Suddenly the hair rose on the back of my neck and my body tensed…

I was fully prepared to discredit such a slogan as “The Land of Smiles” as the merest marketing department propaganda…

Penang, I found, was a lovely place. It possessed a fascinating cultural diversity: Indian, Chinese and Malay were the dominant ethnic groups, but countless others filled the nooks and crannies around town…

There has been a rather long lapse of time since my last update partly because my former camera ceased to work and partly because I doubted whether the happenings of the past four months would be of great interest to our dear readers. Therefore, I will breeze over them as a transition back into the cycling adventure that has just been resumed.

It was late when I arrived in Kuala Lumpur International Airport. I bedded down in the hallway near Starbucks for the night, curled round my trailer, which was locked to my bicycle. I woke early in the morning, sole inhabitant of an island besieged by a tumultuous sea of feet…

Laos, among my cycling friends, has a great reputation, and therefore rather than cross the 230 kilometers of country by bus to get back to Xinjiang as soon as possible, I opted to pass through on my bike. It is said that the experience of visiting Laos is probably similar that of visiting Thailand as it was 50 years ago.

Jeff and I both competed in a local mountain bike race one rainy day. It was only 15 kilometers from town so we biked down in the morning to warm up, and on the way we were caught in a torrential downpour. The grounds of the Buddhist temple in the small village where the registration area was set up were completely flooded…