http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Burnley-Mike/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Burnley Mike en-us Sun, 27 Dec 2009 23:13:22 +0000 Sun, 27 Dec 2009 23:13:22 +0000 Fri 3rd Fri 10th August 2007 It was with much relief that after spending nine days in Tashkent I was now able to leave the city and head out and begin exploring the rest of Uzbekistan and in particularly the old Silk Road cities of Samarkand and Bukhara. There is still some dispute as to which country Samarkand and Bukhara belong to. Due to Stalin and his gerrymandering of the old Soviet Cent http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Uzbekistan/Samarkand/blog-229580.html Wed 25th Fri 3rd July 2007 The trip across the border from Khojand in Tajikistan into Uzbekistan went without a hitch. Everything was straight forward enough. Once in Uzbekistan I immediately managed to get a taxi to the capital Tashkent without caring too much whether I was paying over the odds for the ride or not. Irsquod had enough of messing around haggling over transport costs so I ju http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Uzbekistan/Tashkent/blog-202434.html Thurs 18th Tuesday 24th July 2007 I don't know what this Blog says about me the people I met or just Tajikistan in general but the most memorable things that happened to me in my remaining time in Tajikistan involved bus taxi journeys and two journeys in particular. During the remaining seven days that I was in Tajikistan I visited the capital Dushanbe and a couple of other places but http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Tajikistan/blog-199807.html Thurs 12th July Wed 17th July 2007 I'd been undecided me never about whether to go to Tajikistan since planning this trip. It sounded like a wonderfully scenic country and would be the nearest I would probably get to being in Afghanistan without actually going to Afghanistan itself. On the other hand I wasn't sure whether I had the time or inclination to go especially as it seemed to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Tajikistan/blog-193730.html Friday 6th July Sunday 15th July 2007 After several days hanging around in Bishkek waiting for my Tajikistan visa to be processed it was off to a town called Karakol which is located at the eastern end of Lake IssykKul. Lake IssykKul which is set amongst the central Tian Shan mountain range is 170km long by 70 km across and is supposedly the second largest Alpine lake in the world after La http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Yssyk-Kol/blog-193727.html Friday 29 June Thursday 5 July 2007 No one seemed to know which days or how often the bus went from Kashgar to Kyrgyzstan. Everyone was certain that it went on a Monday which didn't really suit my timetable but other than Monday everyone had a different opinion maybe Wednesday Thursday or perhaps Monday Wednesday and Friday who knows So it was off to the long distance bus station to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/blog-193722.html Friday 22nd Friday 28th June 2007 After spending three weeks travelling with Hee it was strange to be travelling solo again. It was sad to see him go unfortunately in the opposite direction to where I was heading. With Hee gone I'd now have to do everything myself again without the aid of someone who could speak a bit of Chinese. It would mean that those long journeys through China and beyo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Xinjiang/Kashgar/blog-174188.html Sat 9th Friday 22nd June 2007 After an over night train from Dunhuang during which time Hee gained an admirer which unfortunately for him was a middle aged Chinese man who wouldn't leave him alone we arrived in Urumqi the capital city of China's north western desert province Xinjiang. Xinjiang has in the past been known as Eastern Turkestan but is now known as the Uighur Autonomous Regio http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Xinjiang/Urumqi/blog-169123.html Wed 16th May 2007 At last my passport containing a Chinese visa finally arrived from Hanoi and thankfully only one day later than the travel agency had promised me. Once I'd picked the passport up from the Sapa Mountain Hotel where I had previously been staying the hotel kindly telephoned for a mini bus to take me to the Chinese Border. Unfortunately in true South East Asian style after http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/Emi-Shan/blog-166920.html Thurs 24th to Fri 25 May 2007 One of the reasons for coming to Chengdu again on this trip was to use Chengdu as a gateway to travel to the remote parts of Sichuan province near the Tibetan Autonomous region border area. Large areas of western and northern Sichuan and nearby Gansu province are largely populated by Tibetans and have been out of bounds for