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This is our online journal with news, photos, tours and all sorts of interesting stuff... We like to post from the roads we cycle throughout Asia to help give you a little insight into our cycling holidays so you may read words from the road in Vietnam, the mountains in China, the beaches in Thailand, a village in Laos, a bar in Taiwan, or the stunning hills of Sri Lanka.
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It was a long but thoroughly worthwhile journey to success, as finally, PaintedRoads' most exclusive tour has run, and what a tremendous exploration it was for me and the ten LabRats who joined our inaugural Bhutan trip.
What with tracking down the perfect partner with whom to operate a tour in this remote Himalayan kingdom, planning the tour, the pandemic, and a post-Covid reopening that could be described as a trifle shakey; there were times it seemed our new adventure through the Himalaya's was not to be. However, when eventually the planets aligned and the tour began, we could not have been more delighted.
Bhutan's unique approach to preserving the land, the environment and the culture means the tourism industry focuses on minimum impact and high quality, ensuring a holiday in Bhutan is as comfortable as it is exclusive and unique.
As always, cycling offers a perfect pace at which to experience the environment and meet the people. Meeting the Bhutanese is as unique as many other aspects of the exclusive land; as the education system is entirely English medium we can chat with almost everyone we meet, and gain a deeper insight into the culture than is usual in Asia.
The cycling is not for the novice, as the riding takes us across passes of up to 4000 metres, with climbs and descents up to sixty kilometres in duration. However, whilst undoubtedly a challenge, it is a satisfying challenge and, those long climbs are shallow and one can settle into the rhythm of a long uphill, and coast down gently with a feeling of a tremendous return for your climbing investment. There is, therefore, plenty of time to take in your surroundings and enjoy the pristine environment and fresh clean air; after all, sixty kilometres is a lot of downhill.
Whilst more than satisfied with the tour, we have made a few improvements for next year's ride. We shortened a couple of days with the inclusion of a new overnight stop, and we added a rest day in a beautiful valley at a point where everyone agreed a rest was needed. The valley is home to Tibetan black-necked cranes that roost here during winter, and in typical Bhutanese style, the electric cables that cross the valley are all buried so as not to disturb the flight and nesting of the winter visitors. Other fauna residing in and around the valley include eagles, muntjac and sambar deer, wild boar, Himalayan bears, foxes, and leopards.
These improvements to the tour have not affected the price of the trip, which will remain the same for next year.
Bhutan is an exclusive destination, tourism is limited, and in order to keep our groups cordial and convivial we limited numbers to just 12 participants along with your PaintedRoads tour leader (guess who) and our super local guide and his magnificent crew. The date and full details for next year's Himalayan exploration is now on the PaintedRoads website and can be viewed by clicking here.
"I would like to see even more of Thailand, but it would be nice not to have to cycle everywhere," said Echo one day during the world's recent closure. To me, this sounded reasonable whilst also providing the opportunity to scratch a little itch that had been gradually growing stronger for a while; the time had come to revisit my formative passion for motorcycling.
Have motorcycle, will travel; and since getting our hands on our Honda Rally, travel we have. Our machine has given us much fun and freedom and taken us to parts of Thailand we probably wouldn't have seen by bicycle due to the distances between accomodation in some areas. Now with our LabRat Run in Lao just around the corner, it seemed like a blooming good excuse to load the Honda up and nip across the border to Lao for a route inspection.
The premise for the new PaintedRoads Lao trip, when planned back in 2015, was for a tour that showed people how cycling was back in the days before the classic Highway-13 tour was torn asunder by the inevitable march of "progress", and tucks and ugly SUVs tear the once lovely little byway to shreds (which they now have).
Back in the summer of 2015, my Laotian partner and I set off to find a route that visited the wonderful Luang Prabang, the capital of Vientiane, and the mysterious Plain of Jars, along with a day cruise on the Mekong River, all whilst avoiding trucks, cars, and the once wonderful HW13. And most successful we were. But, my recent gnawing concern has been how the route would be after so long.
