silkroadbicycletripthedilemma.blogspot.com
The dilemma
The Silk Road Bicycle Trip. Wednesday, January 10, 2007. Our original plan was to go straight to Nong-Khai from BKK and cross to Laos, to its capital - Vientiane. Due to our 'fast' progress and Gals wishes, we detoured straight east, crossing Isan, adding about 800 km along the Mekong. After 2 weeks along the Mekong, we reached Nong-Khai, our final destination in Thailand. So, we decided to postpone Laos for a week (we still have over 20 days visa in Thailand, and its still winter in China) and cycle west.
silkroadbicycletriptheescapefromvi.blogspot.com
Laos 2 - The escape from Vientiane
Laos 2 - The escape from Vientiane. The Silk Road Bicycle Trip. Saturday, March 3, 2007. After 5 days in Vientiane, in which Gal was fighting a bad stomach and Rami. Was taking care of. Gal, we finally left the 'big' city. We were on our way to Luang. A nice small town, heading into the. We passed one mountain ridge, but had the big ones in front of us. We decided to stay, after a short day, and enjoy the water. In Toms' words: "We have time" (in a heavy German accent). After a long night, understanding ...
silkroadbicycletripthemightymekong.blogspot.com
The Mighty Mekong
The Silk Road Bicycle Trip. Friday, January 5, 2007. Finally, after about a week of cycling east, we are enjoying the colors of the. Sunset, on the bank of the Mekong, drinking our Thai coffee, with Laos just a. We're currently at Mukdahan. A "big" city (about 30,000 people), with all its. Luxuries: a market, a night market, a 7/11, thousands of food stalls and what. Ever one can imagine. Has made us stay an extra day in town: Rami. Dry, light pants in the toilets of the police station, at the last.
silkroadbicycletripturkey.blogspot.com
Turkey
The Silk Road Bicycle Trip. To the Silk Road Bicycle Trip homepage. Saturday, November 10, 2007. We finally reached Turkey! Our final destination (for this part of our trip), after 10.5 months of answering the famous question: “To Turkey! And we entered on our 1’st anniversary. How can we explain how excited we were? We were so thrilled, we managed to ignore the cold weather and the rain. It was raining heavily, so we had our lunch (bread, salad, cheese and olives) at the border control. We reached a gia...
silkroadbicycletripturkmenistan.blogspot.com
Turkmenistan
The Silk Road Bicycle Trip. Tuesday, September 25, 2007. We started our day with a 1.5 hours wait at the Turkmenistan border (7:00 in the morning). Two hours later we were fighting Ramis' front gear cable for an hour and a half. It tore and got stuck inside the shifter. There was more to come. We reached Turkmenbashi, looking for a place to sleep. A friendly local invited us to sleep in the kinder garden, where he was a night-guard. We returned to the kinder garden and prepared for sleep. A million m...
silkroadbicycletripuzbekistan.blogspot.com
Uzbekistan
The Silk Road Bicycle Trip. Friday, September 21, 2007. Welcome to Uzbekistan 25/08/07. It was August 25' th. Our 30-day Uzbek visa has started, but more important, it was the last day of our Kyrgyz. Visa James, the American cyclist, informed us we couldn't extend our Kyrgyz. Visa; the office is closed till the end of the month. So we had no choice but to hitch most of the way back, down south, to the Uzbek border. We hitched till after the tunnel, to Tuz. To their Uzbek Som. We now had 130,000 Som.
silkroadbicycletripvietnam1.blogspot.com
Vietnam, Part 1
Vietnam, Part 1. The Silk Road Bicycle Trip. Sunday, February 18, 2007. We entered Vietnam, coming from Laos, on route #8, to route #8 (hmm…). We went to the immigration, who requested each for $1, just because he has the stamp. After a short discussion we gave him 10,000 kip ($1), part of our leftovers. He stamped the passports and the exit date, instead of 17/03/07 (30 days), 12/03/07 (the expiry date ;-. Maybe because he doesn’t know what is the “validity” date? Maybe because of the missing $1? After ...
silkroadbicycletripwelcometochina.blogspot.com
Welcome to China
The Silk Road Bicycle Trip. Tuesday, March 20, 2007. We left of the Vietnamese border in a beautiful mountain valley, arriving to the Chinese side. Everything was different:. 1 The road - the 500 meters leading to the Chinese passport control were like a garden, with a sidewalk. 2 The guards welcomed us in English all around. 3 The line to the passport control was actually a line, as apposed to the mob in the Vietnamese side. 4 No one asked for money under the table (a bribe)! 5 All formalities were quick.
silkroadbicycletripwhybecauseitsthere.blogspot.com
Why? Because It's There...
The Silk Road Bicycle Trip. We wanted a long vacation. Actually, not a vacation – we wanted to go traveling. And now we found the opportunity! Gal was on her way towards finishing her Physics Solid-State Thesis, even though she tried stretching it for ever. I have just started a promising job that turned out to be the nightmare of an experienced Real-Time Embedded Programmer. Gal wanted to travel through South-America. But, then people started scaring us about how dangerous a trip like this could be, Sou...
silkroadbicycletripxinjiang.blogspot.com
XinJiang
The Silk Road Bicycle Trip. Wednesday, July 25, 2007. 08/07/07 Oops, Mountains! Gal said we should take the mountain road. We didn’t want to take the flat desert road, which bypasses the mountains, returning 150km we’ve already cycled. The guys at the bicycle shop (there are a few in Urumqi) told us the route is beautiful and the road is good. So, we finally left Urumqi. We planned on leaving early, to avoid the traffic. We set the alarm clock for 05:20 and, mysteriously, Gal woke up at 06:20. The next d...
silkroadbicycletripyunnan1.blogspot.com
Yunnan Part 1
The Silk Road Bicycle Trip. Tuesday, March 27, 2007. We enjoy seeing how political borders collide with geographical borders. The Mekong river dividing Thailand and Laos (among other), the mountains between Laos and Vietnam, and now, the mountain ridge between Guangxi province and Yunnan province. We climbed 20 km till the pass/border and then descended 20 km. That's how borders should be! So, in short, Yunnan is good for us. And the landscape, mountains! So, here are a bunch of pictures, with comments.
