Laos by bike
My accomplice and I have now biked around 1150km from Thailand to the Laos capital (Chiang Rai - Chiang Kong - Nam Thong - Luang Namtha - Nom Kiaw - Luang Prabang - Vientiane) and then expressed our way by night bus down to Paksi in the south to spend the last two weeks exploring the Bolaven plateau, 4000 Islands of the Meekong Delta, and Ankor Wat in Cambodia. The verdict is in: bike touring is an excellent way to see a country.
We made it to the Thai border on the first day covering 100km of deceptively easy flat going on good roads followed by 20km of up-and-down hills in fading daylight on the approach to Chiang Kong. The next morning we took a taxi boat a couple of hundred meters across the Meekong and through the Laos border in time for an excellent Laos lunch: a fried noodle and noodle soup, with a huge bowl of fresh herbs to mix in by the hands-full (mint, coriander, lime, etc). Then, not understanding why the guides recommend a boat trip up or down the Meekong, we hopped on the bikes and charged straight through the very-bloody-steep mountains for a couple of days to Luang Namtha.
On the way through we spent a night in a little village called Nam Thong: highly recommendable! The people were really in awe of farang here and everywhere we walked we were followed by wide eyes and gaping mouths of the local children, but all the same it was fun to follow the piglets around and chat with the dogs. We ate dinner with our hosts: a basket of sticky rice, a tasty soup, and a bbq fish. The Lao style of eating is to pull out a lump of sticky rice, mold it into a ball with your fingers, and then dip and scoop some meat and sauce onto it and eat it. Really fun! And practical because you don't get sauce all over your fingers :-)
Highlights further along the way have been relaxing on the riverbanks at Nom Kiow, indulging in pizza and french wine in Luang Prabang, meeting some crazy irishmen by a hot spring, and the amazing scenery of limestone formations on the way into Vang Vieng.