Cycling in Laos

i've been to laos. it's brilliant. nicest country in the world... can't recommend it enough. go to vietnam/thailand/wherever first, not afterwards and save laos for the last place you visit on your trip.

vientiane is nice but not particularly special. luang prabang though is incredible and easily one of the best places i've ever visited in my life.

roads throughout laos are pretty much dirt roads. bring a bike if you want to do it; the bikes that i saw there were mostly cheap chinese citybikes that looked like they were about to fall apart. we rented scooters and did a bit of touring, which was great.

pm me if you need more advice. but seriousy... go to laos.

thanks teddy. yea vietnam is amazing eh... been there three times and counting. it's only my favourite country in the whole world. after nz and uk of course :) but some say that laos is ever lovelier than vietnam so will have to check it out!

but yea i think i know what you mean about the chinese citybikes, sounds like the ones they have in VN, had to use my jandals to brake as the brakes didn't work that well... they also used wood stick things for pedals as they were all broken. i was just glad to be on two wheels so no complaints there.

thanks for the advice, will have to ask you about the scooter/touring thing too.

Laos is a really lovely country with friendly locals from what I saw. Didn't cycle there but the road down from Luang Prabang is seriously mountainous so you'll need stamina and a decent geared bike with tyres that can deal with dirt roads.
Enjoy.

thanks for the tip Special K. yea been reading some blogs from the links above about guys that have done cycling through laos and they talk about 20km uphills then 15km downhills, through pretty atrocious terrains, so not sure if that's the best way to go about it for the kind of trip i'm thinking of. thinking of maybe just riding within the towns to be on the safe side. am sure it will be an awesome trip all the same! aw, can't wait now :)