Brilliant, every inch! Here's a "best of". The weirdest experience goes to waking up in an earthquake, the ground shaking and tent vibrating, as a large slice of mountain collapsed nearby in huge cloud of swirling dust. As early morning wake ups go, this was from zero to max adrenaline in 10 seconds. A huge rock pile nearby where I'd rested in the shade the previous evening.

• 20 punctures, 1 broken luggage rack, 3 sets of tyres, 3 sets of brake blocks. That's good!
• Longest day 262km across desert, shortest day 500m switching hotels. 
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Cycled Europe, 5000km from London to here. The Asian landmass (ie continental plate) is on the other side of Istanbul across a wide river, flowing between the med and black sea. Geography lesson now ends. The ride was harder at the start and got easier after getting fit and into the rhythm. The final day riding through Istanbul was hair rising, the worst drivers I've ever seen. More...

Keith, Gavin, Ray, Rhona & Peter on an epic cycle tour from Singapore to Hong Kong. I joined them for the Vietnam stage, a short 2000km stage in 4 weeks. Keith published an excellent article for NZ magazine called 100 days.

The route is North along Highway 1 from Saigon to Hanoi, easy navigation and quite popular with cycle tourists. The south is enterprising, whilst the north is bureaucratic and the home of central government. Best places to stay are private family run hotels, as the government places tend to be run down, although they're an experience you shouldn't miss. More...

Laos is my personal favourite, much of the country is rural with a laid back approach, the roads are quiet. I'd say it's under developed which gives it charm, although the touristy spots are now getting overly commercialised, it's well worth a visit. 

Chang Mai to Vientiane

Jan, Peter, Gavin and Keith. If I were to pick one tour to repeat again, this is it, an extremely good route, stunning mountain scenery, starting from Chang Mai heading east across north Thailand then crossing the river border into Laos. Take a lazy river boat down the Mekong river and disembark at Pakbeng and out into the wilderness. A wonderful ride to Luang Prabang, good hills and scenery. Then continue south through more stunning scenery, there's a little known Chinese trucker's guest stop, fabulous. More...

After the Himalayan effort it was time for some flatter riding with palm trees and tropical sea.

This was to be a CTC tour circling the island of Mindanao well of the tourist trail. Turned out to be one of the best experiences I've ever had. Basically, the Island is split into Christian and Muslim parts, this being a considerable source of conflict between the islanders. Army, tanks, that kinda thing. All the locals we met were kind. More...