My favourite part of any cycling trip is when we stop. Never has this been more relevant than in Mostly Fun: Soft Nut Bike Tours of Laos and Thailand. For fans of the truth-telling style of travel writers such as Paul Theroux and Bill Bryson - travel is not always about glamour and goggle-eyed wonder. Sometimes, reality bites; roads are bumpy, restaurants are closed and the music is awful.

Another Christmas and New Year finally over, I set off to join friends, old and new, on a voyage of discovery, exploring the backroads and quiet towns of Central Laos and Eastern Thailand. Between the two saddle-bound trips I also enjoyed some rest and relaxation in and around Bangkok.

Laos was dusty, Eastern Thailand was hot and Bangkok was, much as I remembered it; sometimes hot, sometimes dusty but always fascinating.

The trip was, as the title implies, mostly fun.