Crossing Asia on my bike, I met countless others out to see the world on a bicycle | Emily Chappell

From drinking tea with yak herders to battling through the mountains, exploring the world on a bicycle is an adventure like no other - and the best way of meeting the world on its own terms

A new grant, launched by well-known adventurer Tom Allen last week, aims to get young people exploring the world - but with a bicycle and a map, rather than a bus pass and a guidebook. And I'm not surprised. If you ask me, the Janapar Grant formalises a quiet revolution that has been taking place in budget travel for some years.

"Maybe bike touring is the new backpacking," I remember thinking, as I sipped beers with a pair of Dutchmen in an Irish bar in Hong Kong back in 2012, reminiscing about the last time our paths had crossed, eight months and many thousands of miles ago, in the bitterly cold winter of eastern Turkey.