Riding a bicycle in Asian countries is a way to get very close to the people of these countries. Cyclists travel slowly and can stop everywhere and make contact with the population of these countries. This offers outstanding photographic opportunities to the travel photographer, in particular when it comes to taking photos of people. Not everybody wants to be photographed, but when meeting so many people, there are always some, who are very open for a photo.

Travelling on a bicycle allows the avid traveller to carry more equipment than having only a backpack. Digital photography was just at the beginning, so one camera body had to be used for black-and-white film and the other body was for taking slides.

People of Asia come out more impressively in black-and-white.

I started my tip in Asia in Hanoi, in the north of Vietnam. Arriving from Europe in Indochina was like being in a different world.

Cambodia was closed at that time for tourists so I went through Laos and crossed the Mekong River into Thailand, which was way more developed than Vietnam and Laos.

Apart from some traffic and the climate Thailand was a very easy country to travel through. People were friendly and I found always a place to camp. I met a friend in Bangkok and we travelled some weeks together.

After spending 6 weeks in Thailand I left this country to visit Malaysia before going south to Singapore, in order to take a boat to Indonesia.

Arriving in Indonesia was similar like coming to Vietnam some months earlier. I went by boat to the Indonesian Island of Sumatra, where I went west for a while before turning east towards Java and Bali.

The island of Java is home to the volcano Gunung Bromo and the Borobodur temple, the biggest buddhistic temple in the world.

A cockfight is carried out all over Indonesia, usually on Saturday as entertainment.

After arriving by boat on the island of Bali I had only a little time left in Indonesia, as my visa was about to expire. Therefore I had to book a flight to Darwin in Northern Australia, where I continued my trip. But first I had to collect some impressions of Bali.