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.
Advance Praise
Les Stanley has done it again! Once more we are invited into the sardonic explorer’s trips to exotic backwaters that take him on hilarious digressions down the quirky alleys of his anti-heroic past. It’s a drily comic sideways look at the world from the point of view of a grumpy adventurer with a healthy quotient of self-mockery. David Stoyle – Researcher in literature at the University of the Côte d’Azur, Nice, France.
Les has that rare ability of seamlessly transporting the reader to a specific time and place, without charging you for a plane ticket. This latest memoir of adventures in Thailand and Laos brings all the colour of Southeast Asia to life, giving insight into the character of local people and his fellow travellers, the feel of life on the road and where to find the region’s best beer. Jack Jordan – Financial and shipping journalist.
Funny as buggery. I was happy when I finished this book. Chris Adams – French Tutor and occasional friend.