Southeast Asia Mekong Cycle

Mekong River Basin · Thailand

Moderate21 daysAsia~£1,200 est.

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Overview

Riding the Mekong from Chiang Rai to Angkor is the great linear tour of mainland Southeast Asia: about 1,800 km over three weeks, with the river as your handrail and the traffic thinning the moment you cross at Chiang Khong into Laos. The Lao weeks are the heart of it — quiet riverside tarmac and red-dirt lanes to Pakbeng and Luang Prabang (take two rest days: the alms procession at dawn, Kuang Si falls by bike), the long climb inland to Phonsavan and the Plain of Jars if your legs vote yes, then south through Vientiane to Si Phan Don, where the river spreads ten kilometres wide around four thousand islands. Cambodia brings Kratie's Irrawaddy dolphins, the run in to Phnom Penh — visit the Killing Fields memorial; it reframes everything you ride past — and a finale across rice country to Angkor's moat at sunrise. November to February is the season: dry, and as cool as this region gets, though 30°C afternoons remain standard — roll at first light. Visas on arrival throughout; USD cash smooths Cambodia. Around £1,200 for three weeks of guesthouses and noodle-stall lunches.