Bike Tour Eurasia

When we flew away from Krasnoyarsk after our last bicycle tour, something felt unfinished. We had made a few friends and become comfortable with the neighborhood. We knew where to go for a nice run, a beautiful hike, the cities best espresso machiatto, and the best bowl of noodles we have ever had in Russia....maybe anywhere. Fate doubled down on our departure anxiety with a two hour delay on the tarmac. We waited in a long queue with the seatbelt light on trying to think about anything besides urinating. Finally, one of us rushed the bathroom and used the "I'm a girl in a chivalrous country" ploy, while the other nearly overflowed an empty bike bottle under an in-flight blanket. One would think that a couple of weeks in a smoggy, Siberian city would leave ... read more

Our first taste of early winter on the south shore of Baikal was a real awakening. Following days of rain at lake level the mountains were covered in snow just above us. We think of ourselves as rather cold-hardy people and we have saddled up for some pretty bad weather over the years, but we still felt a sense of urgency to get rolling and not stop. Back in Chita, when we bought our return tickets to the States, we chose Krasnoyarsk as our departure city thinking that we would take a leisurely pace in the fall and make a few stops. We also knew from experience that the highway to and through Novosibirsk would be very busy, making Krasnoyarsk a fitting place to stop. But the winter in the Baikal region started to press ... read more

Our stop in Tongliao lasted a bit longer than we planned or wished. On our first rest day a nasty cold started to sweep over our team. We tried to quarantine ourselves from one another but our efforts likely only prolonged the amount of time it took all of us to get properly snotty. We likely contracted the illness out on the road but the filthy air in the city was not helping, nor was the hotel's air conditioner. Given the heat and humidity, the aircon was the only option for maintaining comfort in our room, but something just never feels right about those machines, especially in old hotels where the filters have likely gone years without service. Looking around, it seemed that quite a few people were similarly ill. Our friend and college housemate ... read more

Нет Человек, Нет ПроблемNo Person, No ProblemИюсеф Джугашвили (Сталин)Jusef Jugashvili (Stalin) We followed Latchin's youngest daughter down the rocky road through Arslanbob village. It was late afternoon and the sun was casting a California light on the trees and the airy Uzbek homes. A call to prayer sang out from a small mosque and completed the sensory aesthetic. Fall had come to the Ferghana range and the village was quiet and half empty. At 17 years old, the girl was growing into her father's lean, quick stature. She moved along effortlessly on the loose cobbles of the towns roads, leading us to the home of her uncle, where a hot banya awaited. We strolled along quietly, partially silenced by the perfect beauty of the evening, and partially by the lack of a common language. Many girls ... read more

"A broom is drearily sweeping up the broken pieces of yesterday's life. Somewhere a queen is weeping. Somewhere a king has no wife." -The Wind Cries Mary, Jimmy Hendrix ---------------------------------------------------------------- Flying is always a bewildering change of pace after a long cycle tour. Our warp from Tbilisi to Aktau was the first time we have flown in the middle of a tour, making it even wierder. The departure from the airport at 0130 alone was enough to turn us a bit on end. To complicate matters further, the cashier at the oversized baggage desk recieved a message just as we walked up requesting that she refuse our payment as our bags had been deemed a great threat to security. "The med kit" we thought, "it must be that".... We sauntered down to the not-so-secure baggage basement ... read more