Although the purpose of LabRat Runs is to go with a group of laidback PaintedRoads regulars to inspect a trip I have, for some reason, not cycled or seen for some time, I am always anxious that the 'Rats, being such an adorable body of persons, should have a great holiday. And so, Echo and I were delighted to find ourselves plodding along meandering byways on our single cylinder four stroke enjoying an endless series of spectacular views that our photography skills can do no justice whatsoever.
Was our inspections a success? Most certainly. Am I looking forward to the Lao tour in December? Oh yes. Will I manage to cycle it after succumbing to a motorised two-wheeler? Um, well, the LabRats will be able to answer that whilst we enjoy post-tour, pre-Christmas wining and dining in the beautiful World Heritage town of Luang Prabang.
We plan to keep the group size cosy, so just three places remain available on the December trip. If you're a 'Rat and fancy coming along, give me a shout; if the trip sounds appealing and you're curious as to what it's all about, please follow this link for maps and an itinerary; I hope we'll run it again next autumn. I will now leave you with some pics from our recent Laotian adventure; it's what you'll see if you join us.
Typical Laotian scenery. The views on this tour are stunning, and capturing them is, alas, well beyond my limited photographic abilities
The iconic Beer Lao, available everywhere
The Patuxai monument in Vientiane is dedicated to those who fought for independence from France
Lao noodle soup with fresh herbs
We have time to visit The Plain of Jars at Phonsavan, a collection of mysterious jars dating back millennia, whose origin and purpose are unknown
Many of the jars, such as this one, were torn apart by American bombs during their secret and devastating bombing campaign of the '60s and '70s; this million-dollar-a-day endeavour, a violation of The International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos signed in 1962, left Lao with the dubious title of the most bombed country per capita in history. At the current rate of clearance, the 80 million unexploded bombs still littering Lao will be all tidied up by the year 2800, or soon after.
A splendid colonial hotel
The sunsets over the riverfront road that becomes an evening promenade in Vientiane
The riverside village at the foot of the mountain is our rest day venue
Larp, minced pork with herbs and spices is a deliciouse local meal
The little streets of the World Heritage town of Luang Prabang are a joy to wander
A tuk tuk in Luang Prabang
Quietly sitting in with the chanting monks in Luang Prabang
As winter sets in, Northern Thailand enters the very best season for cycling. Combined with beautiful scenery and rural byways free of motor vehicles, cycling life in Thailand is going to be splendid for months to come. But, best of all is the endless network of unsealed tracks and trails, single track, and jeep tracks to explore. Here, in glorious colour, is a moving picture of a Sunday morning blast on the PaintedRoads' scrambler in the hills, rice paddies, and pineapple fields of Chiang Rai.
Winter is now setting in here in Thailand's far north. Should a cyclist with a passion for gravel cycling, bike packing, and exploring tracks trails and unbeaten paths be moored up anywhere for winter, here is as good a place good as anywhere I know. With no tours to run in the coming months, there will be much local riding and documenting of said rides. The first offering of the season is this moving-picture of a 4-day three-night, 575-kilometre jaunt around the Golden Triangle region - mostly in glorious technicolour.
Back I was a lad, when the world was black & white, and we had to dodge dinosaurs on the way home from school, we used to find old bicycle frames, big wide handlebars, hopefully a Sturmy Archer three-speed, and if we were getting high tech, some brakes; we'd cobble 'em all together, and make - a scrambler.
These machines were named after the off-road racing motorcycles, which were little more than thumping four-stroke road bikes with high-level exhausts, raised mudguards, and slightly elongated suspension (if you were an ace). Just as motocross machines superseded these behemoths, so, the scrambler bicycle was soon outshone by the BMX, and the mountain bike. However, although the motocross machine and the mountain bike are undoubtedly better for winning races, jumping onto and off of improbable, and being generally rad and gnarly, it doesn't mean that there is no place these days for the humble scrambler. For those of us who don't wear a trucker cap backwards and talk with passion about "getting air dude", the scrambler offers an alternative, laid-back, super fun way to discover the unchartered territory of hills, valleys, jungles and plains.
More words and images about the build of this machine will come soon, but for now, by way of an introduction to PaintedRoads newest machine, Echo and I are rather pleased with our most recent video:
Another short film from Northern Thailand. This time it's a day ride from Chiang Rai to the border with Lao and back. One hundred and seventy-five kilometres, and at times a little bit lost.