companion. Just like me! We had a visit about our travels. He has his own web page. He doesn’t have to share one with his people, like I do. Read the rest of this article…