most foreigners until fairly recently http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Kangding/blog-166922.html Sat 26 to Thursday 31st May 2007 I'm not sure what route Hee had planed to take after Kangding but it didn't take long to persuade him to come north with me up to Dege where the Bakonk Scripture Printing Lamasery which according to Lonely Planet is revered as one of the three most important Tibetan Lamaseries is located. The trip would take us at least 5 days and we would reach an altitude http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Dege/blog-166925.html Thursday 31st May to Tues 5th June 2007 The next place Hee and myself wanted to go to after Dege was to the Tibetan monastery town of Xiaha in Gansu province which is several days travelling from Dege with not much of interest to stop and see along the way. After discussions with people in the bus station Thankfully Hee did all the discussions as he can speak a bit of Chinese and I can't http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Gansu/Xiahe/blog-166927.html Tues 5th to Friday 8th June 2007 Today Hee and myself were to leave the Tibetan part of China and head into the Chinese desert. We left Xiahe around 7am and headed to Lanzhou were we arrived around mid morning. There's not much to say about Lanzhou as we didn't stop very long. The town is on the edge of the desert and has quite a big Muslim population and as a consequence there seems to be lo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Gansu/Dunhuang/blog-166928.html Fri 4th May Thursday 10th May 2007 After another night journey on the bus between Hue and Hanoi 660km the bus arrived in Hanoi at around 530 in the morning. Again it was the usual scramble at the bus drop off point as everyone wanted you to stay at their hotel. A few hours later and after several visits to hotels and waiting around for rooms to be ldquomadeuprdquo I found a place http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-158162.html What is your name...........What is your Country.............How old are you..............Are you married................How Many ChildrenThurs 10th May Tuesday 15th May 2007 My first taste of rail travel in a while a hard sleeper carriage overnight from Hanoi to Lao Cai. On overnight trains in Vietnam you can either travel lsquohard sleeperrsquo or alternatively for a bit http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Northwest/Sapa/blog-158163.html Wednesday 25th to Saturday 28th April 2007 The big thing in Vietnam that all the Travel Agents try to sell tourists are 'Open Bus' tickets. These tickets are for buses that follow a set route between Saigon and Hanoi and visvesa and which stop off at a number of places along the route. After purchasing the ticket all you have to do is confirm your journey the day before you intend to depart http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/North-Central-Coast/Hue/blog-154627.html Saturday 21st Tuesday 24th of April 2007 I set off from Phnom Pehn Cambodia by bus in the morning heading to Saigon in Vietnam or to use the official Vietnamese Government name for the city Ho Chi Minh City. Therersquos not much to say about the journey itself as it was fairly uneventful except for the condition of the road to the border which was dreadful being full of pot holes every http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/Ho-Chi-Minh-City/blog-151126.html Tuesday 10th Friday 20th April 2007 Two things I've noticed about travelling in Cambodia more than anywhere else on this trip so far is 1 that there is rubbish everywhere and 2 that the poverty is a lot worse in Cambodia than I've experienced anywhere else so far on this trip. Travelling by bus up and down the country you notice that the roadside is lined with rubbish plastic bags plasti http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-148419.html Wednesday 4th to Monday 9th April 2007 After an uneventful afternoon evening and night in Stung Treng it was a 630am start to catch the bus to Siem Reap the closest town to Angkor Wat and the Temples. The bus journey took about 12 hours during which I had to endure the usual Cambodian Karaoke music blaring out from the bus stereo and also a sort of Cambodian lsquocomedy sitcomrsquo whic http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Angkor/blog-146015.html Tuesday 3rd April 2007 Laos Cambodia Border Crossing The crossing of the Laos Cambodian border again turned out not to be a straight forward exercise. After catching a small motor boat from Don Det with a few other people first thing in the morning we travelled for 5 to 10 minutes across the Mekong River to a small town on the main land where we were taken to a small travel agency. After a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/East/Stung-Treng/blog-145311.html