Besides the big question, there were all the secondary questions: Who else will be on this trip? Will I like them? Will they think less of me if I can’t pedal up the hills? What’s Sri Lankan food like, anyway?

I am pleased to report that the other members of the tour were delightful, and I liked them all. No one made me feel bad when I couldn’t pedal up a few of the bigger hills, and there was no sense of competition at all, just pure fun and adventure.

The ride

While there were a couple of steep challenges that I wasn’t quite up for, the rest of the ride was a joy. I didn’t know that Grasshopper offers e-bikes as an option on tours in Sri Lanka*, I only found out after the trip. I am sure e-bikes would have made those climbs a lot easier for me.
*Our fleet in Sri Lanka is being upgraded so e-bikes are currently unavailable 

We rode on a variety of road surfaces, and generally stayed away from any traffic. The long downhill stretches offered gorgeous views over the valleys, and the only reason I was often the last to the bottom of a hill was that I made sure to stop now and then to take photos.

The rest

I loved the fact that we had enough time to really enjoy the hotels where we stayed. I took advantage of a couple of fantastic swimming pools and walked along the beach early one morning. I ate more food than I should have because we were presented with one spectacular buffet after another, which meant I could try Sri Lankan foods knowing I could always go back for a hundred other options if I craved something more familiar.

So the answer to the big question is that I was not actually crazy, and now I am so grateful for having taken the leap of faith and booked the trip. It was a fantastic get-away from the stresses of everyday life and work. I felt both challenged and well taken care of, and while I’m still an out-of-shape middle-aged woman I will likely be back on a bike again sooner rather than later.

Unlike Western world which celebrates New Year on 1st January, a system based on the Gregorian calendar, Southeast Asian New Year is celebrated following the lunisolar calendar system and its events. In modern times it is usually reckoned around 13-14 April, and there is unique celebrations happening all over the region.

Often characterized by the gathering of family, playful water fights in the streets and local games South and Southeast Asian New Year is also a very spiritual occasion with a wide variety of unique rituals held throughout various countries over a period of days.

Based on the Buddhist calendar, Khmer (Cambodia) New Year normally falls on the 13th or 14th of April and officially lasts for 3 days, although typically celebrations also spill out into surrounding days. Each day has its special celebration and traditions. Cleaning houses, visiting temples, bathing Buddha statuses and offering food to monks are common practices for the New Year.

Water fights and traditional games are once more also important parts of the celebration. If you are in Cambodia during this time of the year, it is a great chance to visit temples (even during the evening!), and join locals in music and dance.

Originally a Sri Lankan holiday to celebrate the New Year of Sinhalese people in Sri Lanka, it is now a major holiday celebrated by most Sri Lankans. The timing of Aluth Avurudda coincides with the time of new year celebrations in many Southeast Asian countries which fall on the 13th or 14th of April.

Traditionally homes are being cleaned, even repainted, and celebratory food is prepared in advance of the New Year. Sri Lankans mark the beginning of a New Year with a peculiar ritual. Diary or coconut milk is brought to a boil and its overflow is auspicious of prosperity and wealth coming in the new year. Once the important rituals are taken care of, the parties begin, with families mingling in the streets, enjoying traditional dishes, and children playing.

Multiple Grasshopper Adventurer Chip Silverman shares his encounter with the Queen of Banh Mi and subsequent mouthwatering discovery in the streets of Hoi An, Vietnam… Warning to those reading on an empty stomach.

After six weeks of traveling Vietnam from the Hai Giang plateau of the far north to the Mekong Delta in the deep south, I can tell you without hesitation that a delicious meal is never too far out of reach. And perhaps none is more satisfying than a Banh Mi.

Westerners may know the Banh Mi as a sandwich but I assure you, a mere sandwich it is not. The Banh Mi is a reflection of Vietnam – a tantalizing combination of flavors, textures, and colors (meats, vegetables, egg, sauces & spices) that reflects the country’s complex history, diversity, and agricultural bounty. When served properly on a fresh baguette it’s also highly addictive.

The best Banh Mi I tasted in Vietnam was made by Nguyen Thi Loc, better known by the name of her small street cart, Madam Khanh the Banh Mi Queen. This 80-year-old mother of five children and grandmother to ten knows her way around a Banh Mi. For over thirty years she has been making Banh Mi her way, which is undoubted, the old-fashioned way.

Waking each morning at 4 am, she and her husband prepare each of the ingredients and sauces before welcoming their early morning regulars at 6:30 am. At that hour, the mainly local crowd consists of men and women on scooters on their way to work, and children on their way to school by bicycle. While Vietnamese prefer to eat Banh Mi for breakfast, when the bread was traditionally the freshest, tourists typically enjoy it for lunch or later in the day. For this reason, Madam Khanh stays open until 8 pm. Rest assured that no matter the time of day, Madam Khanh assembles the ingredients and sauces for each sandwich herself before handing it to one of her daughter’s nephew’s or nieces who proudly collect the 20,000 VND ($1) in return.

In Hoi An, a city revered throughout Vietnam and the world for its outstanding cuisine and street food, this is one delicacy that you have to try at least once. Though I’ll warn you ahead of time, you will not be able to eat just one. I went to get my fill from the Queen of Banh Mi each of the seven days I stayed in Hoi An.

Madam Khanh also sells cold drinks and tall glasses of traditional Vietnamese iced coffee. If you go, don’t fret about the menu as Madam Khanh makes only one thing, her famous Banh Mi. You can carry it away to eat under the shade of a beautiful tree in the Old Quarter or grab a small stool at a metal folding table and enjoy dining as the locals do … while watching the world whiz by.

