The journey up the Mekong, our first boat leg of the adventure, continues on broken shackles of propriety. From a polite group silence of British propriety and Swiss bashfulness our chatter increases with the other travellers; British and Swiss ironically. We creep up to the front of the boat to dangle our feet over the […]
The mighty Mekong, rising in the Tibetan plateau the Mekong cuts a slice through China, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, safe to say it’s one of the worlds great rivers and the lifeblood for so many in this part of the world. The reddish brown slick that is the Mekong sits just a metre […]
This whole time in Laos we’ve been in the most real of reality TV shows eating everything on offer, today though we’re metaphorically the ones in front of the camera and cooking up a storm. It’s cooking school time. First up is our trip to the market to be introduced to Lao food and ingredients, […]
From the near coma that was our last few days recovering from a punishing travel schedule, yes there is such a thing, today we’re peeping our eyes above the trenches, braving the world yet again and ready to change the guns. Being brave again in literal terms means gathering all the piles of stuff, yes […]
The food-fest that is Laos continues but there’s something completely wrong, so horribly wrong. I have a tray of sticky rice and some sort of interesting little treats wrapped in vine leaves but I can’t eat any of it, it’s arrayed in a wicker basket for me to give away, yes give away; the horror. […]
There’s a certain hypocritical elitism found in many basic travellers where one shuns the easy options of package tours, expensive hotels, guides and airport transfers. We all know the type, the type we find ourselves somewhat similar to but desperately attempt to steer clear of jealous spite. Welcome to the dilemma we find ourselves in […]
Our trip to Yunnan province in China was purely for a ten day cycling tour around the Mountains of Xishuangbanna on the border with Manyamar and Laos. This area is renowned for its Pu’er tea in particular but also rubber plantations and the 12 ethnic minority groups. There were eight of us on the […]
Our venture into the weird world that is China took place over a relatively short period of time and was centred around one major activity: cycling. So this time it’s a top-5 rather than a top-10 as we ventured into not only visiting a new country but having a look into one of recent histories […]
How; how goes the rhetorical cry from the studio audience more a wail of exasperation than a question. This year long reality TV show style procession of food stop to food stop thinly veiled as a travel experience has taken place in much of the worlds more underwhelming food locations. Until now. There has been […]
A casual downhill calls the end to the G8 cycling odyssey, like a spotlight fading slowly on a stage the four grannies and the four gays bring their bikes to a halt at the bike shop. Warm hugs of celebration and congratulations spontaneously erupt at the thought of making it back unscathed. Well unscathed if […]
Charlie and Steve's Excellent Adventure 