http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Banchory-to-the-Bosphorous-by-Bike/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Banchory to the Bosphorous by Bike en-us Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:36:34 +0000 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:36:34 +0000 Some photos to show you I'm still alive and very happy. I went with a great group of friends to Yogjakarta to celebrate Indonesia's Independence day. MerdekaMet some great people there through couchsurfing and altogether lost my voice from talking and laughing so much. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Java/Yogyakarta/blog-430147.html The smell of the third world hits me as soon as we exit the immigrasi at Batam that unmistakable smell of burning rubbish mixed with lowgrade exhaust fumes and other exotic smells that just didn't exist back across the Straits. Singapore is probably the most immaculate city and country in the world Indonesia is well very different. We change money and enter the scrum of shouting Ojek drivers http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sumatra/Bengkulu/blog-345513.html We arrived in Thailand caked in dust and mud with Robin half blind. The Thai border post was the smartest building we had seen in ages covered in portraits of the Thai King and the Red White and Blue flag. We would soon learn these are omnipresent. Everything was just so much cleaner and tidier than Cambodia something we felt highly conscious of as we stood stinking and covered mud in a queue http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Western-Thailand/Kaeng-Krachan-NP/blog-284702.html We must be getting good as this travel lark we entered Cambodia without having to bribe the immigration officials to stamp our passports as many travellers do and even manged to haggle the money changers down to a decent rate. Riding away from the border post we entered a surreal world of high rise hotel casinos neon signs bars and expensive cars. Could this Las Vegaslike border town really http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/blog-270440.html Yes we are still alive and well. We have been lazy cyclists and even lazier bloggers for most of our time in South East Asia especially since leaving Vietnam our last blog post. That was 3 and a half months ago and since then we have visited 4 new countries and pedalled our way very slowly from Ho Chi Minh City to Kuala Lumpur here in Malaysia.Thanks to the many people who have contacted us rec http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Terengganu/Perhentian-Kecil/blog-321480.html Borders are rarely this significant. Usually the fact that some imaginary line on a map has been crossed does not actually show itself on the ground. The LaosVietnam border is different we went from a steep almost vertical climb up through thick jungle to a sudden line of no trees flat bare ground and huge excavators eating away more of the hillsides. Suddenly there was a 6 lane road and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/blog-259579.html The long flat road stretched out endlessly south from Vientienne. The first day was ok we made good progress despite a relentless headwind and towards the end of the day the forested hills of a National Park loomed up to the left of the road. We checked into a nice little guesthouse and set out to find the market in the tiny town. We managed to stock up with bananas and peanuts which are abou http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Attapeu/blog-259578.html Ask me what I did in Laos I will say not much. Even though we have cycled from the Chinese border south to Vientienne we have also spent a lot of time still and resting. Drinking lots of wonderful 'Beer Lao' and eating many baguettes and doughnuts we are definitely appreciating a rest and relaxation. Maybe it is where we are in our journey but I think that more likely it is Laos it really is http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vientiane/blog-250156.html We had done it we were officially out of the permit zone that is the Tibet Autonomous Region but in Zhongdian we were still very much in Tibet. The faces clothing and houses all still looked Tibetan. Above the 'old town' stands a prominent Tibetan Gompa with an even more prominent prayer wheel next to it. In fact this is allegedly the biggest prayer wheel in the world and as it takes at least http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/blog-245471.html I am wearing most of my clothes leggings trousers and waterproof over trousers 5 tops a down jacket and my over jacket plus two hats 3 pairs of gloves and 2 pairs of socks. My fingers and toes are still completely frozen but none of this is bothering me as the amazing night sky full of stars is reflected in the big river which is gently flowing past me on my right. The moon rose at about http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Shangri-La/blog-229047.html From a narrow point in the valley we glimpse the friendship highway for the first time. Wow we have been cycling to this point for so long and now the road to Kathmandu is before us but happily we do not have to turn right up the long climb and another 5000 m high pass. Instead we turn left and downhill for once towards Lhasa passing a large chorten and ruined fortifications and swing on to t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/Lhasa/blog-223699.html The road east from Horchu was bad and we were climbing up towards the high pass of Maryam La. Those two nights were really cold but the scenery was great. A big salt lake surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of kiang Tibetan wild ass. That morning we were able to act as hosts as we shared a cup of tea with a nomad guy who was walking across the vast wide valley presumably to get to the houses http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/blog-219589.html After a short but well earned rest at Ali it was time to leave again. We had not quite got used to our luxury room with ensuite breakfast and TV. This was good since we needed to be tough. We had passed the least inhabited stretch of our route across Tibet but the road ahead was not going to fall below 4000 metres until Lhatse well over 1000km to the east and mostly along the same terrible uns http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/blog-223691.html High altitude thin freezing dry air intense harsh sunlight galeforce winds with subzero windchill hundreds and hundreds of kilometres of the worst road surface imaginable deep soft sand or gravel rutted corrugated dirt tracks many stretches with no water or food for tens or hundreds of kilometres dozens of high passes no shower or even a wash for weeks and nightime temperatures of 25 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/blog-209757.html The Traffic Hotel in Tashkurgan loomed high and sovietesque above us. It looks a bit posh and expensive I say to Robin so does this whole place he replies. It was true China looked amazingly different to Pakistan. We noticed it immediately on crossing the border at the top of the Khunjerab Pass even close to 5000m the Chinese have managed to build a super wide and smooth perfect new road. W http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Xinjiang/Kashgar/blog-201802.html After a long night and even longer following day on the notsoluxury VIP bus we finally arrive in Skardu. We would have preffered to cycle here from Kargil but the road west of Kargil is out of bounds and it is only possible to travel about 10km along the road east from Skardu. However we are back in Ladakh sort of. Skardu is the capital of Baltistan and the former winter capital of Ladakh al http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Pakistan/Northern-Areas/blog-197691.html In UrduHindi Chelo means go or to go and so the phraseChelo Pakistan means literally go to Pakistan. Seems pretty harmless but no in India this is the worst insult you can give to somebody really you can use a string of Fwords and other expletives and they will still be there waggling their head smiling stupidly and doing whatever it was that drove you crazy in the first place. Bu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Pakistan/Islamabad/blog-197687.html After a bit of a tearful goodbye to Chan we finally set off cycling from Leh on the road to Srinagar. We were heading off into the desert and three prgressively smaller passes later we would enter the coveted kingdom of Kashmir. That first day however the going was tough we were not cycle fit after 3 weeks in the city and of course our old friend the wind was keen to make his presence known al http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Jammu-and-Kashmir/Srinagar/blog-195967.html Our plan when we arrived in Leh was not to stay too long. We had been longing for high mountains and nice people and really were looking forward to leaving India and returning to Pakistan where we had wonderful memories of just those things. However in Ladakh we found a wonderful kingdom full of smiling people beautiful mountains massive rivers different customs and buddhist culture. The v http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Jammu-and-Kashmir/Leh/blog-195965.html We had wanted to cycle over the Himalaya from Nepal into Tibet but it was not possible instead we devised a longer route to China that will eventually take us over the Karakorum from Pakistan but like crazy fools there was still this nagging desire to cycle over the Himalaya especially since we had not even managed to get up in among the mountains in Nepal and had then been forced to skip Uttar http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Jammu-and-Kashmir/Leh/blog-195964.html