The morning after my husband Jared and I had completed our latest Grasshopper Tour in the far north of Vietnam my phone rang. It was Steve Grace, the Country Manager in Vietnam. We had a nice chat about our adventure and when I told him I would do anything for the company he said, “Ok, how about writing of your experience.” Wow, it was not what I was expecting but I accepted his challenge.

Scattered over the windswept hills outside the town of Phonsavan in Laos, lie clusters of mysterious, carved stones in an area collectively known as the ‘Plain of Jars’. Despite decades of study many questions still remain concerning their purpose and origins…

Phonsavan in Xieng Khouang Province has something of a frontier feel, partly due to the long and slightly arduous journey required to reach it from the main tourist centres of Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and Vientiane, and partly due to a rather desolate atmosphere imparted by Xieng Khouang’s status as one of the most heavily bombed regions of one of the most heavily bombed countries in the world (the U.S. Air Force dropped more bombs on Laos, and primarily on the Plain of Jars, than it dropped during the whole of World War II). Its place on the tourist map is secured however, due to the presence of the enigmatic groups of carved stone jars that dot the landscape.

The Plain of Jars is one of the most important prehistoric sites in Southeast Asia, with jars carved from solid stone in a variety of sizes (the largest being 2.5m in height) and, given the amount of bombing that the region received during the Indochina wars, it’s incredible that as many as 2,500 jars have survived. Indeed, the largest of the jar sites, just outside Phonsavan, is pockmarked with bomb craters. Although archaeologists have dated the jars to somewhere between 500 BC and 200AD, remarkably no-one actually knows which civilization created them, other than that it was an iron age culture.

Many of the jars have lip rims, leading to the assumption that they originally had lids, although few of these have been found, which suggests that most of the lids were made from biodegradable material. Evidence in the form of bone fragments, teeth, glass beads and ceramics have steered archaeologists towards the theory that the jars formed burial urns, supported by evidence of graves located around the jars.

This hasn’t stopped the proliferation of alternative proposals concerning their function however, the most popular being that the jars were used to store a huge quantity of rice wine, brewed to celebrate liberation from ancient, cruel overlords. Another theory states that they were used to collect rainwater for the benefit of passing travellers.

As a final twist to the mystery, other areas of similar jars have been discovered, notably in the Northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, around 600 miles away…

In the Mekong Delta flat, gentle paths criss-cross endless rice fields and abundant fruit & vegetable farms, immersing our bike groups in a landscape, and a way of life, in many ways unchanged for decades. Though it is less than 90km from Saigon, to experience the remote Delta region is like taking a step back in time. So then, where’s the danger in that?

Danger #1: Friendly People
Deep in the Delta, along pathways tourists rarely see, there lies danger concealed in the scores of friendly people, challenging even veteran cyclists to ride steadily. From local school children waving and giving a ‘high-five’ to our cyclists as we pass, to the countless shop owners who look up from their work and step into the roadway as they hear their neighbors signalling the arrival of a Grasshopper group.

And then invite you in for tea or coffee!

Add to this sights so curious that you just have to do a double-take – which can also lead to bike instability!

Yes, it takes immense concentration to ride a bike, high five school kids, and shout “hello” as you cycle a narrow concrete path. But with a little practice, the rewards are endless, and incredibly fulfilling.

Danger #2: Stunning Scenery
Two months after launching our new Mekong delta in Style tour, one of our guides noticed a strange phenomenon. On each trip cyclists were falling off their bikes at a particular spot along the route. There were never any serious injuries but this spot became known to our guides as the ‘crash zone.’

Was there some hidden problem that the guides could not recognise? Did we need a new route? On a free day I decided to accompany one of our groups to see first-hand what was happening, and what could be done to eliminate what sounded like a real risk. After cycling approximately 8km the guide announced to me that we were approaching ‘ground zero.’ My senses on high alert, I made the final turn along a shaded pathway and there it was, one of the most beautiful rice fields in the Delta.

I honestly almost lost control of my bike from laughter! The ride to this point had been both interesting and quite beautiful. But this spot was what we used to call, a ‘Kodak Moment‘, and I could clearly imagine a line of cyclists, not prepared for what they were about to see, crashing into the bike ahead of them as they braked on first sight of this wonderful scene. The solution was simple: guests needed a clear warning in advance!

Grasshopper goes to great lengths to research bike routes that exceed expectations. The Mekong delta in Style tour has once again proved this to be true, with crashing success!

Grasshopper Adventures’ Expeditions Engineer, Blair, was the first of our clan to visit Uzbekistan, and knowing little about it, arrived with nothing but an open mind…and soon after that a dose of culture shock!

Everyone knows where India and China can be found, and because of the troubles in the Near East the locations of countries such as Syria, Iran and Iraq. But in between and slightly north of these lands is a vast area referred to as Central Asia whose countries few can list by name. Can you?

Here is Blair’s account of Grasshopper’s first foray into Central Asia:

This former state of the USSR is a fascinating mix of cultures. Before the Russian occupation in the 1920s, Uzbekistan and it’s neighboring ‘stans of Kasakh, Kyrgyz, Tajiki and Turkmeni were ruled by powerful Emirs with wide-spanning kingdoms that date back to antiquity. Their peoples roamed freely between nations in a semi-nomadic existence that survived in Silk Road trading. This leaves today’s Uzbekistan (with its relatively new borders) with a rich multi-cultural tapestry of peoples that are all different, but who all share a historical stake in the land.

Although predominantly Islamic, Uzbekistan is not at all your typical Muslim country. Being a former soviet state and practicing a non-denominational form of Islam, the county is remarkably liberal; women dress in modern western fashions, as well as traditional dress, and men enjoy a cold beer after a day at work or a shot of vodka with their meal. You have to listen very carefully to hear a call to prayer as this is just sung as opposed to being broadcast on loudspeakers. Beards and burkas are certainly a rare sight.