Travelling the world on a bicycle made for two!

Paul and Lauriane left their home in France on 4 April 2010, aiming to cycle through a number of Asian countries all the way down under to Australia.

In the last few months, they have pushed their tandem across a frozen lake in Russia, passed through the wilderness of Mongolia and struggled to pedal  up and up the long and winding Tibetan highland roads to a peak of 4,728m, wet, cold and not to mention exhausted!

Paul is a timber construction engineer and Lauriane an environmental engineer, and they decided to explore the Far East in an environmental way, travelling by tandem!

In order to take a break before heading to Vietnam, they stayed at Kunming Camellia Youth Hostel (Yunnan’s capital city) for a couple of days. After visiting Vietnam, they will go to Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Australia. They are aiming to return home from Melbourne.

When asked why they chose to go by tandem, they replied, “It is cheaper, it is a challenge to body and mind, we can see more real life of each country visited and after all, it’s more environmentally friendly!”.
 
Camellia Youth Hostel is particularly popular with bikers and groups from overseas, due to its convenient location, not to mention its large landscaped garden and outside seating area, which provides a more than ample space for them to relax and meet birds of the same feather.

The hostel had been under major renovation since the beginning of this year.  It was reopened in conjunction with the visit of a HI delegation on 28th May.

The new Camellia Hostel is a project in partnership with Camellia Hotel, but the management is entirely separate and is in the hands of “Best of the Best” (an independent scheme dedicated to promoting good hostelling in China). It aims to promote cultural exchange, conservation of the environment, social responsibility and travel under your own steam. It also provides in-service training for young people to learn how to run a youth hostel.

To check out Camellia Youth Hostel on hihostels.com click HERE .